We haven't seen the last of Jack Thompson...

Disbarrment is NOT effective nation wide, but it is a fairly stiff barrier to cross to be accepted to the bar in another state. Each state is responsible for setting the standards for who they will allow to practice law in their state.

A better question is, how the hell did such a law even get to the governor to be vetoed?

Jack Thompson created it a few years back, before he was disbarred. When will the moral crusaders learn that they do NOT have the right to tell us what we can and cannot play?!

When everyone is dead and hell has frozen over.

Well, we can say when Jack Thompson is dead, for starters...

Being disbarred prevents you from practicing law, not from making it...

That fucktard can write laws with idiot legislators any time he finds one stupid enough to work with him.  He can be disbarred in all fifty states and that will still be the case.

Also, most of the religious right would like that asshat to go fuck himself, even if they're too religious to say so.  He's a fringe lunatic.  Even most of the moral crusaders probably wish he'd disappear, it doesn't help your anti-porn cause when people start railing against Harry Potter because it's filled with evil witchcraft!

I hate Jack Thompson too, but, well the retailers shouldn't be selling 18 game to minors

I don't see why not. Of the 5 or so "mature" rated games I have, there is really nothing any more mature about them than any of my other games. Most of them get rated "mature" due to having "dirty" language, "drug use," as well as blood and gore. As far as language goes, I challenge you to walk around a high school. I can gaurentee you will hear much worse than anything you may hear in a game. By drug use, they usually mean the medkits which are injectables rather than abstract medkit shaped. Blood and gore really isn't a mature topic either. I am sure everyone has seen what we look like on the inside on House MD, ER, CSI, or just about any other TV show relating to medical or criminal fields. Most mature games are suitable for just about anyone who is at least around 12-13 years old, just as the shows depicting these various elements are.

Well said, alway.

The way games are rated is another topic altogether, but at face value, that law makes sense (of course depending on what 'severe punishment' exactly means). I played Mortal Kombat 2 as a kid and survived, but kids these days...

[quote]railing against Harry Potter because it's filled with evil witchcraft![quote]

Never understood the controversy behind that. To me, they books weren't "evil", they were mediocre fantasy.

As a side note, I've heard/read some monumentally stupid, paranoid crusader garbage. I mean the stuff where the douchebag ranting doesn't make ONE valid point, they just take things completely out of context and make crap up.

Woah. Bit of a rant there, huh?

I agree with Alway. You can't go like 5 min through my school without hearign someone swear at something or someone. I mean like the TV shows like CSI and House seem to me to be more graphic then "M" Games. Like right now I am going through Fallout 3 againand like You can Dismember people and shoot their limbs off and it's rated M.

I ask you to find me one teenager gamer who is under the 17 or 18 ration who does not own or has not played a M game. Exceptions are those people who only play games like once in a blue moon like when they go to their friends across the country.

Heck I have played T games when i was like 6 or 7 and M games since i was like 10 or 11

You're pretty lucky. My parents were the meaning of "ratings freaks". I had to wait until whatever age the rating said.   I really dont see the reason why parents have to act this way, as it only fuels the movements of the moral crusaders. If the would watch the game for five minutes, they would find it okay.

It's irrelevant how graphic the games are.  If I wanted to go buy hardcore porn when I was twelve, it was none of the government's business.  My parents were the ones responsible for my limitations, not a store clerk.  But, in the great nanny state of America...

Nanny state? Take a look at Singapore.

I'm under the M rating and never played an M game!

But really, it's idiodic to make a law punishing stores for selling M games to minors. It really should be the parent's decision of what their children play. Though it might not be the best idea to let a toddler play Mankiller or something.

Hehe, the funniest thing I can remember recently was an 8 year old kid playing Left 4 Dead (M rated) online. He said it was his favorite game!

This Thompson guy really isn't going to quit. It's not like keeping minors from buying the games will keep the games out of their hands; I was playing HaloCE at age 7( [those of you who don't no halo that well probably won't get it]).

You know what all this moral crusading reminds me of? Kyle's Mom from South Park. She gets into a moral outrage about something and rather than doing the most rational thing, talking to Kyle about it, she goes on some massive quest to vanquish the "evil" company, industry ect... that caused the outrage in the first place. Meanwhile Kyle and his friends and just looking at all this going on and saying WTF. So in conclusion WTF.

I wish I could remember enough about an old Bill Maher rant about afternoon talks shows and 'security moms' to find a YouTube clip. It was something about our national delusion that we could somehow make everything safe. I'm old enough to remember when pools at apartment complexes had diving boards...

Benjamin Franklin had much to say on the issue... There are various quotes from him such as

He who is willing to trade freedom for safety deserves neither.

I guess some people realize that the kids can't just walk in and buy the game...

Whenever there's an M rated game I want, I give my mom the money for it and I don't even have to go with her. Most stores require an ID to buy a game.

Lucky you.  I'm 17, and my mom still won't let me get M rated games.  My dad is on my side and says they should decide whether or not I can get a game based on whyit's rated M (so, I could get a violent game, but not a real sexy game), but my mom can't seem to see anything but the big "M"

Very good reference. And an awesome song came out of all that.

[sarcasm]Well, you have to remember that next year you get the magical brain/personality upgrade that instantly and fully moves you from the "can't handle this" to the "can handle this" part of humanity. Also, it is important to know that every person and every game is identical to all others, in all respects.[/sarcasm]

Yeah, arbitrary age limits are arbitrary.

Fortunately my parents were more of the opinion that both people and games should be judged by their indivual maturity/merits. (Then again, at the time I was mostly interested in turn-based strategy games, so I doubt they felt a great need for concern. )

Just tell her the M stands for Mature. Then ask her flat out if she thinks you are mature.