Thompson sent his son on personal sting operation against Best Buy

[mailman187666]

so what happens when kids go to flea markets and buy M rated games. Are they going to sue the random guy cleaning out his basement, attic, or moving sale? You will always have people that will sell people M rated games to kids. Its not the stores fault, its the employees who don't care.

[Eggman]

I think the blame can only be put on the individual stores, because some people will choose to card and some won't. I have gotten into R rated movies as a minor without being carded, and other times I was denied entrance. I have bought M rated games as a minor, but others times I was carded. I don't think any rating systems can be called a "fraud" because it all comes down to the individual cashier and whether they care enough to card the consumer.

[PentiumMMX]

Why doesn't Best Buy have a system like Walmart or Target? When you ring up a "R" rated movie or "M" rated game, the register automatically asks the cashier to enter a birth date. Seems to solve the problem (for the most part).

What's weird is that my syster got carded for buying Halo at Best Buy a few months ago. I was standing at the right angle that I saw a message pop up on the screen, so they have someting like that in place (Either that, or it was just that store)

[evil_genius]

I don't know a whole lot about this guy or his agreement with Take Two or 2k for that matter, so I'm not speaking to this guys ethics. But I gotta say I agree with him, violent games should not be sold to kids that are not old enough to buy them. That is the law and it should be followed. Yeah it is the parents responsibility to know what their kids watches or does but when I was 10 I had an Eazy E tape that my parents did not knnow about. And I didn't go out and kill people because of it. My point is that it is easy to hide shit from your parents when you are a kid. It is just as much the stores responsibility to not sell M rated games to underage kids.

[noname11]

what seems to be at stake is money. he wants the public to believe the game companies push games on kids like cigarettes, and allow easy access to them. he wants to sue them like the tobacco companies got sued. I dont think cigarettes and violent games are equatable in the public's mind ... but this guy may succeed if some other attention grabbing tragedy hits the scene [columbine anyone?]


i sure hope he doesn't succeed in an election year. do we really need more distractions from the real problems in our society?

[Wolfrider31]

I never knew that the game industry was responsible for what retailers do. Curiouser and curiouser.

Actually I was ID'd when I picked up Vice City Stories for my PSP at Wal-Mart. I gave the clerk kind of a shocked look and he seemed really apologetic and said, "Sorry, I HAVE to ask." Of course my reply was, "No that's fine. I'm glad retailers are finally taking the ESRB seriously now."

His response? "You know, you're the first person to have not yelled at me for asking for ID."

[koster]

Jack Thompson told his son to buy the game - isn't that giving him permission (implied, if not explicit) to buy it?

Best Buy should get a restraining order against Jack Thompson and his family, barring them from the premises of all Best Buy stores. Problem solved!

[Pantechnicon]

Jack doesn't strike me as being the most objective of researchers. Somehow I can imagine him driving his kid to seven or eight Best Buys all over town before finding one - one - that failed to do an age check, thereby empowering Jack to run his battle flag up the pole again.

It's a cheap trick, and the only real question in my mind is whether Jack can score some national press recognition lovin` out of the incident or whether his 15 minutes (+ 3) have been finally used up.

[8-bitNesMan]

And what's more, It obviously ISN'T sold by "Take two" But 2k!

I think he is as big of a douchebag as the rest of you do, but 2k games is a wholly owned subsidiary of Take Two Interactive. His stance and tactics are still ridiculous though. The system is there and it's a good one. If a clerk in a convenience store slips up and sells a six-pack of beer to a high school kid and said kid then proceeds to go out and kill someone in an auto accident, is that Budweiser's fault? Hell no! The kid and the clerk made bad PERSONAL choices that had consequences. That's the problem with attention whores like Thompson. There's money and face time with the media to be made on attacking large successful companies. So to hell with personal responsibility, let's get our ugly self serving mugs on TV and go after them deep pockets! Please Jack don't go away angry... JUST GO AWAY!!