Thompson’s “murder simulator” tag is “laughably incorrect”, says expert

February 18th, 2008 @ 06:26

Lord. Anti-games protestor Jack Thompson can’t help himself. Not content with launching ostensibly insane claims about last week’s North Illinois University shootings, he’s now decided to ‘join in’ with the Destructoid community’s discussion about his involvement with the situation.

“We need to get you sociopathics kiddies off these murder simulators and back to doing your homework,” he said.

You’re not doing yourself any favours, Jack.

In response to Thompson’s claims that games such as Grand Theft Auto are “murder simulators,” Robert Gauss, a simulator expert that’s worked with the US military, said, “How well does GTA simulate murder? Just even a cursory look can see how GTA fails this test: Everything is presented via a 3rd person view… weapons auto-load and auto-aim… computer people mostly walk and drive around aimlessly and helplessly… computer people don’t… act in a realistic manner when attacked… bodies disappear and respawn — hardly like murder if they keep coming back to life.

Our “gang games” mentioned above do not even represent murder, but rather a cartoony environment… It’s not just unfair to call Grand Theft Auto a ‘murder simulator,’ it is laughably incorrect.”

You keep setting them up, Jack. Common sense will keep knocking them down.

Posted in: Jack Thompson, Violence in games
Tags: grand theft auto, gta, Robert Gauss

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