Jack Thompson Stars in Videogame

We have recently completed a modification for GTA San Andreas which allows players to adopt the role of prominent anti-videogame attorney Jack Thompson as he lives through an insane weekend which changes his life, "Defamation of Character: A Jack Thompson Murder Simulator."
It turns out that all the time Jack spent studying violent video games has turned him into a Manchurian Candidate. Receiving calls at random that begin with the classic line, "Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?" Jack immediately falls under a hypnotic spell, transforming into his criminal vigilante alterego Banman to commit violent acts in the name of Thompson's morality. While Thompson enjoys legal immunity as an attorney, Banman has both regenerating armor and bullet time to help him make his way.

Initially, players change into Banman to destroy the shipment of Rockstar Game's new title Bully, being tasked with destroying one diesel on the road with the standard GTA drive-by from his trusty Bannedwagon, and running another off a bridge in a crazy game of chicken, finally making good on Thompson's multiple cryptic threats.

Jack is still an important character in all of this though, and when he's not chasing ambulances or killing zombies, he's spending the day trying to get a scoop for his press conference. Unable to find any decent information on the recent serial killer whom Jack is stereotypically positive trained on Halo and GTA, Thompson heads to San Fierro to catch photos of an illicit exchange between Doug Lowenstein, acting on behalf of EA, and a hacker/modder. A disk containing models for full on nudity ready to be modded into the Sims 2, was alleged to be changing hands, finally allowing for the horrible spread of virtual pedophilia Jack had originally envisioned. Photos in hand, Jack heads to a press conference to expose the whole thing, and the player is allowed to choose what to say, though they will still be tempted by some of the random thoughts which seem to pop into Jack's head, such as going into a rant against George Bush or Bill Gates, or even making accusations about Janet Reno's sexuality. At this point I should note, almost 85% of the dialogue in the game comes from Jack's actual quotes: his various open letters, press releases, and even his email and forum exchanges. As you can imagine, the press conference plays similairly to one of Jack's open letters, going into the same types of random references and insults one finds in his writing.

Before the game is over Jack will have killed both of his long time personal rivals Janet Reno and Doug Lowenstein. Obviously, we have no problems with Doug Lowenstein or Janet Reno, but Jack has a history of angry, borderline homicidal rants against both of these individuals. We decided early on in doing this mod that we wanted it to be fun on its own, even if the player doesn't know who Thompson is, much less Reno or Lowenstein. That said, we also wanted to use it as political satire, and firmly convinced that Jack is already his own best parody, we simply went about adopting bits from these diatribes, well for dialogue, of course, but also to construct a mythos around the man. We wanted the game to really be a video game about Jack Thompson, albeit a political cartoon version of the man, but undeniably Jack Thompson just the same. Ultimately we wanted to allow people to have a good time while playing the game, enjoying both the level and the presentation that frames the level, and hopefully make some people curious as to why Jack Thompson is killing Janet Reno, or why his alterego has Too Live Crew hanging from hooks in his living room.