more on Gaming industry asked to victimize themselves for charity

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dave Wilson <dave () wilson net>
Date: October 13, 2005 9:03:50 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Gaming industry asked to victimize themselves for  
charity



In the winter of 1874, a 14-year-old named Jesse Pomeroy was on trial  
for
kidnapping, mutilating and killing two children,
while on parole for torturing a series of younger boys when he was  
12. His
eventual conviction makes him perhaps
America's youngest serial killer. The media circus leading up to  
Pomeroy's
appearance in court for murdering Mary Cullen
and Horace Mullen was dominated by a belief that his fiendish  
behavior was
influenced, or perhaps even caused, by a fad
that had swept up the nation over the past three years, the melodramatic
''dime novel.''

Experts said the sensational tales had corrupted Pomeroy. Without
immediate action to suppress the works or at least
keep them out of the hands of impressionable youths, they argued, any  
youngster exposed
to the material could be expected to engage in
the same sorts of otherwise inexplicable deeds. As the moralizing  
reached a
crescendo, Pomeroy himself took the stand. And
it was then the nation learned that Pomeroy was illiterate. By his own
admission, he'd never read a book in his young life.

This story -- from a column I wrote in 1999 in the wake of Columbine  
-- is interesting, I think, for two reasons. It illustrates the fact  
that  there's a  pattern of blaming youth violence on whatever kids  
like at the time (jazz, rock, comics, movies, etc.). And it reminds  
people that murder by children is not a product of the modern age.  
Critics who charge that kids have never tried to kill people until  
the advent of video games are ignorant of history (although, to be  
charitable, many murders by children have almost certainly been wiped  
from the historical record, either because the adults in charge  
wanted to protect families or because they just couldn't believe a  
kid could do such a thing). Pomeroy, who appears to have been quite  
"sane" in the legal sense (he knew what he was doing was wrong, or at  
least against the law) was initially sentenced to death, but that was  
quickly commuted to life in prison since nobody really wanted to  
execute a child. He lived out nearly all the remainder of his life in  
solitary confinement (patiently hacking at the walls, floor, and bars  
of various cells for decades as he made dozens of attempts to escape  
prison, or at least get to somebody else he could kill). When heart  
disease rendered him harmless (he couldn't take more than a step  
before having to stop and catch his breath), he was finally  
transferred to a prison farm in 1929, where guards and other inmates  
would torment him by staying just out of arm's reach. He died in  
1932. He lives on as a character in a couple of historical novels,  
and he's arguably the model used for such teen-horror staples as  
Freddy and Jason: amoral, sadistic, obsessive, and methodical.

Two points: Violent crime, and in particular violent crime committed  
by youth, has actually seen a steep decline since the introduction of  
videogames, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Justice  
Department. So if there is a relationship between videogames and  
youth violence, it appears to be a positive one. (I'm not saying  
there is; I'm just saying that if you want to make causative  
arguments you should at least have some statistical evidence, and not  
just a few claims from kids facing prison time that a videogame made  
them do it). And finally, offering $10,000 for somebody to develop a  
videogame is rather amusing, since development costs for games today  
are in the range of a modest movie budget, starting at about $10  
million. Maybe Mr. Thomson left a few zeros off?

-dave

David Farber wrote:


> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Frank Wales <frank () limov com>
> Date: October 12, 2005 5:08:14 PM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Gaming industry asked to victimize themselves for charity
>
>
> Dave, for IP, perhaps.
>
> Lawyer Jack Thomson proposes a videogame industry
> bludgeon-fest as a new game scenario, in an apparent
> attempt to taunt the videogame business into proving
> that videogames don't influence violent behaviour:
>   http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=5883
>
>
> Attorney Proposes Violent Game
>
> October 10, 2005
>
> by: Matt Saunderson
>
> Jack Thompson will give $10,000 to charity if any videogame  
> company  makes
> and releases a game based on a scenario he created. Miami, Florida   
> Attorney
> Jack Thompson, a long-time outspoken critic of violent and  
> sexually  explicit
> videogames, has done something totally unexpected. Thompson today   
> actually
> proposed a violent videogame, and will pay $10,000 to the favorite   
> charity
> of Paul Eibeler (the Chairman of Take-Two Interactive) if any  
> videogame
> company will "create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video  
> game  in 2006"
> based on a scenario he created.
>
> Thompson's proposal is titled A Modest Video Game Proposal and has   
> been sent
> to members of the press and apparantly to Douglas Lowenstein,   
> President of the ESA.
>
> Here's Thompson's proposal (italics are his, not ours):
>
> "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Golden Rule
>
> This writer has been saying for seven years that violent video games
> can be "murder simulators" that incite as well as train some   
> obsessive teen players to be violent.
>
> I've been on 60 Minutes and in Reader's Digest this year  
> explaining  how an
> Alabama teen, with no criminal record, shot two policemen and a   
> dispatcher
> in their heads and fled in a police car--a scenario he rehearsed  
> for  hundreds
> of hours on Take-Two/Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto video games.
>
> I have sat with boys in jail cells, their lives over because of murder
> convictions, after they, with no history of violence, have killed   
> innocents
> while in a dreamlike state. Said one cop who investigated such a  
> murder
> in Grand Rapids, Michigan: "The killing was like an extension of  
> the  game."
>
> The video game industry, through its lawyers, its spokesmen, and  
> its  head
> lobbyist, Doug Lowenstein, the president of the Entertainment Software
> Association, all say it is utter nonsense to suggest that what is  
> dumped
> into a kid's head hour after hour, day after day, year after year,  
> could
> possibly have behavioral consequences. Cigarette ads can persuade kids
> to smoke, but interactive simulators in which these same kids  
> punch,  hack,
> bludgeon, and maim affect not a wit their attitudes and behaviors,
> notwithstanding the findings of the American Psychological  
> Association,
> published in August 2005.
>
> The video game industry says Sticks and stones can break my bones,   
> but games
> can never hurt me. Fine. I have a modest proposal for the video  
> game  industry.
> I'll write a check for $10,000 to the favorite charity of Take-Two   
> Interactive
> Software, Inc's chairman, Paul Eibeler - a man Bernard Goldberg  
> ranks  as #43
> in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America - if any video   
> game company
> will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006  
> like
> the following:
>
> Osaki Kim is the father of a high school boy beaten to death with  
> a  baseball
> bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The killer obsessively played a  
> violent  video
> game in which one of the favored ways of killing is with a bat.  
> The  opening
> scene, before the interactive game play begins, is the Los Angeles   
> courtroom
> in which the killer is sentenced "only" to life in prison after  
> the  judge
> and the jury have heard experts explain the connection between the   
> game and the murder.
>
> Osaki Kim (O.K.) exits the courtroom swearing revenge upon the  
> video  game industry
> whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder. "Vengeance  
> is  mine, I
> will repay" he says. And boy, is O.K. not kidding.
>
> O.K. is provided in his virtual reality playpen a panoply of  
> weapons:  machetes,
> Uzis, revolvers, shotguns, sniper rifles, Molotov cocktails, you  
> name  it.
> Even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats.
>
> O.K. first hops a plane from LAX to New York to reach the Long  
> Island  home of
> the CEO of the company (Take This) that made the murder simulator  
> on  which his
> son's killer trained. O.K. gets "justice" by taking out this  
> female  CEO, whose
> name is Paula Eibel, along with her husband and kids. "An eye for  
> an  eye,"
> says O.K., as he urinates onto the severed brain stems of the  
> Eibel  family
> victims, just as you do on the decapitated cops in the real video   
> game Postal2.
>
> O.K. then works his way, methodically back to LA by car, but on  
> his  way makes
> a stop at the Philadelphia law firm of Blank, Stare and goes floor  
> by  floor
> to wipe out the lawyers who protect Take This in its wrongful  
> death  law suits.
> "So sue me" O.K. spits, with singer Jackson Brown's 1980's hit   
> Lawyers in Love blaring.
>
> With the FBI now after him, O.K. keeps moving westward, shooting  
> up  high-tech
> video arcades called GameWerks. "Game over," O.K. laughs.
>
> Of course, O.K. makes the obligatory runs to virtual versions of   
> brick and
> mortar retailers Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and Wal-Mart to steal
> supplies and bludgeon store managers and cash register clerks.  
> "You  should
> have checked kids' IDs!"
>
> O.K. pushes on to Los Angeles. He must get there by May 10, 2006.   
> That is
> the beginning of "E3" -- the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the   
> Super Bowl
> of the video game industry. O.K. must get to E3 to massacre all  
> the  video game
> industry execs with one final, monstrously delicious rampage.
>
> How about it, video game industry? I've got the check and you've  
> got  the tech.
> It's all a fantasy, right? No harm can come from such a game,  
> right?  Go ahead,
> video game moguls. Target yourselves as you target others. I dare you.
>
> Jack Thompson is a Miami lawyer who has for 18 years been involved  
> in  efforts
> to stop the marketing of adult entertainment to minors.
>
> It is unlikely that Thompson's proposal will actually be turned  
> into  a game,
> as most videogame companies do not simply accept proposals from   
> individuals.
> We'll keep you updated, however, as it is very likely that there  
> will  be some
> sort of response to Thompson's proposal from members of the  
> videogame  industry.



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