Right now, I should be enjoying 25 to life. Not that I'm looking forward to prison time, but I was eagerly awaiting the Oct. 1 release of the new shoot-'em-up video game "25 to Life." Now I have to wait until some time in 2006, and while the makers at Eidos claim it was pushed back to make some improvements, I know it was because of a lawyer named Jack Thompson.
Thompson made the news once again as an avid anti-gamer when he filed a civil suit against Rockstar Games, the Sony Corporation of America, Wal-Mart and Gamestop on behalf of the three police officers gun downed by self-proclaimed game addict Devin Moore.
In 2003, Moore killed three officers who brought him in for questioning. Once arrested, he said, "Life is like a video game; you have to die sometime," and thereafter professed his love for the PS2 classic "Grand Theft Auto III: Vice City."
Thompson, insisting such games are nothing but "murder simulators," is asking a meager $600 million from the companies that made and distributed the game. And while his clients have lost loved ones in unimaginably dire circumstances, Thompson is just looking to gain publicity and a slice of gaming revenues.
Thompson is arbitrarily suing Moore's parents as well, but he knows who has the deep pockets in this case. Thompson's Web site, stopkill.com, reads half accident-lawyer diatribe and half self-deifying nonsense with Thompson lauded as some sort of modern-day Nostradamus of youth gun violence.
Funny how he only "predicted" the high-profile cases and only after the fact.
But once again, the finger is pointing in the wrong direction. Too many people -- Thompson included -- are still thinking that video games are only for children, therefore violent video games are inappropriate.
Games encompass anything from learning math to razing small villages -- there is no set age range. That's why, just as with movies, there is a rating system, and no one under the appropriate age can buy a game with a Mature rating, such as "GTA III" or "25 to Life."
And the people who work at game places get a kick out of telling kids they can't buy a game. And while that may indicate an inferiority complex, it's a good thing.
So where are kids getting these games?
You have to be 18 to buy from eBay, and I haven't noticed any gamepushers lurking in back alleys with trench coats full of violent video games.
If a kid is playing a Mature-rated game, you can surely trace it back to an irresponsible parent. Of course, parents are the ones watching television, buying papers and subscribing to magazines, so news stories about violent behavior are more inclined to indict games rather than their core customer base.
Rule one in business is that you don't bite the hand that feeds you, and those blaming games for violence in America's youth haven't forgotten that.
Even Moore's parents, despite Moore being abused as a child, have remained firmly in the background. In the August 2005 Reader's Digest article on the case, they remained unnamed, unindicted and victims themselves of a "nasty split."
Sure, the power of suggestion is alive and well in games. I have to admit, after playing "Mario World," I have the crazy urge to eat mushrooms. Play "GTA" long enough and you size up actual vehicles for how cool they'd be to drive off a bridge.
Yet somehow, in our adult minds, we are able to keep from beating people to death and stealing ambulances.
If violent games were truly that suggestive, ASU would have shootings every day solely from the amount of "Halo" fanatics we proudly sport.
Indeed, children -- even young adults such as Moore -- have underdeveloped senses of right and wrong, and some games are inappropriate for them. But parents need to stop claiming their children are addicted to these video games as if they have no power over their children. Maybe parents should stop buying the games and spend some time with their kids. Or, just don't have children. For God's sake, it's not mandatory.
The point being, lawyers will never point the collective finger at parents because parents don't have enough money. And the media is not going to piss off their biggest demographic.
Certainly, the families of the murdered police officers deserve a sense of justice, and maybe Moore receiving the death sentence late last month will give them that. But it will not come by trying to blame video games for crime, nor with game developers cutting guys like Thompson a $600 million check.
Darren Todd is an English literature graduate student. Send game tips and hate mail to lawrence.todd@asu.edu.
