The Pen Is Mightier Than the Lawsuit
John Bruce "Jack" Thompson is an attorney often cited in the media for his views on the effects of obscenity and violence in popular media. That's cribbed directly out of the Wikipedia entry for him and that same Wikipedia entry contains a large warning that the neutrality of the entry is disputed, which is cool to see in an encyclopedia. Jack Thompson has been hating on popular culture (the neutraility of this post should definitely be disputed) since lawsuits against 2 Live Crew back in the Eighties. Howard Stern, Grand Theft Auto, the list of defendants contains all the usual suspects.
Earlier in October Thompson sent a letter to the media entitled "A Modest Video Game Proposal," in which he invites video game producers to create a game modeled on the scenario he provides and states that if that game is produced he'll donate $10,000 to charity. The scenario is something like:
Osaki Kim (O.K.) exits the courtroom swearing revenge upon the video game industry whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" he says. And boy, is O.K. not kidding.O.K. is provided in his virtual reality playpen a panoply of weapons: machetes, Uzis, revolvers, shotguns, sniper rifles, Molotov cocktails, you name it. Even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats.
See, because Thompson blames the videogame industry for providing criminal blueprints. Someone, of course, made the game and Thompson reneged on his $10,000 to charity. "What the hell does any of this nerd crap have to do with Seattle?" you're screaming by now. Hold on. Local video game culture chroniclers Penny Arcade ended up paying the $10,000 to charity which touched off a reasoned and germane conversation about the issues of violence in our culture. Jack returned fire by sending this note to SPD head Gil Kerlikowske.
From the Penny Arcade boys:
Obviously he didn’t mention anything to the police department about his “Modest proposal” in which he asks that a game be developed in which players urinate on peoples brains and murder kids who work at game stores. He never mentions that he offered ten thousand dollars to charity and then said it was just “satire.” He doesn’t tell the police chief that Jerry and I just donated the ten thousand for him. I wonder why he left that part out?Our man Robert is cashing in some frequent flyer miles and heading down to San Francisco today. He’ll be attending the ESA’s charity dinner this evening and will be presenting them with our check. Hopefully he’ll take some pictures for us. I guess Jay Leno is going to be there!
