Jack Thompson targets Microsoft in his last crusade

[8th lutz]

http://www.gamealmighty.com/story-individu..._Latest_Crusade

 

Thompson has been hitting the media circuit with a vengeance recently, due to the tragic events that took place earlier this week on the campus of Virginia Tech. Yesterday, Thompson issued a press release predicting that video games would be found to have been a contributing factor in the shootings. The Washington Post stated that the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, had reportedly been "a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns." Although it seems that the Post has since removed that statement, as well as any references to Counterstrike or any other video game, from its article, it was more than enough to get fuel Thompson's fire.

 

 

 

This afternoon, Game Almighty received an email from Thompson, which included an open letter sent to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. The letter reads as follows:

 

 

 

April 18, 2007

 

 

 

Bill Gates

 

 

 

Microsoft

 

 

 

1 Microsoft Way

 

Redmond, WA 98052 Via Fax and e-mail

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Mr. Gates:

 

 

 

On Monday, April 16, at 3:10 pm, I was a guest, as I often have been in the past, on the Fox News Channel. News anchor Bill Hemmer asked me to profile the Virginia Tech rampage killer. I did so, noting that until that day the worst school massacre in world history was at the hands of Robert Steinhaeuser, who literally trained on the Microsoft on-line, hyper-violent shooter game, Counterstrike. I mentioned your company’s game by name. I explained that the rehearsal for such a massacre is key to being able to pull it off, as efficiently as Cho, whose name we didn’t even know at the time. Cho and Steinhaeuser were able to do what they did the first time because it was not the first time. This is why the military uses this same virtual reality simulation to train soldiers to want to kill and how to kill calmly, as the witnesses of Cho said he did.

 

 

 

Sure enough, last night I was doing a west coast radio interview when the host said to me, "Mr. Thompson, you are right. The Washington Post is reporting right now the following:

 

 

 

‘Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns.’"

 

 

 

I thus went back on the Fox News Channel, and Bill Hemmer and I explained not only that I was right about your game figuring in the Virginia Tech massacre but also that the Washington Post excised the above excerpt from the story this morning. That is yet another story. The bad news for the Post however is that you can still get the excised excerpt at http://www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2007041...ml?hpid=topnews. Thus, the cat is out of the bag, and his paw prints are still on the bag. Is this a great Internet, or what?

 

 

 

As you know, I similalry [sic] went on NBC’s Today Show with the DC Beltway Sniper still unidentified and at-large a few years ago and told Matt Lauer and the nation that the triggerman would most likely be a teen video gamer trained on a sniper video game. The tarot card was a clue, but there were other clues. I was right, as Malvo trained on your Microsoft game, Halo. NBC reported that three months later, and it was part of the criminal trial of Malvo.

 

 

 

Mr. Gates, your company is potentially legally liable the harm done at Virginia Tech. Your game, a killing simulator, according to the news that used to be in the Post, trained him to enjoy killing and how to kill. You knew five years ago that your on-line game, Counterstrike, so clearly figured in the massacre by a student in Erfurt that the event and the game impacted the race for Chancellor in Germany at the time!

 

 

 

Yet, here you are, five years after "Erfurt," still marketing Counterstrike. having done nothing to disable the server(s) for this mass murder simulator, and it looks like "Virginia Tech" is a consequence. There’s more going on in the world than Vista. Just ask the bereaved Virginia Tech families.

 

 

 

Mr. Gates, pull the plug on Counterstrike today, or do we need more dead to convince you? "Virginia Tech" was the 9-11 of school shootings, and it appears Microsoft is in the middle of it, in more ways than one.

 

 

 

Regards, Jack Thompson

 

 

 

Unfortunately, there are at least two glaring issues to be found in Thompson's latest letter. First, as mentioned earlier, The Washington Post article referenced by Thompson has since been edited to remove any references to Counterstrike and any other video game. Second, while Microsoft did publish the Xbox version of Counterstrike, the game was originally developed by Valve Software, with Vivendi Universal handling the publication of the game on the PC.

[8th lutz]

The true reason for the killing and the signs can be found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18148802/?GT1=9246

 

Part of the article states:

 

A Virginia Tech professor told NBC News that Cho’s creative writing was so disturbing that she referred him to the school’s counseling service, but he would not go. The professor, Lucinda Roy, the English Department’s director of creative writing, would not comment at length on Cho’s writings, saying only that in general they “seemed very angry.”

 

“I kept saying, ‘Please go to counseling; I will take you to counseling,’ because he was so depressed,” Roy said. But “I was told [by counselors] that you can’t force anybody to go over ... so their hands were tied, too.”

 

Fellow students in a playwriting class with Cho also noticed the dark and disturbing nature of his compositions.

 

“His writing, the plays, were really morbid and grotesque,” Stephanie Derry, a senior English major, told the campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times.

 

“I remember one of them very well. It was about a son who hated his stepfather. In the play, the boy threw a chainsaw around and hammers at him. But the play ended with the boy violently suffocating the father with a Rice Krispy treat,” Derry said.

 

That is something I don't think video games would cause those type of writings. It appeared like the killer was just a violent person, who needed help and had mental issues plus the fact he stalked women. This is something Thompson didn't look at.

 

Put part of the blame should put on the people in charge of the college do the fact an instructor had the killer in a class saw the student as a dangerous threat to the college and that instructor told the higher ups in the college about that student and the higher up decided on not doing any actions on that matter. The school did try to help the student, but refused the help. Something should've been done with student after he refused help for his problems.

 

My heart goes out for the families that lost their lived ones. I didn't experience a school shooting When I was in high school, but the school I went to had the gym part of the school was on fire while students were in class including myself due to the fact a student started the fireand comitted the crime of arson. I can related to what the students at the college faced as a result despite the fact no one was killed. People at the college faced the same thing is the high school I went: something that wasn't expected and was criminal. What to my school was a scary moment 11 years ago, do to the fact I wasn't able to walk well due to me recovering from a serverly fractured left hip. Lets say I was carried out of the school by a teacher.

Edited April 19, 2007 by 8th lutz

[zeropolis79]

While the shooting is a very sad thing - a friend of mine on the net attends that place and was lucky to survive, why must everything be blamed on computer games?

 

At this rate, people like Jack Thompson is going to have the whole computer industry banned for the general public.

 

Not all shooting games make people want to go out and shoot people - I've played James Bond shooters for years and I've never had the urge to go and shoot people - maybe because I happen to be a responsible husband and father..

[moycon]

 

Regards, Jack Thompson

 

 

That young South Korean kid had some serious issues. Mental issues. The fact that he played video games didn't cause his illness. Jack likes to pick and choose his targets. Every single day 1,000s of people get killed by folks that don't like video games or haven't ever played a video game. Where's ol Jack then? The terrible thing is these folks with mental illnesses are hard to figure out because, well.....They are unpredictable. Every human on the Earth is unique and capable of this kind of carnage. I'll bet 99.8% (Guess not fact) of these folks just go though life, maybe attracting stares and whispers all their life, but never harming anyone. Then there are the few folks with these mental issues that snap. The .2%. In any case, getting rid of a particular videogame isn't going to help that .2%. I wonder if Jack will ever snap? He certainly has mental issues. Bad ones. He might be a .2% I wonder what he would blame that on? Couldn't be video games...Maybe coffee?

[Atariman]

Be careful, world - I'm a big fan Real-Time Strategy games, therefore I'm at risk of building a barracks, raising an army, and becoming supreme commander of the armies of the world! People who oppose me and my warcraft will experience total annihilation! I will command and conquer once I have my army of unstoppable warriors and will eventually utilize my advanced technology to produce starcraft capable of carrying me and my men to other worlds to take them over as well! War will be fought on galactic battlegrounds and I will become ruler of all the galaxy!...

 

But seriously, though - when is Jack going to finally have enough? He's proven himself over and over to be a lunatic on some bizarre crusade to attack the video game industry. Kind of like some twisted version of an ambulance chaser.

 

You don't suppose Bill will shell out the cash to see to it that this guy gets put down once and for all, do you? Mind you, I mean "put down" as in the court of law - I feel the need to say this as since I play video games (violent ones) my typical solution to any problem is to simply shoot the person in question (and then take over their country, of course, since I like RTS's).

[Scumdogg]

I still say that people would be less successful in using FPSers as "kill-trainers" if their real-life targets would stop standing so damn close to the red explosive barrels.

[Lauren Tyler]

I just knew that Thompson was going to be over this big time. And just like I thought, he's jumping to conclusion and making stuff up that isn't true. I am so waiting for him to be disbarred.

[pmpddytim]

I don't buy the argument that these games trained the Virgina shooter or any other. The sicko walked into class rooms and shot people who were not expecting it. A gun is not a difficult weapon to master at short range. Point, Pull trigger, repeat. He makes it sound as if you need years of training to shoot people.

 

The guy was F%^&$# in the head, end of story.

 

My thoughts go out to the victims.

 

-T

[Jess Ragan]

I gotta admit, Jack and the shooter make a good couple. They're both bananas and are willing to do anything to get attention from the press.

 

JR

[keilbaca]

While the shooting is a very sad thing - a friend of mine on the net attends that place and was lucky to survive, why must everything be blamed on computer games?

Because that's all people have left to blame, besides themselves. Music didn't work, movies didn't work, games is next up on the chopping block for the getaway blame.

 

As stated, he was just messed up in the head, and just Jack being... himself... again...

[Atarifever]

Be careful, world - I'm a big fan Real-Time Strategy games, therefore I'm at risk of building a barracks, raising an army, and becoming supreme commander of the armies of the world! People who oppose me and my warcraft will experience total annihilation! I will command and conquer once I have my army of unstoppable warriors and will eventually utilize my advanced technology to produce starcraft capable of carrying me and my men to other worlds to take them over as well! War will be fought on galactic battlegrounds and I will become ruler of all the galaxy!...

Your plans will come to ruin. I've trained for it. I play Galaga a lot, so I am capable of pioleting a spacecraft and taking out wave after endless wave of your army. Also, I've played Elite Beat Agents, so I imagine I can coreograph dance you to death.

 

I'm waiting for someone to do some really good PR that lets everyone know Thompson is basically using the dead people here to feed his own need for the spotlight. It makes me mad to know that in all likelihood, Thompson heard about the shooting on the radio and then had a good wank thinking about the number of times he could turn that into a TV spot.

[Ross PK]

Why on earth do the media take him seriously and give him air time?

 

I think the news teams and politicians in the UK would see him as a bit of a joke to be honest.

Edited April 19, 2007 by Ross PK

[+remowilliams]

It makes me mad to know that in all likelihood, Thompson heard about the shooting on the radio and then had a good wank thinking about the number of times he could turn that into a TV spot.

I'm sure he was drooling all over himself at the thought of more coverage of his asinine and vile self promotion.

 

I really do wish he'd A) Develop a conscience or B) Drop f*cking dead

[JimmydelaKopin]

I'm not into those types of FPS's...but I'm a huge fan of Twisted Metal.

And I've never been inspired to buy a huge black rig and chain a squad car to its grill...

...until some jerk on a cellphone cuts me off, that it.

 

Seriously, I have to wonder what's going on in Thompson's head.

No, really. Hear me out.

 

Anyone who's been a longtime fan of Marvel Comics knows about the vendetta of J. Jonah Jameson, the man who can't stand Spider-Man. It was a running gag of sorts for the longest...

...and that's exactly what this is sounding like.

Now, Jonah's motivation was jealousy, prure and simple: he was jealous of Spidey's bravery.

I have to wonder here...is Thompson jealous here? Is he just jealous of our bravery to keep on playing videogames, despite a popular culture that considers us geeky? Is he jealous of the financial success of videogame makers?

I'd love to find out what's behind this obsession with blaming all the violence in the U.S. on videogames, a media for which realistic violence is rare--and then most of the time it pits the protagonist as the hero, the person who reluctantly needs to use violence to put down the threat and save the day.

 

Why, Thompson, why?

[jerseystyle]

I hate stuff like this (the Thompson letter)- how many times does it take? How many things are we gonna go after (music, movies, now games) before we in America just think about some kind of actual gun control? Like, the kind that doesn't allow crazy idiots to buy guns? I can understand why certain people wanna have the right to keep guns (I don't agree, but, having grown up in a hunter family myself, I can understand) , but how can someone actually say that having much stricter controls about who can buy guns is a bad idea? Its harder to get a driver's license in some places than to buy a gun.

I don't get it, what's the logic? "I need a gun now, I can't wait three weeks! You can't make me buy a locking gun cabinet, that infringes on my right to let my kid go shoot a classmate!"

 

Ahhh . . . oh well. Rant over.

[zeropolis79]

I used to play FPS a lot, particually Goldeneye 007 on the N64. Never one has it made me want to go out somewhere and shoot someone.. The only think it has made me want to do is record the footage to use in one of my videos, particually the establishing footage.

 

Wasn't he wanting to have The Sims banned because of certain unofficial patches?

[Tempest]

Why do people still pay attention to this man? It's obvious he's now doing it just for the attention (which is very sad), and people just keep giving it to him. If we all just ignore him he'll go away to a dark corner somewhere, curl up, and die.

 

Tempest

[JimmydelaKopin]

Seriously people, something is wrong in the head of Jack Thompson.

 

It's one thing if he was a demagogue of sorts.

Thing is, he's not.

His constituents are embarrassed by him. The legal system has had enough of him. Other politicians consider him a joke. The news programs use him for cheap ratings like a poor man's Jerry Springer.

And of course, we gamers consider him a pathetic little shit.

 

In short, he's really gaining little if anything by this continued obsession.

No one respects him. No one takes his mad views seriously.

He's like that editor of Amazing Stories who quit his job to devote himself to the Shaver tales.

Is he simply insane?

 

Maybe he should start seeing Mike Diana's psychologist. After all, if Florida determined that Diana was touched in the head, Thompson should provide enough material for a dozen theses.

[godslabrat]

Dude, did you read that? The shooter did a lot of writing. We need to ban Microsoft Word... no, scratch that, we need to take legal action against pens and pencils! Damn you, Bic!