Bully vs. Jack Thompson vs. The World

Rockstar's Bully is finally out in North America this week, but you can bet that ill-famed lawyer Jack Thompson won't be abandoning his anti-game crusade just yet, despite having taken a serious beating in court a few days ago. As always, he was picking on Take-Two / Rockstar, and more specifically on their newly released PlayStation 2 action game Bully (also known as Canis Canem Edit in Europe, where it's set to launch on October 27).

Thompson must have been stupefied by the ESRB's decision to rate the game as "T" for Teen last month, since this is the very same game that he's been flaming for what seems like years already (without ever actually seeing it in action, of course). Bully getting the Teen rating was in fact a surprise for many of us, so it's no wonder really that Thompson took his stupefaction one step further.

Even before the ESRB's rating was made official, Thompshon issued an aberrant request to both retail chain Wal-Mart and publisher Take-Two to provide him with an advance copy of Bully. At that time (back in August), he expressed his wish to have "an independent third party" play the game and decide if it should be considered "a public nuisance" within the state of Florida.

Surprisingly enough, he was granted his wish by a Forida court last week, as publisher Take-Two was ordered to provide Thompson with a copy of Bully. But his joy was short-lived, however. Just two days later, that same court (and in fact that same judge Gordon Freeman Ronald Friedman) rejected his request for banning the sale of Bully in the state of Florida. The decision came after the judge was shown approximately two hours of Bully's content - which was more than enough for the judge to conclude that the controversial game was not worth banning.

Thompson's reaction? As usual, un-diplomatic (to say the least). Here are some of the things he wrote to judge Friedman after his defeat:

"You assured us, in your courtroom two days ago, that you would view the playing of Bully to its conclusion. That is what you promised on the record. You did not keep your promise. (...)

What you conducted in your chambers, Judge, was the equivalent of Iran leading UN weapons inspectors around the country taking them to places where the illegal activity was not occurring. (...)

You said after being shown what Take-Two wanted you to see that "I've seen worse." Judge, that is not the issue. The issue is (...) (ed. - blah blah nonsense)

How dare you, Judge, promise a hearing today and then prevent that hearing from occurring. How dare you, Judge, petulantly order the production of the game after it is released on Tuesday morning. I didn't even ask for that. You did that out of spite, and you were smiling when you did that. You really enjoyed that one, didn't you, Judge?"

LOL! I mean seriously, who woulnd't have enjoyed that?

So the game is out, and I bet this will all turn out to be too much fuss over nothing (it's no Grand Theft Auto, that I can bet my violent games collection on!). Still, a few opposing ignorants remain even in Europe, where several electronics retailers are refusing to stock Bully Canis Canem Edit in their retail and online stores - saying they feel "this game is not appropriate for Currys' family-friendly image". Nevermind the fact that they already sell 18-rated titles from a variety of publishers! Hypocrisy at its finest.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)