It's about time someone on the "other" side jumped in to discredit insane Miami Lawyer Jack Thompson. With this letter, sent from the Nation Institute of Media and the Family, Thompson seems to be slowly destructing inside his little ring of lies. Dr. David Walsh finally figured out it's not helping his organization if Jack is on their side, demanded the link to their website be removed from Thompson's, and things would only spiral downward from there.
In a desperate attempt to save his career, he responded. He then blasted Walsh for being bought out by Best Buy. We also learned he's suing Best Buy and Target for pre-ordering Rockstar's upcoming game Bully. Yes, he's suing two companies before the game is even released, but not the company making the game, or any other big box retailer or major video game store.
For whatever reason, one that likely sounded logical at the time in his mind, Thompson then offered $10,000 to charity if someone would create a violent video game in which a deranged gamer goes nuts and begins killing everybody. Well, someone responded. Actually, a few people did, but a modding team known as the Fighting Hellfish (great Simpson's reference, and the link is currently down due to high traffic) is given credit for being the first with a mod for Grand Theft Auto. What's Thompson do?
He says his idea was satire, and refuses to write out the check.
Apparently, people should understand this mans mind and that he was only going for comedy. Smart way to say you refuse to give money to charity Jack, and it's unfortunate that we can all see right through you. To fight back, two of the gaming industry's best (from Penny Arcade) donated $10,000 in Jack's name. It's a bold, funny move and whatever Jack catches because of it, he deserves.
This all comes out to expose this man who has been one of the asinine critics of the game industry, one who is desperate to find money in it anyway he can. If organizations continue to come out and destroy his name, maybe this man can finally stop garnering press, and we can all go back to doing what we love: playing any damn video games we want without this man driving us all crazy every week.
Comments (8)
http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=5680
Well, looks like I was too early. Should have waited to expand this. It's going to get good.
Posted by Matt Paprocki | October 18, 2005 2:28 PM
Posted on October 18, 2005 14:28
Besides penny Arcade, VGCats
My revived interest in the original Sims lately, as an escape from academia, has brought to my attention what really counts as a destructive, dangerous video game. (Though I find my academia applies to this game in many ways...)
Most of us are not likely to go out and shoot a real cop after bashing a pixelated cop's face in, much as we might like to; for some of us the simulation is a safety system, a pressure valve, much like Stephen King's theories on why we enjoy the horror genre of entertainment. But it doesn't have that much _influence_ on the way we think and behave, I mean not if something isn't there already to which the games appeal. But The Sims is another case; it's a game that lets us act out a variety of real-life fantasies that hit much closer to home...
The main demographic of that game, as I see it, is the middle-aged crowd lurking around the edges of the internet, the office workers and bored housewives, the gross middle-aged guys with gotees and social problems, bad personalities... it lets them build a fantasy life, the tenets of which are hyperconsumerist and hypercapitalistic - The Sims is a hegemony machine, which I fear more than a deviance machine like GTA.
So it encourages the buy-buy-buy mentality. It also enables such fantasies as (choosing simply from the examples of my recent playing) romancing and then stealing another person's spouse, leaving the other Sim-household broken and incomplete. And this is a fantasy of many of the proscribed demographic for the game, yes? At least in my observation.
Plus the game enabled me to build a giant cock-shaped house, which certainly would be a no-no in Jack's book.
I only wish he still lurked BW so I could know what would be his response to all this.
Posted by Jordan Fouts | October 25, 2005 6:38 PM
Posted on October 25, 2005 18:38
That's way beyond his thought process Jordan. You used big words too.
Posted by Matt Paprocki | October 25, 2005 9:01 PM
Posted on October 25, 2005 21:01
You are such a cruel person Jordan, how could you do that to your Sim-neighbor. Blasphemy!
Posted by Ken Edwards | October 26, 2005 12:48 AM
Posted on October 26, 2005 00:48
Don't worry Ken, the errant wife will find her way into a copy of Sid Meijer's "Railroad Tycoon," fling herself on the rails and perish beneath the steel behemoth in a way Tolstoy would have admired...
Hey who wants to see my Casa de Cock? I'm mighty proud of it: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/alan_smithee/joe_potato_casa_de_cock.jpg
Posted by Jordan Fouts | October 26, 2005 5:18 PM
Posted on October 26, 2005 17:18
Now if that isn't a work of art, I don't know what is! Nice job Jordan, I am glad to see that McGill is living up to its prestigious name. You are obviously receiving the finest of education that only Canada could offer.
Posted by Ken Edwards | October 26, 2005 8:58 PM
Posted on October 26, 2005 20:58
Obviously.
Posted by Jordan Fouts | October 27, 2005 4:02 PM
Posted on October 27, 2005 16:02
McGill cuts its season short
I am not an INSIDER, so I can't read the rest, but I don't really think I want to.
Posted by Ken Edwards | October 27, 2005 4:33 PM
Posted on October 27, 2005 16:33