Jack Thompson does it again....

[Tanukitsune]

Sigh...

 

Ctrl+Alt+Del makes fun of him... (Who doesn't)

[Atarifever]

Reading that story is mental rape. I can't believe this guy is still taken seriously. It just goes to show that no one is actually thinking about anything he has said.

[Brad2600]

What an asshole.

 

He whines about violent video games and has the gall to PROPOSE one?

 

I agree with Ctr+Alt+Del though. Jack Thompson has no real idea who he's messing with when he disses gamers.

[Tanukitsune]

Reading that story is mental rape.  I can't believe this guy is still taken seriously.  It just goes to show that no one is actually thinking about anything he has said.

946812[/snapback]

People take him seriously!?! Perish the thought!

[Jess Ragan]

Holy crap! Now I understand why that judge ordered him to have a mental competency exam. Someone better give Jack another check-up from the neck-up... if this doesn't prove he's completely off his rocker, nothing can.

 

(runs off to play Trauma Center. You know, the game where you're actually saving lives... and the one Jack will never talk about)

 

JR

[Atarifever]

The thing that keeps bugging me the more I think about it is that he is holding a charity hostage, and making it the butt of his joke. Once the guy from Take-two says what his favoite charity is, Thompson is, in effect, saying something like: "I bet you'd love for those cancer patients to get my $10,000, well here it is. *yanks money away* Earn it! What's wrong Timmy, need some chemo? Too bad, you don't see one cent of this money until someone meets my outrageous demand. BWHAHAHAHAHA!" It kind of comes off as disgusting.

 

 

I think the videogame community should do something about this guy. I hear he's backed by Hillary Clinton. I also hear that many many gamers are (or will be in the next couple of years) of voting age. Someone should get the gamers to start writing Mrs. Clinton to tell her they will definitely be showing up to vote next election, and, well, they don't think Jack Thompson is the kind of guy they'll side with. I wonder how big of a population all voting gamers is?

Edited October 12, 2005 by Atarifever

[JB]

What an asshole.

 

He whines about violent video games and has the gall to PROPOSE one?

Well, he can't lose.

If they do it, the industry is actively telling gamers the same thing Thompson shouts at them.

 

 

If they don't, in Thompson's mind it's the same as them taking money from charity.

 

This is the same guy that says responses to his absurdities by the game industry just prove he's right because "if I'm such a loon, why don't they just ignore me?"

And then when the president of the ESA refuses his offer of a public debate, he screams that they're ignoring him because they're scared of his truth.

Logic never enters the equation.

 

Holy crap!  Now I understand why that judge ordered him to have a mental competency exam.  Someone better give Jack another check-up from the neck-up... if this doesn't prove he's completely off his rocker, nothing can.

 

(runs off to play Trauma Center.  You know, the game where you're actually saving lives... and the one Jack will never talk about)

 

JR

946890[/snapback]

Dunno if you ever saw his e-mail chain with the author of VGCats, but that was squirrely too.

 

He e-mails the guy a copy of an e-mail he sent to the president of the ESA. The guy responds.

Jack insults him.

VGCats throws it back

Jack says he doesn't have time to deal with twits. Then cut/pastes a news article stating there's a rumor that someone sent him a death threat. Pastes it twice, in fact.

VGCats reminds him that he initiated the conversation.

Jack tells him he did not, and insults him, as well as gamers in general.

VGCats forwards the first e-mail back.

Thompson threatens to sue him for harassment.

[sigma]

First, fuck that cad bullshit. That unfunny fuck Tim Buckley should just go die already.

 

Second, game companies can not take unsolicitied game ideas because of copyright issues. As a lawyer he should know this, but of course he has a track record of systematicly ignoring things to artifically bolster his weak arguments.

[ClassicBoy]

What knuckleheads like Thompson always fail to realize is that they are condemning an entire industry that runs the entire spectrum from good to bad. Sure, there are some games made that I'd love to see removed from shelves for extreme content (although, I understand their "right" to exist), but one can't condemn an entire industry for a few "bad apples." It's like trying to destroy the entire film industry because such things and porn and snuff films exist...or trying to wipe out the entire book publishing industry because "how to" books on making bombs exist. Just because something bad exists within an industry, it doesn't mean you can throw out the entire industry to get rid of the bad. ANY medium can be twisted to to serve more "base" desires. The medium is neutral. It's what's done with the medium that can be criticized and evaluated. People like Thompson need to be focusing on individual games and not the industry as a whole if they want to be taken seriously.

Edited October 12, 2005 by ClassicBoy

[JimmydelaKopin]

The biggest problem here...and perhaps I'm not right in the head for being the one to point it out, but I'm a gamer, so I'm proud to be weird...

 

...is that Jack Thompson doesn't know how to write a videogame.

 

When he sees a game like GTA or any of its clones (I wonder what his opinion is of my favorite series, Twisted Metal), he only gets a visceral reaction from it. Thus, his idea for a videogame is a visceral plotwagon with less input from the player than even a Channel F game.

 

He should examine videogames in general. They're all pretty violent--the popular ones are, anyway. Sure, the problematic idea nowadays is the ability to score points through killing NPCs--that is, extras, the non-antagonist characters.

However, every videogame with such a feature also has the consequences of that feature, either through triggering a faster-paced protagonist-centered gameplay mode or through punishing the player that is distracted in such a way. (For examples: in Roadkill, killing the wrong people at certain times can trigger gang warfare or even a riot, with all the antagonists determined to kill you. In Twisted Metal, focusing on killing the 'spectators' means you're not paying attention to the other vehicles...which is usually fatal for you.)

Sheesh, I wonder what he thinks of Bump-n-Jump, where one can score points by deliberately crashing other cars or even crashing dump trucks.

 

All this visceral fool of a lawyer can see is the violence, not a plot or storyline. Maybe he should visit an exorcist; he seems to be possessed by the spirit of Fredric Wertham.

 

All in all, his 'videogame' idea can hardly be called such. Even a chooe-your-path book has more interaction. No one would make his game because it would be little more than a tract--or rather, screed--one could load into a console.

 

He should stick to chasing ambulances and let the experts at making games do what they do best.

[Atarifever]

From Penny Arcade today:

You may have seen Jack’s proposal mentioned on various news sites. He’s offering 10 grand to charity if a game developer makes a game based on his insane proposal.

 

So I got his email address and I went ahead and sent Jack a note this morning:

 

10 grand is pretty weak man. Through our charity www.childsplaycharity.org gamers have given over half a million dollars in toys and cash to children’s hospitals all over the country.

 

I’ll let you know if he responds.

 

The fact is when we kick off Child’s Play 2005 on November 1st we’ll be going global. We’ll be delivering videogames and toys to children’s hospitals all over the world now. I don’t think there’s any better response to Jack’s insane ramblings than that. Maybe Jack would like to donate his 10 grand to Child’s Play, that could buy a lot of Game Boys.

 

-Gabe out

 

My email sig had my phone number in it. Jack actually just called and screamed at me for a couple minutes. He said if I email him again I will “regret it”. What a violent man.

 

-Gabe out

Edited October 12, 2005 by Atarifever

[gamer2]

I am Surprised that no body hasnt shot at him yet but i guess its for the best that he isnt killed, his familly may work harder than he does to get ALL GAMES BANNED

[classicgamingguy]

From the corner of the gamers:

 

This is pure bull (for lack of a better catchphrase). When one starts directing actions against a particular formation of society (i.e. the game players), mud starts really slinging. My personal insight: I've played video games, both violet, cute, and interesting (perhaps all three at once, perish the thought) and have never been so influenced by these "hardcore" games as to go out and kill someone because I "saw it in a videogame". That's just plain ridiculous. Doesn't anyone think that these people have problems already? That the game was just a trigger?

 

What if (bear with me) they watched a program, say, oh, a violet one and then they went out and killed someone. Hmmmm, was the TV the cause, or the trigger for something deeper within this disturbed individual. These problems that occur for pattern violence because of video games are NOT the cause! Please, I am sick of this guy. He obviously needs an outlet to form his opinions then shove them down everyone else's throat.

 

As was said, we are many, strong, and will take this guy down if he thinks he can silence us with his rhetoric and hyperbole. Bleh. Please, Jack, go knit a quilt somewhere then complain to the manufacturer of the needles that they instituted you to be violet.

 

-Steve

[Needles Kane]

Take-Two should just give $10,000 to some charity for the hell of it and ignore Jack.

[Atarifever]

I'm sure the 99% of you here who read Penny-Arcade were probably aware of this hilareous turn of events against Jack. For the other 1%, I say enjoy.

 

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12259

Edited October 15, 2005 by Atarifever

[Jess Ragan]

http://www.floridabar.org/tfb/flabarwe.nsf

 

Send letters of complaint to the disciplinary board of the Florida Bar Association. That's what I did! Just be sure your words are tactfully chosen (you know, unlike Jack's).

 

JR

[Atarifever]

Aother quick update. Some guys made the game. Thompson said his comments were supposed to be satire. Long story short, charity doesn't get his money.

[J.Max]

Jack Thompson is good for the games industry. Everyone knows he's a looney, and anyone who associates with him is a looney, so anytime he takes up a cause, that cause is immediately diminished. No one takes him seriously anymore, and I'm convinced that he's mentally ill. Of course he's not going to give any money to a charity, and he's not going to shut up.

 

He's a lot like Fred Phelps. Phelps is a Topeka,Ks. area preacher who pickets gays' funerals and tells their families that they will go to hell. Do you think that the anti-gay marriage people like having a guy like that in their corner? Hell, no! Thompson is the same way.

[JB]

Aother quick update.  Some guys made the game.  Thompson said his comments were supposed to be satire.  Long story short, charity doesn't get his money.

950102[/snapback]

Penny Arcade, however, donated the cash in his name.

To a charity with strong ties to the game industry, that gets most of it's cash by selling things such as E3 tickets and autopgraphed XBoxes.

[keilbaca]

Aother quick update.  Some guys made the game.  Thompson said his comments were supposed to be satire.  Long story short, charity doesn't get his money.

950102[/snapback]

Penny Arcade, however, donated the cash in his name.

To a charity with strong ties to the game industry, that gets most of it's cash by selling things such as E3 tickets and autopgraphed XBoxes.

950125[/snapback]

 

That's awesome work by Penny Arcade. of course jack wouldn't pay. He's an attorney, he says things he doesn't mean.

[JimmydelaKopin]

Hey, while Thompson and Phelps might seem similar, they really aren't.

 

Fred Phelps is the leader of his own small cult, a cult so brainwashed that, without his guidance, they can't even speak for themselves. (I witnessed that when the cult, sans Phelps, protested Nicholl's new GSA. Though they had their usual bromides, such as desecrating the flag and having provocative and offensive signs, none of them said a single word during the protest.)

 

Jack Thompson is merely an opportunist who's using the videogame industry to score political points, much like Kevorkian's attorney used medical murder and the Rikki Lake show.

As for his claim that his idea was a satire along the lines of Swift...please. It's not up to being a satire along the lines of Todd Loren, for crying out loud. A satire is supposed to be a serious proposal not merely proposing the absurd in a serious way, but also describing the detriments as benefits, so as to point out how skewed the values of what it being satirized are.

For this to work, the thing being satirized must be taken seriously (such as the English bias against the Irish poor and the English blind eye toward intrafamily brutality and family abandonment, the subjects of the original Modest Proposal.)

 

The videogame industry has never taken itself or its efforts that seriously. Indeed, many in the industry know that they're pushing crap on carts and discs, that their efforts are at best derivative and at worst forgettable.

As for the makes of GTA...as I've said before, they know that they're merely following a long trend in videogames concerning violence. Also, their games are merely mocking the sensationalized violence in other media, allowing the player to engage in it without restraint, much like Twisted Metal originally made fun of the freeway violence in Los Angeles.

 

For Thompson's idea to be considered satire, he would have to target all the media that sensationalizes violence: crime drama shows, hip-hop music, action movies, and so on, the same way Swift covered a whole slew of culture in his Modest Proposal.

Furthermore, the purveyors of such media would have to take it seriously. No one takes the action movies seriously--or crime drama--or videogames...on and on. It's mindless entertainment, and they make no claim otherwise.

 

But as to Thompson's hypocricy...he's a politician in lawyer's clothing. When local councilman Jim singleton promised a $5,000 award to the person whose information leads to the arrest and conviction of the person printing and distributing anonymous anti-Semetic flyers against mayoral candidate Donald Mintz, a private eye who just got his license figured 5 grand would be good seed money to get his own office. He investigated on his own, revealed the culprit, turned over the info to the authorities, and, after the guy pled guilty, went to Singleton for the reward...and got nothing for his efforts.

 

See, what we have here is what political commentator Rush Limbaugh calls "demonstrating absurdity by being absurd".

See, there's no way that Thompson would give 10 grand to any charity. That's fairly obvious if he gives conditions for the donation--and even allows his foes to choose the charity.

Thus, to prove that...someone actually made the game. Now Thompson is shown to have been making an absurd claim, one that he never took seriously.

He's no different from the rich man asking Jesus how to become a follower of Jesus...and he received no different a reply.