> Backlash doesn’t make anyone an “uppety fucker” it makes them human.

It does when you're still bitching on about us about a week afterwards ;)

Alright now that I have some coffee in me I can give a little bit more of a reply.


Firstly, people stop getting so insulted by whatever GameTwat is saying about us! The site is named gameTWAT. That should give a good indication of what you can expect from the site. You insult yourselves by being insulted by GameTwat. Come on, most of you are too good for that.

Now we move onto Jack's bullshit.


"an you sum up nice and succinctly what your problem with Video Games has been over the years?

Surely, and glad you asked, because most folks state what my position is and harpoon me for their fictions. I only oppose the sale of mature and adult games to kids at ages below the game rating. That’s it."


I would like to believe that Jack. I truly would. But as the old adage goes, actions speak louder than words. And all of your actions have pointed to one thing and one things alone, total banning of mature games to all consumers. Or did you honestly think if you would have had Bully declared a public nuisance that adults would still be able to legally obtain it?

"In this country, Grand Theft Auto games have been sold to kids as young as ten. My son, who did a sting with me, proved it, as has the US Federal Trade Commission over and over and over again."

Actually the Federal Trade Commission has shown a drastic decline in the sale of M-Rated games to children.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/03/videogameshop.shtm

As you can see in 2005 underage buyers were successful only 45% of the time in comparison to 85% in 2000.

Now compare that to an industry in which is receiving comparatively little pressure, the movie industry.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/04/marketingviolence.shtm

In there you will see that in 2006 that minors were able to obtain an R rated movie 71% of the time. And you will also notice an explicit CD 76% of the time. Now which industry isn't pulling their weight again?

"The problem with this is that the age rating is clearly an admission by the industry that an adult game is potentially harmful to, let’s say, a 12-year-old."

So would you also say that an R rated movie is also harmful to children? And if so Jack why don't you go after them next. They are also a voluntary system with no force of law AND are more easily obtained by minors than video games.

"merican Psychological Association has found that hyper-violent, “Mature-rated” games played by teen boys, young teens, leads to increased aggression. Brain scan studies at Harvard literally prove, visually, why this is true. The games are processed in a different part of the brain in kids, and it is the part that leads to copycatting. Take a look at the following Allstate Insurance ad recently run in major American newspapers. It gets at the same thing.

Game brain processing in teens does not connect to the frontal lobes. It’s a bit complicated, but every parent knows that kids copycat what they see and practice."

Once again demonizing of the normal, healthy human emotion known as aggression. Yes Jack games may increase aggression, peewee football increases aggression, a rousing game of chess increases aggression. You yourself are an aggressive fuck. But all aggression doesn't lead to violence.


"What of the accusation that the American Psychological Association actually doesn’t say that whatsoever, that you’re simply twisting their words? That what the APA actually says is that there’s no causal link between games and violence?

That’s absolutely false. Go read the report. It doesn’t say there is a correlation. It says there is causation. One of the psychologists on the APA panel who issued that report is one of our experts in the Alabama case. He confirms that the APA found causation.

The head of the panel, interviewed even by the head e-tard at GP, confirmed its causation, not mere correlation that they found between increased aggression and gameplay. I have no earthly idea where you got the notion that the APA said otherwise. Please read the report rather than what gamers say the report says. Here is what it says, at http://www.apa.org/releases/violentvideoC05.html"


That study mentioned aggression, not violence. And it definitely didn't mention anything about someone shooting up a school. Please make smaller leaps of logic, we don't want you hurting yourself.

"Do you feel you get mis-represented in gaming media (not just GamePolitics)?

Oh, surely. That’s Dennis McCauley’s plan. He demonizes me and makes money doing so. If you check the “news” articles (there is one up there right now about my alleged “contempt of court” problem, there will be hundreds of posts to those stories just because I’m in them."


Oh please. Start taking some personal responsibility Jack. The person making you look bad is you. Lets look at some of your quotes.

'EGM: You once compared Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, to Saddam Hussein.
JT: If I did, I want to apologize to Saddam Hussein. Doug is a propagandist to whom the facts don't matter.' "

"The Bible doesn't promote killing innocent people, Grand Theft Auto does. Islam does. Islam promotes the killing of innocent people. The Quran requires the infidel, whether Jew or Christian, to be killed. ... That's a core essence of the religion. ... Muhammad was a pirate who killed infidels and who advocated the killing of infidels. Not a nice guy. Osama bin Laden is in keeping with his fine tradition."

"Any letter from a video gamer like you would deepen his concern. Are you actually so confused that you think gamers have any influence on anyone. Gamers are considered by normal people to be cretins. Get used to it."

"I love the smell of burning gamers in the morning."

"Why don't you go buy a suicide game, practice that, and get real good at it."

"I would extend my condolences to you on your loss of consciousness, but you're a gamer, and gamer, by definition, lost all sentient being status upon the purchase of GTA. Hooah! "

Well I could continue posting on and on, but you get the drift. So you are saying that without Dennis "demonizing" you, after saying all that bullshit that we would like you? How fucking delusional are you? The person who makes Jack look bad is Jack.

"The more he demonizes and misrepresents my position, the more his lemming-like gamer robots go crazy posting their reiterations of his propaganda. McCauley is not a journalist. He’s an industry lapdog. He gave up any and all pretense at being a journalist when he signed on with industry propagandist and lobbyist ECA."

Entertainment CONSUMERS association. Consumers aren't the industry, they are the customers. I know it is a lot of letters for you, but do try to keep up.

"What is he does is akin to being a “journalist” about the Presidential race and being on the payroll of Senator McCain. McCauley even filed a Bar complaint against me to shut me down and he refused to tell his readers aobut his conflict of interest in filing the complaint. Pathetic.

He’s a tool of the industry, and anyone other than his sycophantic readers knows it."

If Dennis is not a real journalist then you would not send him stories, end of discussion. You always say how moot this site is but still you spend so much damn time here. Its sad. So either you do think this is a news outlet and hope to somehow get your point across, or the other running theory is that you have a homosexual attraction to Dennis.

"I’m all for virtual reality and the good it can do. But when industry tools suggest that playing GTA for five hours a day does not desensitize you to violence (as well as not letting you do more productive things, since time is the stuff of which life is made), then they need to be shipped off to Mongolia where they have no electricity to “get a life.”

I would like you to look here, namely at section 8: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

Primates are able to deferentiate between real violence and pretend violence, at yet you say that humans are unable to do the same thing. I have played just about every violent game under the sun, and yet I still get squeamish at the sight of blood. Telling me that I'm desensitized is a total joke.

Also I would like to point you here: http://www.mongolianembassy.us/images/picts_capital_001.jpg

That is mongolia. You might notice something we in America like to call street lights. Street lights are powered with electricity.


"They’re people who have no idea what is really going on in the world. They care almost nothing about anything other than themselves and their petty concerns. They do not put the good of others ahead of their own narrow interests, because they are all about what they want to do, not what should be done for others.

GP really ought to stand for Godless Pissants."

And yet you never seem to be able to counter our arguments. Sad.


"Absolutely. It’s a free society. But that does not mean adults are free to sell adult games to other people’s children with no parents in sight. See, that’s the big industry lie. They say they want parents to make these decisions, and then they defend in courtrooms their “right” to sell mature and adult games to 12-year-olds whose parents are not there. It is a total lie and fraud to suggest this is about denying adults their right to buy games."

Wrong. All the systems now come with parental controls. They tools are there, if parents choose not to use them then tough shit. The industry isn't going to raise your children for you.

"Tell that to the FBI and the Secret Service who have found otherwise, as have the heads of major American health care organizations like the American Medical Association. We have almost as many guns as people over here. The guns aren’t going to be confiscated, so we have to do something about the stimuli to use them. President Clinton figured it out. He said just that after Columbine."

Ah, so games wouldn't be used to harm others without a video game as a stimuli. So what game did John Wilkes Booth play?

"But there are more School Shootings in America than the rest of the world combined. I’ll be honest: I’ve made up that rather-spurious ’statistic’, but it certainly feels like that. How do you account for the fact that every country in Europe has videogames, and a mere percentage of the school shootings?

Because we have more guns. Kind of simple."

That makes no sense. Just because we have more guns does not mean that they aren't accessible to the minors of the other countries. You admitted that these countries do have guns, albeit in smaller quantities and yet they don't have the problem with school shootings? It doesn't take many guns to have a school shooting Jack, it takes ONE.

This points that there is an underlying problem in our society that our government is afraid to look at. So instead they use sleight of hand to pull our attention onto a scapegoat, and viola, the video game violence issue is born.

"Do you truly feel your ‘tone’ in messages on boards like GamePolitics are fitting for a professional lawyer?

Absolutely."

The Florida Bar disagrees.


"But, looking back, Doom was a rubbish way of learning to kill, wasn’t it? You couldn’t even aim where you were shooting. Or look up.

So why were the Marines using Doom to train their soldiers to kill? Riddle me that.

It’s not just about the skills to kill, it’s the willingness to kill. That is the other side of the coin, and it is why the military uses virtual reality to break down the reluctance of new recruits to kill.

Get Col. Grossman’s book On Killing, nominated for a Pulitzer. You’ll learn a lo"

Col Grossman is a proven liar. And with this comment we go back to primates and play fighting.

"As games get more realistic with technological progress, what’s that going to do to The Kids’ brains?

It’s going to train them more effectively to kill. That is why the military have been pushing in that direction.

Any GamePolitics moron (sorry to be redundant) who thinks that the more virtually real killing can be makes one more likely to transfer killing skills to real reality from virtual reality hasn’t been paying attention to the hundreds of millions of dollars the military establishment is spending to achieve just that.

The Wii was the next step, and your Review Board realized that by mentioning the ability to turn your physique into one giant controller. It makes killing more likely. Welcome to A Clockwork Orange world, thanks to Sony, Nintendo, and the anti-Christ, Bill Gates ;]"


First you say that you can't gain skill from games then you say you can one sentence later? Which is it Jack.

"All they have to do is voluntary state that any retailers caught selling their age restricted games to anyone below the age at which the games are rated will suffer sanctions from the makers of the games. Totally voluntary, totally non-government, totally do-able, and totally censored as an idea at GamePolitics.

I floated that idea a year ago, and it is where we are going to wind up, maybe three or four years from now, after more school massacres like V-Tech. Cho by the way was prepped for what he did on Counter-Strike."

Your memory is giving out in your old age Jack. Dennis has made mention of this in the past. But shouldn't the movie industry be the first to make such a threat to the retailers? After all, they are selling more violent material to children than the game industry.

"It turns out that Cho was a Counter-Strike nut. The Washington Post reported that."

Then retracted it.

"He was a gamer in high school,"

Who played Sonic the Hedgehog.

"given scientific findings, that Counter-Strike helped him pull it off, obviously."

I don't recall Cho clicking a mouse button at anyone. That would be the only training he would have received from Counter-Strike.


"What are the chances of you losing your ‘lawyer’ status with this upcoming hearing, and if that did happen, what would you do next?

I may lose it, and then I will get it back in my federal civil rights trial. I’m not worried about it. I’ll become a weekly contributor to your site."

That's actually not all that bad of an idea. Let the highest court in the land see how unprofessional you are to put that last nail into your coffin.


"What happened to your 5pm deadline for Rockstar last week? Did that happen?

It came and went. I have some surprises for them they have even thought of yet."

And are any of these ideas, unlike all your other threats towards Rockstar going to be fruitful in the slightest? Your track record with them so far is total failure on your part.

"Oh, come on. Any chance of a clue to what’s coming Rockstar’s way so I’ve got something amazing to put in the headline?

Nope, but you’ll be the first to know. GamePolitics will be in court by then, so I shan’t bother them with the news ;]"

And just what does Dennis have to do with your unprofessionalism?

@VenomandCarnage

I've counted 30 Nazi's on the web so far. He just jacked it past 32.

And don't you dare get me with Godwin's Law.

Well, I may be godless(I am an atheist), but I'm certainly not a pissant.

This is one of the few places where I can find "real" news about the gaming industry and the political goings on behind it.

The thing is Mr. Thompson, you are the bully, a liar, and more unscrupulous than any other politician or person I know of. The quicker you are the Florida Bar deals with you, the better.

@Kentonio:

Twat isn't exactly a glowing compliment over here either.

I posted this on GT, I figured I'd post it here too...

I’m a regular poster and reader at GP and I came to read this out of curiosity. Jack Thompson may be a committed individual (who should be committed but I digress), but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s still an asshole, still unprofessional and still has no grasp of the law.

He likes to say that all he wants is to keep Mature games out of the hands of underage children and agrees that adults ought to be allowed to play violent games. Fine! That’s what we want, too. The problem is his methods say otherwise and his actions have contradicted his statements numerous times. His recent attempt to declare Halo 3 a public nuisance is a prime example of this. Public nuisance laws state something is a threat to the community IN GENERAL. Not just to children. And public nuisanace laws do not specifically target retailers, and neither did his filing. We’ve heard so many politicians and other public figures saying they want to “protect the children” so much that we know by now that it’s simply a smokescreen for censorship and this is what JT hides behind.

You know, you have a bad habit, which I am going to educate you out of, in assuming that what you have read I have said is really what I have said.

And that pretty much says it all about him right there. Like any insufferably self-righteous bible-thumper, he thinks he knows better than any of us. He’s so convinced of it that he’s incapable of acknowledging his own ignorance, as was evidenced by his inability to see where his earlier comment about Mongolia could be construed as racist. Evene when Sueng Hui Cho’s roommates, who lived with him and knew him better than JT ever would, said they never saw him play video games, he dismissed it saying, “They don’t know what they’re talking about” (which is pretty much his catchphrase for anyone who presents him with evidence contrary to his statements).

It’s that condesecnding and patronizing attitude that we have realized after numerous attempts has made it impossible for us to have any reasonable dialogue with him. And beleive us, we’ve tried. Once we realized he wasn’t interested in any kind of dialogue with us and just wanted to convince us of the rightness of his position (as so many religious fanatics do) did we abandon any attempts at compromise, figuring the only way to deal with him was to aggressively counter him every time he opens his mouth, and will continue to do so till his dying day.

I find it amusing and insulting at the same time he refers to us as “Godless,” which is just really a way for Christians of his stripe to marginalize and demonize others who hold a system of beliefs different from his own. Of course in his mind he believes it’s justified as with every other outlandish statement and action he makes. He doesn’t seem to realize that there are many Christian gamers on GP too. Or if he does, he discounts them as not being true Christians because they don’t subscribe to his brand of Christianity which he considers “true.” Anything he says and does is justified as long as it’s in the name of his faith. Again, this is the mindset of a fanatic. Thompson likes to compare us gamers to the likes of the Taliban and Muslim terrorists, but he actually has more in common with them in terms of their ideaology and motivations than he would like to admit.

What he doesn’t realize is that faith and one’s profession do not necessarily mix, and his failure to understand that is why he is facing a trial before the Florida State Supreme Court that could result in the loss of his ability to practice law. He’s not worried about it? Fine. I have no doubt that even without it he’ll find some other way to harrass us. I wouldn’t expect a little thing like that to shut someone like him up for good. But at least he won’t be able to be cited as a professional “expert” on anything and use the law like a blunt instrument. And I wouldn’t be so quick to bet his Civil Rights trial would turn out in his favor either. He’s made too many enemies and the list of his actions to egregious to ignore.

And finally he leaves with another one of his hallmarks: veiled threats of things to come. I was threatened like this by him personally a year ago. I called his bluff saying, “Make my day, asshole,” and I haven’t heard from him since. More individuals and companies would be wise to do that and not cave in. He’s like the boy who cried wolf. We’ve gotten used to taking everything he says now with a very large grain of salt and our attitude now is that we’ll believe it when we see it. And even when he does make good on a threat, it usually turns out to be the equivalent of a wet firecracker having little to no impact, and we laugh at his pathetic attempts.

Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade said it best: he’s the angry old man yelling from his front porch, only his front porch now has a connection to the internet. We at least take comfort knowing that if this is the person leading the charge against video games, he’s ultimately ineffective, and that we’ll outlive him.

Jack Thompson really is a stereotyping jackass lowlife crazy moron -_- .

@myrpok "I don’t what gT to become ’serious’. It’s fucking hilarious and I hope it stays that way. Just don’t cry or apologize if people get upset. THAT’S when -you- become an uppety fucker."

you're right, of course. thank you!

...and thanks to GamePolitics for the kind words!

@DavCube:

DJs were using it. So it's not that big of a shocker.

-P

@Gamedev.

Seconded. Your post will not be in vain.

@DCOW

Yea thats right I see noone else doing something as stupid as trying to get Video games banned,only you Jack....

About Jack only wanting to prevent minors from obtaining mature-rated games. See, in his so-called "logic", only children (or perverts, drug addicts, or other scum of the Earth) play Video Games. So, by blocking the sales of violent (read: any) Video Games completely, he's only blocking it from children, because "real" adults don't play Video Games.

He doesn't want to prevent Adults from getting Video Games. He just doesn't want them sold at any store, street corner, over the phone or on the Internet. He wants no advertising for them in any newspaper, magazine, on the radio or TV, in theaters, billboards, on busses/taxies or other public transportation, or on the Internet. That way, it keeps these games out of the hands of children. And once again, in his mind "real adults" don't play Video Games. So, therefore, he's completely self-justified that his actions are 100% correct and true.

@ Xlorep DarkHelm

Exactly. If and when any of his boneheaded 'proposals' actually came to pass, he'd gawk at the rate that the game is still be sold and rant at how mature games were still getting into kids' hands, even if they weren't, because he doesn't do any sort of research.

you all realize that Jack Thompson is nothing but a highschool reject who was never loved, and is trying to do absolutely anything for attention. He's 1 of the cases that if we literally all ignore him, he'll just go away. He continues to do what he does, because he loves and crave the attention.

"lemming-like gamer robots"

cool, i just love lemmings, great game!

Jack is a punk.

Jack is a hypocrite.

Jack is a bully.

I type these words in a lot of my posts about this guy because they really represent what he is.

It looks like he jumped on the gT/GP mini-fued/misunderstanding-thing and reached out to gT for this interview. Where else could he have an open forum to attack this site?

Yet again, truth and reason escape Jack Thompson.

I wish I could live my life spouting lies and making up allegations, and just keep on going even when they are proven wrong.

It will be interesting to me to see how friendly JT and gT become. He has finally found his home.

Further, the 'Twat' portion of the site's name... Isn't that a little porno-related? Is Jack a closet porn addict?

Here in England (where I believe the gT lads come from as well), twat is used primarily as an insult/derogatory term, like calling someone a dick or suchlike.

Hey, gT... Enjoy Jack while he is on your side. As soon as you do something he deems wrong, you become his enemy.

From gT:
"There are some points we didn’t push; mainly because we felt we’d read Jack’s feelings on that subject countless times before and saw no point in going over old ground. We don’t call him on some of his answers as you might expect, because we would have simply wound up going round in circles."

Translation:
"There are some points we didn’t push; mainly because we wanted Jack in our corner so we weren't alone defending our ridiculous claim against GP's readers and posters. We also need readers, and what better way to drudge up readers than to pick on someone else? We don’t call him on some of his answers as you might expect, because that would be too responsible and fair."

Oh, golly... this is true comedy!

gT - What better way to make a name for yourself, huh? The old adage, "Any press is good press" must be the linchpin of your marketing strategy. Amazing.

So..

Despite Dennis destroying his claim that he makes money from reporting on Him JUST YESTERDAY, he still prattles on about it as if it's the gospel truth and that it was NEVER disproven.

What's more, OF COURSE it doesn't even need proof, or any sort of grounds on which to suspect it! After all, Jack's number one enemy is the Truth (next to common sense, that is)!

*Sing-song voice* Someone's in deniiiiial.

When you first posted gT's existence here, I must admit I was curious to see if they were going to be a new, relevant blog to follow. After reading through their first few posts, I can't say I feel that way anymore. Let them be the fox news of game blogs, let them misrepresent facts, call people names, and present inflamitory stories. They only make GP better by comparison, and further boost GP's relevance to the community

@ jds

Well, Jack Thompson is a gay porn distributor, so it would be assumed by someone reading the article about the judge criticizing Thompson for filing gay porn with the court that Thompson is a closet porn addict and a textbook closet-case self-loather who can't be comfortable with his own sexuality.

And I agree everything he says about us is referring to himself more than anything.

The Metropolitian Moron of Miami is nothing more than an attention whore whose 15 minutes of fame expired five years ago.

Jack "Gay Porn Distributor" Thompson should practice what he preaches: Grow up and get a life, and while he's at it, he should get a new cause, since his has been lost since 1999.

@BearDogg,

1997, if I remember correctly ;)

Godless? Hardly, I worship 5 of them, well two Gods and three Godesses.

Mr. Thompson, it is a sad statement of both your arguement and your intelligence to result to name calling. It shows that you truely have nothing to contribute to any dialog that would benefit anyone other than your own ego. You have consistently shown that you care for nothing other than your own fame. Aparantly not even your own son, as your recent "stings" show you have no problem exploiting him for your own agenda.

A general remark as to the style of this post:

just read smth about a study researchers did on how to refute false statements by listing them together with the refutations. The result basically was that by repeating the original bullshit, it is given more credibility since people who are not deep into the topic after a while just remember that they read this stuff in a serious context.

So maybe drop rehashing Thompson's excretions and simply write down your point down. While his statements can be deduced from your replies, they do not get the support of actual spelling out on this website.

Jacky-boy, you do a good gob demonizing yourself. You don't need help.

Wow..if we're Godless Pissants, what does this make you? One that sends porn to a Judge. Call for an impeachment of the Attorney General of Utah, just becuase he didn't support YOUR bill.

Dammit Thompson. For once in your life, GROW THE [censored] UP!!

- Warren

@Bear-dog
JT is a lawyer particularly gifted in the legal-but-dirty tricks that the legal system has. Even though the questionable filing story is not game-related, I think you should think like a lawyer. If JT dislikes this judge that could decide against him, he will flex his legal muscle to get the judge disqualified from his case with the Florida Bar. JT will argue that this judge has a personal grudge against him and should be removed from the case.

I've been thinking. There's been allot of emphasis lately on the idea of the ECA as a kind of consumer advocacy/action coaltion. I'm not sure I believe any of that, but for the sake of argument, I'll accept it at face value for now. Maybe, it's time, we as consumers, ACTED.

I don't really have the technical expertise to do it, because dealing with online petitions involves setting up websites and recording addresses of signees so you don't have duplicates. But here's what I suggest, don't worry, I'm not about petitioning JT - he wouldn't listen.

I suggest we set up an online petition to Dennis and Hal Halpin to request that Jack be barred/banned from GP. I would not go so far as to request that Dennis not report on him, because I do believe that he has some professional obligation to; however, I don't think it's unreasonable that GP patrons request that he be removed from the site. He's obviously not going to contribute anything CONSTRUCTIVE, and if he's going to insist on insulting us month after month, I don't think it's unreasonable to conclude that he's disruptive. As much as I can almost taste the irony - I think we should consider the possibility that Jack is a public nuisance.

Well, Dennis and other have pointed out some of the false claims by John Bruce, no need to rehash those.

However, his false claims (did you expect anything else?) that gamers, most notably GP readers, care nothing about anything other than video games proves the narrow minded ignorance that is embedded in his views of other through bigoted stereotypes.

Let's even ignore the fact that a number of GP readers have been to the GP forums, post in OT, and even contribute there opinions regarding a variety of issues, including current general news items.

Let's even ignore the fact that the GP main site is a specialty news blog, specific to a narrow range of issues (specifically, Video Games the relation of them to Politics (law, controversy, etc)), much like specialty news blogs devoted to pure politics, sports, religion, US News, Race, etc, etc, etc. Mainstream news sites are more broad, but even THEY segregate news stories based on commonality (US News, International News, Sports, Race in America, etc, etc, etc).

John Bruce still fails (gee, there's that word again in the same sentence as his name) to recognize individuality and the varying interests of each and every individual. And while each poster and reader here may not trot out each and every belief and/or interest that is a part of their lives, it doesn't mean that they don't exist.

But then, what do you expect from John Bruce who is very well known to be a bigot, a liar, and a deceiver, all in the name of HIS God?

Nightwng2000
NW2K software

And yet, Jack continues to come here to show how cool he is to the "godless pissants." The man is a nuisance.

And once again Gametwat shows their true colors in not challenging any of these statements. Nice start to your "blog," assholes.

I'll say it again, they're as edgy as a Saturn full of Creed fans.

@ Black Manta:

Very well said!

I've gotten to the point where I don't even know how to respond to Jack's fiction anymore.

HURRY, EVERYONE READ THE ARTICLE AT gT! It's THOMPSON AT HIS BEST. THE CHANCES OF HIM BEING THIS MUCH OF A LIAR AND THIS ARROGANT WILL MOST LIKELY NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN! STEP RIGHT UP AND WATCH THE HUMOUR THAT IS THOMPSON!

I get the feeling that some here, as well as just not getting where gT iscoming from, also didn't read the intro to their JT interview. An excerpt, edited and highlighted:

[...] as a result of all this attention Jack Thompson himself got in touch offering up an interview. ***Maybe he thought we hated all GamePolitics readers too***, and seemed keen to let us know what he thought.
[...]
There are some points we didn’t push; mainly because ***we felt we’d read Jack’s feelings on that subject countless times before and saw no point in going over old ground***. We don’t call him on some of his answers as you might expect, ***because we would have simply wound up going round in circles***.

The second paragraph in particular contains a healthy ammount of cynicism. How it can be construed that gT wish to cosy up to JT in some way is beyond me.

lol he swears off GP and talks about it on other sites.

@ Black Manta

Very well said. However...

"What he doesn’t realize is that faith and one’s profession do not necessarily mix, and his failure to understand that is why he is facing a trial before the Florida State Supreme Court that could result in the loss of his ability to practice law." (Emphasis mine)

I question whether he ever had the ABILITY in the first place. The RIGHT, however, will hopefully be revoked before the year is out.

@ Werrick

That's pretty much where I am now, too. I'm usually dumbstruck by the time I finish reading.

@gT

Disappointed. This was an opportunity to prove that you might be better than your self-chosen name suggests, but by giving JT a venue to speak and then dancing to his horrific little tune, rather than engaging in some responsible journalism, you've pretty much just confirmed the original assessment that I and others had already made of you.

Dennis, I beseech you, ignore gT. jds actually found stats to back up the sentiment I had when I first saw this headline: "I can't believe they sunk to the level of "interviewing" JT (about GP, no less!) for the purpose of sensationalism and web traffic."

I challenge anyone to offer a better explanation for their actions.

gT: All flash and no substance, eh?

@lumi

>> I challenge anyone to offer a better explanation for their actions.

I'll bite to that.

Did you actually read the interview? The whole thing? Or did you just read the edited highlights and skip bits?

If you did, you'll see the interview isn't, actually, all about GP. In fact, there's one question about Gaming Media as a whole (not just GP) which Jack chose to make all about GP. We didn't comment on that -- we felt it spoke for itself. I can put it in red text, underlined if you think that'll help.

There's also a question on GP readers because that's what he approached us about. There's also a question on how he carries himself in public forums.

The rest is unrelated to GP, entirely. It's very much *NOT* an interview about "ooh, aren't GamePolitics pricks?".

And yes, obviously every gaming site needs to be 'responsible journalism'. There's no room on The Internet for a little silliness and opinions, is there?

What's more, you'd think by naming a site gameTwat would sort of imply to people that it's not to be taken 100% seriously, but I guess that sort of skips people by.

You know what, you are all going to demonises me for this. but GT is right. Some of you ARE uppity fucks.

"Disappointed. This was an opportunity to prove that you might be better than your self-chosen name suggests, but by giving JT a venue to speak and then dancing to his horrific little tune, rather than engaging in some responsible journalism, you’ve pretty much just confirmed the original assessment that I and others had already made of you."

Did you even read THIS tidbit?

[…] as a result of all this attention Jack Thompson himself got in touch offering up an interview. ***Maybe he thought we hated all GamePolitics readers too***, and seemed keen to let us know what he thought.
[…]
There are some points we didn’t push; mainly because ***we felt we’d read Jack’s feelings on that subject countless times before and saw no point in going over old ground***. We don’t call him on some of his answers as you might expect, ***because we would have simply wound up going round in circles***.

Doesn't sound like the kind of people who'd support JT.

All you've done so far is prove gT's point that some of you are stuffy, uppity, SERIOUS BUSINESS posters who are incredibly thin skinned to insult a blog that was made for the SOLE PURPOSE for anonymous game developers to have a laugh and vent their frustrations WITHOUT getting in trouble with the companies they worked for.

This reminds me of the "You're webcomic is bad and you should feel bad" blog made by one John Solomon. He was attacked by sikmilar sounding posters who expects him to churn out "constructive" criticisms (not that those comics deserve it).

Do you know WHY they don't "challenge" JT? Two SIMPLE REASONS:

1. Same shit over and over and over. They know what he's say if they challenged him. It'd be going around in circles.

2. The best way to reveal JT's true colours. After all, what better way for JT to open a can of worms than to gain his trust?

In plain English, JT fell for a trap and gT seized an opportunity to extract information out of him that would give people an idea of what kind of a man he really is.

As far as GameTwat is concerned, I don't much like their site, but the important word is 'their', they can use it for anything they so desire, I in return simply don't go there, I'm certain they don't miss me.

As far as the fact that there are some gamers out there who couldn't tell their arse from their elbow, well, all I can say is 'Welcome to the Consumer-led market' ;) Once upon a time people wrote games they wanted to write and other people bought them, nowadays, people try to write to the consumers taste, not their own. Some could consider that the 'quality turning point' for both the product and the consumer, it's had benefits in the presentation and 'polish' in the Industry, but to my mind, it's had an equally detrimental effect of the depth of 'experimentation' that takes place in game-writing.

So by all means, I have no problem with a blog that is for venting frustrations of the people who work in the industry, you only have to work 6 months serving customers in a Supermarket to form a very firm opinion on the word 'Consumer', but personally, thanks, but no thanks.

"In all seriousness, to everyone griping, just drop it, it doesn’t matter. GT’s authors can have their fun on their blog without trying to go for the Nobel prize in literature. GT’s authors do not need to cry to momma about those mean “uppity fuckers” who expect them to be Pulitzer contenders."

Exactly! As someone who mainly a Gamepolitics reader, some of you REALLY need to cool off. They are NOT trying to be journalist, nor are they trying to win "Best Blog of the year". Like "Your Webcomic is bad and you should feel bad", gT is there for a few anonymous game developers to "let it out"

Blogs are not automatically news sites. And gT was never meant to be a news blog.

> Backlash doesn’t make anyone an “uppety fucker” it makes them human.

It does when you’re still bitching on about us about a week afterwards ;)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No, Chase, it doesn't. I didn't spend my week posting and complaining about gT, or anything else for that matter. I posted a couple of comments when the original story about gT went up, and I've posted several here today, mainly because I'm off work and have a little more time.

But to think that a few posts on Monday and several posts on Friday constitute a week's worth of posts is asinine. It constitutes about 8 posts on two separate days.

You're really reaching here. But that's cool. I had another cup of coffee and realized that I might have invested a little too much love into this topic. I stand by what I said, and do not want to caveat anything I've typed, but I'm a little nicer since having my java.

Regardless, have fun with gT and be sure to submit posts and whatever when you will stand by what they say, without having to go to another site and explain their context, or reach, and apologize, and debate, and wink, etc., etc., etc.

"[GP] demonizes me and makes money doing so… The more he demonizes and misrepresents my position, the more his lemming-like gamer robots go crazy posting their reiterations of his propaganda."

That's funny. I thought that your own actions were demonizing you. Afterall, this is the guy who goes to the mother of a killer or victim and tries to convince them that it was all the fault of a video game. Then, tries to sue the company that made it for money. This is the guy that constantly posts comment insulting Dennis and his readership.

I don't know how Jack thinks Dennis is making money by 'insulting' him. I just checked the various banners on the front page. There's links to parental tools, a charity (Child's Play), two sites encouraging people to vote, and, of course, the ECA. The rest seem to be awards.

As Dennis said in response to a JT post yesterday:
"GP: As you know, there ARE NO ADS on GamePolitics… I make no money based on traffic. We had plenty of traffic during the 18 months that you were banned.

And I’m a liar?"

"[GP readers are] people who have no idea what is really going on in the world. They care almost nothing about anything other than themselves and their petty concerns. They do not put the good of others ahead of their own narrow interests, because they are all about what they want to do, not what should be done for others."

What's going on in the world? Um, let's see. There's a major discussion going on about who owns the Artic since it's beginning to melt (for whatever reason, let's not get into THAT) and people are noticing resources there. The 2008 Presidential election is already heating up and there's somewhere around 15 candidates total (hard to keep track as it seems to change daily). The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, recently spoke at a Columbia University, in New York, on an invitation, where University President Lee Bollinger openly criticized him. How's that for a start?

I'm sorry, but I wasn't aware I only concerned about myself, and my 'petty concerns'. I'm sure my friends/family would all be surprised to learn that I do. I may not do charity work or regularly donate (though I'll usually give a few dollars to the Shiners/firemen/ect that you'll commonly see taking donations), but I do help my friends and my family. I'd do more if I could.

"GP really ought to stand for Godless Pissants… Any GamePolitics moron (sorry to be redundant)…"

Godless? I prefer agnostic. Is there a God? It's very possible. Do I believe in Him? If he exists, I do.

Pissants? GamePolitics moron? Didn't he just complain about being demonized by Dennis? Didn't I respond earlier in this post that his own actions and insults demonize him far more than anything else?

"Do you truly feel your ‘tone’ in messages on boards like GamePolitics are fitting for a professional lawyer?

Absolutely."

Really? This from the guy who could practically copyright calling a person a knucklehead. From the person who told a Webcomic to cease and desist it's parody contest. From the guy who's actions in court don't even befit a lawyer (remember the sign he was holding during the hearing with Judge Friedman after the Bully fiasco?). Yeah, Jack, your tone does fit a professional lawyer. One that was professionally disbarred, that is.

"All [game publishers] have to do is voluntary state that any retailers caught selling their age restricted games to anyone below the age at which the games are rated will suffer sanctions from the makers of the games. Totally voluntary, totally non-government, totally do-able, and totally censored as an idea at GamePolitics."

How would they know a retailer sold a game to a kid under the recommend age? What right does a publisher have to sanction a retailer? Why would they? Wouldn't that be a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face? If you stop selling your product to a retailer, you stop making money. All companies are profit driven. If they weren't they wouldn't still be in business.

Sorry for the long rant.

Jds, I'm sorry, but you ALSO proved their point. The fact that you're trying to argue about the validity and news credibility of a blog that was meant for VENTING OUT FRUSTRATIONS aka a blog for 'letting it out" pretty much sums up to "THE INTERNET IS SERIOUS BUSINESS" That's like comparing the Chicago Times with The Onion.

NEWS FLASH: NOT ALL BLOGS ARE NEWS SITES. SOME ARE DIARIES, SOME ARE OUTLETS

Sorry about the caps lock, but some people don't seem to get it.

@BlackIce, Leftie Says:
September 28th, 2007 at 10:34 am

Jack Thompson, no-one gives a flying fuck about you.

gameTwat, we accept your war declaration.


*Bangs head against the wall*

What war declaration?!

There was NO such thing! All they did was interview JT and let him talk, which resulted in JT revealing more than he should have revealed. They practically tricked him into opening a can of worms

Most GamePolitics readers aren't stupid, but some of you really do need a whack on the noggin.

Sweet. I got zinged by GT. :) :) :)

Will everyone take it easy on Gamertwat? Yes, I read the whole interview, and there were some questions specifically targeting GP, which I can't say I approve, but that's not for me to say. they did ask several other questions on different topics though, but as GT said, Jack chose to make it about GP and Dennis. Unfortunately, I wish he would have asked some of the tougher questions such as "Do you have any proof to back up your allegations about GP?" or "What is your response to the fact that the Washington Post took out the bit about Cho playing video games?" etc. etc. Some of the questions I know I would like to know. It did answer some of my curiousities that did disturb me though, mostly the one where he said he thinks it's acceptable to act like he does and a way a lawyer SHOULD act. Don't know he's going to pull off that whole "taking GP to court thing," but we're talking about Jack here so that should be no surprise.

"So why were the Marines using Doom to train their soldiers to kill? Riddle me that."

Holy Pop-Culture reference, Batman!! JT is even starting to talk like a super villain now.

@ Gamertwat

Can I offer a suggestion for the future? You want respect from people around here, you got to act a little nicer. Let's face it, you've haven't exactly left a solid first impression, but throwing more insults at us isn't going to change that. An insult-free explanation comment would be a nice place to start, wouldn't you agree?

Just read the article on their site.

It's amazing that despite the fact that it has been proven that Cho didn't play counter strike he still clings to that fact.

I know for one that I care for more than just myself, I have a wife and child so I have my priorities straight.

@GP it seems you have a surprise coming your way when he takes you to court ROFL sorry I can't keep a straight face anymore this stuff is pure comedy gold.

Okay, everyone take a deep breath and think happy thoughts of JT's disbarment. Let us just move on towards a more rational dialog.

BlackIce, If that was sarcasm, I apologise once again. I suck at detecting sarcasm on the internet unless it's super blatant. And I can only pick up sarcasm in real life conversations because of the tone that is used for sarcasm.

That, and I've seen so many stupid posts that it's hard to tell the difference between sarcastic posts and serious posts.

@GoodRobotUs

I'm sorry, man, but if that whole with with the gay porn was a mistake, then why did he act so damn proud about it? Usually people aren't proud of their 'mistakes.'

Then again, this IS Jack we're talking about.

"All [game publishers] have to do is voluntary state that any retailers caught selling their age restricted games to anyone below the age at which the games are rated will suffer sanctions from the makers of the games. Totally voluntary, totally non-government, totally do-able, and totally censored as an idea at GamePolitics."

Actually, I thought this didn't seem like a totally bad idea myself. JT actually said this? He said something pretty smart. I'm almost in awe. What would be wrong with doing this?

Same old Jack. Same lies, same BS, same refusal to accept personal responsibility. Same sad sad old man.

@Gameboy

I just read the full Gametwat interview. It’s actually not bad. It really came off like they were humoring Jack. And Jack is such a moron (I’m gonna steal Jack’s favorite word from the interview), that he didn’t see it.

My guess is he was tolerating them only because they were letting him bash GP at every turn. Besides, for every curveball they threw at him, he just threw insults back, so I doubt he thought he was being "had"...

@ chase_brumpton, DarrelBT

Yes, I did read the entire article off of gT, including the disclaimers at the beginning (or whatever disclaimers were there when I clicked the link, I don't know if they've been updated at some point).

You know what? You did call him out on a few things, and I apologize for not acknowledging that.

The thing is, it did nothing. At all. To the general masses, anyone who were to stumble upon that interview would most likely form the following impression:

"Wow, that guy is an unprofessional jackass, but at least he's trying to do a good thing and seems to have done his research."

Which, I'm pretty sure we all agree is blatantly false. I'm against giving JT a voice anymore. Any kind of voice, because I find it horrifying what he attempts (and in the case of the uninformed public, which sadly is most of them out there when it comes to these issues, succeeds in doing).

I guess what it comes down to is, if it had been my blog, and JT had approached me for this interview, I'd've told him to buzz off. I don't see anything constructive coming from the kinds of interviews or debates he's ever willing to have.

gT, I think you misrepresent yourselves, and as a member of the industry myself I'd be pretty embarassed to be a part of it. But hey, I'm not, and it it IS your blog, so you guys are free to do as you want with it. I hope it relieves some of that frustration you talk about.

GP, Thompson does know what the ECA stands for, and that it's not an industry laptop. Unfortunately that little fact would hamper his crusade, and we all know how much of an advocate of truthiness that Thompson is.

Thompson's at that age where he has selective hearing and apparently selective eyesight. He only sees and hears what he wants to hear.

He's just butthurt so he called the WAAAAMBULANCE at gT and cried about you over there.

He does think you're a journalist. Why else does he keep sending you press releases? They're certainly not for printing off and lining a puppy's bed.

@chase
Glad we're on the same page. keep on keepin' on. uppety fuckers are stinky and old, like Jack Thompson.

I actually liked the bit where you guys asked him if his behavior in the forums was becoming of a professional and his response was just ..."absolutely." And then you just went right on to the next question. The silence to me was deafening.

@lumi,

The masses aren't that dumb. If they were, Larouche would have been in office by now. Remember, Larouche likes to express his bullshit by sounding smart.

And besides, the general masses don't even read gT anyway. It's not like it was posted on Fox News or CNN.

@Zeb - This is not intended to be sarcastic. I'm serious.



Zeb, your comment is all I needed to read. Everyone, my bad. Zeb just schooled me. I'll go have my piece of humble pie now.

:)

@PlayItBogart

*snigger* you sir, owe me a new monitor, keyboard, and cup of coffee. ;)

@GT

"What’s more, you’d think by naming a site gameTwat would sort of imply to people that it’s not to be taken 100% seriously, but I guess that sort of skips people by."

From the first story on GP about GT editorial on GP, it was clearly not 100% serious. I get it, it has "attitude." The blog is very enjoyable from that point-of-view, almost like if GP and Viz had a baby... (I just won't go there at work!)

I think "twat" is slightly more vulgar in the States, because it isn't used as much. Ironically, that makes the name funnier.

@Soul

He just can't stop talking out of his arse.

@ Soul

I'm betting we never hear about this again. He has nothing.

@ Soul

Bad Feeling? I guess if laughing all day long is a "bad feeling" then yes. I have a bad feeling about it.

@Jack Thompson
Yeah, you wouldn't know about competition would you Gold digger?

Your rich wife backs you while you lead an assinine crusade for 'moral justice' and whatever other concept you hope to achieve, but in the end its all just your run for someone to remember you for something.

But don't worry. Wherein MEN like Churchill, Shughart and Gordon, Patton, John Paul II, and others are remembered for the great things they did, you will be remembered as a liar and an idiot. And people remembered for such things are quickly forgotten.

@Austin Lewis

I thought you were a Soldier. Explain.

@PlayitBogart

Off-topic, but... Am i the only one here that's shocked that that video has gotten about TEN MILLION VIEWS?

Jack you stupid faggot. All you are concerened about is YOU and YOUR wants. You think you can ban games and rap music HA HA. Fuckin loser I really hope you read this and file against me and you will fall flat on your arse because its called freedom of speech. Can't you just accept we like these games, they don't influence people to murder others and you don't like them? Death happens all the time and murderers will never be stopped because there is always a reason for a murder, why try and censor everything from people because they need to know stuff like this happens. You bring everything on yourself and every single case you have participated in you have failed. The story of your life, Failure. I hope you are sat at home paranoid reading this as you go on game website after game website, and when your gone no one will care because you had a sad FAILED exsistence.

And PlayItBogart I'll deal with you dick head for all I care JT can drop down dead and no one will care apart from his number 1 fan.....YOU!

Damn, gT is out for blood.. Too bad no one cares about them.

It seems JT has jumped on the "The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend" bandwagon with gT and now they're trying to criminalize the whole GP reader base. for a site that averages about 0-10 comments per article, and they do post a lot of them, I don't really think they have the backing from anyone, even if they do claim to be industry insiders.

Right now, it's a battle between the respectable GP and some blog-trolls.

oh yeah, and it's no feat to get JT to do an interview. He's an attention-whore.

ChrowX is yet ANOTHER person who MISSED THE POINT OF THE ARTICLE.

You see why gameTwat made that last article about certain stupid Gamepolitics readers?

@Guest

Congratulations for NOT DETECTING BLATANT SARCASM

Geez, and I thought I was bad.

Jesus people are thick.

Correct.

@DarrelBT
Sarcasm is often the quickest excuse used in situations like that. Even if it wasn't aimed at all GP readers they're still trying, in some way, to knock GP down a peg. Also, that article was aimed at all of the people who made comments like "JT SHOOD DIE I WANNA KILL HIS FACE IN!!", or something to that effect.
Yes, I read it, I understood it, and it was still pretty poor. Take a moment to consider that they went out of their way to display GP and its readers in a negative connotation.

GP, I think you need to update your full disclosure dept. message, that might shut Jack up.

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: Dennis McCauley is a journalist that publishes articles on an internet blog. Bill Gates uses the internet. Therefore Dennis McCauley supports the sale of Halo 3 to minors.

@ZeroDash: Given that GT presents itself as a blog for industry insiders to vent about things that piss them off, I'd say that they're pro-gaming, and anti-gaming-idiot.

@Zerodash

It's a pro-videogame blog made by anonymous game developers to vent their frustrations or have fun.

What they did in this case was humour JT into showing them his true colours. Which was the biggest mistake he's ever made.

You see, gT never hated Gamepolitics in general. In fact, the LOVE Gamepolitics. All they did was made an article that was a rant against certain Gamepolitics readers that were dumb. Jack Thompson however, got the wrong idea and thought that he finally found a kindred spirit and offered to be interviewed by them. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity for JT to reveal his true colours, they agreed to interview him.

If only Jack Thompson knew...Now he has pretty much opened a can of worms.

@Nekojin

Open to all: http://www.gametwat.com/?page_id=50

Yes, I did happen to read the article/"interview" early on, before I even posted the first reply.

And, even if the claim that GT were run by actual individuals working in the industry, and even if one looked at the blog as a rant based blog, one would still have to argue just how "serious" one could take such a blog.

The argument that it isn't possible to rant and criticize issues and opinions without having some form of professional, serious feel is misleading. Indeed, lacking any semblance of professional/serious feel makes such a blog look closer to the "fanboy/girl" site, or the impressions many have about MySpace, or the ten thousand other sites filled with pure 1st grade stupidity or hacker speak filled foolishness.

Yes, there DO exist blogs filled with rants and strong opinion and they don't need to be stuffed shirt serious or grade school idiotic. Quite frankly, I'd be more willing to believe the claim of anonymous people from the industry in those types of blogs than GT.

Maybe they will improve over time. Maybe they'll become REAL competition for the likes of GP, Joystiq, Kotaku, or any number of other sites. Then again....

Quite frankly, I'm rather underimpressed with that "interview". Indeed, I, and probably I alone, could easily feel that, as much as John Bruce claims Dennis is a tool for the industry, GT must be the tool for John Bruce. Oh, not to AGREE with him. Maybe not. But, more than merely giving him a sounding board (which there is never any problem with for me as I've said before), but not to seriously challenge him. Certainly, if they did and he claimed they were lying in some fashion, or he turned on them the way he turned on so many others (such as David Walsh or LA politicians), then they'd have first hand experience with what both Dennis and GP readers have been dealing with for years.

And maybe that is what they need, that first hand experience with John Bruce "Jack" Thompson. So, while I've stated many times that I'm not a supporter of banning or censoring, I can truly, and honestly, say:

YOU WANT HIM? YOU CAN -HAVE- HIM!

:)

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

Old JT loves to stir the shit. And look, the shit has been stirred. Mission accomplished.

Oh my god. My head hurts. I THOUGHT you were more intelligent than THAT, Nightwing. But I guess I'm wrong. I guess ALL of us have their stupid moments.

Do you know WHY they didn't challenge JT? Why? I'll tell you why. It's so that JT can reveal his true colours without fear of being backslashed. He played right into their hands and fell for it hjook line and sinker.

Why do people automatically assume that gT is on JT side just because they interviewed him without challenging him? Are people THAT stupid on the internet that they can't tell that Gametwat DOES NOT LIKE Jack THompson and is only interviewing him because they want to know what he REALLY thinks when he thinks he has an ally?


Fun fact: Gamepolitics and GameTwat DO NOT HATE EACH OTHER. In fact, they likew each other. This whole rumour started JUST because some of the idiot posters from Gamepolitics got butthurt that they were being called out, and started the rumour that Gametwat hate Gamepolitics.

DarrelBT,
"Stop trying to demonise gT. Heck, Dennis (Gamepolitics guy) LOVES gT. That should give you something to think about. "

So? Dennis isn't God or my lord and master. I read his articles, I comment on them, favorably or negatively as I see fit. This is true of everyone. I don't agree with everything everyone here says or does. Nor does anyone, especially Dennis, require me to. If he did, he'd either censor posts that didn't agree with him or make it a non-interactive specialty news site where he wrote his articles and that would be it. No comments. No letters to GP. No email address for tips and comments.

So, no, I don't have to agree with Dennis, or anyone, regarding GT, or any other issue. Isn't that the great thing about a good interactive specialty news site?

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

hey Dennis, are you gonna sue Jack for libel yet?

I'm a soldier with a college degree (Criminology/Sociology). I actually am working on a Doctorate.

@Austin Lewis

You said you were an enlisted man of the United States Army, yes?

Then you said you were a Criminologist/Sociologist. Which is it?

@BlackIce, Leftie
I got a college degree so I could have something to fall back on, given the eventuality of me getting too old/injured to the point where I can't fight anymore.

I'm both, and though my occupation is Soldier, I am also qualified to do things like police work, etc.

@Austin Lewis

I really need to get something to fall back on.. A nice chair maybe?

I dunno, what am I qualified to do... Dearie me...

I was hesitant to post my thoughts in this section. So many posts are full of passion, ignorance, malice, and general regurgitation of the same information found in other threads (and sites) that I really don't think anyone will pay attention to what I'm going to say.

However, even if this comment spins off into the cold nether regions of the net universe without a single read, I'll still better for at least voicing my opinion.

With all of the major political news (not just gaming politics, mind you) occurring recently, and the upcoming presidential elections, I have found myself looking past creating/playing games to really study my surroundings and reflecting on what it means to be a US citizen.

I, like every other US citizen, am blessed with certain civil rights that I have been taking for granted for so many years. I haven't voted. I haven't fought for my beliefs and rights which may be contested in a political spectrum. That has changed recently, thanks in part to GP and the effort I put forth to open my eyes to what's going on around me.

What amazes me is how people interpret (judge) other's use of the 1st Amendment. Freedom of Speech is a human right, not just a US citizen's right, so this will apply to those speaking outside of the USA as well. It is obvious that Mr. Thompson, GP, and GT all take advantage of free speech.

To take advantage of our free speech as readers, we respond with our opinions. However, the moment we start telling someone what their moral obligations should be, and how they should speak, we are bordering on infringing someone's rights.

Had one of us conducted the interview, we could have asked any question that came to mind. We didn't conduct the interview, GT did. In pursuit of their happiness they have created a website to vent, which is still voicing their opinion. One can disagree with them verbally....well, do you see how the circle is complete?

Telling someone to take up moral responsibility similar to your's kills what little chaos exists in this world. We need that chaos, as it helps put things in perspective and hold it all together.

To sum up: GT interview's a person (freedom of speech). Said person responds with their beliefs and comments (freedom of speech). A person responds, positively or negatively, to the interview (freedom of speech). How does that exchange warrant anything but discussion, instead of persecution.

By the way, I expect my comments to be argued. I gladly welcome that in the spirit of self-improvement and discussion. Mind you, I've already heard the argument that Mr. Thompson tries to infringe on our rights as gamers. Well, I still make the games I want to make, and play the games I want to play. Mr. Thompson wants to declare Halo 3 a public nuisance in Florida? Guess what? I'm a Florida citizen and I've already written my letters to the Attorney General and Governor.

What the? How did I end up on this soap box? I better step down to make room for others. Have at it ladies and gentlemen. I'm done for the day =)

Maybe I'm a "fanboy" maybe I'm not. Regardless, I'm a fellow Gamepolitics poster who is sick and tired of stupid posters slandering a random blog site just because said blog site insulted a few idiots who post unhelpful comments in gamepoliticsbecause they took it the wrong way.

And so what if JT gets a voice in gT and they don't challenge him? You SERIOUSLY think that the mass media will look to gameTawt as a SERIOUS CREDIBLE source? Frankly, that's the only reason why I think you don't like it when he isn't challenged. Besides, the comments alone pretty much challenge JT's viewpoint.

You are right. Challenging someone is a good way to know what a person is like, but so is NOT challenging him. A combination of both will fit the puzzle pieces together. In this case, a combination of pieces where JT was challenged and where he was not challenged has given many people an idea of what kind of a man JT really is.

I am really sick of Jack stereotyping the readership of Game Politics. The comment "Godless Pissants" was especially infuriating. My religious beliefs are what they are, and just because I read GP does not mean I'm less of a person or not true to my beliefs.

@Guest,
Might I make a suggestion...don't lower yourself to using derogatory terms like "faggot." It is a cruel slur, and I've gotten really sick of hearing people using it. If you do a little research and find out the origins of it, I think you'll agree with me that it does not apply and is extremely homophobic.

GameDevMich: Well said.

[...] And now one last one: fucking douchebag. That one’s from me to you, Jack. I don’t feel bad about it anymore. Check out the full interview at GameTwat. GameTwat: Exclusive : GameTwat Interviews Jack Thompson GP’s response [...]

@Those who read what I wrote - Thanks for taking the time to read through that min-novel. I didn't realize how long it was until I posted :/

@Conejo - Congratulations on exercising your right of free speech. No sarcasm implied, pure sincerity. I would like to know what responsibility you think should be attached to speech? I'm sure you are referring to lack of honesty, hate mongering, and so on.

When it all boils down to it, a person who has allowed himself/herself to be persuaded by a dishonest or hate filled speech has proven they lack the willpower necessary to living an individual life. Sure, someone can make a very persuasive but they are NOT forcing you do something. My father always told me that actions speak louder than words, and only actions can impede on my rights and being.

@GameDevMich

Well, done. You get my cookie for the day. Or my brownie. Or muffin.

Stuff it, you can have all three.

I am SICK of these people who attack people who attack people who play video games! Guess what, because of video games I didn't drink, smoke weed or cause any kind of trouble. I was well minded and a hell of a problem solver.

Its plain and simple, Video Games don't cause people to act Violently however I'm not going to deny that video games draw in people who tend to be vilont, much like youth oraintated jobs draw in Sexual Predators. Does this mean we go out and call all Teachers names because a hand full of them are predators?

What could The Industry/ Government/ Gamers/ Developers/ Whoever do tomorrow that would make you happy and give up your crusade?

All they have to do is voluntary state that any retailers caught selling their age restricted games to anyone below the age at which the games are rated will suffer sanctions from the makers of the games. Totally voluntary, totally non-government, totally do-able, and totally censored as an idea at GamePolitics.”

Thompson's very own actions contradict this statement from him. And to gT, I'm sorry you had to listen to his mess of crap.

Can I ask something? I think maybe allot of people have somehow negatively reacted to GameTwat, or may be insinuating that Jack-o doesn't have the right to say the things he has. I wouldn't go that far, but frankly, it's not his views I resent so much as his CONSTANT belligerant attitude. Somehow or other though - there have been allot of questions in the comments about the nature of free speech.

At what point does free speech conflict with good old fashioned/natural/human common sense? Free speech, strictly interpreted, would allow me to go KKK recruiting in Harlem; but common sense would on the other hand dictate that for me to do so would have to mean that I basically am as dumb as JT seems to think I am. Yet, here he is, over and over again. CLEARLY he's got GP bookmarked. CLEARLY he keeps sending Dennis material over and over again which he seems to believe Dennis won't properly print.

Put simply - what I'm really wondering about here, is it's all well and good that we can sit around and discuss freedom of speech all day long. However, it seems to me that sooner or later we shouldn't think of it as a "human right" granted us by the bill of rights, but something that we have a moral obligation to use-repsonsibly.

I just hope that the ESRB, Best Buy, EB, Gamestop, etc just start distributing a flyer that teaches parents how to use the parental locks on their game systems.

It wouldn't really matter if some kid got their hands on a Jenna Jameson movie (if it was sold to them or not) when their DVD player won't play it.

"[GP readers are] people who have no idea what is really going on in the world. They care almost nothing about anything other than themselves and their petty concerns. They do not put the good of others ahead of their own narrow interests, because they are all about what they want to do, not what should be done for others."

So then by that definition . . . Jack Thompson is the absolute perfect GP reader.

Way to generalize. And calling me a "godless pissant." Real professional and mature. Just when I thought it wasn't possible, JT has managed to piss me off more.

I really have issues with JT calling us narrow minded and only fighting for Gamer Rights,

I'm sorry to say but he is wrong, look at Penny Arcade, these guys do a lot for sick kids with their Penny Arcade Charity and guess what its gamers who are donating money to this foundation not Activist Lawyers.

@Every one Talking about Free Speech (not attacking any of you just joining in)

I believe that everyone has their right for free speech, their opinions are valid, and my problem comes from people presenting their opinion as fact. The fact is there really haven’t been comprehensive tests to see if these hyper realistic games do anything to the developmental growth of children. Studies take years and once a Hypothesis is made it takes more years to try and prove it wrong. Right now we are only getting the initial reports of what’s going on, first Hypothesis if you will, and every one knows that initial Hypothesis are usually wrong.

I will say In my own opinion I don't think video games make kids killers or more violent. In the report that the ADA did about how kids after 10 min of game play had more violent tendencies it didn't take into account that maybe the kid was more violent because they were losing at the game or maybe the fact that they only let the kid play 10 min of the game. I know if you take a toy away from a kid who doesn't play video games they tend to react violent and over exaggerated, so how is this any different from taking a video game away from them?

I don't want to be a copy-and-paster, so I'll just say, I posted over at gT already about my thoughts about ALL of this. I personally feel it's thoughtful and rational, but I'm biased. In any case, if you care enough to see, ctrl+f my name on their JT story.

-Mike Schwinger

"GP really ought to stand for Godless Pissants"

i could really care less that somebody would call me godless, i just cant figure out how mr thompson would come to the conclusion that GP is godless

Petty concerns? And yet all the reports are about his stupid ramblings, unconstitutional laws, and other game related topics. If he's involved in these reports, isn'the saying he himself is petty?

Ok, so Jack's idea of "competition" for GamePolitics is a website is gT? Thats not competition. Thats more like saying... hell, I don't even know what its like, but competition it isn't. gT is more like... noise you get on a chalkboard while we over at GP try to have a civil discourse over the state of gaming in the world. (How many times will you hear the phrase "Civil discourse" used at gT anyways?)

Oh oh oh! I know what gT is like. Its like the tabloid/WWN trash papers where at GP would be like a well reasoned newspaper.

But seriously, here's JT thinking GP is making money off of this. Do you think he's going to say this is true for a year or two even if its obviously false?

In the end, I just think this whole 'interview' with JT was a ploy by gT to page views and nothing more. Why else would JT rant about GP there instead of doing something better, like having a civil discourse on his point of view instead of acting like a jerk and just ramble on about how GP is ebil and the rest of us are morons (or E-tards, to use a very stupid JT phrase).

Name calling has no place in a civil argument over the constitutionality of banning or not banning video games. Its not very professional and it just makes the name caller (JT) look like a bigger moron (E-tard).

So in the end, please leave my planet, JT. You're using up precious oxygen that someone else here could really use. Thanks.

Oh God!,Jack your are NOT a marine!stop using "Hooha' in your stupid responses.You are not a marine!!!! jeez.

@ Salen

"Name calling has no place in a civil argument over the constitutionality of banning or not banning video games. Its not very professional and it just makes the name caller (JT) look like a bigger moron (E-tard)."

You are forgetting that JT is not the only one that resorts to name calling. People here at Game Politics are quite guilty of that and I'll even admit to doing it. You do have to admit though that Jack Thompson has never (that I recall) threatened violence against us, which we also have been guilty of having done.

E-tard. Haven't heard that one before. Is that a JT original, like Pixelante ?

@RaZor

Yes. I get carded for Godwins Law pretty much everytime I talk about JT. Stupid Nazi.. Damn, there I go again.

@Ryan:

Well if you can file a complaint (or however it works) on our behalf we'd be much obliged.

@DoggySpew:

Prolly the same place he gets his porn, /d/.

So, at what point do JT's personal attacks in interviews (and his "press releases") like this become libel?

Well hot damn. If I wasn't godless, I'd be slightly more offended. xD

I believe this is the first time I've ever been calling a lemming though. Jack, you get 5 points for being creative, and lose 500 for being a twit.

... Heh. An anti-game Twit of a Site called GameTwat.

"Ok, so Jack’s idea of “competition” for GamePolitics is a website is gT? Thats not competition. Thats more like saying… hell, I don’t even know what its like, but competition it isn’t."

It would be more like, GP = news, gT = editorials?

@Wolfiej

You can't trust anything you read. Not even from GP.

If Jack finds himself aligning with a site called "gameTwat" in the hopes that they will show him in the "Right Light", then BOY does he have another thing coming.

I think I'll take a look and add my own two cents.

This should be fun. :)

~Otaku-Man

@ Matdredalia

Yep, my point!

@Valoharth -- I just read your previous comment, and I wholeheartedly agree.

Honestly, I believe that this is just another thing for the older generations to lose a grip over, much like rock & roll and women wearing blue-jeans instead of floor-length skirts. It's new, it's not the norm, it's growing *rapidly*, and it scares them.

They called Elvis the devil. And they swore that the only women who wore pants and blue jeans were whores. So, now it's our turn to be something new and misunderstood -- so we get labeled as irresponsible, violent, careless, and ignorant.

Personally, I don't believe in calling them names back, threatening them, or stooping to being ignorant. I'm just going to keep living my life the best way I can, keep being the best person I can, and keep being the best gamer I can along the way.

And someday, I'll sit and laugh with my kids and tell them about the days when video gaming was actually a political movement.

hmm I could have swapped little Kid for 2 year old brat. but thats almost dropping to a Jack Thompson-esque level

I read the entire thing and I thought I'd comment.

First, I never visited GameTwat and if they interview Jack Thompson, I got no problem with that. No parents will ever use this interview in his argument. Just like Erik said (great post by the way) he simply contradicts himself to the very end. No serious parent will take that seriously and no rant is needed.

Second, I visit GamePolitics regularly, even though I rarely comment. I felt a bit insulted by Thompson's comments, but I kept my cool because he just proved how narrow-minded, old fashioned and oblivious he is. I'm myself quite tired of the ranting in comments but as I say, there will be always one who won't be satisfied with anything. This is why I love when someone like Erik and GameDevMich post well thought comments instead of "Jackass thompson must DIEEE!!" and the like.

And Soul, Thompson proved countless time that he's all bark no bite. I don't recall him winning any game case (maybe I'm wrong). Just let him rant about how he'll have GamePolitics in court. "Twice the pride, double the fall."

Ryan, it's good to know that no one in the Florida Bar takes Thompson seriously. But after all, Thompson only serve and listen to only one person in the world: himself.

To Thompson, don't call GP readers Godless. I'm Christian myself and to take a Thompson-ish speech "God don't like those who uses his name to justify themseves".

Pierre-Olivier

P.S. Dennis, keep up the good work.

"[GP readers are] people who have no idea what is really going on in the world."
So says the one who has the exact same problem.

"They care almost nothing about anything other than themselves and their petty concerns."
Again, so says the one who has the exact same problem.

"They do not put the good of others ahead of their own narrow interests, because they are all about what they want to do, not what should be done for others."
And yet, well you know.....

"Do you truly feel your ‘tone’ in messages on boards like GamePolitics are fitting for a professional lawyer?"
And he calls us stupid children....

Oh well, I think giving him such attention is good. While he might not replay to anything, he more then likely reads through and obsesses over all of our comments. Wouldn't surprise me if he revisits this site every 30 minutes....

Jack is renown for his ability to project his own faults onto others.

@Jabrwock

As I said above, given Jack's tenuous grasp of hyperlinks as evidenced by his claim that a law firm website that linked to a news site that linked to adult sites itself was hosting the content of the adult site he probably just can't grasp how ads work.

He knows that websites get revenue from ads, more traffic = more revenue, Gamepolitics is a website, therefore it’s traffic = revenue. The fact that a website must have specific kinds of advertising banners up to get revenue from traffic escapes him.

and now back to the real news on the politics of interactive entertainment......

It's like watching a paranoid schizo explain the conspiracy that he believes he's involved with.

@Matdredalia

Don't forget his "modest proposal" that when almost all conditions of his game idea were met, and met with pretty high acclaim I might add, he did the equivalent of dangling food over a hungry dog when quickly placing it in your own mouth while smirking.

I stand by my griping about not feeding the gT trolls, but I just got to thinking about how sadly comic it all is. Boy oh boy, Jack, public career's doing real well, isn't it, getting interviews in prestigious publications like GameTwat?

Is this how the mighty John Bruce Thompson, Esq will bring down Take-Two and its Blank Rome Lawyers?

Gosh, Jack. Color me awestruck.

Now that I've finally seen Jack sit down and calmly say what his position without trying to insult someone or bend the truth too much (at least for a few breaths in a row...must have been difficult) I have to say that It's really kind of sad that he's such a duche.

He claims to be opposed of the sale of mature games to children and also claims to be in favor of an industry-based penalty for retailers who are caught selling said games to underaged consumers.

I'm in favor of the same thing!

However, and this is the reason we can't ever be friends, Jack seems to be completely incapable of being useful to anyone but himself and those few who see the world in the same light.

I also don't understand why he goes after the game industry and not the retailers. If you take Jack's logic and apply it to more general violent crime in the US (we'll use violent crime involving guns as an example) he'd be after companies like Smith and Wesson, or Glock, or Colt every time a 7-11 employee got shot because, in Jack's mind, it's the fault of the manufacturer rather than whoever sold the gun to the felon (be it a legal sale or not).

Hint: When you take your son to Target, get him to buy a copy of Bioshock, and quote the cashier as saying "I don't care" rather than carding the kid it's Target that's the badguy. Not the company that developed Bioshock.

Should the gaming industry make a stand and sanction retailers that sell games to consumers they shouldn't? Yes, I think they should. Personally I think it's the industry's responsibility to do so.

This is a statement to Jack: If you weren't such a misguided moron we'd actually be allies. Too bad. Your loss.

Jack has no idea, but his lemming accusation is ironic on a hilarious level. The supposed act of lemmings committing mass suicide is a myth. The myth goes back some ways, but it was perpetuated mostly by Disney during a documentary. Not able to find lemmings performing this act (as they don't) they decided to stage a lemming suicide. They bought lemmings and were thrown by hand into the sea to get the scene they wanted.

If we are lemmings Jack then you are Disney. A liar with no evidence so he has to fabricate it. Better a lemming than a liar.

@ Nightwng2000

Just Jacky Boy blowing smoke out his ass again.

But I can argue that Jack Thompson is committing treason against the United States when he's attacking video games based on a letter he wrote to Take-Two last year:

Radical, fascist Islamists recruit to their cause partly with the cry that American pop culture is raw sewage flowing to the rest of the world from a corrupted West. Take-Two helps cut the legs off the rebuttal to that argument. That is precisely why your corporate legs must be cut off, and by God’s grace, it will happen and it is happening.

http://udx.livejournal.com/429295.html

From Article III, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

@ Kincyr

I'm surprised Take-Two didn't when they first got that letter.

Better watch out Dennis, the Twats got you in their cross hairs.

With continuing success and eminence in journalistic integrity they will soon reveal the video game industry lapdog lemming Frankenstein brained site that Gamepolitics really is.

http://www.gametwat.com/?p=59

How can GP compete against that?!

@gametwat

I liked that you asked some confrontational questions but didn't persist and argue with him.

@Jack Thompson

If you would stop with the insults, you just might be taken alot of more seriously.

Godless pissants?! FUCK YOU THOMPSON!!! I believe in god and i've been gaming 4 15 years pal. If u wanna miss with someone ur messing with american gamers who are defending our right to play whatever games we want. Its america Jack, ever heard of the 1st amendment asshole. GET USED TO IT YOU'LL NEVER WIN THERE'S U AND MILLIONS OF US. Jack Thompson FUCK YOU!!!

Jack, How bout instead of whining about the fairness of life, your lack of morals on internet forums and your general failure as a man, you go troll GT's forums and site for a while? Give this place a rest, we need it from having to constantly deal with an idiot like you.

I find it ironic that if GP is an 'Industry Lapdog' by being an organised group of consumers that have a similar opinion on a product, then so is the CCFC.

Anyone know where I can go to view all of Jack's court filings? I'm curious to read them and see how childish they've been, and how reckless he's been with his filings.

Any info'd sure be appreciated.

@ davcube

I understand what you mean, however let him have his own little victory, he'll be the only 1 at his own parade. I mean, let's continue vouching against Video game ban bills, but just let Jack self destruct.

We don't need to do anything for Jack to eventually destroy himself, he's already done that to his own credibility. He's inches to getting his license of law revoked, I think it's just better to dismiss him, because if we do so, soon enough everyone will.

You know what's interesting though, as a lawyer (I know what I'm talking about here, I've actually studied law in the past.) you are always supposed to come up with well thought out examples of arguments, meaning that you put your own personal beliefs aside during a case. So even if you think your client is guilty yourself, you'll fight to get him an innocent verdict. I've noticed Jack never has ANY rational thought behind his barrages of vindictive immature rationalism. He gets proven wrong, he instantly resorts to playground tactics, by saying "my dad has more money then yours."

I'm sure that this was pointed out earlier, but since I don't feel like reading through all of the 200+ comments to this post alone, I'll just say it.

Jack Thompson, the man that we all love to hate, is one giant, lying, hypocrite. Let's not even looks at his words, but rather his actions. He claims to want to keep M-rated games out of the hands of underaged gamers. So what does he do? He makes is own son, who is an underaged gamer, buy the very M-rated games that Jack wants people like his son to not play. This act alone should provide proof, but he has done much more, and the past incidences have been well documented here of GamePolitics.

"[GP readers are] people who have no idea what is really going on in the world. They care almost nothing about anything other than themselves and their petty concerns."

Like freedom of speech. I am one petty motherfucker!

Thompson is the KING of absurd propaganda.

Thompson has his head shoved so far up a Bible -- drowned in a torrent of leaky superstitious shit -- that HE has no idea what is going on in the world (especially the legal community). To hell with your dark god of murder and genocide. I suppose since Christians like yourself can no longer freely murder children and convert people under the threat of death, you attempt to repress people by raping their rights in some fashion.

Your bullshit moralistic crusade and against the freedom of expression directly reflects the evil, backwards, disgusting, fictitious war-god that you submissively acknowledge as master. "The greater good," are you retarded, JT? If we wanted to achieve a "greater good," we should start by censoring all Judeo-Christian religious teachings.

Remember, dumbass, your values are relative at best. The same sense of freedom that protects your right to cower before a genocidal, child-killing, bronze age war God protects MY right to enjoy forms of media that conflict with your bullshit "values."

GamePolitics, I beg of you, please just ignore gameTwat.com.

Referencing them here on you site is just giving them free advertising. Just ignore them and let their side fade into obscurity.

I officially give up with Pandralisk, no matter what we say, he acts like a racist bastard. He truly is the JT of religion with his intolerance crap.

@RaZor

I think he's pulling a play from JT's book, coming in, spouting what he say,s and never responding to any comment that challenges him

He should also start complaining that him posting gay porn on public websites easily accessable by children of all ages was unfairly censored and that the reason he dislikes sites like Gamepolitics is because they would censor his gay porn as well...

I mean he was a crazed loon before, but now that he is a gay porn provider there is really no reason to even look in his direction you might see something perverted like him... I mean, at least gay porn makers don't post it on public websites for all to see...

What next JT? posting child porn on public websites? Using your son to show how easy it is to photograph your own son being molested??? It would have been ridiculous even for you before, but now there is a higher chance of you doing that then ever making sence...(though yoiu making sence was never very likely...)

I think GTA should change their first mission in the next game slightly... You go to kill a lawyer that says guns don't kill people games do and then he should say something like:
-->hey instead of killing me how about I give you a mission to glue gay porn all over the courthouse?

[GP readers are] people who have no idea what is really going on in the world. They care almost nothing about anything other than themselves and their petty concerns.

Sounds like he can recognize his own type.

wow hes really a jerk... keep up the good work man I love this web site!!!