I might be giving him too much credit in saying he's familiar with The Art of War. He might know a few of its lessons - like being careful not to confront someone's strength but rather probe for weaknesses, and emotionally upsetting one's opponent. His tactics look to be all offense, though - no defense, no balance to his approach. One of the key lessons of The Art of War is that war - when done properly - is an intellectual process more than a physical one. Battle is about bringing the right troops, with the right preparation and mindset, to the right place at the right time; if you do this then you have virtually guaranteed victory before battle even commences. JT shows a manic willingness to throw down (in court, that is) with anyone and hope that his legal skill will carry him through the day; he acts more like a warlord than a general.

hang about i thought jack had got halo 3 banned

how on earth did his son by it?

If Thompson is so worried about kids and violence why is he teaching his own to break the law? What's the point in trying to protect everyone's child when you willingly put your own up on the chopping block.

Sounds like poor parenting.

Attacking yet another sizable company and expecting to get money and attention from it..

Y'know, these little stings of his might get more attention if they mattered. Target doesn't threaten to fire their employees and the managers on duty if an employee sells an M-rated game to an under-aged customer like GameStop does. More importantly, all the ultra-retailers, like Wal-Mart, Target, and BestBuy are so huge that one little incident like that couldn't possibly harm them.

Besides, it's the retailers choice to enforce the ESRB ratings, not the government or the local courts. But, we all know this, even JT knows this. More importantly, JT should know that it's HIS responsibility to raise his child and filter the media he's exposed to.

[...] So Chuckles decided to rock out another “sting” operation. He previous sent his son in to a Best Buy to pick up a copy of BioShock. His son isn’t yet 18, which is what he’s trying prove. However, he’s going after 2K Games for the problem instead of Best Buy. 2K Games doesn’t control a retailer’s action. They brand the game as mature and it’s up to the retailers to enforce the sales. The new “sting” operation involves Halo 3. [...]

@Hackangel

"You know, I decided to “do” a “sting” of my own (I made phone calls). I called the nearest Best Buy and Futureshop and they both asks for Ids when selling M-rated games."

lie: a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.

So you called the store and asked "Do you check IDs for M rated games?" Brilliant. Also, Clinton did not inhale, OJ was innocent, and The Sims contains full frontal nudity including labia and pubic hair.

If I worked at a game store and a stranger called and asked "Do you check for IDs?" I'd say yes instictively, whether or not it's actually true. Because if I didn't, and it was the regional manager on the other end, I'm fired.

That doesn't mean when a kid goes up to the counter with a copy of Halo 3 he is actually carded by the same employee.

I'm not sticking up for JT: I've watched kids at Best Buy slink away from the counter, disappointed that he couldn't buy Crackdown because he wasn't 17+. But don't be so gullible as to think that the gamer being paid slightly above minimum wage at Best Buy is above telling a little fib to ensure his job is safe.

@ Salen

Exactly what i thought.

Again, THIS IS NOT NEWS!

Stop giving this horrid man air time!

I'm a developer at Krome.

I currently have itchy balls because Krome doesn't pay us enough for me to afford beer and steak every night AND calamine lotion. It's one or the other for us!

That's game slash politic related... are you going to report that???

Or do I have to write you an email about it?

If Sun Tzu was here, he would yell at Jack Thompson for the latter's tactics in achieving his goals. Yeah, so the game retailer clerk sold an M rating copy to a minor. Big deal. Is that even partly victory already?

Besides, that was only the kid's side of story. We don't even know if Thomspon's kid pulled a tactic like showing a fake ID or something just to say he's 17. And granting w/o accepting for the sake of argument, how will this benefit Jack? In my point of view, this is like an empty threat to that PhotoShop "cease and desist" thing. Nothing will happen and Jack just wants to be noticed by the public.

Hey if Jack says he is the lord Jesus Christ does that make it true?

Good for Junior. Assuming that Papa lets him play it, he will probably love it.

Jack must have a pocketful of cash. BioShock, Halo 3? At $60 a pop, his poor kid BETTER be able to play them. Unless Jack likes to Hoarde them for himself...

I'm surprised Target had copies of Halo 3. Would have thought they would be sold out.

yes, because doing this at one store out of thousands of others, and it not being the only store to carry it, makes it successful. that is like going out to catch a lowly drug dealer (not arresting him by the way) just pointing him out and saying "see! I found one! war on drugs is over! HOOHA!"

nice job JT, you must be proud

Considering that the source is Thompson himself, I think Thompson's lying.

@ BearDogg-X

I agree with you. I also think that Jack Thompson is lying, just like he is lying about how he is going to shut down Best Buy. This new press release Jack Thompson is saying (about his son buying Halo 3), is more of his "Antigamer Propaganda".

Thompson fatigue? I make you money every time you do a story about me and you love it. Look at the number of posts on Thompson stories. That converts to hits at you site, which increases your ad revenue.

What a liar you are.

GP: As you know, there ARE NO ADS on GamePolitics... I make no money based on traffic.  We had plenty of traffic during the 18 months that you were banned.

And I'm a liar?

Hey, Jack! How many stores did you have to go to until you found the one where the poor underpaid clerk, having been inundated with Halo 3 purchases all day, managed to forget that one crucial step?

Why do you keep thinking this is a victory against the game industry? It was a Target employee, not a Bungie employee, that sold that game to your son, and human error does sometimes occur.

@ Jack

The very fact that you think yourself a "crusader" for good, and then you turn around and consistently use your own child in the twisted little games you like to play goes to show one thing - what a complete and utter amoral twit you are.

I also call into question "first try," as you, sir, are a well known liar, more than willing to twist facts to your own needs. We've said it before, and we'll say it again - come November, you're out. Oh sure, you'll cry foul and conspiracy and any other number of things.

But by that point you'll also have turned everyone who may have been a friend to your cause against you, spreading the half truths and turning things to suit your own purpose as you do. No one will back you anymore. Just think on that.

Tune in tomorrow when JT forces his son to go into the back room of a sleazy video rental store to rent "Shaving Private Ryan" so JT can send it to a supreme court justice.

Oh what a barrel of yuks this man is, contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Now whilst I don't disagree that he shouldn't be sold this game, we have to use the following process.

1. What evidence does Jack Thompson have, other than his word, which we know is less than accurate and truthful most of the time. Did he video it? A receipt on its own doesn't count.

2. Did Jack stand with him as he purchased the game, or was he in a different location? Standing with him as he makes the purchase is essentially agreeing to the transaction.

3. Did he use the "Lil Jackie Visa" or did he use cash? Where did a 15 year old get the cash from to be able to purchase this game?

4. Why is this game rated mature in the first place? It is rated 15 in the UK. Maybe we're just far too liberal for Jackie's liking.

5. Were the $20 bills real money, or did he replace Andrew Jackson with a picture of a gay-orgy?

And the big question

Why haven't these stores in Florida got a photo of Jack and Jackie Jr with "DO NOT SERVE THESE PEOPLE" behind the counter? I certainly wouldn't serve anyone with that wild stare and obvious instabilities. He might cut himself on the edge of the CD as he tries to taste it.

Come on Jack, you should know words alone aren't enough, you need some evidence. Video proof. You word against Target and the minimum wage employee is just not enough.

But, at least Jack is taking on the right people, the retailers and not the games themselves, regardless of the legality of the enforcement of age ratings.

Whenever I hear these stories I'm inclined to believe that JT's mostly telling the truth - JT Jr. was successfully able to buy an M-rated game. What I usually question is how many times it took him to succeed. If he went to ten Targets and got carded at all of them before getting lucky on try #11, we'd never hear about tries #1-10.

Again, what's Thompson's point with these stings?

We already know retailer policy compliance isn't 100%. The FTC said so and no one from the industry or otherwise has debated it.


Andrew Eisen

Looks like Thompson has foiled us again. And I would've gotten away with it if it weren't for that meddling Thompson and his kid. :)

Once again a 15 year old has purchased a M rated game with his parents permission. I still can't find the scandal in that fact.

Again, we're taking Jack's word that he had his son buy it. Thompson's word and $5 will get you a cup of coffee (these days, at least).

Wow Jack.

You see, all my life I've felt that people who used children to advance their agendas are the lowest of the low. The kind of people who ought to have child services kick down the door and take their children to a reasonable home.

I don't believe for a minute that your kid bought it. I'm more than willing to believe that you stood by his side and said 'yeah, it's cool, give him the game, I know why its rated M'. You see Jack, you are a liar. And liar's don't change their stripes, nor do they prosper (if you don't believe me, review your record of court successes). Oh wait, you can't. You don't have any in the last 10 years!

So go fuck off Jack. You're washed up, and you using your kid to further your assinine agenda is the lowest thing you've ever done.

You're a snake and a liar,
Austin Lewis.

Bullshit.

Target has a prompt that comes up at the point of purchase AT THE REGISTER. Nice to see JT explioiting his son though.


This is non-news.

"“today” is an adverb in the above sentence. thanks for the proof that games have made you into an e-tard."

If you're going to police grammar, you do know that proper sentence structure requires capitalization of the first letter of the first word in the sentence...

E-tard? Very professional Jack.

I have to agree with Zerodash. Why even post this?

@Michael Perry

Yes, "today did" might be technically correct in some settings, but not this one. One does not usually "do" a sting, but rather "conducts" a sting. So, Jack would've been better served by saying "...today conducted a sting..."

However, given that he refers to people as "e-tards," we can't expect too much, notwithstanding his law school education, such as it was.

@ Jack

Where did you learn the term "e-tard" anyway? I've only ever seen that in online gaming contexts. It seems strange that you'd have adopted the customs of the culture you so obviously loathe, but, then again, you're out buying video games and surfing for gay porn, so... I'm not sure what to think anymore.

Yet another pointless JT article...Seriously I don't consider this news. I'm under the impression he does this stuff daily and then yells about when it works. Please Dennis calm down on the JT stuff its not why I come here. As I keep saying Jacks time is over...about the only thing I want to know about him is how his disbarment is going.

@ Jack

I'm curious - what does your church think about all this? Does your pastor know that you're looking at pictures of gay porn and buying awful, morally depraved games?

@Lard:

If he doesn't, Target should have the video of the purchase. Now whether or not they'll let him actually have the video is another story.

-P

actually id like to see him on live, and whats his gamertag?


Probably "AmendmentOneHooah"

To everyone who's complaining about the Jack Thompson stories:
Get over it. Jack Thompson is news because he WRITES LAWS TO BLOCK GAMES and tries to blame games for murders. As he likes to point out, he's also been in the mainstream news (Not just that FOX bullshit). When he's not actually in court to legislate games, he's a great stress reliever and entertainment figure. I for one love to these articles and look forward to watching him blow his legal career to smithereens.

If you don't give a damn about Thompson's antics, DON'T READ THE ARTICLE.

and while I'm at it... @Jack: You just absolutely refuse to believe the truth. Look around dennis' website. What do you see? Links to other pro-game groups, his archives, his forums, etc. I have yet to see an ad for anything. If you're going to be a crusader of truth, learn how to speak without lying through your teeth. Thanks.

John Bruce,
"e-tard"
Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride): You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=etard

You fail. Oh, and get used to THAT word (fail). You've heard it a lot already regarding your own life and career. Expect it more and more.

Rest assured, that even if you meant it in that way, there is no factual proof that anyone here uses Ecstacy. Which means you are, once again, making false and fraudulent claims against others. And, as usual, that seems to be an acceptable tactic to be used in the name of your God. And since no honorable, ethical God would advocate lying and deceiving others, I'll repeat my statement that clearly you, and others who follow that exact same God, are actually worshippers of a Demon-Pretender-To-The-Throne-Of-Heaven. I really must contact the leader of your church to verify this. If, in fact, your entire church worships such a being knowningly and intentionally, and is "mentally molesting children" (your phrase I believe) with the obscene abominations of Demon worship, then the rest of your community needs to know. Seriously, worship of a Demon who promotes lying and deceiving others, possibly among other unethical and harmful acts, places the community at large in danger. After all, everyone knows that Demon worship is "harmful to minors". Maybe the DA should seek banning children from your church under the Public Nuisance laws you like to toss about.

(Now, as an intelligent being, I would never really deny any Parent teaching their own children whatever religious beliefs they want, even if it included bigotry, hate, ignorance, lying, and deceiving others, among other acts and beliefs. But, at the same time, I would certainly want to know about such organized teachings so that I can protect my own child by having them stay away from such families that I feel would abuse my own child verbally, mentally, physically, perhaps even sexually. Nevertheless, since John Bruce feels that a theocratic dictatorship run by him is acceptable, it seems only fair to counter his argument with similar ones.)

Amazing how the uninformed use of a single word can lead to a long rant, eh?

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

I actually worry about Jack's son, I mean he's using him to do his dirty work and just the other day it was confirmed that he's got an obsession with "kiddies" and gay porn. Hey, Jack, the "e-tard" here is you. You're covered here and in the real world where you're just plain retarded. Only you could think submitting hardcore gay porn to the court would have something to do with your case and that it'd help somehow, and now you're in hot water over it. Screw the retard comment, you're just a dumb fuck.

Just do yourself a favor and come out of the closet and while you're at it stop using your son to do your dirty work for you. You're fucking up his life as it is.

get back to downloading gay porn thompson.

“Miami attorney and anti-violent video game activist today did a successful sting on Target Corporation” -Thompson

So, Jack, tell us more about this “today” person. -LoopyChew

“today” is an adverb in the above sentence. thanks for the proof that games have made you into an e-tard. -Thompson

Ignoring the fact that LoopyChew’s remark was obviously a joke, perhaps you should bone up on your capitalization rules before giving us syntax lessons.

You don’t play games so what’s your e-tardation excuse?


Andrew Eisen

John Bruce, if what you claim is true: your son actually bought a copy of Halo 3 at Best Buy, why don't you sit down and give it a try with him?

Knock on the door to his room, a frosty can of Pepsi in each hand, and ask him if he'd actually like to play Halo 3, and if you could both do it together. You can bond as you blast your way through Covenant soldiers. You can laugh if the ragdoll physics does something interesting to an alien solder. You can work together as a team to make your way through a desolate battlefield teeming with Brutes equiped with deadly Spike Rifles. You can ruffle his hair when he figures out a difficult puzzle. You be be your son's friend.

Jack, you might actually like it. It's a scary thing, actually liking something that you've been vehemently hating for so long, but just try it out. I'm not trying to be a dick, and I'm not trying to draw you out or anything. My comments are in no way sarcastic, but honest. I may be one of the few gamers in the world who doesn't actually want you to die, but rather open your eyes to all the good things that games can do, and all the good times they can provide.

I'm serious, Jack. Try it out. Play it with your son. And when you're done for the evening, reflect on what you guys accomplished. You'll be surprised, and I bet you'll be at his bedroom door again the next night, wanting to continue to finish the fight :)

i feel sorry for his son,having a dad like that
i wonder if he makes his son do it, or if he has brain washed his son into hating games and he does it willingly?
either way, his son needs a different dad

So his point is this: if you are a terrible parent, your child can get M-rated games. For someone that is so often labelled a "conservative whack-job," the idea of forcing the government to do your parenting is pretty liberal. The point of game ratings isn't to prevent retail from selling games - it's to inform parents of the game's contents so they can decide for (or god forbid WITH) their children what is appropriate. So I guess Jack wins, by proving that with terrible presumptions and twisted facts, you can make your point completely unarguable and yourself detestable.

I'm tempted to think that the retailers in Miami are just selling games to Jack's son out of spite, then they card everyone else.

I'm kinda scared for Jack's kid the same way I'm scared for Brittney Spears' children. I shudder to think how his mind is being contorted without a proper responsible parent.

@AgnostoTHeo

Ok I get that you are a JT fan, but that doesn't mean we all need to hear when he takes a dump. Can you really call this article news? How many times has an article EXACTLY like this(besides game name) been on GP? Its getting silly...I don't want or need to hear every little detail about JT. Especially something THIS stupid. If I were to do the same thing would I get my own article?

Look I'm all for JT being in an article if its something actually newsworthy, but so much thats not gets through. Don't read the article? Sure I generally skip over them, but when i have to skip over a number of pointless JT articles to get to real news its silly.

Sorry, but I started reading this site because it had relevant articles all the time about things that matter. This while it may be relevant to games it DOES NOT MATTER at all...not even a little.

Dennis if this site went to a news site to a "Jack is becoming even more wacko and some news on the side" let me know. Change the name or the site or add a disclaimer...Then I will know what to expect....

@bayushisan

I outright hate Fag Thompson. Not because he is an (ineffective) anti-game Attorney(and your not). I hate him because he is a biblewhore.

Okay, how's this theory for all this ridiculousness lately:

Jack Thompson is actually completely sane, for the past 20 years he's been trying to see just how far someone who scape-goats something new can go before they get themselves debarred.

He already knows he can lie to judges, people, and basically everyone else, so now he's sending out Gay porn and making vaguely homoerotic comments towards Dennis.

I wonder what's next?

Jack Thompson=christian scum

@Mutantemeco

I happen to be a Christian myself dude. Lets not insult an entire group of people just because you don't happen to like what they stand for. After all that's exactly what JT himself does.

JT wrote:
"'today' is an adverb in the above sentence. thanks for the proof that games have made you into an e-tard."

So what's your excuse, Jack? Were you not taught proper grammar and punctuation in school, because I don't see any commas in your original post, nor do I see any capital letters at the beginning of those sentences. You also neglected to use your own name, thereby making "today" the proper noun in your release, not an adverb.

How your little press release should have read is "Miami attorney and anti-violent video game activist, Jack Thompson, today did a successful sting on Target Corporation." You could also have put your own name in front of your title separated by a comma. I'm surprised you missed an opportunity to write your own name out!

If you're going to attempt to mock someone for having a poor grasp of the English language, you might want to get a better grasp of it yourself. All your press releases read like they were written by your 15-year-old son.

Also, for your "sting" to be successful, it needs to have some impact other than another bill that will inevitably be deemed unconstitutional. The only thing you've been successful at thus far is becoming the butt of jokes for the entire gaming community. Thanks, Jack! Endless hours of entertainment and we don't have to pay you a dime for it! I especially like it when you allow us a little window into your fantasy world where everything you do is "big trouble" for the gaming industry and where you are never under scrutiny. Then again, they say that crazy people don't know they're crazy.

@bayushisan

I'm sorry to hear that.

P.S. Fight fire with fire.

@ Mutantemeco

When we fight fire with fire, everyone gets burned.

@Mutantemeco

When we put Things before People, that's when we're failing as christians. the point of games is to play and have fun, God or faith need not impact at all in the gaming community, but the values i play by, as a christian gamer, i would hope, ensure that everyone has a GG.