14 DAY TRIAL // Thompson's at it again! This time, the anti-video game crusader has sent in an email, containing his conversation with Take-Two's Gena Feist over the age verification issue concerning the publisher's games. Words such as "You'll live to regret it..." of course don't miss from Mr. Thompson's statements, but I'll let you read for yourselves so you can draw your own conclusions.
The full email is over at megagames.com, and according to them, Mr. Thompson could have indeed provided an incomplete version of the email-conversation transcript, keeping some parts for himself. Either signature has been removed for privacy and readability reasons:
"From: Jack Thompson Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 4:55 PM Subject: Letter to Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2 Dear Mr. Zelnick and Mr. Feder: Congratulations on receiving a "Mature" rating for Manhunt 2. You'll live to regret it (trust me), so enjoy it while you can. I want to bring to your attention the fact that at www.rockstargames.com anyone of any age can order Manhunt 2 and receive it, with no age verification whatsoever. Asking a 14-year-old if he's 17 is not age verification, now is it? You also know that the use of a bank card as an age verifier is a violation of all bank card agreements, right? Govern yourselves accordingly, if you can. Regards, Jack Thompson"
And now for Gena Feist's answer:
"From: Gena Feist To: Jack Thompson Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:47 PM Subject: FW: Letter to Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick, Ben Feder Re Manhunt 2 Mr. Thompson,Your statements regarding our practices are false, as you know or should have known. The Take Two website verifies age in two ways. First, consumers who purchase M or RP rated games certify that they are at least 17 years of age. Numerous websites use the same method for verifying age in connection with sales of movies and games. Second, we verify age through the use of a credit card number in connection with a transaction. Such transaction based verification is acceptable to both credit card companies and the FTC (see, e.g. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.shtm ). We demand that you cease making these false statements about our online sales practices. Your dissemination of knowingly false statements for the purpose of adversely affecting Take-Two's business is actionable and we reserve all of our rights under the settlement agreement and state and federal law. Not only are your statements clearly false, but they were made in an email publicly disseminated to both the FTC and the press. Please be assured that I am happy to answer any questions you have concerning our practices in a private communications. It is for this very reason that our settlement agreement designates a legal contact for you at Take Two. If you continue to make false statements to an audience of press and public officials, however, we will have no choice but to take action against you. Sincerely, Gena"
Of course, then Jack replied and then Gena replied and so on... OK, it's true that "Asking a 14-year-old if he's 17 is not age verification" but it's also true that "consumers who purchase M or RP rated games certify that they are at least 17 years of age," meaning that the first step of age verification has been cleared. Take-Two has no control over that from the moment the game hits stores so, it's an ongoing battle as always. Share an impression if you like.