Jack Thompson is at it again.

Hi, I'm Jared! This is my first post on this blog, and it will not be a game review. I do, however, think it is important to gaming news, and it does involve a game that you should most likely buy if early reviews are anywhere close to being correct; that game would be Bioshock. A full review of the game will be up soon, I am sure.

Without further ado, here it goes!

Jack Thompson is at it again. According to gamepolitics.com, Jack wrote a letter of complaint to the Federal Trade Commission about Take-Two Interactive running Bioshock ads during Friday's WWE Smackdown program. His complaint is that the game company is deliberately advertising their "M" rated games toward children under the age of 17. Here is his letter (as it appears on Game Politics):

Take-Two… is aggressively marketing its newest Mature-rated video game to kids under 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.

I would first like to point out how ironic it is that Jack is complaining about kids seeing an advertisement for an "M" rated game that is being shown during a show that involves people beating each other up, the flaunting of the female body, and general skulduggery. I would think he should complain more about a tv show that is drawing in a crowd that is under the age of 17.

Also, because he brought up the demographics of those who watch the show, I did a little research. On WWE.com Ad Sales' website, a study from 2006 shows that 36% of viewers are between the age of 12-17, and 58% of viewers are between the age of 18-49. They also note that the mean age of the viewer is 24 years old. Their study also shows that 76% of the viewers own a video game system, and 46% of those people buy a video game at least once a month. The ESRB lists games with the "M" rating, such as Bioshock, as suitable for people 17 and older.

With all of this information in mind, I do not see a solid case against Take-Two. If we look at the numbers above, the decision to advertise this game on a show like this is a no brainer. Fifty-six percent of the audience is legally allowed to purchase Take-Two's game (even more if we count the 17 year olds in the 36% category). Out of all those people who watch the show, over 3/4 of them have access to a video game console, and half of those people will buy a video game every month. Why would a company not advertise to a market like that? To say it is wrong for them to aggressively run ads during this show is wrong. The company needs to sell their product, and forcing them into a later time slot to avoid 36% (or less) of the audience under 17 is ridiculous. The ads properly note that the game is rated "M," so Take-Two is doing what it needs to do to warn future consumers about the product.

I would also like to note that it is unfair to compare the video game industry to the "big tobacco" company's "Joe Camel" ad campaign because of when a video game is advertised. These two things are not the same. Jack is assuming that video games are naturally meant for children, when in actuality 69% of gamers are over the age of 18. A detailed chart is given on the ESA's website:




The Bioshock commercial does not have a cartoon camel encouraging the children to play the game. In fact, let's see if the commercial has anything aimed specifically at children (besides it being a video game of course):




Well, I did not really see anything in the video that screamed, "Hey kids! Look at me! Buy me or your not cool!" With all of this said, I am not saying that the under 17 market is not targeted, but there is enough evidence to show that they are not the directly intended market.

The last thing I would like to point out is Jack's inability to make himself aware of the company putting out Bioshock. In his letter, he says that the game is from Take-Two/Rockstar. He is wrong, and he would know that if he bothered to a) watch the commercial and notice the lack of a Rockstar logo and b) do a little research. It is true that Rockstar is under the Take-Two banner, but they had nothing to do with putting out this game. Jack just wants to stir up trouble by throwing the Rockstar name around.

Bioshock is a Mature rated game from Take-Two and Irrational Games for the Xbox 360 and PC and releases on August 21st.