Jack Thompson Threatens Take-Two Over Jack Thompson

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Jack Thompson Threatens Take-Two Over Jack Thompson


Jack Thompson has threatened Grand Theft Auto IV [http://www.take2games.com/] in which the player must kill a lawyer who, according to Thompson, is him.

According to a Game Informer [http://www.gamepolitics.com/images/legal/JT-GTA4-ltr.pdf]in which the offending mission was described. The player must kill a lawyer who, after meeting the player, says, "Guns don't kill people. Videogames do."

In his letter, Thompson says, "This faux quotation, which I have never uttered is nevertheless attributed to me at countless Internet sites obtained by googling the above quotation of the lawyer killed in GTA IV. The fact that the lawyer, kill [sic] on Niko's first mission, would bring up videogames, makes it more clearly a reference to me. Game informer finds the non sequitur [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur]reference to videogames by the assassinated lawyer a "hilarious response."

Thompson claims this is not the first time Take-Two has "targeted" him, referencing the site at Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories [http://www.citizensunitednegatingtechnology.org], but Thompson claims surprise that Zelnick would "sink this low" in its efforts to discredit him. "Now you have descended this low," Thompson wrote, "using one of your games to threaten my physical safety."

"You have until five o'clock p.m. this Friday, September 21, 2007, to inform me via e-mail that you are going to delete the above references and any other references that could reasonably be construed to be references to me in Grand Theft Auto IV and any other videogames that are pending release," he wrote.

"Govern yourselves accordingly, or else."


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omnibus01

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Jun 12, 2007
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Gee, and I thought Al Gore held the record for humorless, dull wackos...Jack T. needs to be on some meds.....maybe a big chill pill. And, hey...he's damn lucky it's all about gamers and not Al Queda...or he wouldn't have his empty pathetic head on his neck any more.
 

moromete

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Aug 16, 2007
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Bah, this guy needs to be ignored, as most of what the media reports him as saying is utter non-sense...
 

Anton P. Nym

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Sep 18, 2007
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Thank you, Jacko, for teh comedy gold. Also, for providing some future law student an excellent case study for his/her "frivolous litigation" module.

-- Steve
 

Dr. Hellno

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Sep 19, 2007
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You know, the more I hear about this guy, the more I kind of admire him. Sure, he's absurdly litigious, he misspells something in just about every communication I've seen, and as seen here, he's rather self-centered. Nonetheless, it takes a certain courage and strength of character to stand against an industry and a consumer base in the hundreds of millions with absolute disregard for the loathing they feel toward him.

Of course, it might just be a side-effect of his being a douche. Oh well.
 

623S

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Aug 22, 2007
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I'm not sure about this one. On the one hand, Rockstar is kind of backing up Thompson's statements (which I believe are ridiculous) about how video games encourage violence by inserting a character (to be killed) who could be construed as Thompson. Since he's despised by gamers and I'm assuming the industry it's a pretty good situation to "get revenge" on him.

On the other hand, it's also ridiculous to say that this lawyer character is Jack Thompson. Criminal lawyers are, by nature, lying, conniving bastards and the one in the game may have been a jackass who screwed with the wrong people. Also, why the hell would they remove this kind of content from a game on his command? It's not even feasible.
 

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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I don't think Thompson can be said to possess either courage or strength of character so much as some kind of narcissistic psychopathy.
 

Anton P. Nym

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Malygris said:
I don't think Thompson can be said to possess either courage or strength of character so much as some kind of narcissistic psychopathy.
I'll go with narcisism too, in light of his current imbroglio: Seeking an injunction against the release of Halo 3. [http://gamepolitics.com/2007/09/21/jack-thompson-seeks-to-have-halo-3-declared-a-public-nuisance-block-its-release-in-florida/] At this late date? That takes a special flavour of superman-complex to think he can void that many contracts (pre-orders) in such a short time.

-- Steve
 

Arbre

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Jan 13, 2007
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He's only doing us a favour, by completely "foolizing" (ugh) the opposite side.

Go Go Jack!
 

gains

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Ugh. I'm not happy at Rockstar for adding fuel to Thompson's fire. It's given him more crazy minded "evidence" that his paranoia is well founded.
 

greygelgoog

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Dec 29, 2007
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How could they sink this low? Clearly someone ought to send their mothers strongly worded letters.
 

PurpleRain

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Dec 2, 2007
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"You have until five o'clock p.m. this Friday, September 21, 2007, to inform me via e-mail... Govern yourselves accordingly, or else."

Dun Dun Dun!

I wouldn't just to see what he does.
 

SenseOfTumour

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Jul 11, 2008
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Damn that's one hell of an ego.

So Jack sees himself as the only lawyer who's ever done anything relating to videogames?

(Ok, we all know Rockstar ARE aiming this parody material at Jack, but hey, surely it needs to be rock solid, set in stone PROVED to be a legal case?)
 

Trotgar

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Sep 13, 2009
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If he sues them, he cannot (or at least shouldn't) win it. There's just not enough proof, in my opinion.
 

KSarty

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Aug 5, 2008
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Trotgar said:
If he sues them, he cannot (or at least shouldn't) win it. There's just not enough proof, in my opinion.
Good thing it was 2 years ago though right?
 

ma55ter_fett

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Oct 6, 2009
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Wait Jack Thompson reads game informer? Man the guy isn't as wacko as I thought, he's just like me!... wait a september 2007 issue?.... he must have been in a hurry to find something to read while takeing a dump so he naturly turned to his stack of out of date game informer magazines, again just like me!

Dude this guy has his priorities straight man.

Maybe he'll sue every WWII game developer next cause the Thompson machine gun was clearly named after him out of pure spite on the game developers part.