Anti-GTA Lawyer Jack Thompson Takes Aim at Gaming Community
- October 18, 2005 15:12 PM PST
- Email this!
He may have spearheaded the infamous Hot Coffee scandal, but Miami lawyer Jack Thompson isn't done yet.
He spearheaded the infamous Hot Coffee scandal and called The Sims 2 a "pedophile's paradise."
But Miami lawyer Jack Thompson isn't done yet.
Now he's targeted Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade, one of the most popular gaming blogs on the Net, as well as home to wickedly satirical comic "Penny Arcade."
The tale is complex and convoluted, but here's what we know so far. It all started when Thompson wrote and distributed a piece called A Modest Video Game Proposal, which challenged game developers to design a game to his bizarre specifications, where the goal is to harm game industry employees with "sniper rifles, Molotov cocktails....even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats." From that point on, Thompson's piece spins off in a wild tangent. At one point, he recommends that the game feature a scene in which the player, a disturbed youth, "urinates onto the severed brain stems" of his victims (who boast last names similar to those of Take-Two's CEO, Paul Eibeler).
Thompson pledges to donate a $10,000 charity donation to anyone who meets this challenge, adding "I've got the check and you've got the tech." Thompson ends on a challenging note: "Go ahead, video game moguls. Target yourselves as you target others. I dare you."
But after a group of Grand Theft Auto modders met that challenge, Thompson labeled his A Modest Video Game Proposal piece as a "satire" and refused to pay up.
That's where Penny Arcade came in. Displeased by Thompson's response to the GTA modders, Gabe and Tycho wrote a $10,000 check to the ESA Foundation. The kicker: they made out the check in Thompson's name. This is not the first, or likely the last, time that Penny Arcade has poked fun at Thompson. Just recently, the site designed and released a t-shirt with a logo that reads "I Hate Jack Thompson."
In a response to Penny Arcade's pieces, Thompson faxed Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske a letter in which he claims that Penny Arcade "decided to commence and orchestrate criminal harassment of me." Thompson ends by asking the Seattle Police Department to help him "shut this little extortion factory down and/or arrest some of its employees."
You can watch the drama unfold at Penny Arcade's fabulous site.
