The Gamechangers



"You're a game designer, Harry!"

- Forbes

A one-off docudrama produced by the BBC, The Gamechangers dramatises events surrounding the production of the Grand Theft Auto games and Rockstar Games's struggles with conservative moral crusader and now disbarred lawyer Jack Thompson, who doggedly tried to take down Rockstar after catching word about copycat killings allegedly inspired by the games and a once-dormant Hot Coffee Minigame.

The telefilm stars Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame as Sam Houser and the late Bill Paxton as Jack Thompson, and is based primarily on the non-fiction book Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto by David Kushner.

Definitely not to be confused with the Heroic Bloodshed movie The Game Changer or the Netflix vegan documentary of the same name.


 * Anachronism Stew:
 * The map of Liberty City at Rockstar's offices was a crude rendition of the one found in Grand Theft Auto IV, which was released in 2008; the events of the film and its real-world counterpart took place around 2002-2005.
 * When Thompson tried out Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for himself to gauge the level of obscenity the game has, he was seen playing the game on a PS2 Slim. That part of the film takes place in 2002; the slimline revision wouldn't be released until 2004, just in time for San Andreas whom Thompson would set his sights on by the latter half of the film.
 * Sam Houser and Jack Thompson's computers are shown running Microsoft Office 2007.
 * DVDs for Yogi Bear and The Spy Next Door are shown in a scene that takes place in 2004. Both films released in 2010.
 * Artistic License:
 * The film shows scenes where Rockstar programmers are doing major work on the games in New York City; principal work on the GTA series actually takes place in Rockstar North's offices in Edinburgh, Scotland.
 * While Patrick Wildenborg (known by the GTA community through his alias "PatrickW") did invest in a PS2 in order to play San Andreas and later sift through the game files, they were unable to make mods for the original console releases and waited for the PC port to be released first for them to actually reactivate Hot Coffee. Wildenborg wasn't solely responsible for the mod either as he did get some aid from other members of the community, though he was indeed contacted by Rockstar over his mod.
 * Ax Crazy: Devin Moore, whose arrest for a traffic violation led him to shoot and kill police officers after being booked on suspicions of stealing a car. Jack Thompson blames this violent act on Moore's alleged obsession with Vice City, quoted as saying "Life is like a video game, you've got to die sometime."
 * Based on a True Story: For the most part that is, being derived on a history book about the GTA series. The Beeb did put up a disclaimer saying that some sequences and events were either condensed or altered for dramatic effect, though.
 * Blatant Lies: Terry Donovan makes a press statement blaming the modding community "who were causing significant trouble for altering scenes in the initial version". Sam gets furious and berates him for slandering their fans as it was Rockstar's fault all along; all Wildenborg did was simply unlock the scenes in question.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: A church mate at the parish Thompson frequents named Sally comes by and gives the attorney some rather spicy words of encouragement:
 * "Go get 'em, Jack. They're fucking with our kids. Fuck those people. Fuck 'em."


 * Crusading Lawyer: Jack Thompson. And he is very, very outspoken about it.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Considering Devin's background as a troubled youth according to his lawyer, which ultimately led to what was branded as a GTA copycat killing. Moore, who recently graduated from high school, was never in trouble before.
 * Death Row: Devin Moore was sentenced to lethal injection for the crimes he committed (Moore is on death row as of 2021. On February 17, 2012, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Moore's conviction in a 5–0 decision).
 * Documentary of Lies: At least according to Rockstar themselves, who objected to the programme and threatened to sue BBC for it.
 * Doing It for the Art: Sam Houser rants about how America's double standards towards sex and violence made it difficult for him and his company to further push the boundaries of interactive entertainment, grumbling that he didn't care if the distribution channels for San Andreas would be severely limited as long as the game is done in his vision (video game console manufacturers have a policy where they would not license an AO-rated game to their systems, thereby limiting them to niche PC releases and in sex shops in the case of adult games).
 * Dummied Out: With San Andreas nearing release and well behind schedule, Rockstar hastily disabled the Hot Coffee sequences only for modders to quickly dig them out and mod them back in.
 * Enemy Mine: Despite differing political alignments, Thompson found an ally with then-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was also in the same moral crusade.
 * The Fundamentalist: Conservative, born-again Christian Jack Thompson taking on a merry band of secular video game developers.
 * Game Mod: Subverted in that the Hot Coffee mod was within the game files all along, contrary to Rockstar's initial claims that the questionable content was the work of hackers whom the company accused of making extensive changes to the game's code.
 * Gang-Bangers: Houser and his cohorts encounter a lowrider full of them in Los Angeles while they were doing field research for the then-in development San Andreas. A brief moment of tension ensued but it quickly cooled down when DJ Dog introduced the Housers to the gang's leader and explained their purpose for heading into gang territory.
 * The Ghost: Hillary Clinton, whom Thompson met in Washington D.C. but does not appear on-screen (apart from stock footage of her making a press statement about the Family Entertainment Protection Act).
 * Give Me a Sign: Thompson calls onto God whilst playing a game of golf, hoping for another shot at Rockstar. It turns out to be Hot Coffee, morbidly enough.
 * Hot Coffee Minigame: One of the main plot points in the drama after the Devin Moore case.
 * Hollywood Hacking: Wildenborg as he probes into San Andreas after purchasing the game from a local shop.
 * Hypocrite: Sally. For a supposedly devout conservative Christian she sure is quite the sailor mouth. And Thompson doesn't seem to be shocked at it either.
 * Instant Humiliation - Just Add YouTube: Sam was none too pleased when he saw for himself the supposedly tucked away Hot Coffee minigame, the footage of which was uploaded on YouTube.
 * Large Ham: Jack Thompson. This ultimately got the better of him when Blank Rome, the legal team Rockstar hired for the case, no-sold and countered him for his brazen on-and off-court behaviour.
 * Moral Guardians: Jack Thompson, among others who campaigned against GTA.
 * Murder Simulator: GTA, or at least according to Thompson.
 * Rule 34: San Andreas exists, and modders discovered porn tucked deep down in the game.
 * The Scapegoat: Wildenborg, whom Rockstar squarely blamed and initially alleged of introducing extensive modifications to the game; the Hot Coffee "mod" (emphasis on quotes) was in the game's code all along.
 * Stock Footage: A press conference by Hillary Clinton was shown on TV where she announced the proposal of the Family Entertainment Protection Act.
 * Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: Subverted in that actual gameplay footage from GTA is used, albeit presented in a negative light in the case of Devin Moore and Jack Thompson.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: As noble as Thompson's intention may seem i.e. shield children from the horrors of decadent media, his methods have been derided by his peers and has made him a bigoted clown in the eyes of gamers.
 * What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: "It [Hot Coffee] was just a silly thing put online. I had no idea this would happen."