BioShock Shocks Thompson
Everybody’s favorite madman is at it again, this time attacking another of Take Two’s offering: BioShock. The game – which has been released to retail today – has attracted attention from Jack Thompson because of its TV ads which were shown off during a teen-heavy television program.
Take-Two… is aggressively marketing its newest Mature-rated video game to kids less than 17 years of age… On this Friday’s night’s 8 pm Eastern time airing of WWE’s wrestling program “Smackdown,” there were repeated ads for Take-Two/Rockstar Game’s Mature-rated, incredibly violent BioShock…
A check of the demographics of the audience of that program reveals that teens under 17 years of age watch that program in huge numbers…
Remarkably, the video game industry is running ads for games like BioShock on teen-intensive television programs while at the same time its industry-captured “watchdog,” the ESRB, is running a self-congratulatory ad campaign to assure parents that the video game ratings system is working and that the industry can be trusted not to target their kids with these Mature-rated games. It is all a lie, as the BioShock ads prove.
This rampant fraudulent trade practice is precisely what “Big Tobacco” did with its “Joe Camel” and other teen-targeting ads, while at the same time lying to Congress that it was not marketing its adult product to kids.
Yes, BioShock has effectively shocked Jack Thompson, if anybody cares.
BDGamers 