In the spirit of the $2M DARPA Grand challenge, an anti-violence-in-games attorney has offered a prize to CHARITY for a game design which includes graphic and violent plot elements aimed at publishers.
Because Create-games is often so slow, as if it is running on an old 486 in an editor's basement, and the community doesn't have a supported MOO server, maybe we can get a commitment from Paul Eibeler that he'd direct the donation HERE, and everyone can write a level in MMF.
After all, $10,000 would buy 100 months of a dedicated server...
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
I'd rather take on the ctrl-alt-del challenge. $10 to make a game that mocks him.
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13th October, 2005 at 12:45:22 -
Jack Thompson is an idiot.
Also, you're right that hosting costs money, but there's no need to take the piss. This site is only running because Clubsoft pays up front for hosting, then relies on donations to cover it, which I doubt very much they do. So unless you want to cough up some dough, go easy on Clubby.
Professor AI- You are a little to critical of the Daily Click. I understand that you have good intentions. I'm just not sure if enough people on the Daily Click would want to participate in this sort of thing.
I like to help, but I'm an amateur and my graphics are defiantly not up to the level of most of the commercial publishers.
Fine Garbage since 2003.
CURRENT PROJECT:
-Paying off a massive amount of debt in college loans.
-Working in television.
hmmm, not as easy as it sounds, most of us here are amateur game developers, most here aren't even registered as a company
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 [b]company[/b] will "create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006" based on a scenario he created.
meaning that in the scenario taht we do infact win, he has the option to not donate as there really is no company to start with (i hope it's not only me, but i notice that when it comes to such things as money, little details should be taken into account) and if he does infact decide to donate, there will still be others who for the sake of money will argue the same things, that there is no company here to start with, and that we should have been disqualified from the beginning
now, unless there actually is a registered company, or a member of a company within these forums willing to take on this challenge, i would suggest trying this out, with or without a company (only because professor al said that there was a lack of activity going on around tdc, which i can deduce is mostly from school)
but to be on topic for a bit, $10,000? that amount of money deserves to be spent on something other than a website. There have been a lot of natural disaters lately, wouldn't his money be better spent helping out the victims of one of them?
At least that way nobody would have to make/play a crap game, and it would be crap.
I agree. Maybe a $100 cash prize would be a little more appropriate; I don't understand how people can put up tens of thousands of dollars toward pitiful games, but then turn around and NOT help out New Orleanians...even though "Oreleanians" isn't a word...
I'm sorry if I struck a nerve over the slow server hosting, but it is really easy to start a company, perhaps a little harder to get charity status for TDC so Thompson's donation could be tax deductible. We could put up a focus-on-the-family-friendly front organization "Game Designers for non-violence".
I agree the hard part will be eibeler agreeing to designate the community as the charity if we are successful (and include an easter egg which has Thomson's head and wallet exploding But it is pretty easy to write him an email asking...
Damn fools. This fellow here's just offering a $10K bounty to prove to everyone that the cowards who make violent video games wouldn't dare target themselves. And personally, I think he makes a point here. I'd love to see a game designer respond to this challenge.
BTW, I worked as a research assistant during the holidays, and from what I've found out, video games, no matter how violent or explicit, have little or no effect on little children. After all, there are kids who love animals playing Deer Hunter, and there are kids who've never touched a computer, who'd slash up their husbands with a knife if he beat them up (according to survey results).
So, overall, I think it's safe to say that humanity's always loved violence, from the wars of the ancient ages, the arenas of Rome, the witch burnings of the Dark Ages, the executions of the Elizabethian era, happy slapping, etc. Video games are just another outlet for this violent behavior. Someone who's violent in real life would take it out on a video game till he can'ts stands it no more.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
http://forums.idlethumbs.net/showthread.php?p=52133
Apparently, Jack Thompson was being satirical. He was presumably trying to mimic Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," in which Swift satirically proposes putting an end to world hunger and overpopulation by eating babies (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/modest.html ). However, Thompson is a far inferior writer, making his satire clear to none but himself. Ironically, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade donated the $10,000 to charity after Jack weaseled out of it through the aforementioned satire excuse.
"Omg. Where did they get the idea to not use army guys? Are they taking drugs?" --Tim Schafer on originality in videogames
After which, Jacky sent a fax to the Seattle PD calling for the arrest of PA for criminal harrassment (I don't think the dipshit realizes that donating in someone's name isn't the same as making them pay).
The PA forum crew got pissed off and started a writing campaign to the FBA to get Thompson disbarred. Apparently the FBA called an emergency meeting to discuss the matter. Thompson is already under two investigations.
Jacko sent a letter to the FBA threatening them, which is probably the dumbest thing a lawyer can do.
He's also contacted the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington trying to get the FBI to investigate PA.
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Edited by the Author.
(only because professor al said that there was a lack of activity going on around tdc, which i can deduce is mostly from school)
But it is pretty easy to write him an email asking...
