GamePolitics readers will recall last week's report detailing Miami attorney Jack Thompson's
generous offer to assist Electronic Arts in its bid to acquire
Grand Theft Auto publisher Take Two Interactive.
While we assumed EA would simply ignore Thompson, the game publisher has chosen to administer a public slap, instead. Apparently, EA has not forgotten Thompson's
bizarre, 2005 attack on its beloved Sims franchise. Here's the text of EA's letter:
Mr. Thompson,
We have received your letter to EA’s shareholder site. In response to your offer to assist in the proposed acquisition of Take-Two, we would strongly prefer that you not get involved in this matter. EA is a strong supporter of creative freedom for game developers. We feel that your past statements – including false claims about content in our games – make any collaboration with you impossible.
Sincerely,
Mariam Sughayer
Sr. Manager Corporate Communications
Electronic Arts, Inc.
GP: Good call by EA. Trying to ignore Thompson in the hope that he will just go away has been a mistake the video game industry has repeated time and again.
UPDATE: GP has received a comment from Thompson:
I've just seen excerpts at Gamasutra. That's fine. Then I'll be involved at the Take-Two shareholders meeting. Oh, and EA's improper collaboration with modders of the Sims was and is absolutely correct.
Comments
I can see it now.......
EA: Jack Thompson! C'mere! Got a joke for ya!
Jack: Huh?
EA: What did the five fingers..... say to the face?
Jack: ?
EA : *SLAP*
Gamers are undivided in the fight against Jack Thompson and similar idiots who want to force the government into telling us adults what games we can and can not play, and so are game companies.
Glad to see EA will try to get Ea in a respectiful manner
I understand what you say, and for the same reason you say before, the Mass Effect affair points he earned were quickly expended.
Or are you going to sue them too, now?
...
Yeah, I've been playing a bit of Team Fortress 2...
Another cookie for EA, though... despite the whole maddenopoly thing, but I'm not a real hardcore sports game fan, so that's not my concern.
This must be an huge blow for Thompson's ego. Wonder how he took it.
"Dear Mr. Thompson,
Bite me, you friggin' douche.
Love, EA"
I may never say this again, so savor it... kudos EA on a job well done.
Man if I was EA I would a lot more fun. Maybe tell him he can help if were to public state he was wrong, or do something humiliating, then tell him no. But thats just me.
"Dear ass-faced, pedophilic, brain-dead, nerds and murderers at EA,
You've just dug your own grave. I'll see you in court for slander and libel. Govern yourselves accordingly. Hooah.
Jack Thompson"
Actually he's probably just gonna say that EA's rejection is EA playing right into his hands, and that the letter fits perfectly into JT's plans.
If there's one thing that has to be said about JT, it's sure hard to get him down. what an optimist.
(And apparently JT sowed a big ol' sack of pwnage seeds.)
No.
It counted, and then he went on suing people and bad-mouthing games which quickly wiped out any credit he had just earned.
JT will either respond to EA by doing one of the following:
A) Sue, or threaten to sue EA.
B) Issue a statement about this being the single greatest thing that has ever happened in his law career- and it being the final weapon he needs to destory TT/R*/videogames.
C) Go on to personally attack Mariam Sughayer for being part of the homosexual conspiracy and being a drug addict.
D) All of the above.
There is only one word that accurately and aptly describes this response. That word is one known to us all, but not to the fuddy-duddies like Jack Thompson who do not understand video games and hate them for that fact. That word my friends is...
PWNED!!11!
john boy is comedic gold
After all, all the crap John Bruce has done in the past is now coming back to haunt him.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Though i do hate you for making CnC3, CnC Generals, MOH:Airborne a flop and all you want is to suck our money...
I'm behind you all the way on JT. STUFF IT DOWN HIS THROAT GOOD!
The one where Chef wants to change the town flag and Jimbo doesn't and the KKK supports Jimbo and he doesn't want them on his side?
Anybody?
No, optimists still know they could be wrong and things won't turn out well. Jack is either in denial or completely delusional. Or maybe a little of column A and a lot of column B... A LOT of column B.
He would be saying stuff like the Thrill Kill leak was a conspiracy from EA to cause children to have a thrill to kill people.
At least I have a better view of EA now.
F-k you, you f--kin' f--k faced mother f--kers! Thompson's gonna talk in the third person while he threatens to sue you for slander!You f--kin' f--kers have no f--kin' clue how badly you have f--ked up now! F--K YOU ALL AT EA, ECA, ESA, TT, AND ALSO ROCKSTAR...cause...you know...games are bad and stuff.MUTHA F--KIN' HOOOOOOOOOAAAAAH!
Truly your's
Jack Thompson >>>end spoof by GRIZZAM 512
The letter still makes me laugh. Hehe...
Also: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!!! The most polite bitchslap I've ever seen. I'm sure the politeness of it will infuriate more than the bitchslap part.
Nice to see someone dismiss him and bring his past stupid claims back up, but I just can't trust EA's motives.
BONK! indeed.
-P
Great response there Mariam Sughayer. Nice to see a blunt response as well given Jack's tendency to waffle and self-promote.
However, I don't buy EA games on account of they pretty much all end with a year at the end.
Its upsetting to see a "maddenopoly" situation.
At the end of the day. I just wish Jack would kindly give up.
Age ratings are their for a reason.
People should abide.
I was too lazy to do more than a ctrl+F but am I really the only one commenting on the irony here?
EA just earned an extra 5 points of respect from me.
LOL. If I take a copy of the Bible, glue pictures of naked women into it and give it children, are the people who published the book guilty of improper collaboration with me? Thompson's claims about the Sims were and are absolute bullshit.
Also, there's no way at all he'll be involved at the shareholders meeting. Even if he attends, what does he expect to accomplish? Whinge at the people? Threaten them?
Even though his threats are empty and he is pretty powerless, the man's zeal is kind of scary.
BUHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
Seriously WTF, EA had "improper collaboration" with the modders???
That is like saying Vivendi Universal collaboration with modders to make improper mods involving Barbie's Horse Adventures... No such collaboration exists, especially when it comes to unrelated individuals modifying games in ways companies didn't intend people to or endorse.
Jack let me put it in a way you would have a better time understanding: someone "modding" gay porn in copies of "Out of Harm's Way" & giving the modified books away be in "improper collaboration" with you?
And so begins the temper tantrum.
I'm still seeing him in the animations version of a tantrum.
Angry face.
Fists balled up.
And the legs up, then down, then up, then down...
All with the growly sound bite.
Nightwng2000
NW2K software
.....Mr. Thompson, are you honestly saying that EA, a company that has, over the years, shown that it doesn't really give a flying **** about its own games, paid some people to make their own mods to put on their (and not EA's) fansites?
Wow, uhhh... pardon the bluntness of this, sir, but.... are you REALLY that stupid?
Everytime he opens his mouth, he seems to think that people won't remember what he has said before. It's almost as if he feels he is some sort of super genius and the rest of us are idiots that will believe everything he says. When we challenge what he is saying, he acts as if we are breaking some sort of rule.When we recall what he has said in the past, he acts as if it isn't allowed. As if life is some big court case and he can say, "Wait a minute, I'm not the one on trial here, let's keep focused on T2, ok?"
Jack, if you lie about a company, if you insult a company, if you make your personal cause the bringing down of the very industry the company represents... don't issue a press release to the company and expect a happy-happy responce.
If I take a copy of the Bible, glue pictures of naked women into it and give it children, are the people who published the book guilty of improper collaboration with me?
Nah, it's more like if you drew hentai pictures on a piece of paper, the company that made the pencil and paper are part of an "improper collaboration", because like most things you can mod, it really is just a pencil and paper.
He... has no idea how modding works does he?
But thats Thompson, engineer of the Failtrain.
How much lower can JT go now that the devil of the video game industry has just given him the proverbial bird?
Oh and JT... This is what happens when you make ENEMIES OF EVERYONE!!!
And he's wondering why they refused his help.
And what makes him so sure Take Two will want his help either? He's been out to destroy them.
His name is not important, and his actions really aren't either. The man is destined to fail.
I heard he had 100 shares.
That won't get anybody's attention either.
EA didn't collaborate with anyone.
- Warren Lewis