News: Industry News | Jack Thompson Prevents UK Manhunt? Page 1

Industry News | Jack Thompson Prevents UK Manhunt?

26.02.2007

Jack Thompson is at it again like horny teenagers. The Miami based attorney has been asked by individuals in the UK to try to prevent the distribution of Rockstar's upcoming Manhunt 2 in the country this summer.

According to TGN, Thompson was request after the recent announcement of the sequel in the works for later this year. Manhunt caused controversy with allegations of content in the game causing gullible youths to reenact scenes in reality.

With the original supposedly banned from many stores in the UK, a growing number of individuals seek the sequel to never make it to retail. Thompson has agreed to this request and will start to intervene shortly before the game's release.

Whether his campaign will be a success or not is certain, but expect some problems down the line from Rockstar's latest controvercial offering.

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JoshSL 26.02.2007#1

Ugh, so typical, I was wondering when he'd show up.

I've slowly lightened up to the idea, as long as the appropriate age rating is put on the box, then it should be no different from buying a movie. I mean Jack Thompson doesn't ban horror films does he? Then why the hell should he ban this?

Didn't he once say that Pikmin was offencive to midgets, or am I imagining that? Smilie

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knighty 26.02.2007#2

To be fair, you can't really compare a movie as you don't get to act it out yourself in a movie. But at the same time, there are clearly other issues with the kids that are unrelated to violent games.

Nothing warms my heart more than murdering innocent civilians with a rocket launcher in crackdown, but I'm about as unviolent as you can get. (Ask megadanxzero ^^ Smilie

___________________ 26.02.2007#3

Arg Smilie
Can't he see that the game ratings stop kids from buying these types of games unless their parents let them. Also the Wii has parental controls but I doubt he knows that.
Anyway, why is he trying to ban it in the UK? Why isn't America his priority?

JoshSL 26.02.2007#4

I'm what you call a pacifist. Turn the other cheek, make 'em bored so they go away.

Or just let 'em beat me to a pulp so I can call the police or something. Smilie Yeah I'm a big man. It's only ever happened to me a couple of times though. I guess people pity me. :-/

I don't really like violent games either really, I mean I love using a bomb to blow a body sky high, because that can look hilarious in a game, but games with blood & killing anything you see..... well to be honest I havn't played much of them. ^^;

EDIT: I guess because Jack Thompson didn't work in America, he tried to get a game banned, but ended up getting ESRB to make a new category just for that game.

Which is stupid, because UK has always had that same rating, & above the age of 18 you can basically legally do anything you wish (unless it's a crime) but I don't think this game is a crime.

( Edited on 26.02.2007 20:49 by SuperLink )

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Balladeer 26.02.2007#5

Oh dear. This chap again. This is called 'gaining the support of the religious right'. Quite frankly, I suspect this man got bullied by a videogame when he was young - when there are so many other causes of violence in the world, what other reason is there to go for computer games? Many more people turn to crime because of a poor upbringing - try doing something about that first, you moron.

Screwing the rules since 1989.

Slydevil 26.02.2007#6

So continues the Irresponsible Parent Patrol (IPP), who can't face up to the fact they're shit at it, and blame everyone else for their shortcomings. Idiots.

Oh, and Jack Thompson. Idiot. Now jumps on any case remotely associated with videogames for publicity, then continues to show off his complete ignorance.

Smilie

( Edited on 26.02.2007 20:56 by Slydevil )

IANC said:
Dude yuor totally awesome. And i won't be killing you anytime soon.

Steve Vice 26.02.2007#7

I know censorship in UK can be pretty bad, atleast from my experience importing dvd's.

Horror movies from the UK would almost ALWAYS not be the fully uncut version. I don't know how this translates to the censorship on videogames over there, but I really hope its not anything like Germany.

Norway has one of the worlds most open censorships. So we don't have any of the problems with movies, videogames and CD's not getting rated or released.

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irfy 26.02.2007#8

Itsa Me Jack Thompson!

JoshSL 26.02.2007#9

Ugh, I HATE British cencorship. Especially in Anime, Manga and games. Thankfully, the Manga tends to be pretty uncut through and through.

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JoshSL 26.02.2007#10

No, I think it's just the west that sucks Smilie

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WP-Final 26.02.2007#11

I hope they fail miserably.

Maybe Rockstar should put a character resembling Jack.T, that you have to kill. That would increase sales.

Sidepocket 26.02.2007#12

SuperLink said:
No, I think its just the west that sucks

LOL, funny!

JoshSL 26.02.2007#13

IFRITxvii said:
I hope they fail miserably.Maybe Rockstar should put a character resembling Jack.T, that you have to kill. That would increase sales.

It sounds like the kind of thing they'd do aswell. It'd be awesome.

I still prolly wouldn't buy it though. :-/

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Modplan Man 26.02.2007#14

JT - What a twat, both of them.

This has nothing to do with UK censorship, just twatty parents and such getting stores to cave in so they don't stock games, and now Jack is meddling with it over here. This could start a chain reaction if stores decide to not sell the game, much like it did in the US.

UK censorship is usually pretty lenient (th fact we can say just about any swear word now on tv and such without having to bleep it shows this well), it's just twats that get publicity, and end up putting pressure on politicians who don't know anything about games to do something, which ended up in the banning of the first.

( Edited on 26.02.2007 21:50 by Amazingjanet )

Gibdo 26.02.2007#15

I want this game Smilie It better come out... Nintendo can defend with their parental controls! I use mine all the time to stop my little bro and sis even playing on the Wii Smilie

Megadanxzero 26.02.2007#16

Knighty's a fucking liar, he punched a little Year 7 girl in the face this morning. What a bastard...

Anyway, if Jack Thompson is ignored in America, and we actually have REAL laws for the selling of games unlike those silly Americans, I doubt he'll be able to make any more of a difference than he does over there. If anything he'll have less of an impact.

SuperLink said:
EDIT: I guess because Jack Thompson didn't work in America, he tried to get a game banned, but ended up getting ESRB to make a new category just for that game.

HE didn't get them to make a new category, AO already existed in America. It's just that it was only used for porn/hentai games, and Walmart refuses to sell them.

( Edited on 26.02.2007 22:28 by Megadanxzero )

Still a proud member of the 'omfg amazing water in games' society

Sidepocket 26.02.2007#17

Amazingjanet said:
JT - What a twat, both of them.This has nothing to do with UK censorship, just twatty parents and such getting stores to cave in so they dont stock games, and now Jack is meddling with it over here. This could start a chain reaction if stores decide to not sell the game, much like it did in the US. UK censorship is usually pretty lenient (th fact we can say just about any swear word now on tv and such without having to bleep it shows this well), its just twats that get publicity, and end up putting pressure on politicians who dont know anything about games to do something, which ended up in the banning of the first.( Edited on 26.02.2007 21:50 by Amazingjanet )

Yea, kind of like that whole knife incident were people were slicing each other up so they took all chopping weapons out of movies in games. Very leanent. Smilie

Just admit the world sucks and move on with your life.

JoshSL 26.02.2007#18

Megadanxzero said:
HE didnt get them to make a new category, AO already existed in America. Its just that it was only used for porn/hentai games, and Walmart refuses to sell them.

Those kinds of games aren't even sold on the market though are they? & most of them are homebrew anyway. I've NEVER seen a game like that in UK.

Besides, I went on GameRankings & search for AO games, & the only game that came up was San Andreas.

So how come US get hentai games & UK don't? Smilie *hides*

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Sidepocket 27.02.2007#19

SuperLink said:
Megadanxzero said:HE didnt get them to make a new category, AO already existed in America. Its just that it was only used for porn/hentai games, and Walmart refuses to sell them.
Those kinds of games arent even sold on the market though are they? & most of them are homebrew anyway. Ive NEVER seen a game like that in UK.Besides, I went on GameRankings & search for AO games, & the only game that came up was San Andreas.So how come US get hentai games & UK dont? *hides*

I have no idea. Ask the people in charge. I hope you guys are better, our guys cannot even say the ABC's correctly. Smilie

knighty 27.02.2007#20

Megadanxzero said:
Knightys a fucking liar, he punched a little Year 7 girl in the face this morning.

Shuuuushhh..... Smilie

Fenton 27.02.2007#21

Never played manhunt, but after seeing that video someone posted on here of it, I was pretty sickened.

Stuff like that just doesnt need to be in games...

If they wanna see stuff like that, go find those hostage beheading videos and watch them.

I'm not normally one to side with scum like JT, but some of the shit in manhunt is o.t.t

dojo 27.02.2007#22

IFRITxvii said:
I hope they fail miserably.Maybe Rockstar should put a character resembling Jack.T, that you have to kill. That would increase sales.

That would actually be really great Smilie

I just don't think the Wii can render enough polygons at the same time to show the massive d*ck at the top of his head Smilie

JoshSL 27.02.2007#23

Sidepocket said:
I have no idea. Ask the people in charge. I hope you guys are better, our guys cannot even say the ABCs correctly.

Nah, it's prolly better over there, since there was a poll that stated kids in UK have it worst in the whole world. Smilie

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Lightmare 27.02.2007#24

First of all, have you guys seen the VGCats comic on JT? If not, I reccomend reading it. Smilie

Secondly, Videogaming is going through the same amount of controversy as films did back in the 80's.

If you take a look at American society, you'll see that the *high pressure* environment is what sets people off. The people that snap are the ones at the bottom of the heap, who are the introverted geeks.

thus gamers...

And games are primarily blamed because that would bypass the adult and governments admitting that they've done wrong. So-"A big boy did it and ran away".

In the UK, videogaming is still following the same stresses, and people forget, that like video nasties of the 80's. It's the nutters that are gonna do these things, the guys that are either pressured into breaking by school or whatever, or the guys that just plain had screws loose. It was gonna happen anyway, if not games then something else.

JT is one of the detestable people using situations to his own benefit, regardless of the validity.

Dr_R 27.02.2007#25

Two points:

1. Thompson is on to a non-starter here. He may well get some stores to not stock this, but Rockstar are a big developer (unlike the people behind Rule of Rose) and won't back out of this. Thankfully the BBFC will fully support Rockstar as they are a fantastic organisation who work with film and game producers to minimise censorship. They do not see themselves as a censor, they deal with classification. Added to this is the fact that BBFC certifications are, unlike ESRB ratings in the US, legally enforcable. The 18 sticker tells people that this is not for kids and the law backs that up.

As for AO games, I'm sure you could get them in a, ahem, specialist shop, if you wanted to. The BBFC sets aside a specialist 18R category that restricts the sale of certain content to licensed shops. Again, there is very little that is truly censored in the UK.

2. This lack of censorship means that Manhunt can be released here. Whether it is widely stocked is another issue, but that is not the fault of the law. I am fully in agreement with this. As Rouseau would put it, I defend to the death the right for Manhunt 2 to exist. Whether I agree with it or not is another matter. Personally I think there's little redeeming in the subject matter. Even if the gameplay turns out to be amazing, I couldn't ever see it being good enough to get me to disregard the subject matter.

Put simply, games should be able to be this, I just wish they'd choose not to.

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