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i believe you, and many others, would find this entertaining...

For those not in the know, here are some exchanges between netizens and Jack Thompson:

VG Cats v Jack Thompson
Penny-Arcade v Jack Thompson
a 14 Year Old v Jack Thompson

He was pwned terribly in each case.

Microsoft touts this as a brilliant center of home media and that's probably true for anyone who doesn't already have a home entertainment center of some sort. But what the distillate is you're not going to buy it to watch DVDs on, you're going to play games with it. You're not going to surf the internet, you're going to play games with it. It won't transform you into some actuallized renaissance man (or woman) through shear wonderfulness of the Total Microsoft Experience, you will play games with it.

See, that's the thing. I believe more people than you give credit will use it as both a media center and a game console. Essentially anyone living in a smaller space like an apartment will like the idea being able to play games, watch movies and listen to music--all in high-definition and surround sound--without having a big (and expensive) stack of components.

In addition, the console brings something pretty new to the scene. Now, if you have video or audio stored on your computer you can play it on your 360 via wireless or wired networking. Why try to watch content on your computer from an uncomfortable chair using poor speakers watching on a small monitor when instead you can watch it from the comfort of a coutch on a large TV screen (YMMV here).

Is the 360 some magical gift from God? Obviously not, but in the same token it's not the same game console we played back in 1985. Also, nobody should make it sound like it's a big Microsoft ploy to hype this up as much as they can. Sony is just as bad (if not worse in some ways) about hyping up anything new they release. Nintendo doesn't seem to be quite as bad, but they still do some crazy stuff to try and get attention.

I'm surprised nobody linked to this yet. It says a lot about the show.

For those not in the know, here are some exchanges between netizens and Jack Thompson:

VG Cats v Jack Thompson
Penny-Arcade v Jack Thompson
a 14 Year Old v Jack Thompson

He was pwned terribly in each case.

Kitty Litter and Pawn two of my favorites that nobody seems to know. And of course VG Cats.

Isn't the HDD only standard on the non-core system? Also, how big are the emulators going to be? The XBox HDD is only 20 gb right? Is this going to conflict with everything else on your drive?

A lot of fun was poked at Nintendo over the entry cost of FF:CC I don't see why this is any different. To some degree this might be worse?

i believe this http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/050919.gif will show you the answer (replace revolution with ipod)

No, you have one man claiming that he's getting all these death threats. When he ponies up the emails, with headers, from all these people putting out death threats on him, then he has a case. Right now, he's twisting the truth to get other people to do what he wants. But of course, that's what lawyers do.

I mean, go check out actual email conversation with the guy.. VG Cats & Jack!.. even when he starts the conversation, he starts seeing death threats and attacks in the responses. He's got the shittiest pair of rose-colored-glasses I've ever seen. Anything said to him is either total support, or a death threat.

The FBA's "contact us" page is here.

From the PA boards:

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is regarding the current status of the license to practice law currently granted to Jack Thompson through the Florida Bar Association.

Jack Thompson is a very controversial lawyer, more often than not resorting to political matters to solve his own personal disputes rather than through the legal system. However, in recent months, it has become clear to me that Thompson is not merely a controversial individual, but is also a very corrupt, callous, and often rude individual who, in my own estimation, does not exemplify the ethical and moral principles for which a lawyer should hold, and I believe that the Florida Bar Association, in holding with the claim that "One of the primary purposes of The Florida Bar is to assure the highest standards of professionalism in the practice of law for the benefit of members and the public.", must organize a referendum to determine if Jack Thompson should be able to continue practicing law as a licensed attorney. Evidence for this need is widespread and incriminating. Examples of this unprofessional and unethical behavior are detailed below, and I urge those who this concerns to properly review these actions by this callous individual carefully.

Recently, he has engaged in a very callous, unprovoked and irresponsible tirade with the creator of the popular VGCats online web comic (http://www.vgcats.com/ and evidence of this encounter is available here: http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php. During this exchange, Jack Thompson made a number of references questioning Scott Ramsoomair's sexuality, intelligence, and his use of psychotropic drugs, all of which are unsubstantiated and irrelevant to the discourse (which Mr. Thompson initiated), and then proceeded to threaten legal action in an irresponsible manner.

During this discourse, after initiating contact with Mr. Ramsoomair and proceeding to insult him, he then claimed that he had not initiated contact, despite the fact that it is verifiable that Mr. Thompson did initiate contact.

This kind of conversational process is not uncommon with Mr. Thompson, and a simple search can uncover literally dozens of people and organizations who have had incredibly negative and often dishonest discourse with Mr. Thompson, commonly initiated by Mr. Thompson himself.

"(c) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation;"

[source: http://www.floridabar.org/divexe/rrtfb.nsf/FV/DE51 D6D9608C634A85256BBC00558300%5D

Furthermore, Mr. Thompson has made claims that the creators of the extremely popular online webcomic Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/ Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, were "criminally harassing" him. However, this harassment allegation was made in response to a single e-mail sent to Mr. Thompson which responded to a proposal made by Mr. Thompson (where he requested that someone make an extraordinarily violent video game directed at a specific individual in exchange for $10,000 donated to a charity [source: http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=5883%5D ). In this response, it was explained that his proposal had been carried out by a programmer
[source: http://hellfish.gtajunkies.com/Story.html%5D. Mr. Thompson responded to this civil e-mail by calling the creators of Penny Arcade, spouting vulgarities at them and rudely explaining that the proposal was entirely in jest and that no money would be donated to a charity. Therefore, the o

The FBA's "contact us" page is here.

From the PA boards:

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is regarding the current status of the license to practice law currently granted to Jack Thompson through the Florida Bar Association.

Jack Thompson is a very controversial lawyer, more often than not resorting to political matters to solve his own personal disputes rather than through the legal system. However, in recent months, it has become clear to me that Thompson is not merely a controversial individual, but is also a very corrupt, callous, and often rude individual who, in my own estimation, does not exemplify the ethical and moral principles for which a lawyer should hold, and I believe that the Florida Bar Association, in holding with the claim that "One of the primary purposes of The Florida Bar is to assure the highest standards of professionalism in the practice of law for the benefit of members and the public.", must organize a referendum to determine if Jack Thompson should be able to continue practicing law as a licensed attorney. Evidence for this need is widespread and incriminating. Examples of this unprofessional and unethical behavior are detailed below, and I urge those who this concerns to properly review these actions by this callous individual carefully.

Recently, he has engaged in a very callous, unprovoked and irresponsible tirade with the creator of the popular VGCats online web comic (http://www.vgcats.com/ and evidence of this encounter is available here: http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php. During this exchange, Jack Thompson made a number of references questioning Scott Ramsoomair's sexuality, intelligence, and his use of psychotropic drugs, all of which are unsubstantiated and irrelevant to the discourse (which Mr. Thompson initiated), and then proceeded to threaten legal action in an irresponsible manner.

During this discourse, after initiating contact with Mr. Ramsoomair and proceeding to insult him, he then claimed that he had not initiated contact, despite the fact that it is verifiable that Mr. Thompson did initiate contact.

This kind of conversational process is not uncommon with Mr. Thompson, and a simple search can uncover literally dozens of people and organizations who have had incredibly negative and often dishonest discourse with Mr. Thompson, commonly initiated by Mr. Thompson himself.

"(c) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation;"

[source: http://www.floridabar.org/divexe/rrtfb.nsf/FV/DE51 D6D9608C634A85256BBC00558300%5D

Furthermore, Mr. Thompson has made claims that the creators of the extremely popular online webcomic Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/ Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, were "criminally harassing" him. However, this harassment allegation was made in response to a single e-mail sent to Mr. Thompson which responded to a proposal made by Mr. Thompson (where he requested that someone make an extraordinarily violent video game directed at a specific individual in exchange for $10,000 donated to a charity [source: http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=5883%5D ). In this response, it was explained that his proposal had been carried out by a programmer
[source: http://hellfish.gtajunkies.com/Story.html%5D. Mr. Thompson responded to this civil e-mail by calling the creators of Penny Arcade, spouting vulgarities at them and rudely explaining that the proposal was entirely in jest and that no money would be donated to a charity. Therefore, the o

To quote the shirt, "I HATE Jack Thompson" as much as anyone, but keep in mind that an investigation alone won't get him disbarred. I'd love to have that kind of P.R. weapon on the side of the games industry, but premature gloating isn't going to win any hearts on the Florida bar. In fact, it may have the opposite effect.

A better strategy would be to send correspondence to the bar alerting them to other infractions Jack has made besides those against Penny Arcade. For instance, his use of these same tactics on Lou Kerner of Bolt Media is my personal favorite.

Or you could cite his threats against the author of VGCats.

Or even the latest vague legal threats against Dave Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family.

One of these can be overlooked, but if the Bar knows about all of these, perhaps Jack will be out of the game for good.

EA CAN'T STOP THEM. If EA decides to get all legally hardass about games mods, people will just take an extra three seconds to put out their releases anonymously. If EA removes mod support from the game altogether, it will just be modded more creatively. This isn't about EA or nipples at all though. It's about the core nature of technology, software, and the distribution of information when the internet is involved. Good or bad, it just honestly can't be stopped.

Adobe and Microsoft, who have experience combating piracy for 20+ years (around 7 years for piracy that is often enabled by cracks -- or mods, if you will), and they still can't prevent people from circumventing their new fancy online validation tools. What do you expect EA to do? Not put out the game ever? Sue the modders?

I know, let's pass a law requiring the destruction of all media-related electronics. That's the ONLY thing that will ever eliminate the possibility of harmful content reaching children. Jack Thompson's reasoning would absolutely require him to sue every media and electronic company on the face of the Earth. He himself has said he is only one man, so he stays focused on one thing. But you know what? If he really had a clue of any sort, there would be 10,000 other lawyers following in his footsteps. Last time I checked (ohhh, just about a minute ago), there is zero behind him. Maybe he is the only saint left among all of us crazy people.

As a privet citizen employed by the Lutheran church I have become concerned about the recent inappropriate actions and public comments by John B. Thompson aka Jack Thompson. In recent days he has incited violence against several people, and has attempted to "bully" news and creative outlets that have pointed this out with threats to sue. In the long term their is an entire history of him being just plain nasty to otherwise nice people asking honest questions about his legal beliefs and motives. Hes has also, in ignorance or in a just plain lie, has told major media outlets that the NFL is so sickened by the video game industry that they would not allow Midway ltd to use their logo when in fact EA simply secured exclusive rights to use the logo in their line of sports games. Below I have provided links to a handful of media and creative outlets that have had ongoing contact with John B. Thompson aka Jack Thompson.

http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php (creative)

(Penny-Arcade updates Mon, Wed, and Fri the 3 links I have provided go to various dates as well as their most current news. Also Penny-Arcade is involved in both news and creative media but they DO NOT create news their reports are accurate and well documented)

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php?date=2005-10- 14
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php?date=2005-10- 18
http://www.penny-arcade.com/

http://croqaudile.com/?article_id=10299 (news media/blog)

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/janet.htm (media, little old back from when he ran agenst Janer Reno for dade county DA)

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000103062744/ (if you type the words "Jack Thopson modest" into the search engine google.com this artical and several other related articals are the top hits this refects the level of negative public attenion his recent actions have brought up.)

(slashdot.org news for geeks very long link so I broke the format of posting the sorce type next to the link)

http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=165653&thr eshold=1&commentsort=0&tid=123&mode=thread&pid=0

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/17/ 1750203&tid=133&tid=10

The following is John Bruce Thompson's bar information:

John Bruce Thompson

Member in Good Standing Eligible to practice in Florida

ID Number: - 231665
Firm:
1172 S Dixie Hwy Ste 111
Coral Gables Florida 331462918
Phone: 305.6664366
Fax:
E-Mail: jackpeace@comcast.net
County: Dade
Circuit: 11
Admitted: 05/31/1977

I have carboned copied this E-mail to Mr.Thompson as well as news@slashdot.org, gabe@penny-arcade.com and, tycho@penny-arcade.com

I implore you to look deep into his recent actions this individual is practicing law in both your state and on a Federal level while at the same time is showing very little regard for the law.

Your truly & concernd;
Keith. J. Lemire
Community Intergration Specalist
Luthren Socal Services

P.S. Feel free to contact me by phone between 5pm and 10pm Monday through Thursday or 9am to 10pm fri,Sat,Sun
#ya right I'm not slashdoting my phone number!

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366

jackpeace@comcast.net

August 5, 2005

http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php

Jack does come off as an extremely rational person. My thoughts after first hearing the interview were exactly along the lines as yours. I was expecting, particulary with the "disclaimer" at the beginning of the interview, for Jack to be a screaming evangelical lunatic, and that of course is not the case at all.

He is a lawyer though, and he knew what audience he was talking to. I actually had a very good conversation with Alon, who hosted this interview with Jack, and he agreed that the point of the interview was to show that Jack isn't as maniacal as the gaming media and opinioners make him to be, but if you look at how he behaves outside of the spotlight, examples found here, here, and here, you can begin to gather that this guy is not a good person by any standard -- and that is removing all personal opinion as a gamer and looking at him purely as a human being.

I contacted Alon to defend Jack in a roundabout way, as his points about keeping violent media away from children's hands is very valid. I think we all agree with Jack on that. It is the basis of his reasoning for all of his actions -- profiting -- and his own conduct, that are Grade A wacko.

Besides which, Jack Thompson is such a disturbed crackpot that surely he must not be getting any clients these days!*

*I wish this were necessarily true. :( Unfortunately there seems to be quite a market these days for raving lunatics with a "omfg save teh childz0rz" message, so I can only say this: if Jack Thompson *is* getting clients, the fact is sick and wrong.

P.S. Jack Thompson reminds me of Dr. Hobo from VGCats. I guess there's once difference, though. Dr. Hobo is an insane, violent, paranoid man who thinks he's a doctor; Jack Thompson, on the other hand, thinks he's a lawyer.

He's started to send them annoying emails as well now.

WTF? how come /. stripped the link to http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php when it posted the comment?

You're all asking me for Jack's Email and or phone number and I respect that. The problem is that I can't give that info out. The fact is that Jack had time to call me after I sent him a sarcastic email. I have no doubt in my mind that he would try and pull some legal bullshit if I post his phone number.

Did I ever mention how much I like VG cats?

-Gabe out

>> no i don't think they did give out his e-mail he's just a jackass

well they didn't directly but they did link post this:

You're all asking me for Jack's Email and or phone number and I respect that. The problem is that I can't give that info out. The fact is that Jack had time to call me after I sent him a sarcastic email. I have no doubt in my mind that he would try and pull some legal bullshit if I post his phone number.

Did I ever mention how much I like VG cats?

Check out the "VG cats?" link which I myself have not done. :)

Thompson himself started this mess.

<imitation type="loser jack">
No, he didn't! no he didn't! no he didn't!

The VG cats guys started it when they replied to the email he sent them!
</imitation>

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366

jackpeace@comcast.net
August 5, 2005
Patricia Vance

source: http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php

Make sure to write any letters or make any calls in the same civil manner as he himself has shown others.

Make extra sure.

You arnt talking about the vgcats exchange, are you?

http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php

Voila. Dug up the link on PA's site. Credit to them for handling the thing as well as they have.

Because I don't watch TV anymore, I hardly qualify for answering this. But the fact is, I hate ads just as much as the next person, on every dimension. Newspaper ads in Sunday papers bring the average paper (Say, the Boston Globe) from .56 pounds (On a regular day) to 3.3 pounds (Measured this Sunday, yesterday). Radio ads ruin the listening pleasure in that driving down the road and hearing a "This SUNDAY SUNDAY SOMEDAY" bloke talking about the furniture sale is really a buzzkill. As for TV commercials, they're not as bad as they could be, and it really depends on the channel. Nickelodeon has kid-inspired and targeted commercials, so there's no real irritation because they're all mildly funny. Most other channels like USA, TNT, Lifetime (Ugh) and other suches have commercials all too often, and literally take up half of the viewing time.
As for internet ads though, there's nothing as filthy. People are constantly coming up with new phishing ways, new popup exploits and other such bullshitteries that make me want to disconnect forever. There's only one site that I frequent that has popup ads, and it's literally unbearable. I once had 20 popups blocked, and 3 got through because they were flash-conducted. Fileplanet is not nearly as bad as that, but it's definitely on its way.
I don't use Adblock because I understand that sites need to be paid for, which sometimes means using banner-ads (Looking at a Yahoo! hotjobs banner-ad at the top of this page in particular). The thing is, popups are insanity and unnecessary. You don't have to have a popup or one of those Java/Flash scrolling ads (You know what I'm talking about...) just to get your point across. Advertisements like those on Boingboing.net are just fine, and are completely managable because they're not in-your-face. I've actually found some pretty interesting and excellent reads through their ad system, and I'm glad that they do it the way they do. It's successful.

The point of this reply is simply to state that advertisements in every way are filthy, but necessary. The only thing that should be changed is the approach. It would make more sense to catch the eyes of the users, instead of bullying them.

FACE!

Don't forget the *waddle* *waddle* *waddle*

So basically it's impossible to quite with case sensitivity. Lameness Filter 1s teh sUx0r

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=150

I like the panel that says "part of my soul just died". Maybe this will explain the loss in profits :P

Or it'd look like this.

Naww, they're right on the same maturity level as he is. If anything, any laysuits between the two can be filmed as a documentary and then marketed as a comedy.

more support on the INternet for these devices

Ever try the PSP browser? It's actually quite nice--you use a cursor controlled by the pad thingy (I don't have a PSP). Some sites even have PSP-sized pages, like VG Cats.

They're doing this? To the guy who was going to take legal action on the author of VGCats because he sent the guy an email?
 
Can you say "lawsuit"?
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I agree, who cares?

The point is to be satisfied with what you have, no matter which one it is. I only have a DS and I'm quite content with it. If you're happy with your PSP, good for you. There's no point in bickering like fanboys over it.

If you're happy with both, well you're a rich little snot and I envy you.

I know this evidence is entirely anecdotal, but consider this: I'm the only female in my household, and I'm responsible for about half the gaming purchases we make. Both of my sisters have own game systems. My mother is still obsessed with Super Mario Brothers 2. Before I left home, I'd made most of the major game purchases in my house since I was..hmm...ten. And I buy in a slightly different demographic. For example, I am NOT going to play Bard's Tale. Ever. The box art is just insulting.

Nintendogs is raking in HUGE amounts of money for Nintendo because of female gamers and other demographics that supposedly "don't drive the market." Pokemon also has a huge girl gamer draw. Even Final Fantasy relies on a huge female fan base to get it by, mainly because "Sephiroth is my bishie!" and similar sentiments. (Not that I'd have anything to do with them these days. Final Fantasy X really pissed me off. Rikku needed to show less ass, Yuna more spine.) If the rest of the game makers out there would get that "macho stick" out of their asses, they could get down to the business of making and selling some really innovative games.

Also, Titanic sucked. Women don't need movies tailor-made for them - they already have a huge impact on movie sales. Johnny Depp, Zach Braff, Tobey McGuire and Topher Grace are some of our modern "heart throbs" that hook women in to mainstream TV and movies. How many girls do you think plopped down their 9 dollars for Spider Man 2 to see Tobey, or Willy Wonka to see Johnny? Face it, man. Geeky is the new dreamy.

-----
I always post AC in Games. Why do you ask?

VGCats: Coco Beans in Warm Water"

This is NOT flamebait. If anything, this is glossing over the amazing turd that FFXI is on gaming.

Everything said by the parent post is completely true. Everything.

It's not popular in the US. It did tank miserably in the US and Europe. Groups do take hours upon hours to form. (And once they do, they usually rapidly break up.) The economy is dominated by farmers. There was a Slashdot article a while back about them banning eight hundred farmers. This was news because they never had before. And they never have since. Encounters are literally so demanding that you MUST have the absolute best gear or you're literally useless (unless you're the white mage, who's essential and will simply be less effective) because you'll simply never hit the opponent.

Ultimately you're left with three choices: competeing with farmers, farming trash mobs for HOURS on end because they don't drop anything useful (most popular solution), or buying from the farmers.

FFXI is a job. There's a reason they call the classes "jobs" - because playing them IS a job.

The parent post isn't Flamebait. It's Informative. Please educate yourself on just how horrendous FFXI truely is before calling it flamebait. There's a reason FFXI isn't popular in the US and Europe, and the parent post covers why very well.

If anything, he was too kind to it. It's really worse than the parent post leads you to believe.

Final Fantasy XI is a horrendous game, and it simply isn't worthy of Slashdot coverage in any way, shape, or form - other than the really silly things (like when it got blocked because it was using port 25 to connect) which are just tech news.

Why? Why did we play God?

TOUCH ME!!!!

He's not collecting welfare checks, he's making ends meet just fine.

The themes and characters may become more mature and feature voice acting that the other games in the series have lacked.

Oh god, please no voice acting.

Hey!

Listen!

Aaarrrgggghhh!

Hey! Listen! You don't have to pay.

VGCats has a comic about this. It's pretty funy... and now I finally understand it! (I've never been a fan of Blizzard games.)

VGCats has a comic about this. It's pretty funy... and now I finally understand it! (I've never been a fan of Blizzard games.)

Here is what this thing will do: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=73

Now I have to decide between playing the game on paper or with cards?

Neither.

Disclaimer: No Slashdot discussion (stretching that term) can be considered complete without a link to VGCats.

Now I have to decide between playing the game on paper or with cards?

Neither.

Disclaimer: No Slashdot discussion (stretching that term) can be considered complete without a link to VGCats.

http://www.questionablecontent.net/
http://www.dieselsweeties.com/
http://www.catandgirl.com/

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php
http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=631
http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Archive/Apr04.php?date =1

There must be a way to just "slip" these into the discussion, but why bother? What's the good of an article ranting about webcomics without finding new, good web comics?

War crimes for doing a victory crouch-hump on their corpse.

I was giving him CPR!

I can remember when Lucas Arts canned Sam & Max 2 (itself a sequel, although to a very good original adventure game). Presumably, this was to focus on profiting from an abundance of star wars games. This explains it pretty well:
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=90

VG Cats #111
VG Cats #158
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