Thompson Declines PAX Debate, Blames Penny Arcade

GamePolitics is reporting that Jack Thompson, who was invited to debate at this year's Penny Arcade Expo is now blaming the PA gents because he turned down the debate. Essentially, PAX organizers were aiming to keep the debate a secret until the event actually happened. When Thompson declined the invitation, he did so in a public forum, revealing their intentions. He now claims that he turned it down because PAX wanted to use the event as a publicity stunt ... somehow. From Jack's letter to GP: "What GamePolitics or others need to do is get to the bottom of why they really wanted to announce the debate one hour before it occurs. Now THAT would cause a stampede that would not allow them to have passes in the hands of those who want to go. I'm surprised, Dennis, frankly, that you have so naively taking this dodge. I believe what happened is that they thought I would never accept the debate offer, and they planned to use that for p.r. purposes."

Comments

Uh, what?

[ack154]

So typically, if PAX wanted to use him as a publicity stunt, wouldn't they make his invite, oh, I don't know... public??

Nice try Jack.

Fun

[MeanderingMind]

If I were attempting to make as unbiased an environment as possible for such a debate, as held at a games expo, keeping it secret would be the first idea coming to mind. Announcing months before hand is just asked people passionately for/against Thompson to buy up tickets and otherwise destroy the levelheadedness of the crowds. Waiting until the last minute is perfectly understandable.

Unless you're Jack Thompson apparently.

Re:Fun

[eln]

Except the attendees at a games expo (especially one hosted by the guys who write a comic that has been merciless in their criticism of Jack Thompson) are going to be overwhelmingly and passionately against Jack Thompson anyway.

PA wanted to get Jack Thompson in front of their crowd so they could knock him down and make themselves look like heroes in front of their adoring fans. The correct action for Thompson to take would have been to either privately (and politely) turn down the request, or simply ignore it. However, Thompson is apparently not capable of doing anything privately, so he turns them down publicly, hence giving them exactly the publicity he criticizes them for seeking.

The debate was a trap, Thompson was right about that, but the way he handled it was just stupid.

Re:Fun

[Captain Splendid]

PA wanted to get Jack Thompson in front of their crowd so they could knock him down and make themselves look like heroes in front of their adoring fans.

I call Shenanigans. Sure, Tycho and Gabe can be sarky bastards, but I think the real intent was to have Thompson be debated by people who actually have a clue about videogames, something that doesn't happen every time he pops up on network news. That's also the reason he declined. His past tactics and behaviour bear this out. He's a guerrilla figher, sniping from a distance, doing hit-and-run smear pieces, never getting engaged in anything but the slightest and tritest discussions.

One day, somebody will eventually get the chance to poke him hard, and he'll crumble like the house of cards that he is. Looks like he managed a dodge on this one, but it won't be long now.

Possible Reasons - Free of Charge

[Johnny_Law]

I assume there are a few reasons PAX wanted to hold off the announcement.

The first reason would be security, Jack Thompson is a "polarizing" individual, to put it mildly. It would only take one crazy gamer to take any kind of shot at Thompson to make him a martyr. Making the announcement onsite would allow the PAX crew to avoid anyone planning in advance to engage Thompson either with hostility or protest.

Secondly, this would be the huge surprise for the audience. PAX has made it sort of a staple to have some kind of surprise for the show.

Thirdly, pick a smaller reason, but with Jack any reason could balloon overnight. Between now and PAX Jack could go further off the deep end with some of his crusages. Perhaps he would decide to sue PA for something outside the scope of his PAX committments. In either case, PAX would lose the ability to quietly remove Jack.

Any of the three would be enough for me to want to keep Jack on a short lease. However, this could still happen, but I would expect PAX to have greater security at the actual venue.

consummate pro

[syle]

You can tell he's a skilled litigator by the way he manages to look less professional than two dudes who draw a webcomic featuring dirty jokes about video games.

It is worth noticing that...

[Anonymous Coward]

...not of word of this can be found on Penny Arcade's site. This tells volumes about the real media whore in this story, i.e Thompson.

I always found PA to be upright about things and there again. Besides these guys are involved in more than just games thru the likes of their annual toy drive.

Re:It is worth noticing that...

[Purity Of Essence]

I do think that it is a shame he won't be debating a real gaming lawyer, that's something I've been wanting for years, that's something that really needs to happen. But otherwise, I can't really agree with you. The gaming press basically doesn't matter. If he gets on CNN, how is the gaming press going to make a difference. Is Adam Sessler going to counter his points on national TV? God, I hope not. The truth is, the majority of the gaming press do more harm than good. These "journalists" are bloggers with woefully vocal sycophantic nitwit commentators that do everything to reinforce the image that gamers are unstable geeks. Fortunately, the only people who read these blogs are other gamers.

JT's worst enemy is himself. Anytime he shows up in the mainstream press (which is actually extremely rare) he makes a fool of himself. That's good, that is something that I approve of. His arguments, if you can call them that, are patently absurd. I think the most recent time he hit the mainstream press was right after the VTech shootings. He and Dr. Phil both tried to play the odds and pin the killer down as a gamer, something that was unsubstantiated and shown not to be true. That might not phase JT, but Dr. Phil won't be making that mistake again. And even if it was true, guess what, most people play videogames. Correlation does not equal causation, and people are more than willing to entertain the idea that a seriously unstable person might enjoy playing a game were you kill people, knowing full well that it wasn't the game that made them unstable. Yeah, the media will continue to talk to JT when something extreme like this happens because he's an entertaining asshat. That doesn't make him relevant.

People aren't as dumb as you seem to think, they see right through JT. And even if they don't, it doesn't matter, because people don't decide policy. However, any time he shills a new law, and that law gets passed because some populist governor wants to make the news doing something "for the children", what happens? The ESA smacks that law right down. It's only then that JT has any semblance of relevance, the only time anyone needs to pay attention to him. Unfortunately, it looks like that needs to continue for a little longer so that other governments will finally wise up to his antics and stop costing their tax-paying constituents hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. When one of these laws fails it is an embarrassment to all those involved in its passage. Whatever public policy you are referring to doesn't exist, or at least not for more than a couple of days. We have the ESA to thank for that, not the fringe press. JT will never be able to overturn the constitution, and there is no constitutional way he can hurt gaming. He is not as big a threat as everyone seems to think.