Modders make Jack Thompson game- guess what Jacky did?

[th'FOOL]

He rescinded his offer

Quoth Jack:

"I'm not interested and won't be commenting on the mod. The satirical piece entitled 'A Modest Video Game Proposal' was intended to highlight the patent hypocrisy and recklessness exhibited by the video game industry's willingness to target cops, women, homosexuals, and other groups with some of their violent games. To be fair, though, you can't expect a bunch of gamers to understand the satire if they think that Jonathon Swift, the author of 'A Modest Proposal,' is the name of a new Nike running shoe...

...I will say this though, the 'video game community' (what's next, 'the necromancy community'?) surely seems exercised about someone who is a 'joke' and who is accomplishing nothing. You all seem rather bothered and worried about a nonentity. God is in this battle, and I am privileged to be a foot soldier. You all should be concerned, not about me, but about Him."

For more information about the mod, go here

[AgtFox]

Gabe and Tycho (from Penny Arcade) have just given $10k to the ESA for their Nite to Unite - For Kids charity on behalf of Jack's name.  They figured that is the charity of choice for Paul Eibler of Take Two.  It just hit a minute ago as I was reading this thread.

This just gets better and better.

[Dreamshadow]

Yeesh...it figures.  He is not helping improve the image of lawyers.

[Calvin]

Penny Arcade just scored and held the unshakable moral highround in this little war of words between them and that fucktard peice of shit Jack Thompson. And no, I don't feel bad about the language. He doesn't give lawyers, or Christians, or conservatives, or people with mental difficulties a bad name. He gives humanity a bad name. Asshole.

[AgtFox]

Well, given Jack's track record I expect him to sue Mike and Jerry.  Of course, they laugh off lawsuits although they've just recently come off of one that was going on for years over the rights for the early comics in order to make a book.

[Dreamshadow]

Penny Arcade just scored and held the unshakable moral highround in this little war of words between them and that fucktard peice of shit Jack Thompson. And no, I don't feel bad about the language. He doesn't give lawyers, or Christians, or conservatives, or people with mental difficulties a bad name. He gives humanity a bad name. Asshole.

Muahahaha...this would be why Penn and Tell call Bullsh1t on people in their show.  They can do that..it's not slander and such.  Oh and...

http://www.consolegold.com/News/news.php?NewsID=4097

Thanks for the info guys.

[VynlSol]

Jack needs to realize that he is NOT Swift.

[WinoMcCougarstein]

Why do politicians bring God into shit like this?  He does realize that what he is saying has 0 effect on people that dont believe in God right?  Basically his arguement could be, "Dont fear me, fear Santa Clause.  Or the tooth fairy or bigfoot and the aliens at area 51!!!"  

Let it go Jacky boy, I mean Jesus Christ, enough is enough.

[Dafones]

Does anyone have a link to the initial offer, and not just another site's recap?

[th'FOOL]

Does anyone have a link to the initial offer, and not just another site's recap?

http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=5883

[Tustin1]

Way to go Penny Arcade.  Jack Thompson has just destroyed any thread of credibility he may have had (which was none in my opinion) and comes off like a raving lunatic - maybe it was too much Space Invaders in the 80's that fried his brain.

[Dafones]

Huh. That proposal is inane in so many ways, and if it's satire, it's neither funny nor intelligent. That guy's fucking nuts. Damned media whore. How'd anyone wind up listening to such an individual in the first place? Where'd/how'd he gain an audience?

[CrayolaSmoker]

Does anyone have a link to the initial offer, and not just another site's recap?

http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=5883

After reading the original proposal, I can see where Thompson would think he was being Swift-ian.  Swift's "A Modest Proposal" works because of the logic and practicality behind the abject horror of what he is proposing.  Thompson's game proposal is too transparenly petty, and nowhere near horrific enough, to reach that level of satire.  The only folks that might find it so are those already on his side.  The proposal itself is nothing more than pandering to an already secured fan-base.

If all he'd done is dare the game industry to make this game, I'd let him call it satire (poorly written at best) and be done with it.  However, the inclusion of a cash reward to be given to a charity removes the exercise from the realms of satire entirely, and places it firmly in the realm of a serious challenge.  The dollar amount is certainly small considering the effort one could put into making such a project, but it's certainly within a range one would reasonably expect to be fulfilled.  Unlike, say, offering $3 bazillion, which would obviously be a joke.  To welsh when someone actually makes the game you designed says a couple of things:

1) Apparently your game wasn't horrific enough to make the point you were trying to make.

2) You're a cheapskate with absolutely zero sense of humor (the latter part we knew already).

I'd love to see somebody sue him for not fulfilling his end of the deal.  It'd make my day.

[AgtFox]

It gets better, Jack sent a fax to PA's local police department asking them to arrest PA's employees for harassment.  He also spins that they are harassing him because he was on 60 Minutes representing against a game where you can kill police officers.  It's all over at PA...problem for Jack is he put the wrong address in the fax to the police...heh.

[Jimmy the Fish]

How the hell did that guy ever pass the bar exam??

[Destructor]

It gets better, Jack sent a fax to PA's local police department asking them to arrest PA's employees for harassment.  He also spins that they are harassing him because he was on 60 Minutes representing against a game where you can kill police officers.  It's all over at PA...problem for Jack is he put the wrong address in the fax to the police...heh.

Web address, yes. The address given is some porn site if I remember right.

And this Jack guy is absolutely nuts. There's no good way to put it.

[warning]

It gets better, Jack sent a fax to PA's local police department asking them to arrest PA's employees for harassment.  He also spins that they are harassing him because he was on 60 Minutes representing against a game where you can kill police officers.  It's all over at PA...problem for Jack is he put the wrong address in the fax to the police...heh.

Here's the text from 1up:

"A Seattle business by the name of Penny Arcade... employs certain personnel who have decided to commence and orchestrate criminal harassment of me by various means... This company has done this because I dared to go on CBS's 60 Minutes in March and again in July to explain a wrongful death lawsuit I have brought on behalf of two police officers and a police dispatcher in Fayette, Alabama, who were shot in the head and killed by Devin Moore who obsessively trained on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to kill them."

"As you may know, this incredibly violent Rockstar Games product is actually a 'cop-killing' murder simulator. There are a bunch of computer geeks out there who think that the video game industry has a constitutional right to paint a bullseye on your back and on your officers' backs... That is what this criminal harassment of me by Penny Arcade is all about. They're even selling an 'I Hate Jack Thompson' t-shirt, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. These idiots have been so careless as to post on their www.pennyarcade.com web site what they are doing regarding the harassment of me."

"I look forward to working with your fine Police Department to shut this little extortion factory down and/or arrest some of its employees."

Full story here.

[wonderpug]

Here's the fax, if anyone's curious:

[Semaj]

Penny Arcade was laughing about it.

[Jimmy the Fish]

I cannot believe an attorney actually wrote that letter. Any real attorney would read that and fall to the floor laughing his/her ass off. The guy is just a two bit, wannabe, hack "lawyer".

The Seattle police should arrest Thompson for wasting the paper in their fax machine.

[Dafones]

I want to set up www.ihatejackthompson.com and have the site host pictures of people wearing the I Hate Jack Thompson tees from PA, or with I Hate Jack Thompson written across their chest/forehead/ass/middle finger, or with signs describing how much they hate Jack Thompson, etc.

Bet it'd get a hit or two.

[Calvin]

I just read this. What a fucking douchebag. He should be brought before the bar for disciplinary action. Trust me, you could find something to get him on. This is absurd.

[wonderpug]

Wow, this guy is really something.  From Penny Arcade, here's something Thompson just said on CNN tonight regarding Midway's football game.

"The NFL wouldn't allow it's name to be used, so that tells you something."

Never mind that whole thing about EA paying lots of money for exclusive NFL rights.

I'm just fine with there being crazy people in the world spouting off nonsense, but it's pretty scary when you start seeing them represented as "experts" on CNN.

[Destructor]

From Gamespot:

GameSpot spoke with Khoo earlier today about Thompson's accusations. "We were really surprised that he is actually reacting this way," Khoo said. "I don't think he really realizes who Penny Arcade is and what sort of support we can rally. And where our place is in the [game] industry.

"I really don't expect him to know who we are, but I'm pretty sure he just thinks we are either just bunch of kids or someone who probably does not know what they are doing, and that he can scare off with idle threats and threats of legal actions."

As far as that goes, Khoo says that Penny Arcade, which is no stranger to Internet dust-ups and threatened legal action, isn't overly concerned with Thompson's accusations.

"I've spoken to our legal team this morning and every one of his claims that he has made is pretty ridiculous, especially given the fact that he's a public figure. His grounds for harassment, criminal harassment, is pretty silly," Khoo said. "He puts himself out there as a public figure going up against the game industry. Does he really not expect that the game industry's going to fight back?

PA isn't scared in the slightest. And I don't blame them.

[Semaj]

I do believe they have been sued/threatened t be sued enough to know who is a ree-ree and who is seriously a threat.

I like thier current take on letting him do whatever he wants since he's an idiot and the last thing we want is someone competent to lead the charge.

If you are going to make a ihatejackthompson.com site, make sure you do it in such a way you list everything he has said and whats wrong with it and base it all on fact and figures and proof.  That way your not liable and well, when he threatens to take you down, you're in the right.