Jack Thompson is still waiting to pounce on anything and everything he can possibly spin to his advantage.
Videogame hater Jack Thompson is a nobody, a nothing even, with no value to his public presence on the planet humanity currently resides on other than to prove how awful some people are. Basically fueled by a post on GamePolitics, Thompson’s latest trick was to send out a letter to California State Senator Leland Yee (known for criticizing the videogame industry in the past) saying Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has proven with a recent comment at D.I.C.E. that videogames are worse for the nation’s youth than juggling chainsaws with no practice.
The line of Kotick’s that Thompson attacked was: “I play from time to time, but the nature of my personality is such that if I was regularly playing Modern Warfare 2, I would not be able to stop and it would be at the expense of all my regular responsibilities.” The same could be said about unicycle riding, or playing with Legos (ooh, they’re so fun!), but to Thompson this statement is the kiss of death for the videogame industry.
In Thompson’s letter, he writes: “My old boss, Sam Powers, taught me that if the other side talks long enough, they will give you all you need to win … This admission flies in the face of video game industry spokespersons’ false, sometimes perjured assertions, that video games do not affect the behavior of minors. Here is a full-grown adult (at least in chronological terms) admitting just the opposite.” I don’t know who Sam Powers is, but if he helped form Thompson, I hope he’s lost in a jungle somewhere.
He ends with: “Please contact me at your earliest convenience,” and I can just imagine that Yee flew to the nearest phone. Kotick definitely does point out the sometimes addictive nature of videogames here, but seeing as Kotick is an adult I’m not sure how well this ammunition will serve Thompson. Videogames are fun, but so are movies, television, books, playing music, dancing to Britney Spears, riding bikes, and cup stacking. Anything can make people shirk their responsibilities, but that doesn’t mean that the videogame industry can somehow be taken down due to a CEO’s lighthearted remark about his addictive personality concerning his own company’s products. Regardless, I know we’ll unfortunately be hearing this quote again if Thompson ever makes it back on Fox News.
Source: Joystiq
Published: Feb 22, 2010 02:12 am