Jack strikes back! Penny Arcade in legal trouble?

by James Ransom-Wiley on Oct 18th 2005 1:15PM

cry baby Jack Thompson has made a plea to Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, demanding that Penny Arcade's $10K donation (in Jack's name) be considered criminal harassment. If you're curious about Washington State's stance on harassment, read here. Not sure that Jackie-boy has much of a case…

When will it end? If we stop posting about Thompson, will he go away? Or, would making a collective agreement to shut him out of the gaming press leave his banter unchecked? Should we keep following his moves in an effort to make the uninformed public (are you reading this post?) aware of his antics? Thoughts?

[Thanks to everyone that sent this in]

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Reader Comments (158)

Somebody should just distract him with a shiny object.

The man is clearly a whore for attention, and every time you write an article about him, you're giving him exactly what he wants.

Anything think this is direct karma feedback? I mean, the guy is obviously a tool, and as much of that just being recent in the news, has probably gone on his entire life. Think all this negative association that's connecting to his name is a direct karmic return? Cuz it seems like his life is going to shit. With his life being threatened(read VG Cats) by gamers, web comics harassing him left and right, the association that he used to hide under seperating themselves from him publicly, then all the negative stigma from saying the 10k was a joke once someone came through on the bounty... His life must suck from dawn til dusk.

Wow, he's (Jack) going to get no where. Kerlikowske seems a down to earth cop from what I've seen of him on the news and how he handles situations.

Personally I feel if people would just forget about Thompson he'd simply fade away.

What a world we live in where donating money to charity constitutes criminal harassment.

I won't donate the money I said I would, and neither can anyone else!

Wow. This guy must really hate poor people.

A wise man once said:

Don't feed the trolls.

This guy makes me want to commit murder more than any video game EVER has.

Yack Thompson definately got owned on this one.

I agree with Nintendo Gal, let him slither back under his rock and fade away.

awesome. I will never make any donation anymore, as I'm afraid people will sue me for that. thanks jack!!!

Interestingly enough, PA's site now returns a 403 (Forbidden) error...

awesome. I will never make any donation anymore, as I'm afraid people will sue me for that. thanks jack!!!

Three words for Mr. Thompson:
Bag Of Douche

The problem is that even if we as gamers ignore him, the easily misled public may not. Thompson's ego will not be deflated if we start ignoring him; he made his comments about gaming before gamers took action, and he will continue to do so as long as someone listens.

That said, it is important for us to act mature and civilized when he does not. Death threats and rambling manifetsos overloading his mailbox may not present our community in the best light. How one uses their voice is just as important as the act itself. If one does choose to confront him, think back to all those persuasive essays you had to write for English class, not the stuff you post on GameFaqs.

Pretty much, I am sick of hearing about this guy. Yes, his original cause was noble, but now it's degraded to the point that he is digging a hole so deep that he can't see a way out but to keep digging.

It'd be nice if everyone affected by Jack's threats and attacks put together a lawsuit against him that resulted in jailtime. That would effectivly silence the issue.

But remember, just like all of the other squeaky wheels in the news (Martha Stewart, Michael Jackson, OJ, etc.) his 15 minutes in the spotlight will be over soon enough. But of course, unlike all of the other newsworthy celebrety antics, they aren't nearly as wacky as good old Jack. Imagine if Michael Jackson had stated that he did sleep around with kids and cause emotional damage, then turn around and say it was satire and he was joking the whole time.

I have a feeling that by the end of October Jack will be out of the press completely and the only harm done will be a stricter ESRB system put into place. This really won't affect anybody exept for the already angst-filled teenagers.

Remember these times for what they are... a sign of the apocalypse brought forth by the 5th horseman... 'Wacky Jack Thompson!'

from Jack's response to NIMF:

"Liberals, like you, love to label things and then think that the labeling has accomplished something. If that had been the case, then Churchill's calling Hitler a Nazi would have ended the war. But no, people like me had to get into the trenches and stop the Nazis. And there were always those tut-tutting back home about what a nasty business it is to stop the bad people, and can't we all just "get along."

Jack seems to think he was in WW2. Or it is all some metaphor for how he is playing "war" against the evil in the world - the pussy way- with his mighty lawsuits of vindication.

If he thinks videogames are as much of a social evil as Hilter, we have problems...or. maybe just him.

Superberg is probably looking at my "Bag of Douche" comment right now and shaking his head.

The Seattle Police are probably laughing at him right now. Seriously, do you think they are going to charge penny arcade with criminal harrassment because they decided to make true the promise that Jack broke? Come on! In that case, lets have penny arcade change the donation in jack thompson's name to a $10,000 donation in the name of "Video Gamer's against Jack Thompson.

I say the media should ban posting anything with him in it. Or at least remove his name. Maybe just replace his name with "that moron from Florida" in all future posts involving him.

How can you even take this man seriously with the shit he does?

For christ's sake he can't even get the URL for PennyArcade correct in his letter.

I love how he uses catchy phrases to get people's attention like "paint a bullseye on cops" and "murder simulator". The letter he wrote to the group that abondoned him he says "Bully is the columbine simulator". It is? So literally the game starts you off as the 2 kids and you have to get knowledge of explosives and play up until you enter the school and kill people? That sounds like a very short game to me,nevermind the violence in it.

This guy is just simply out of control and just distorts reality to see it the way he wants. I swear he's going to come out saying Burnout is a "simulator for drunk driving and murdering people in automobile accidents".

With the more attention he gets the crazier he becomes. I say keep writing about him. The angrier and crazier he gets the more he invalidates his point.

This is just funny. He got publiclly owned, and now he's mad. Please keep posting more about this, I'd love to see this guy make himself look even more silly.

As a hardcore gamer who currently attends seminary and is planning on volunteering along the Gulf Coast in a few months' time, I can honestly say that violent video games have had very little if any affect on me.

More to the point, Jack appears to simply want attention. Maybe he wasn't hugged enough as a child. I wonder if there's a law against falsely accusing people numerous times. I'm pretty sure that Jack has done this before. And any reference that he makes to God is an absolute joke. We can not discern the will of God, and I don't think God thinks that those who make video games are evil. I have the feeling that Fred Phelps and Jack would get along fairly well.

like I said on Kotaku's comments, I'd like to call for a moratorium on everything Jack Thompson. He thrives on persecution, and every time someone reacts to his attention-grabbing he feels "justified" and gets even louder. Even other right-wing groups have demanded that he stop listing them as allies. He has no power, he is a non-entity. Ignore him and he'll go away.

Funny how he got their URL wrong in his letter. That's some mighty fine lawyering.

Their domain is penny-arcade.com

This guy can't even file a police report without talking about how awesome he is.

Someone should have Maddox send him some Johnson & Johnson 'no more tears' baby shampoo, like he did with Bill O'Reilly.

I hear that once you start turning tricks, it's hard to stop. If sai Thompson doesn't get his attention for us, he'll get it from other people. The problem is, a lot of these other people he'll get it from are stupid, easily-molded people.

I think there's a distinct possibility that we, the gaming community, are keeping him occupied. If he is spending all his time sending PA (and anyone else who dares speak his name) emails and phone calls (and cops, apparantly), he has less (or no) time to be an idiot in the media. And if he's not in the news or on TV, then he can't influence the daft population that trusts those sources above their own brains.

So, to PA and anyone else who is personally dealing with Thompson's BS, I say, "Keep it up. You seem to be enjoying yourselves. Plus, he's old. Sooner or later he'll be gone. Then he'll only be able to be an ass to the worms."

The truth is, I don't think Jack Thompson needs to disappear. His actual goal has merit. He doesn't want kids to get their hands on violent games. That's not a bad goal. His heart is in the right place, it's his mouth that makes people dislike him. If he took the time to rationally respond to gamer backlash, instead of categorizing us all as marijuana smoking rejects, we might all be able to move the industry to a better place. The problem is that he intensely dislikes videogames to begin with. He believes that they have no merit whatsoever. Ideally, that's not the man you want trying to change the system. You wouldn't want someone who thinks cars are worthless running the Department of Transportation. I imagine that's what gets gamers so incensed. He basically classifies all of us and what we do (as a group, a community) as completely worthless. And, unfortunately, he seems to be the kind of man who will never change his mind regarding this issue. He will always think/know that he is right, and all of us--no matter how competent, educated, or successful we are--are wrong. It's a shame because, the game industry really needs a rational dicussion about where it's headed and who is playing its games.

Hey, I think plenty of this stuff is funny. But I know not everyone is going to agree. Particularly nyc's "This guy makes me want to commit murder more than any video game EVER has."

But if you say that to him, he's just gonna slap you with litigation. We can win the battle by being better than him, not by lowering ourselves to his way of thinking.

"Personally I feel if people would just forget about Thompson he'd simply fade away."

I wish this were true. This would be, regrettably, a very dangerous tactic to hope Jack simply goes away. We (the "gamers") may forget about him but mainstream media will not. Jack knows how to work the media. He knows how to work the politicians.

It has been shown, time and again, that one person really can make a difference. Sometimes that one person is pushing the agenda you disagree with. Jack can make a difference. Jack *has* made a difference.

Continuing to pursue the antics which he embarks on, verifying his statements and research figures, and pushing main stream media to see him for what he is (a bully) is *safer* course of action.

Don't sit back and hope it fades away. Every voice matters... be it your's, or his.

how many jack thompson does it takes to change a light bulb?
six.
one to blame the light bulb for him having no life.
one to appear in national television, offering $1,000,000 for any electrician to change his light bulb.
one to refuse to pay the electrician.
one to explain to the whole world that the $1,000,000 thing was a joke.
one to sue the electrician for touching his light bulb
and one to send me an email, asking me to take down this joke or get sued.

Gabe AND Tycho have responded. Go to http://www.penny-arcade.com for further hilarity.

:D

I wonder what Thumper would do, if thousands of gamers made small donations in his name to various charities associated with video gaming (Child's Play, ESA Foundation, etc.)? Call cops around the country (and world)?

Sue the hell out of PA for giving $$$ to people in need.

"That moron from Florida" reminds me of forum trolls. He obviously has nothing better to do than start flame wars or get gets off on it. Probably both actually.

superberg makes an excellent point. So instead of attacking him personally, we can try and stop him from stereotyping of our community. Mr. Thompson has a book that will be released by Tyndale House Publishers in December http://www.tyndale.com/products/details.asp?isbn=1-4143-0442-0 . Instead of attacking him here, contact Tyndale, and explain why a respected christian publishing company would not want to be affiliated with a person who behaves as Mr. Thompson has recently. I'm pretty sure his actions of late no longer fall under their coporate mission (especially his recent "satire").

The target audience for the guy's lunacy is not gamers or gaming sites. It's the scandal hungry mainstream press and the viewers of IQ-reducing shows like 'Oprah.' Ignoring him here will not slow him down.

The only damage done has been from subjecting him to public ridicule by exposing his folly. He thrive on hate mail but becomes unhinged in the face of rational arguments. So the best thing to do is keep up the pressure until he withdraws or goes so far around the bend nobody in the press will give him a public forum any longer.

I read and interpret statutes all day five days a week. There is ABSOLUTELY no way a court of law would find that Penny Arcade's donating to charity in Thompson's name constitutes criminal harrassment. In fact, I wouldn't be suprised if a court sanctioned any lawyer bringing such a claim for its obvious frivolousness.

I think it's hilarious. He's exposing himself for the kook that he is. He's having a meltdown and we get to watch. His name will live on as a dirty word:

"That dude cut me off! What a Jack Thompson." or
"Awwww, I just stepped in a pile of Jack Thompson. Damn."
or
"I just got out of the pool and my Jack Thompson has shrinkage."
or
"No. Jack Thompson YOU, buddy!"

So, Jack Thompson is losing the debate against a majority voice? I think he'll find that this is called DEMOCRACY! This process is the reason why you don't have to be a 'law talking guy' to have your opinion heard, and acted upon.

As history has shown, ignoring radical media-hungry psychos proves to be a very bad idea. I say the gaming community makes an effort to bring this situation to the attention of the easily mislead public.

Jack Thompson is a molecule-minded, self-obsessed, petty little man who preys on easy targets and exploits those less fortunate than himself for his own gain. In my opinion. And you can't stop me having an opinion, Jack.

How many families in New Orleans could have used that $10K? Yet here he is whinging about video games. Nice sense of priorities you got there, Jacko. Where were you when Child's Play 3 was released, and little Jamie Bulger was murdered here in the UK by two TEN-YEAR-OLDS?

Let's face it, if it wasn't games he was attacking, it'd be rap. Oh, sorry, it already HAS been, hasn't it - he was on Channel 4 a few weeks back. Nice to know he hasn't changed much. OK then - if it wasn't rap, it'd be sausages, the number 7, the colour teal or the work 'effervesce'.

Go away, Thompson, you insignificant little piece of DNA. Rail against popular culture to someone that gives half a toss - you're pretty sure to be limited to looking in the mirror for the rest of your life. Should suit you down to the ground, seeing how you love the sound of your own voice so much.

In my opinion.

I have subpoenaed Joystiq to provide a full list of the IP addresses from the contributors to this discussion. Each and every one of you will recieve a cease and desist letter if you continue to defame my character. A character that I've worked very hard to keep free of scandal.

I'm Jack Thompson. I have the ability to make up the law as I go along, so you better take me seriously... Or else.

LOL...wow that last post is now gonna become one of my forum sigantures...lol...

"A character that I've worked very hard to keep"

Finally Jack has character... it took us a long time, but we finally did it.

Now if he only had a brain.

A common tactic for these kind of silly attention-mongering people (like, say, Fred Phelps if you've heard of him - google at your own risk) is that when he protests somewhere, the community being protested often sets up a donation program where people donate a certain amount for every minute he protests...and then they donate it for him to a local charity (for Phelps, often a local LGBT organization). I've seen it get up to $75 / minute, and it has the dual benefit of getting money and awareness out and making him *seriously* not want to protest or make a ruckus.

With Jack Thompson, that'd kill two birds with one stone :D

That was an awesome post, "Jack Thompson". Or else indeed.

Three things strike me as extremely funny about Jack's conduct.

1. Keeping M rated games out of the hands of little kids is a good thing. Why not work on enforcement of the ESRB ratings? Just badger Best Buy, Gamestop and Wal-Mart and you've got 95% of the market right there.

2. Posting comments on message boards and public websites that you hate somebody is defamation of character and illegal? Somebody tell that to Bill Gates: I think there is (this is a very scientific survey I conducted) seven billion Macintosh and Linux webpages Mr. Gates could sue. I think he's got more money than Jack Thompson to throw around on stuff like that.

3. Remember when Derek Smart was considered the biggest asshole we all knew? I would kiss Derek's feet to have him be Public Enemy #1 in gaming again. Compared to Jackie boy, Derek Smart was virtually Ghandi.

Is it just me, or does Jack look a helluva lot like Jon Stewart in a white wig?

There must be a handful of people with the name 'Jack Thompson' that could contact Penny Arcade and take the credit for the donation, making fun of "The Jack Thompson" even longer.

Given how mundane the name in question is, I bet there's quite a few people out there by the name "Jack Thompson" who are gamers and are desperately thinking of changing their name because of one lawyer in Florida.

I know if it was my name, I'd either go by "John" or my middle name at this point.

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Jack strikes back! Penny Arcade in legal trouble?

Reader Comments (158)

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