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Thompson's (Mostly) Polite Interview

Posted by Zonk on from the so-close dept.

Pluvius writes "For the past few weeks, gaming website Netjak has corresponded with infamous anti-video-game lawyer Jack Thompson in reference to his well-publicized proposal to donate money to a charity if someone created a violent game in which a grieving father murdered members of the video-game industry. This has culminated in an interview in which the unusually cordial attorney gives surprisingly viable reasons for not following through on his donation after such a game was created. Unfortunately, Thompson doesn't quite make it to the end of the interview without taking at least one cheap shot towards gamers: '[P]ut down the controller and get a life. Video gaming is an escapist activity and you're being exploited by these companies. It's not healthy; I worry about someone who would play Grand Theft Auto for ten hours a day. It's a masturbatory activity, and it would be better if people put down the controller and went outside.'"

2 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Okay, that's actually coherent... by david.given · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...but what it really shows is that he's drastically misinformed. He doesn't know about games, he doesn't know about game technology, he doesn't know about game culture.

    For example, his comment about a game needing to be written 'by a company'. He says that anyone can knock something up in a garage. Well, Darwinia was one of the best games to come out last year and was knocked up in a garage; Counterstrike started life as a purely amateur project. By his logic, neither of these are real games.

    I think Thompson's fundamental issue is that when he looks at something, he sees what he expects to see, not what he actually looks at. From what little information I can find about Bully, it's the exact opposite of what he says it is --- it's all about standing up to the bullies and defeating them. But he wants it to be evil, so that's what he sees...

    Actually, I suspect he should see a psychiatrist, not because there's anything wrong now, but because this might blow up into something more serious later. He may also have borderline paranoid tendencies. The way he's being harrassed by PA and Slashdot weenies probably isn't helping, either.

  2. Kiss Running With Scissors Good-Bye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    January 12, 2006

    His Excellency Yuri Ushakov

    Russian Federation Ambassador to the United States

    Embassy of the Russian Federation

    2650 Wisconsin Ave., NW

    Washington, D.C. Via email and fax to 202-298-5735

    Re: Knife Attack in Moscow Synagogue Allegedly Inspired by Violent American Video Game, Postal 2

    Dear Ambassador Ushakov:

    I am an expert, recognized as such in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, and elsewhere, as to the disturbing nexus between violent video game play and real-world violence.

    I have been repeatedly interviewed as to this nexus by the BBC and by major news media in this country.

    As you know, a young person in Moscow just went on a knifing spree, allegedly inspired to do so by the incredibly violent PC video game, Postal 2.

    In this game, by the way, a player can place his virtual gun into the anus of a cat to use the feline as a silencer. That is how depraved is Vince Desi, the head of the company that makes this game. He is a sociopath.

    This game is being distributed around the world by Mr. Desi's US company, Running with Scissors, whose corporate slogan is "To kill or not to kill? What a stupid question."

    We have had a large number of killings in this country linked by law enforcement to these types of murder simulation games. Our US Defense Department actually uses virtual reality killing simulators like this to break down the inhibition of new recruits to kill, so of course it has this same effect on civilians.

    Running with Scissors has recently entered into an arrangement whereby it can distribute its murder simulators via the Internet, thereby bypassing various nations' restrictions on the distribution of such harmful material to minors. The Russian Federation must stop this practice.

    I am a Republican who can tell you that United States President George W. Bush has direct financial ties to the violent video game industry--such as Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., through massive campaign contributions by the political lobbying firm of Blank Rome--so there is a collaboration of sorts between the US government and the violent video game industry to export this dangerous garbage around the globe. In fact, our Defense Department has actually subsidized the creation of some of these virtual reality killing games at an agency known as the Institute for Creative Technologies. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is this program's chief enthusiast.

    I appeared on ABC World News Tonight blowing the whistle on this nonsense, which also extensively involves the Sony Corporation.

    Please feel free to contact me for additional information as soon as possible. I think at the very least the Russian Federation should lodge a formal protest with the United States government regarding the importation of Postal 2 and the mayhem at the Moscow synagogue that it may very well have caused.

    Regards, Jack Thompson