# Jack Thompson accuses Japanese video games creators of causing "Pearl Harbor 2" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 1, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966 "2005-11-01T20:37:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/21 "2005-11-03T03:23:35Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I believe they’re Scottish, actually. _The Sims_ was made by Americans, though. Damn. Those scots are more violent then I thought…wait a minute…nevermind. Well, Serious Sam, which has one of the Highest death tolls in any video game I’ve seen is made in Croatia, so I guess I shouldn’t be suprised. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2005, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/22 "2005-11-03T07:05:12Z")
> [@Page Fault](#): > > Isn’t _Grand Theft Auto_ made by an American company? > > For that matter, isn’t _The Sims_ made by an American company, too? You’re missing the point. If Sony hadn’t allowed Rockstar and EA to push their filth on PlayStation 2 consoles, our innocent children would never have been tainted by evil. What’s that you say? Both these games are also available on XBox and PC? Clearly we need to sue Microsoft as well. Also Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, HP, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Intel, AMD, nVidia, ATI, Creative Labs, PNY, Kingston, Crucial, Logitech, Matrox, Western Digital, Panasonic, Linksys, Netgear, Cisco, and any other company whose products might be used to carry even a single bit of data from a murder and/or sex simulator. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/23 "2005-11-04T01:16:29Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > Whoa. Not only have the Japanese developed a direct neural interface, but it works so well that they have “no problem whatsoever” dumping things into people’s brains. I see you missed my [remote-control people](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=341534) thread. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/24 "2005-11-04T08:02:36Z")
I’ve railed against the baffling notoriety of Paris Hilton more than a few times. My objections to this moron being in the news are the same. Video game bashing? Welcome to **1992** , pal. And that’s before the blogosphere arrived, prompty making all forms of incoherent ranting a been there-done that deal. Go burn reenact Tommy Vercetti shooting up a mall or something before you start expecting us to give a damn. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/25 "2005-11-04T08:35:10Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I believe they’re Scottish, actually. _The Sims_ was made by Americans, though. I thought Rockstar was a Canadian company. Damn, I wish I remember where I saw that. Newsweek, I think. Well, no important. And I swear on my dogs I’ve never heard of Thompson before. Going back to read the link. If he gets this worked up over violence in a game, wait until his review of [Bully](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4135988.stm). From the sound of it in this thread, it should give him a few year’s of material. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/26 "2005-11-04T11:42:33Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > Video game bashing? Welcome to **1992** , pal. 1992? 1982, it was, when video arcades {remember those?} were bringing about the Death Of Western Civilisation: kids were wagging school! spending their pocket money! stealing from their Mum’s purses! beating up other children for _their_ pocket money! And all to feed their insatiable cravings for these Diabolical Engines! Editorials were written. Petitions were signed. Laws were proposed. Action Would Be Taken. And yet, Western Civilisation, or at least this small corner of it, endured. {And I got _really_ good at Gyruss} ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/27 "2005-11-04T12:56:36Z")
> [@VCO3](#): > > If you’ve been following the Jack Thompson story, you’ve known that it was only going to be a matter of time before he really blew his lid. Thompson is essentially the Joseph McCarthy of video game violence - he sees it everywhere, including in innocuous games like _The Sims_ (not to mention _Grand Theft Auto_!). This is so unfair to Senator Joe McC. At least there was Communist infiltration in the Federal Gov’t. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/28 "2005-11-04T14:06:30Z")
Actually, according to the internal files of the KGB, by the time Tailgunner Joe was aiming… there weren’t. I will repeat, this is the man who got Public Enemy cited for obscenity, the same guy who caused the fuss over Cop Killer the heavy metal song. (Amusing because everyone who called it rap clearly hadn’t heard it) and the guy who went batshit over Janet Reno when he ran against her. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/29 "2005-11-04T16:42:18Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > I thought Rockstar was a Canadian company. Damn, I wish I remember where I saw that. Newsweek, I think. Well, no important. According to their [website](http://www.rockstarnorth.com/#), they’re based out of Edinburgh. > [@](#): > > And I swear on my dogs I’ve never heard of Thompson before. Going back to read the link. If he gets this worked up over violence in a game, wait until his review of [Bully](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4135988.stm). From the sound of it in this thread, it should give him a few year’s of material. He has. There’s a lengthy radio interview [here](http://www.chatterboxgameshow.com/jack.htm) where he babbles on about it for about eighty minutes. I only made it through half the show because the interviewer was so damned incompetent at rebutting any of Jack’s points. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/30 "2005-11-04T20:32:49Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > 1992? 1982, it was, when video arcades {remember those?} were bringing about the Death Of Western Civilisation: kids were wagging school! spending their pocket money! stealing from their Mum’s purses! beating up other children for _their_ pocket money! And all to feed their insatiable cravings for these Diabolical Engines! [**Games That Play People,**](http://www.electric-escape.net/node/499) _Time_ magazine, January 1982: "From what vast aquifer of cash does this astonishing gush of money flow? From the lunch money of schoolchildren, say angry parents who are determined, so to speak, to give video games no quarter. The town fathers of Irvington, N.Y. (pop. 6,000), rose up in wrath last July and passed an ordinance designed ‘to protect the adolescents of the village against the evils associated with gambling’ (though video games offer no cash payoff and indeed almost never click out a single free game); they limited each establishment to three machines. … “In the Philippines, outcries against ‘the ravages of a destructive social enemy, the electrical bandit,’ as one infuriated citizens’ group called the video games, reached such a level of indignation that President Ferdinand Marcos banned the machines in November and gave owners two weeks to smash them. The Catholic Women’s League of Caloocan City applauded the ban, asserting darkly that the games had lured young men into beer houses, where they saw burlesque dancers. A wealthy businessman was reduced to public despair because the games had caused the ruin of one of his children, a 17-year-old son whose infatuation with gadgets was so complete, he refused to attend school or even see his friends. The distracted father thinks of sending the boy to school in the U.S., but has doubts about it, because ‘I fear the video games will catch up with him there.’ He says that ‘when it finally dawned on me what had hit me, my first impulse was to put up a video-machine parlor and let my son manage what he enjoys doing most. But then my wife prevailed on me, begging me not to, saying that if I went ahead with my plan, how many more young boys and girls would be ruined?’” ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/31 "2005-11-04T21:10:16Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > The Catholic Women’s League of Caloocan City applauded the ban, asserting darkly that the games had lured young men into beer houses, where they saw burlesque dancers. Man, some kids had all the luck. Beer and tits with their Space Invaders? All we got was a bag of chips and a lukewarm Coke. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/32 "2005-11-09T04:44:52Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Heh. Actually, I think Seargent Colon would be more apt. “We’ll just stand over here, keepin’ an eye on this video game, ‘case it decides to jump up and start murderin’ people. Can’t be too safe with these new-fangled video game, you know.” Yes, but on Discworld, that would only be a reasonable precaution! (I can’t see Colon volunteering to do it, though!) ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/33 "2005-11-09T12:43:54Z")
Barbarian Invaders goes back to the first three or four books in the series, by the way. Predating Hex. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/34 "2005-11-09T18:38:08Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > I wouldn’t be surprised if the Japanese did make a game called “Pearl Harbor 2”. > > Games about heroic Americans slaughtering WWII era Japanese soldiers are really popular right now. Even in Japan. Which is kinda weird. Really? I haven’t seen any. Do you know some of the titles? ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/35 "2005-11-09T18:46:35Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > According to their [website](http://www.rockstarnorth.com/#), they’re based out of Edinburgh. Rockstar North is based in Scotland. Rockstar Games is based in New York, but has a Vancouver studio. Both companies are owned by Take Two Interactive, also based in New York. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/36 "2005-11-10T04:22:43Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > Rockstar North is based in Scotland. Before it was purchased by Rockstar Games, the company was kown as DMA Designs (which literally stood for Doesn’t Mean Anything). David Jones, who designed the original _Grand Theft Auto_ while still at DMA/Rockstar North (he later left the company), also developed the classic puzzle game _Lemmings_. (Source: _High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games_, Rusel DeMaria and Johnny L. Wilson, McGraw-Hill/Osbourne, 2004.) ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/37 "2005-11-15T17:00:05Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > Really? I haven’t seen any. Do you know some of the titles? _Battlefield 1942_ and _Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault_ are two that I know of which are specifically set in the WW2 Pacific theater. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/38 "2005-11-15T18:27:12Z")
Did anyone happen to see the episode of the lame cop drama _Killer Instinct_ that aired Saturday? Its premise was Jack Thompson lunacy presented matter-of-factly, with no hint of irony: An obsessed “Not exactly GTA” player, banned from the game server for uploading a “not exactly Hot Coffee” patch, takes his revenge by acting out scenes from the game in real life, leading up to a “10,000 point” cop killing attempt. During the course of the investigation, they had the stereotypical self-righteous detective confronting the amoral but legally untouchable bad guy (the game developer) scene, in which they actually used the phrase “murder simulator.” Straight faces all around. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/39 "2005-11-15T19:04:21Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Its premise was Jack Thompson lunacy presented matter-of-factly, with no hint of irony: An obsessed “Not exactly GTA” player, banned from the game server for uploading a “not exactly Hot Coffee” patch, takes his revenge by acting out scenes from the game in real life, leading up to a “10,000 point” cop killing attempt. Ripped from the [del]headlines![/del] asses of people who watched the TV news for 15 seconds one time. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966/40 "2005-11-15T23:37:43Z")
And, just to prove there is nothing new under the sun, from 1993 we have [**Arcade**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106302/), which I believe was based on a early 80’s novel: “The game wants to play with you”. {The tagline from the book was “They had nothing to lose but their minds.”} [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-thompson-accuses-japanese-video-games-creators-of-causing-pearl-harbor-2/328966.md?page=1)