Thompson breaks his word on $10k bounty, says he was just kidding

149. Posted Oct 19, 2005, 12:00 AM ET by dan

There are many records of his actions, letters stating his opinions, and interviews with him that can be obtained for free. I would much rather base an opinion on those and be seen as "flail[ing] around, gushing hot air, ineffectively hurling invective upon something we didn't fully understand" than give my money to that douchebag.

You can boycott his new book and still read it. It's called the library. Not to mention this neat little thing called the internets...

Martez is right about the library (though my library's name is Borders).

Oh, and don't forget, folks: "Email addresses are required to confirm your comments." So make a comment, check your e-mail, then confirm it to make sure your post goes public. Your address won't be displayed unless you include it in the body of your post. Cheers.

Instead of harassing Jack Thompson, we should all be incredibly kind and considerate to him. What better to disprove his statements and accusations than for us to prove that we can be civil, kind, and caring people?

Jack Thompson needs to live a long, full life to natural means, lest his death be blamed on us, his theories proven true, and our hobby crushed with the hammer of the American Judicial System.

First, I'll say that I doubt that was the actual Thompson who posted in this thread.

That said, I'll say that Thompson isn't an idiot. He passed the bar. I'd say that he's just... having a bad century. The unfortunate thing is that the century is just starting.

I'm not going to threaten him because he is, frankly, beneath my notice except as an item of curiosity or entertainment. He is much like Pat Robertson advocating a military strike against the head of state of a foreign nation. He does a lot of damage but, in the end, he simply self-destructs.

It is rather pathetic that he has been outmaneuvered by the gaming community- a community he holds in very poor regard. As a lawyer, I'd imagine him to have something resembling an idea of stratagy and social engineering. This does not seem to be the case.

But let's not vindicate him by threatening him or saying that "our patience is wearing thin." We aren't going to attack him. Such talk only proves him correct. Let's watch his delusional kingdom in which he is the great crusader against the evils which are- well... us- fall down around his ears.

Oh... and I'll add that I've been gaming for... oh dear... a quarter of a century. Trying out GTA didn't make me go out and commit any crimes, or even give a puppy a cross-eyed look. Tsk. My wife also plays and... aside from punching me in her sleep, doesn't seem, to have a violent bone in her body.

In reference to an earlier post (I can't find it):
I agree that he is a blessing in disguise. I have never seen as large a community as the gamers get behind something so fully. We are united, and it seems as though we are more widespread and intelligent than anyone (especially Jack) could have imagined. I'm proud to be called a gamer.

Oh yes, I was going to name my firstborn son "Jack" until this ignoramus arrived on the scene. Now he can take his opinion, his proposal, his reputation, his name and his job and shove them you know where.

God, I'm bored. I just spent about an hour reading through all the posts to date, and I must say, everyone brings up some good points.

1) Boycotting his book is excellent. We gamers number enough that we alone would be a significant hurt on book sales. If we start telling friends and family who aren't gamers not to buy the book, we're just pouring salt on the wounds. If you're interested in reading it, check it out at the local library, or track down the friend of yours who doesn't listen.

2) Stop insulting Jack Thompson. Even if he probably does deserve it, you're only throwing wood on his fire. Stop the insults, and he'll burn himself out. Maybe not as fast as some people may want, but it'll happen with time. If you pretend he doesn't exist, he'll just fade from the public view. The Media will lose interest when there's no longer two sides fighting. (This may seem cowardly, but it's actually very mature. My mom always told me to "Choose your battles". This is one everyone should just drop and move on from.)

3) Kudos to you, Penny Arcade. A generous donation to those who needed it, and a low blow at Jack all in one swift move. (That was not at all sarcasm, I actually mean that. I love the comic, check it daily for updates, great work. (Still not sarcasm.))

4) Excellent work to anyone else who I've noticed fighting for the gamers. You've done us good, pressed the advantage, now it's time to back off and watch as Jack goes down in a not-so-glorious-or-spectacular show of fireworks.

5) (This one's for you, Jack) He does raise a valid point. GTA may be nothing more than a murder simulator. However, it's not the ONLY reason kids go on psychotic, murderous rampages. If they obsessively train on video games, as you declared in one of your interviews I read somewhere (I forget now the site), there's something wrong with their heads /before/ they picked up the game controls.

6) (This one's also for Jack) Step off, man. Leave buying games for their kids to the parents. If they don't pay enough attention to what their kids are doing, don't take it out on the video game developers, or the ESRB. And don't think for a second that you can step in FOR them, and do their job of telling their kids what they can and can't play, because in all honesty, you're nothing to us. Our parents, we respect, but /you've/ done nothing but insult us, try and take away that which we love, and compare us to necromantic cults (That's a new one, by the way). Would /you/ respect /us/ if some gamer-lawyer suddenly stepped up and called you into court for breaking your verbal contract, suing you out of house, money, and job? (Okay, so you already DON'T respect us, but for a second, imagine that you do.)

And as a final statement, I don't think God is watching you on this, Jack, otherwise you would've won by now. So stop calling yourself God's foot-soldier. Look where it got the Crusaders back in medieval times.

Haha. I'm a web designer so I notice things like this. Google "Jack Thompson" and check out the meta description for his site -- "Enter a brief description of your site here"

Not only can he not afford his 10K for charity, he can't even swing $200 for a bargain-bin website for his crusade.

Even for an amateur using frontpage that's a pretty crappy do-it-yourself job.

This guy is hopeless. He should give up now, since he's not getting anywhere.

Alright here's my two cents. I'll try to keep it short. The world around us does influence us be it games, books, movies, or in my opinion the worst offender the news. The only way to work thru it is to talk to your kids be invloved in there past times. If you came home and got your 10 year old watching a slasher flick you'd stop it and take it away, explain why they shouldn't watch it and keep an eye on them to make sure this took hold. You wouldn't call them something evil and give them an or else (shakes fist in the air), that's bad parenting. If Jack really is sickened by all this violence he'd look at athe actual causes, bad parenting, bad parents help make bad kids, sensationalization of crimes on the news, if you get slapped by something REAL on a daily bases and not by REAl acts of good you tend to think the world really is in the grips of apocolypse, and third the worlds population is getting well past the point of insane, if the world had say 1000 people in it 50 years ago and only say .05% turned into pyschotic killing machines then when we get today with say over 6 billion people you do the math and tell me what number of people are going to be sickening individuals. I for one am all for the class action lawsuit for his constant need to berate gamers at large. If he were to say all canadians are on drugs and all beat there kids cause of our horrible addictions he'd prolly get benine death threats and disbarred, atleast one could only hope. All he's doing now is becoming a socially acceptable joke and hurting any chance his clients have at a fair and impartial trial of there peers. I feel saddened for them and for the charities who are getting shirked by his hollow promises and harmful satire, btw here's a satire The Daily Show. Good satire without empty promises to help those who suffer. Atleast it's somewhat educational. Damn I guess I'd better cut it off here... or else (shakes fist in the air)

I recently sent several emails to CNN.com to have them reevaluate their decision to use Jack Thompson as any form of expert. I included links, news articles, emails, and quotes (my favorite being "Oh why don't you go buy a suicide game and get really good at it") and asked them to reevaluate Thompson as an expert as well as to consider doing a story of some kind on the gaming community's response - particularly with the webcomic people and specifically the folks at Penny Arcade.

I'd encourage everyone here to do the same.

With so many people dying of cancer, aids, or other diseases that desperately need funding to find cures Why would he even joke about that? With so many people, reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina... How tactless is that? With so many women and children homeless and fighting for their lives everyday... How could he promise and then not deliver.

There are about 10,000 charities who could have desperately used that money. And GAMERS were kind enough to take him up on his very public, very serious offer so that a lucky charity will have more funding. They put time into it to meet his specifications and now he is backpedalling faster than a politician.

What kind of sick, twisted LUNATIC raises the hopes of people who need that money? Honestly... He needs Bush's publicity and speech writers. Cuz then he wouldnt have made that mistake. He hurt his cause more than he ever helped it by doing this.

Thank you Penny Arcade for coming through where Jack Thompson could not. Would not.

I agree with you, Jack. Video games definitly train people to kill. With that in mind, I'm wondering if you could give me some advice for a problem I'm having. The situation is this: My boyfriend has been playing hockey since he was a kid. When we got together four years ago, I started getting him EA sport's NHL hockey game in order to train him to become a better hockey player in real life. The problem is, I've seen no improvement at all in his on ice game! With the amount of 'training' he gets from his video game, he should be in the NHL by now. Am I doing something wrong? Did I get him the wrong game? Thanks for all your wisdom Jack.

Does anyone find it ironic that one of his main bases for criticizing violent media are quotes from the Bible? Hasn't religion caused more fatalities and violent acts against other human beings than any sort of violent media?

Question. I know hes claimed this all as a a big jokre and such but i have seen in other case where a person or group claims they will do something (ie pay out or give something away) then back down when they have to payup and get sued by the persons suppost to get the money and won. Becuase he has made it more then clear it the many posts he has made that this was no joke and would really do this. I guess the only problem is he would give to any charity so kind of hard to figure out who has the right to do so. But still i thnk some one should go after him and get the money some charity deserves. But thats my opions. Oh well.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/07/29/uk.manhunt/index.html

(Jyri Haavisto, age 20, gamer for life
Hyakurai1@hotmail.com)

Just out of curiosity I searched CNN.com for Jack Thompson, and found this horrible murder case of a 17-year-old kid murdering a younger kid. The blame was put on "Manhunt", and Jack Thompson's opinions were quoted on several parts of the article. However, after stumbling upon one fact, made me question placing the blame on "Manhunt" on this case:

"Peter Joyce QC prosecuting told the court that the defendant had planned to rob his younger friend to help repay a drugs debt."

and this is the one and ONLY mention of drugs in this article. I will cry "foul" on this~
Pretty biased to say that the brutal murder was because of a video game, not involvement in drugs and debt caused by them...

In reference to Mr. Thompson's comment (as well as the many other mis-applications of reasoning that use this strategy), over-generalization, such as the idea that a violent movie or videogame will cause violent behavior, is the hallmark of a poorly constructed argument. Sir, you may be educated, but I wonder how much actual training in legal argument you might have had. Part of constructing an argument is to identify as many of the possible or probable causes for a specific event as you can. And then incorporate them, either in support or to de-bunk them. I recommend you start reading Aristotle, specifically On Rhetoric, and follow that up into the 20th century. Horking and spitting up a series of unrelated events and assertions do not persuade anyone with half the ability to follow an argument. Anyone can make a silly comment that eclipses them, this is human, but don't let your pride back you into the stupid corner.
Also, for the love of the god you keep citing and the intellect you were (hopefully) given by him, religious spite and outrage are no place from which to base anything. It actually makes it easier to dismiss your argument. If you care at all about persuasion, control yourself. (I am convinced on reading your arguments that you care less for 'the youth of America' than you think you do; if you cared that much, you would change tactics to convince people, instead of howling out your generalized disgust.)

Feel free to respond. I realize I disagree with you, but at least I can express myself in a language you should be able to grasp. (I have noticed that you tend to nastily label and dismiss anything that does not use what you think to be adequate language.)

well...
after reading what felt like a thousand posts, i just wanted to add my overall thoughts on this issue.
1. for the record:
video games do not cause people to kill people. it has been stated many times before, but i felt it was needed in order to show who's side i am on.
i am a 19 year old christian who plays video games (gasp!) i have never killed anyone (gasp again!) but if alien invaders came, (like in halo and halo 2) i would most certainly defend my planet. if i was a soldier in a war (any war game) i would do the job i was trained to do. if i was a gang member who needed to kill my enimies to control my turf (GTA) i would "bust a cap in anyones ass" who tried to front. (including the cops who want to take me to jail, and the "hos" who want to make me waste my money) however, since none of these things will happen, i will enjoy them vicariously, through video games.
2.in the past, many death threats have gotten our struggle nowhere. i appreciate that the number of death threats to mr. Thompson have lowered significantly.
3.this is not a struggle against one enemy (jack thompson), but against the entire capatalist regime who says "blah blah blah, free will, blah blah blah the invisible hand, market is controlled by consumers, blah blah blah." and then turns around and tries to break that very foundation that capitalism, (and our country) was built on. either youre for no government regulations, or youre against it.
4.the sad thing is that i have yet to see someone on any of these topics say, "i am not a gamer, in fact i hate video games, but i believe in the freedom to create and market any product to the world."
5. i personally do not like the GTA series, not because of the violence, i simply dont like the gameplay. i also choose not to play games such as manhunt, because i disagree with the content in them. let me say that again.
I DISAGREE WITH THE CONTENT IN SOME GAMES.
I HAVE MY OWN OPINION.
i do not believe that anyone else should be prohibited from playing these games, if they so choose to play them. just as any person can say, "i dont want to watch the harry potter movies because i dont like the books," or, " i dont want to watch scary movie 3 because of the sexual content" they have the choice NOT TO WATCH THEM. NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO WATCH THESE MOVIES, OR PLAY THESE GAMES.
6. as it has been stated, the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of parents. any parent who does not pay attention to the games their child is playing. i do not mean to say that all parents are at fault, just the ones who leave the parenting up to video games.
in the famous words of bender "have you ever tried turning off the tv, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?" lol
(note: i do not advocate violence)

the main point is simple. spread the word. gamers unite. not just with other gamers, but spread the word to everyone you know. someone needs to create a full essay on this topic, from the first time jack has ever harrassed video games to the most recent atrocity: "it was clearly a satire"
we need to find lawyers to fight with us. doctors. psychologists. this is a serious thing. to ignore him would be to buckle under and give up. if you truly stand for freedom, fight for it. i fully intend to email jack with a reasonable and well toned email (or perhaps snail mail... maybe both..) such as this comment, and not only would i expect a childish comeback, i would welcome it. i would then send it away to a member of the "free press". i encourage anyone who has recieved such an email to beat me to it. if mr. thompson is truly acting like a child, its time to let the world know about it.
and finally, to jack:
if you ever take the time to read this, please understand who we are. we are not a group of smelly nerds who cant get a date. we are not necromancers who sit around a table trying to level up our "+3 fireball" to cast on our enimies. most of us are not plotting on how to sneak up and kill a man in 3 different ways with a grocery bag. we are everywhere. you cannot silence our message, and you will not take away our freedom.
one more thing jack (i hope we can go on a first name basis from now on... my name is sol ... psolms@gmail.com)
i read a quote of yours "God does not kill innocent people."
well let me just say this:
have you ever read a thing called the bible? no seriously, i mean read the whole old testament, and tell me that God doesnt kill people. God kills entire cities because of the general sin in the area. god killed the whole world (the flood) when they were too sinful. im sure there were a few innocents in there. and for the ultimate proof: look at Jesus. No sin whatsoever. He was killed. He was innocent.
in closing, if you wish to contact me about any of these things i have said, feel free. my email is psolms@gmail.com.

sorry, i meant to add something else:

if anyone has a current email address (as of october 19/05) and mailing address, i would appreciate it. the one i have now is jackpeace from comcast
is it the most accurate?
thanks

Hey Jack,
My name is Dan. I am a gamer. I'm 13. I've been playing videogames my whole life. I bought Halo when I was 10. My brother got Halo 2 when it came out, but y'know what? I'm not any more violent then I was before, then again, videogames are a way to vent myself when I get mad, so I am actually less violent because of videogames.
I will agree that some people might be more violent, but those people are the ones that don't understand that videogames are not real. The real responsibility for choosing appropriate games should fall to the parents.
I've been playing M rated games since I was 10 and it didn't affect me. I've also watched violent movies. I saw all three Matrix's when I was 12. I'm not homicidal! The fact that you can't understand this is pathetic. The parents should be the real ones to decide. If they think that a videogame is too much for their kids to handle, then they shouldn't get it for them, but you shouldn't try to ban videogames from everyone else.

Jack,
I am going to be blatantly honest. I do not like you. I do not like you at all.
That aside, I am going to tell you that Dan is absolutely right. Gaming lessens violence by providing people with a way of relieving stress and anger. So really, you should support games instead of hating them. Surely someone with your level of intelligence would have thought of that. But then again... I have yet to see you prove that you have the intelligence you claim you do.
Thank you for the "wisdom" you have forced upon the gaming community. We really appreciate your opinions.

hey jack, if u read this, then be smart about messing with the gaming community/industry, or else.

luke

well apparently i was wrong.
gaming community: as one of you i sugest that you stop threatening mr. thompson, or else.

(or else you'll continue to fuel his already forest-fire like stockpile of reasons that we are offensive and violent)

To Mr. Jack Thompson,

Mr. Thompson, I would normally regard your proposed donation with valor and praise, but this has reached the point of insanity. Not only did you lie to the entire nation, but you were ironically outdone by the very people you wish to disband. I am a fellow lawyer and would like to stress the point that one cannot sue another (as you have threatened the creators of the comic "Penny Arcade") over an email with the current laws; quite the contary, in fact, as one may counter-sue any who threaten such a suit. I would also like to express my dismay at your terribly stubborn and foolish behavior, as well as your inability to even consider the possibility that you may have been in the wrong. Your apparent response to any criticism seems no more than a measure of escape. Before you respond in kind, I would also like to express that I am not a gamer and will accept communication in the form of e-mail to the following address:
burger.brian@gmail.com

You know, assuming things turn out for the best for games, we may have to thank Mr. Thompson in the end. He's provoked a lot of debate over what a video game really is. Frankly, if his point of view is rejected, I think that games overall will become more respected as a medium.

YAY Brian the Lawyer! Tell that mean old man how it is! :D

I'm so not worried about this guy. Wait until (if?) his rantings affect the bottom line of Microsoft. Bill Gates's lawyers will have this guy for breakfast.

Okay, better idea: How about we get some gamers, intelligent ones at that, to go on a televised forum up against ol' JT, and pwn him on national television. Yeah, yeah, he does it to himself enough, but imagine how stupid he'll feel when he gets smacked around for an hour with a big bag of logic?

And on another point, wouldn't you love to see Jack Thompson on the Daily Show? I for one, will be writing the Daily Show to suggest exactly that. Come on, follow me in my quest.

Well as everything else Mr. Thompson says is untrue, so has his little or else aimed at this community been proven so.

I am from the UK and I am seriously considering putting together a site specifically doe the purpose of bringing a lawsuit to Jack Thompson, this is something that will take a while, but I doubt this will matter because people like JT just do not know when to quit. So I ask your patience as I piece this together.

I am personally offended by JT's accusations levelled at the gaming community I have been playing video games since I was able to use a joystick, I was also introduced to films such as the hammer horrors at young age and despite my immersion in all things spooky and violent I have turned out remarkably well, having just graduated from university with a degree in animation, I also do not have anything in the way of a criminal record, nor does playing games of an ultra violent nature cause me to have violent urges, quite the opposite in fact, if I have a really crappy day I will come home and switch something like GTA or Hitman on and I play to relieve the stress, taking out my anger on digital representations instead of coming home and beating my girlfriend or cat.

Sure there are people that take what they see to heart, however these problems are in no way related to video games, they do not disease the mind, a mind has to be damaged before the input of a video game will spark the initiative to harm another.

Anyway enough of my rambling, what do you guys think of the idea for setting up a site dedicated to bringing a lawsuit to Thompson?

Shane Firth
My email for anyone interested;
luciferous@hotmail.co.uk

I have a few comments of mine to make.

First, As an American I am entitled to my First Amendment right of Freedom of Speech and so is Jack Thopson. This means both sides are free to voice their opinions as much as they want in public forums.

Not to be childish, but my opinion of him is that he is and undereducated penis wrinkle.

That out of the way and my previous opinion being ignored, We as a gaming community have let the Industry and other parties take the brunt of defending our rights. I belive that with increased preasure on the Industry, and subsequent censorship, that it is now time for us as a group to organize and start flexing the power that is our right and defend our rights ourselves. Please support S. Firth's website proposale. In addition to writing your congress-man, i think we need to start a petition. A few million gamers signitures should be enough.

We can not allow our rights to be taken away by one man, when we are many. He cannot be ignored due to how the media receives him, and we cannot let this continue. I advocate Increased media coverage of this issue, and if the Media can't be bothered to show our side, we need to start diseminating our midea, through gamestop, EB, or something that will garner attention (without being the muderers that games make us)

Sorry For going on so long on this, but this issue pisses me off. I am resposible for my own actions. Not Pres. Bush, Not Bill Clinton, Not Congress, and as of a few years ago, not my parents, but Me and myself alone. Society needs to stop looking for scapegoats to blame thingas on and take responsabilty for their own actions. It is time we took responsability for our own, and for our rights.

Respectfully
J.K. Dane

"republicans like jack should be thanking the gaming industry and it's murder simulators for churning out shrink-wrapped iraq-bound adolescent killing machines."

I have to say, I'm a little offended that some of you would lump us republicans in with this douche. Really, it hurts my heart. I'm a republican, have been for years, and I just shudder to think that people are now starting to see us as little copies of Mr. Thompson. He's a moron, pure and simple. I mean, I'll admit that we certainly have our radicals, but who the hell doesn't? The Church had the crusades, the Muslims have Al Queda and the other Fundamentalists...I swear to you, not all of us are idiots. Just a lot of us. :D

Now, for Mr. Thompson. Please, do yourself a favor, and stop talking. Go live in a cave, away from the rest of society, where the evil gamers can't hurt you. You've done nothing but make yourself look like a complete idiot, and you aren't scaring anyone.

And folks, please don't refer to our soldiers as "shrink-wrapped adolescent killing machines", alright? If you don't support the Iraq war, that's fine, I don't either. But don't blame the soldiers. They are doing their jobs. If you want to be upset with someone, blame the government that sent them, but never go after the little guy who is just doing what he's told. That's all I'll say on that subject.
Rob, out.

I agree with post 187 and do support our right to voice our opinions.

My family is a gaming family, even grammy!

My 8 year-old son just finished WarCraft III Reign of Chaos today!

My son reads at a 5th grade level and I do credit gaming.

Age of Mythology has given all my young children a head start on learning mythology, not all of it but they know the names of the characters and some of what they did! More than me!

I find it funny that Mr. Thompson calls himself a soldier of god! The bible is full of crimes that if we truly lived our lives according to "the word", I am sure the majority of us would be jailed or stoned! LOL

We should just support the website, let our voices be heard and get back in game!

The People....FTW ;)

come on people, arent we being a little bit harsh...

i mean yeah so what, maybe the reason he is doing this is for attention of the self, wait wouldn't that be attention seeking..

but this could be because, and you neve know, but he could have had no friends when he was younger.

i as a artist think that he is the perfect piece of inspiration for my next piece of art..

it'll be loads of people playing games in a circle of love with a man, i say no names. but a man plotting world destruction.

tbh, i think jack being a bit childish.

another fact that he is ( or was ) friendless when he was young.
people of the gaming community, lets all send him our love... .. ... or not.

thank you jack thompson for strentghning the gaming community and showing how we have something in common to bring white, black, asian and even aliens if there's such a thing together.

jack, with all this time you have free, please go plant a tree or create something instead of trying to destroy..

thank you x

anx'

my e-mail is faithless.reborn@gmail.com

now jack, i'll be awaiting your gaganess with open arms. never know we could be friends.. /sarcasm

Ive been reading as much as I can atm on this topic, The only site that supports him is his own, which I might add has his contact details (Were did I place my gun :P Joking, Im not like that {And I play video games])

he really is a stupid, well I could say more, but no point re stating to obivious some more

I would just like to say that what Jack Thompson is doing is insane to a degreee which I had not thought possible of an adult human mind. How this man ever made it through Law school is a mystery not just to me I am sure. I can only assume Bribery played a big part in it.

Now Mr Thompson, Claiming that you are a foot soldier in God's army just makes you look worse in the public eye and in all seriousness is hypocritical due to the blasphemous nature of such a comment. Now, before you begin to claim that we video gamers are suffering from some sort of mental disadvantage, I can assure you we are not. We are perfectly sane people who live perfectly sane lives and do perfectly sane things. If anyone here is suffering from a severe brain malfunction it is without a doubt YOU.

Want some powerful and useful advice Jack?

Give up now, there is no point in fighting a losing battle. Any dillusions you have of winning are just that, Dillusions

P.S I would like to add that I am 15 years old. Kinda destroys your theory that all Gamers have no frontal lobe capacity, huh?

P.P.S We'll folks, we gotta give him a gold star for effort. Honestly, I can only say what we already know: A Mentally retarded and gender confused old geriatric can not bring down a large and mentally stable, intellectual and considerably witty community. Video gamers vs Jack Thompson? I bet everything I have on us!

Video games are protected under the constitution! He has brought these things to court so many time, but he doesn't win. And you know why? He can't! Video game makers aren't breaking any laws, they're just putting out games that people want to play. Jack Thompson acts like video games are such a bad influence for kids, but I'm sure his shameless attention whoring is a great influence! He's obviously in it for the publicity and needs to realize that he's pissing a lot of people off.

I don't know. I would agree that ignoring him would be the best course of action, but I feel that by trying to get Gabe and Tycho (the penny-arcade guys) arrested he may have taken it to far for me to just ignore. Response?

I don't know. I would agree that ignoring him would be the best course of action, but I feel that by trying to get Gabe and Tycho (the penny-arcade guys) arrested he may have taken it to far for me to just ignore. Response?

Jack Thompson has displayed complete absence of intellegence and wisdom on several ocasions. (I bet I confused him with all those BIG SCARY WORDS)

How a lieing no-brainer managed to become a man of law? I for one, don't know.

Jack Thompson needs to be beaten in the mouth.

Sometimes I wonder just how the crap our dear mister Thompson had managed to become a lawyer in the first place. These antics of his have shown him to be anything BUT lawman material, yet somehow he has indeed attained this rank, and has been abusing it for years now. He's attacked numerous different branches of the media despite the utter futility, and then gets angry when he fails.

Does he even pay attention to what he says about us all of the time? He needs to actually sit there and listen to himself one of these days; see just how much of an overzealous, disgustingly biased bigot he is. The childish insults he uses against us pertains to, MAYBE, two, three, maybe four percent of the gaming community. Why does he think us the messed up, freakish morons when he's the one trying to get Gabe and Tycho in trouble for DONATING TO CHARITY in his name, because he wouldn't? It's like they were covering his ass for him, and he throws a hissy-fit!

I congratulate you if you read this entire thread and fully understand it, Jack. I'll even give you a cookie. What I'd like to point out is that you're attacking a community you know next to nothing about, and trying to charge criminal harrassment for two webcomic authors for performing a selfless act that you didn't like. Know what that makes me think of? Toddlers. Little three to five year olds that whine to their parents about every minor thing that happens.

I am a gamer. I've been gaming since I was three years of age. I am also a die-hard fan of the anime world. I often live in a fantasy world of my own creation. I am a very. docile. person. I very easily discern the difference between fantasy and the real world. I'm sure most of us gamers are capable of that, regardless of our age. Hell, I was playing Doom II when I was SEVEN!

Murder simulators? I don't see a program to desensitize me to violence and sexual situations, Jack. I see a source of entertainment when I have nothing better to do, and an outlet for my life's everyday frustrations. Stop attacking the industries for events that are in no way their fault. They're not the ones letting children play their Teen and Mature rated games --their parents and the shops that sell them are.

Please get over yourself and surrender peacefully. You'll never win this battle.

Jack Thompson is, from what I have watched on various US Networks (yup, I'm a Brit), a man who has clearly no idea what he is talking about. I am no newcomer to this, in regards to an earlier post about the 17-year old that was killed, most of the newspapers the following morning ran the headline 'Ban these Evil Games'. One in particular got my attention, it was the Daily Mail, and a certain Murder-Sim game. GTA, right? Nope. Unreal Tournament 2004. They cliamed that the player 'murdered everything in their path'. They failed to realise that the weapons don't exist, all of your enemies are convicted fellons or monsters, and that you RE-FUCKING-SPAWN!
In regards to the trial - the 3 cops that were killed - I believe that our Mr. Thompson is totally disregarding the lives they unwillingly lost at the hands of a kid with an itchy trigger finger. Instead of trying to find justice for these men, instead of trying to get a triple-homicide levelled on the guy who fired the gun, this 'lawyer' has Gaming in the dock and he's gonna do anything to make sure it gets life.
I got one thing to say: Leave. Now. This isn't your fight. I think we, the gaming community, have earned enough respect by creating mods, going on to create full games, reviewing, discussing, hell, even (whisper it) playing games, to warrant somebody of semi-intelligence arguing your point. Though, somebody of semi-intelligence may decide to look at problems at home and psychological states of children...

In the name of Harman

So, what became of Mr. Thompson recently? It has been awhile since I have heard anything, I was wondering what came of our little friend.