bully boycott in florida

[jonc2006]

anyone keeping their eye on the whole thompson vs take2 down in florida? it seems the judge overseeing the case has decided force take2 to let him preview the contents of this game so he can decide for himself if it is really a "public nueicense" as thompson claims it is. apparently he will see some 4 hours of content in order to help him make a decision. jack seems to have already declared victory however the majority of people tracking this case already predicted that the judge would take such an action. it doesnt surpise me either. considering how jack has only been crucifyting an game that noone besides the developers have even played yet, its only logical for a judge to make a decision by experiencing the gameplay first hand, opposed to a invalid 3rd party observation and prediction. and by that i mean actually reading the book instead of judging it by its cover so to speak.

it has not been possible for jack to evaluate the game using a resonable and believable method because it hasent even been released yet. so far the only thing he has been able to criticize is the implied meaning of the title of the game from his perspective. and the screenshots of it that may or may not relflect the overall intent, meaning, or content of the final version of the game. its now imo a 50/50 sort of thing, it can go either way. alot of it is based on this judges moral standards imo; he could be totally opposite of jack, in the middle of the road, or have the same perspective as jack does.. if the judge rules in thompsons favor, then this is a serious blow to the first amendment. if not, im going to get drunk off my ass and party like its 1999. i have enough faith in the judge to believe he will not be as biased and narrow minded as jack is. this would filnally put jack where he belongs. away from his ego.

head on over to gamepolitics.com for the latest info on this bull****tastically retarded argument.

[dynamicVoidMain]

I heard he was asking to ban the game before even release, which was apparently ruled against by the supreme court of the US twice, once in ~1930 and anther time in ~1970.

Somoene mentioned that even the fact his proposal is being considered is worrying.

[Player-X]

Judge to Review New Rockstar Game 'Bully' (http://www.betanews.com/article/Judge_to_Review_New_Rockstar_Game_Bully/1160690051)


A Miami-Dade circuit court judge has ordered Take 2 Interactive -- whose Rockstar Games studio is responsible for the controversial, though successful, Grand Theft Auto series -- to make available a copy of Rockstar's unreleased game Bully, in order to determine whether it violates the standards set by the state's public nuisance laws. The game is scheduled for US release on Tuesday.
According to the gaming blog Destructoid, who has sent a reporter (http://www.destructoid.com/judge-to-take-two-produce-bully-at-3pm-and-ill-decide-how-bad-it-is.htm) to cover the trial live, the judge will be seated with a Take 2 employee, presumably in chambers, to play any of randomly chosen missions from Bully.

If Judge Ronald Friedman feels, on the spot, that the game is offensive enough, he will grant prosecutor Jack Thompson's motion to stop the sale of the game in Florida. Thompson has filed suit specifically against retailers GameStop and Wal-Mart, where the game would premiere.In the character-driven game, the player represents Jimmy Hopkins, a dejected young fellow who finds himself an under-achieving student at a miserable, bureaucracy-infested academy. Rockstar describes the main character as "working his way up the social ladder of this demented institution of supposed learning, standing up for what he thinks is right and taking on the liars, cheats and snobs who are the most popular members of the student body and faculty."
According to interpretations of previews of Bully, one of the options available to Jimmy for taking on the world involves vengeful violence. However, perhaps very cleverly, guns don't appear to play a role.
The Entertainment Software Ratings Board has issued a "T" for "teen" rating for Bully, which is far milder than for other games, especially from Rockstar. However, a court filing by Thompson earlier this week states the game's European version has been slapped with a "15" rating by the British Bureau of Film Certification, thus prohibiting its sale to minors 15 years of age and younger.
Assuming Take 2 complies with the judge's order, this will apparently also be Thompson's first opportunity to play the game, although in public remarks, he has previously referred to at least one of its missions as a "Columbine simulator." Most screenshots made available to date, however, depict fist-fighting and, as the title implies, the act of being bullied. The court filing adds that one screenshot includes the clever use of a toilet as a bullying device.
"The premise of Bully is that it is sometimes acceptable to deal with bullying by becoming the ultimate bully," reads Thompson's filing. "This was the dynamic at Columbine."
One of the weapons depicted in a screenshot included by Thompson is a "wrist rocket" - a wooden slingshot. "So deadly is this weapon," writes Thompson, "that it cannot be sold in most states, including Florida, to anyone under 18 years of age.
Yet, any kid can fashion his own slingshot in a matter of minutes from a wood, or a Y-shaped tree branch, along with scraps from an inner tube or latex surgical tubing available at Home Depot. Such a weapon, glamorized for use in Bully, can easily get through any security check at any school in America, given its non-metallic components."
To demonstrate his point, the Destructoid reporter noted, Thompson actually produced a wrist rocket from his own pocket in court yesterday. "It was a moment right out of Court TV, but an effective one," the reporter wrote. "If there was any chuckles that a slingshot could be a lethal weapon, they were silenced."
Florida statute states that, in order for something to be declared a public nuisance, it must be found to either annoy the community, be injurious to public health, or corrupt the public morals. Since the game has yet to be released, and may only be viewed from within the confines of the judge's chambers, advocates for the game's defense could argue that the game's qualification as a nuisance under Florida statute cannot be effectively determined until the public has been exposed to it.
Bully was originally announced by Rockstar back in May 2005, and has since been the subject of contention in every country where the concept was introduced, including throughout Europe, Australia, Canada, and now the US. In October of last year, a concerned parent started an online petition to compel Rockstar and Take2 to withdraw their release of the game, which was then scheduled for April 2006.
"We ask of you as an adult, as a member of this society, to stop the release of this game," Rochelle Sides' petition read. "If one child sees the violence portrayed in your game as an avenue to end his/her plight with bullying, will all of the money you have made be worth it? How much is a child's life worth to you?"
"Bully is a calculated effort to cash in on the tragic phenomenon of school bullying and thereby spawn more of it," concludes Jack Thompson's motion. In language about as confusing as the issue itself, he proceeds, "'Columbine' was just a taste of glimpse of what is coming and is increasingly already here."


jonc2006 I would rather call that not judging a book based on what you heard about it's cover

I heard he was asking to ban the game before even release, which was apparently ruled against by the supreme court of the US twice, once in ~1930 and anther time in ~1970.wait...the 30s and the 70s?

[Exodus]

wait...the 30s and the 70s?
It's an old port from the abacus.

[dynamicVoidMain]

Yeah, well not really.

Media and information in general, so it could have been anything back then, not necessarily games...

[Player-X]

You mean like the way they used to talk about the print press, the waltz, industrial cities, the telephone, radio and TV?

[dynamicVoidMain]

Yeah, basically the supreme court ruled against the mere thought of censoring media before it was released into public scrutiny, this occured around 1930 and around 1970. The fact it is now actually being considered with 'bully' means the constitution of the United States is literally being defied.

[jonc2006]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15664744&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=beat-the-bullies--a-new-low---the-video-game-that-makes-it-cool-to-be-a-bully--name_page.html

im going to let that one speak for itself. as much as i want to, i cant conjoir up smartass remakes for this.its just to ****ing stupid

[dynamicVoidMain]

Hah, that is so stupid, whoever wrote that has done 0 research on it.



this might be considered shameless advertising... but... http://www.techybytes.com/to-violent-videogames-we-say/ and http://www.techybytes.com/nonviolent-digital-jihad/

[jonc2006]

Hah, that is so stupid, whoever wrote that has done 0 research on it.



this might be considered shameless advertising... but... http://www.techybytes.com/to-violent-videogames-we-say/ and http://www.techybytes.com/nonviolent-digital-jihad/

what pisses me off is that they are trying to make this some parent awareness article, and when they are descibing the overall point of the game, they take it so far out of context that the game DOES sound like some kind of murder simulator. gta san andreas for example, from what i played the game and the story, its basically about life on the streets and instead of playing the role of the hero, you are playing more of an anti hero, you even develop feelings for him and care about what happens to him, even though he really isnt a good guy, his character is one that you would normally hate. and because he is the anti hero, his actions and goals in the game would be anti hero as wel. you wont see cj sending flowers to the police via fedex or something. your going to see him robbing houses and hi speed police chases. that sort of thing is portrayed in movies like scarface, godfather, all the characters in those movies a considered heros, but they really arnt. most movies books and games have you seeing the perspective of the good guy. gta does the opposite and haves you playng the "bad but good guy" roles. ive never seen any group that wants to ban the godfather and scarface. most kids can get acess to those if they try hard enough but you have never seen an adult blaming those types of movies for their kids actions. the movies are no differnet from gta. same plot (sorta) same crimes etc. all while you, the audience are rooting for them even though they are hardened criminals.

the article says that the point of the game is to kill police officers. BUZZ wrong *******s.if these people would take the time to use their 3rd grade reading skills tthey would realize the overall plot of the game is on the back of the ****ing game case. and NO its not killing police officers.

[Player-X]

You can take anything far out of context to fit your specifications.
Nostradamus: You interprate his prophecies with modren events by changing the context for the words he use and it will fit the prophercy the same way a nursery rhyme would do the same.
You can blame a game based on gang violence for causing the gang violence it's based on and people will still belive you.
Cookie for anyone who guesses where this comes from:
People take a certain part of a book as more real than what modren science has already repeatedly proven

[jonc2006]

alright fools i have been browsing the gamepolitics and the various comment boards on the site and it seems that jack has.........LOST! booya! take it witth a grain of salt, as it hasnt been offically confirmed yet, but assuming it is true, im gonna go get real drunk and play me some GTA.

"At 1:51, Niero called, saying that the judge will not prohibit the the sale of Bully. In the time that he played the game, the judge said that he did not see anything so violent that would require the game to be held from being shipped. The judge and Take Two employee used a cheat code in order to skip around in the game and play through various parts, including the more graphic portions of the game. The judge said “There’s nothing in the game that you wouldn’t see on TV every night,” and that he “wouldn’t want his kids to play the game, but that shouldn’t mean that the game won’t ship.”


"According to Niero, the courthouse got pretty heated, and at one point, the judge had to ask Mr. Thompson to sit down. Thompson felt that Also, Mr. Thompson silenced his “expert witness” when he was going to say something."

i say we declare oct.13 a holiday.

[RedLion]

Ah.poor rockstar guys...The recent massacres in schools won't really help the development of this game.
Of course this is not their fault but what do you want?I just think their game don't arrive in the good context.

[jonc2006]

Ah.poor rockstar guys...The recent massacres in schools won't really help the development of this game.
Of course this is not their fault but what do you want?I just think their game don't arrive in the good context.

these recent school shootings and bullys release date and content imo are pure coincidence. the game had been in development long before the first shooting took place. and as far as i know, all of shooters, save one, were over the age of 25. the only one who wasnt was some 15year old mentally challeged kid that somehow got acess to a gun and for somereason decided to bring it to school. thompson made a dumb move by jumping to conclusions about a game that wasnt even available to the public, it still isnt as of now. i firmly believe now that you cant judge a book by its cover. as far a jack goes, i doubt he will ever learn that, however i feel no pity for his actions, he literally set himself up on this one. all the backlash from the gaming comunnity and politicans he will be getting is hopefully enough to shut him up for a few days. although it wouldnt surprise me if he tries an appeal or something, its typical thompson behavior, even though 99% of the time none of his tactics pull through.

[RedLion]

these recent school shootings and bullys release date and content imo are pure coincidence. the game had been in development long before the first shooting took place. and as far as i know, all of shooters, save one, were over the age of 25. the only one who wasnt was some 15year old mentally challeged kid that somehow got acess to a gun and for somereason decided to bring it to school. thompson made a dumb move by jumping to conclusions about a game that wasnt even available to the public, it still isnt as of now. i firmly believe now that you cant judge a book by its cover. as far a jack goes, i doubt he will ever learn that, however i feel no pity for his actions, he literally set himself up on this one. all the backlash from the gaming comunnity and politicans he will be getting is hopefully enough to shut him up for a few days. although it wouldnt surprise me if he tries an appeal or something, its typical thompson behavior, even though 99% of the time none of his tactics pull through.

I agree with you.You can't judge a book by his cover.But the problem here is the context.and Thomson will use and abuse about it.His stance will be:

"Oh yeah have you see or heard about the recent School shoots? Have you heard about bully,the game which which will take along our poor children in a violent virtual university world? less violent games = less violence in school"

And you know what? There is a strong probability people listen to him without
wondering if this is the right way to solve the problem or not and without even think to test the game.why?because they are afraid about their children and because they want to find a guilt for all those problems.

[jonc2006]

I agree with you.You can't judge a book by his cover.But the problem here is the context.and Thomson will use and abuse about it.His stance will be:

"Oh yeah have you see or heard about the recent School shoots? Have you heard about bully,the game which which will take along our poor children in a violent virtual university world? less violent games = less violence in school"

And you know what? There is a strong probability people listen to him without
wondering if this is the right way to solve the problem or not and without even think to test the game.why?because they are afraid about their children and because they want to find a guilt for all those problems.

the only true way to show jack, politians, parents and whoever else that there is no direct link, is to actually go along with the banning of the game. once its banned, and the violence still continues, their argument/claims go out the window. if you were to factor out the game, there would be nothing for them to blame, so in a way, maybe bully should have been banned. the absence of hard evidence or something to link the behavior to would have put the final naiil in the coffin if another crop of bullying incidents were to occur but there is no game to place the blame on. guess we will never know

lol someone on gamepolitics posted this comment

"There are several accounts of JT acting rationally and even politely from time to time. Given his ourbursts and erratic behavior, you have a point on him being bipolar."

alright this is jacks offical statement after the judges decision. read at your own risk.

“Immediately after the non-hearing, which violated his own order to give me a
hearing, I filed an emergency petition for a writ of mandamus… asking the Third District to compel production of the game and to give me a real hearing on the TRO (temporary restraining order). The Third District denied it.”

“…I am a Christian. I am not charged with winning these battles; I am charged with fighting them. I have done the right thing.”

“The BBC itself says this is a game with a lot of violence in it, and what is
absolutely absurd is the notion that Take-Two can release this game to major media like the BBC and not thereby waive their right to keep it out of the hands of a plaintiff.”

“The judge never viewed the entire game, as he promised he would. He took unsworn testimony from 2 Take-Two employees, with no right by me to cross-examine.”

“The judge’s spiteful ‘production’ of the game after the game was released, on
‘Tuesday morning’ was childish. The judge, then, violated an order to give me a hearing that he signed. He violated his own promise to watch the game to conclusion (he did not), and he denied the TRO with absolutely no idea what a video game is and the expert testimony, which he did not want to hear, as to what the harm would be.”

“When kids start showing up in ERs with slingshot wounds at the hands of Bully enthusiasts, don’t blame me.”

that last sentance, i fell out of my chair laughing after i read it. who does this guy think he is? batman? HOLY ELECTRIC ANAL PROBE BATMAN ITS A SLINGSHOT!

[RedLion]

This guy is....well...strange.Instead of asking to parents to better take care of their children and to learn them the BIG difference beetween the virtual world where killing polygons is without gravity and the real world where killing humans is a murder,he prefer attack games company and their games.....I'll never understand....

[Xtreme2damax]

Jack Thompson = OMG What a Feckin' Jackass:p

I've been wanting to say that, it wasn't intended to be funny though.

If they start censoring Video games, with the Internet being the next thing they'll go after, I'm going to buy myself a passport and move overseas, or I'll import. I cannot believe the sheer amount of idiots elected into office and run this country.

I thought the whole point of a so called "Free Country" or "Freedom of Speech" was no Censorship, with the exception of nudity being censored?

It seems people like Jack Thompson and some other polititions, are trying to suppress free speech, For thier own gain and approval, which directly violates the Constitution of the us of a.

It's sickens me to see people who act so immaturely and unprofessional having say over what I can and can't do. It's my life, my rules, I'll do whatever the **** I want to do with it. (Sorry for Cussing;))

Bully seems to me like it is perfectly harmless. Playing the role of an ex-bullied kid who gets back at his tormentors by pulling pranks, is a walk in the park compared to the content that GTA has, and I'm not against GTA either, in fact I own the GTA's, from GTAIII - San Andreas for my PC.

Games will be games, Just like Kids will be Kids. The object of games (Most of them) is to play in a fantasy world and do things you otherwise would not be able to do in real life.

They want reality, they want the source of violence, Jack, his bigheaded and liberal buddies should spend time in the ghettos of big cities, and visit and experience the houses where children are abused, see how detrimental, and devastating being abused is, and take the study of abused children, and compare that to the kids that went on rampages at schools.

He would see by far that being abused by far has much more of an impact on mentality, hatred and anger, than any Video game produced up until now and for the next hundred years. That most of those children, if not all, that went on shooting sprees at schools, came from an abusive home with abusive parents.

Is it me or does anyone fear our future in the usa is becoming more like or is going to become like the 1995 movie "Demolition Man"?:rolleyes:

Just my 2 Cents;)

[jonc2006]

Jack Thompson = OMG What a Feckin' Jackass:p

I've been wanting to say that, it wasn't intended to be funny though.

If they start censoring Video games, with the Internet being the next thing they'll go after, I'm going to buy myself a passport and move overseas, or I'll import. I cannot believe the sheer amount of idiots elected into office and run this country.

I thought the whole point of a so called "Free Country" or "Freedom of Speech" was no Censorship, with the exception of nudity being censored?

It seems people like Jack Thompson and some other polititions, are trying to suppress free speech, For thier own gain and approval, which directly violates the Constitution of the us of a.

It's sickens me to see people who act so immaturely and unprofessional having say over what I can and can't do. It's my life, my rules, I'll do whatever the **** I want to do with it. (Sorry for Cussing;))

Bully seems to me like it is perfectly harmless. Playing the role of an ex-bullied kid who gets back at his tormentors by pulling pranks, is a walk in the park compared to the content that GTA has, and I'm not against GTA either, in fact I own the GTA's, from GTAIII - San Andreas for my PC.

Games will be games, Just like Kids will be Kids. The object of games (Most of them) is to play in a fantasy world and do things you otherwise would not be able to do in real life.

They want reality, they want the source of violence, Jack, his bigheaded and liberal buddies should spend time in the ghettos of big cities, and visit and experience the houses where children are abused, see how detrimental, and devastating being abused is, and take the study of abused children, and compare that to the kids that went on rampages at schools.

He would see by far that being abused by far has much more of an impact on mentality, hatred and anger, than any Video game produced up until now and for the next hundred years. That most of those children, if not all, that went on shooting sprees at schools, came from an abusive home with abusive parents.

Is it me or does anyone fear our future in the usa is becoming more like or is going to become like the 1995 movie "Demolition Man"?:rolleyes:

Just my 2 Cents;)


freedom of speech is only implied. its only valid if it doesnt hurt anyone or incite violence or law-breaking. which is what jacks argument was trying to prove, that it was harmful, therefor the game wouldnt be protected under freedom of speech. but obviously he failed, so sometime in the future another game will pop up and make his panties go up in a bunch, and we will have to go through this neverending cycle of jack thompson all over again. and jack has always struck me as a conservitive not a liberal. christian conservitive to be accurate actually. i think alot of his passion stems from that. and school shootings are not something that have just been born from the arrival of video games. there were several school shootings i remember reading about in one of my history textbooks that were dated back in the 1800's, which is waaaaaay before the technology we have today was available.

they need to make fun of thompson on the next season of south park hehehe

[Xtreme2damax]

Thanks jon for clearing that up, I forgot that part "As long as it's not Harmful or Offending"

Now that I think of it, you're right Jack Thompson is a Christian Conservative.

But still it's My Life, My Rules, I'll do what I want to do (As Long as I don't break the law).

I don't need the government making decisions for me, I'm old enough to make my own decisions. Just cause some Lunatics decide to go on shooting rampages, or defy the law, why should all of us suffer, who are mature and sane enough to handle the material?

I don't like seeing people like Jack Thompson Imposing his wil on everyone, just because some people make bad decisions.

It should be the actual problems Jack thompson should fight, and not video games. At least if he focuses on the actual problems at hand, he'll actually be getting somewhere, Solving them, and gain more approvel by the citizens.

Well gotta get off the net now, I'll continue later with this discussion;)

[jonc2006]

well the confusing thing about him is that he is always saying he wants these games to be stopped from getting into the hands of children, however he always cites the 2 guys from columbine who were seniors, 18 or 19 i think. i can never tell what age group he is constantly referring to because of this. there is a big difference from children (12 and below) to teenagers (13 - 19) in the behavior. almost all the school shootings he talks about involved teenagers, not children. so i dont know what he is doing saying the games can get into the hands of children if he is constantly citing crimes committed by teenagers. i mean, the whole thing with not letting children, assuming he actually is talking about children, get a hold of violent games is something i can agree with. if you wouldnt take your child to an R rated movie i doubt its a good idea to let them play a game intended for mature audiences. so i agree with jack in the part that children shouldnt be sold these games, but again, its never really children we see on the news, its kids in highschool that are doing this for the most part so imo jack is targeting the wrong age group. i remember reading my local newspaper about a guy who was running for a seat in the house, he said that he wanted to see studies done on the effects of media and childrens behavior, however the difference between this guy and thompson is that he said he would accept whatever results came from the studies. meaning that if there was no direct link, he would accept it. thompson needs to catch this type of attitude because right now to me he is acting like a little baby because things didnt go his way. thompson needs to learn that he isnt always right.

either way, jack thompson has been officially F-ED in the A with a big rubber D

[Player-X]

Jack Thompson Ruling! (http://www.destructoid.com/jack-thompson-ruling)
While Niero is at the courthouse, he’s asked me to blog this for you, so that we can get the information out as soon as humanly possible.
At 1:51, Niero called, saying that the judge will not prohibit the the sale of Bully. In the time that he played the game, the judge said that he did not see anything so violent that would require the game to be held from being shipped. The judge and Take Two employee used a cheat code in order to skip around in the game.
According to Niero, the courthouse got pretty heated, and at one point, the judge had to ask Mr. Thompson to sit down. Also, Mr. Thompson silenced his “expert witness” when he was going to say something.
That’s the immediate answer. Keep refreshing for updates.


Good news, another loss for him.

[jonc2006]

hehe we posted the same article. you must be able to read peoples minds through their computer.

[GaveUpTomorrow]

I have nothing against this game whatsoever, heck, none of us even know exactly what happens in the game yet, but I can at least speculate. And my guess, is that after it releases, you'll see a bunch of news being released about kids who get into serious fights at school, and then put the blame on this game. It won't be the games fault though, it's just going to be stupid kids trying to pawn off their troubles on an easy out. Hopefully this doesn't happen, but it is going to be SO annoying if these kinds of articles would come out like they did with GTA :p

[jonc2006]

“Thompson objected to Take-Two employees showing the game on the basis that they could have avoided the game’s more violent content.”

that has got to be the stupidest accusation i have heard in the past 10 years. right jack, they would intentionally decive a JUDGE considering the repercussions of him finding out what they did the minute he finds out bully is not what they showed him. that judge has the power to crush take2 in his hand if he wanted to i highly doubt that they would bull**** with him considering how much media attention this game has gotten and how easy it would be to prove if take2 did something like that. hang it up jack its OVER. either take it like a man or take it like a whiney little *****.