Achievement Unlocked 05.03.08: GTA - Grandstanding Thompson Again

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 05.03.2008

With the release of the latest, and some say greatest, Grand Theft Auto title comes another attack by Jack Thompson. Is anyone surprised?



It's been only a few days since Tuesday, but I've run hundreds of miles and driven thousands more. I've been shot at and shot more than a few bullets of my own - some in return, some to provoke, and some just because I felt like it.

I've killed people with shotguns, pistols, and assault rifles. I've even run over one or two when I couldn't find the rocket launcher. I've beaten a man to death with my bare hands, and pushed a woman in front of a train - just to see if I could.

I've crashed cars and trucks of every make and model - some more than once. I've ridden bikes faster than the manufacturers ever imagined they'd go, and had a spectacular crash or two because I thought they could go faster.

Oh, and I've played some Grand Theft Auto IV as well. You know, to relax. What a game...



I said I'd talk Achievements this week and we'll get to that, but first let's talk about Jack Thompson again for a minute. You see, with the release of GTA IV, Wacko Jacko...

OK, I know at this point that some of you are saying "Hey, that's Michael Jackson's nickname!" but let's be realistic about this. Jackson hasn't done anything all that weird in a long time so he's forfeited the name. If he turns up next week wearing a dress and dangling a baby over a balcony, we can talk about restoring his claim.

Anyway, Thompson's back in action - and by 'action' I mean trying to cash in on the popularity of a Mature-rated title by claiming it's targeted towards children who can't even legally buy it.

Put it that way and it kind of makes his whole crusade seem ridiculous, doesn't it?

Don't get me wrong, I fully support what Thompson used to talk about - keeping Mature-rated titles out of the hands of children. I also support keeping booze and porn away from toddlers and I don't think infants should drive or have sex - protected or otherwise.

Where I diverge from Thompson - and where he departs rather violently from a little thing we like to call 'reality' - is that I, and others like me, don't protest vehemently against something being done when it's not being done. I'd also like to think that I'd target the right parties, should it come to that.

Thompson's going after Take Two and Strauss Zelnik - all because Thompson is sure that a 15- or 16-year-old could pick up Grand Theft Auto IV at a Best Buy or similar store.

Seems like a disconnect there somewhere, doesn't it? The game has been rated by the ESRB, a board voluntarily set up by the games industry to provide accurate ratings on game content, and each and every copy is clearly labeled as an M-rated title. Trying to buy it at any modern store will bring up an age-check notification on the clerk's screen - but we're getting ahead of ourselves here.

The point is that the industry, including Take Two, has done their due diligence. They've created a set of standards for a fair rating system, and every game released to consoles undergoes the ESRB rating process. Every game is clearly marked - and if it's sold into the hands of a minor, that's not the fault of the industry.

Not the games industry, at any rate. If you want to talk about the system failing, Mr. Thompson, talk to and about the retail industry. File frivolous lawsuits against Best Buy, or get another lawyer to do that, since the courts will no longer hear your submissions. Perhaps try sending a nasty letter to the mother of Best Buy's CEO instead.

There are people who say gamers should ignore Jack Thompson - that we're only adding fuel to the fire by attacking him. They're partly right, of course.

We can't simply attack him. The people who vandalized his house and torment him with phone calls and e-mail spam - that's not helping the situation at all. That lends support to his claims that all gamers act like that - though Thompson is surely aware that this claim is no more accurate than any other he's made.

By the same token, however, we can't simply ignore him. He won't go away - he has really nothing else left. His vendetta against gaming isn't fueled by anger or a sense of 'doing what's right' at all - it's greed. He makes his living off the appearances he makes as an 'expert' decrying video games, and there's no way he'll let that Golden Goose stop laying eggs any time soon.

Thompson needs to be discredited, his wild claims opposed and disproved by statistics and studies - those facts delivered by calm, well-spoken video-game-loving advocates that give the media someone else to go to when they need a 10 second soundbite for the news.

Surprisingly enough, one such advocate might well be Adam Sessler. Best known for his work on G4, Sessler, who often appears to have had just a bit too much sugar with his Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs in the morning, was on NPR recently, talking about Grand Theft Auto IV when Jack Thompson phoned in. You can hear the conversation here, via the Listen Now link under the headline.

In this debate, unlike a disastrous earlier meeting between the two, Sessler is calm and debates the points raised intelligently. Thompson, on the other hand, flounders desperately trying to get the host of the show to bite on a talking point - any talking point. He deliberately uses language designed to inspire follow-up questions, even alleging that the games industry is "mentally molesting minors for money..." at one point.

Thompson leaps from point to point, going so far as to claim he's working with police and other authorities to try have Take Two and Strauss Zelnick indicted, as well as to stop sales of Grand Theft Auto IV before he's shut down by the host with a curt "Yup, you're done." after Thompson refuses to back up anything he's claimed.

We need more gamers in the media, ones using well-spoken defenses against the tired old attacks that Thompson uses and holding up statistics and facts against Thompson's ridiculous claims. A few more embarrassments in the media and hopefully Thompson will find his livelihood drying up.

And that'd be an Achievement.

Speaking of Achievements, Grand Theft Auto IV's list is out so let's take a quick look at it - and, as I promised last week, no spoilers.

The game has 50 Achievements and there's good news for offline gamers. Though the title has an all-new multiplayer mode, Rockstar didn't focus to heavily on the online Achievements - only 10 Achievements (140 GamerScore) are locked into online play.

Outside of those online Achievements, GTA's set has 13 that I'd classify as storyline-based, where you get them simply by advancing the plot. There are another 13-15 that are based on completion of objectives - shooting every pigeon in the city or doing all the delivery jobs, for example.

Achievements that rely on skill (or perhaps luck in some cases) make up the remainder of the list. There's a wide range of tasks to complete here, like getting three strikes in a row while bowling, having your car roll five times from a single crash, or surviving for five minutes with a six-star wanted level.

The top Achievement is, without a doubt, Warm Coffee. It just goes to show that, while Rockstar doesn't appreciate other companies taking shots at them, they don't mind taking some at themselves.

While I'm kind of looking forward to Metal Gear Solid 4, the game's storyline has become kind of a turn-off for me in recent releases and the online play - based on my experiences in the beta - isn't going to provide me with much in the way of longevity, so it looks like my next real obsession will be Too Human.

Silicon Knights is a developer I trust to deliver a good game - even if I feel I have to say "eventually" whenever using that particular turn of phrase - and Too Human looks to be a great example of that.

The game is really starting to get out of that 'E3 disaster' funk, with the latest media showcasing a more and more polished title. If it was just a single player adventure game, that might be enough to lure me in - but that's not going to be obsession-level territory.

What ups the ante is the four-player co-op component, with the Diablo-esque armor and weapon sets to gather. That combination rings my bell in a big way. Expect to see me talking more about Too Human as it gets closer to release.

I'm out of here for another week - back to Liberty City. Thanks to Jeff T. for the header image tagline this week. If you submitted one that wasn't selected, feel free to submit it again for next week's round - just e-mail me suggestions via the link at the bottom.