PA Screws Jack Thompson

Every industry has to have a douchebag proclaiming that the industry is the root of all evil. For wrestling, it's Phil Mushnick, but for the video game industry, it's Jack Thompson.

Thompson is an ambulance chaser of the nth degree, a person so devoid of any of the morals he proclaims that even the groups which he claims to champion are distancing themselves from him. He claims to be virtuous, then berates and demeans people who try to open a serious and honest dialog with him about his views. He hurls lawsuits like he hurls insults, and is quite simply not a very nice man.

He's be having quite the tete a tete with the "Fancy Lads" at Penny Arcade, but they just put their money where Jack's mouth is. See, Jack put out an open challenge to the game industry to create some game about a father who goes on a rampage after his son ... blah blah ... it's not important. The key was that he offered to donate $10,000 to charity for anyone that had the guts to make this game that he thought would so thoroughly prove his point.

And someone did.

Then, not only doesn't Jack think that the game is what he had envisioned, he says that the whole thing was "satire" (legalspeak for "I opened my fat fucking mouth before my brain had fully engaged"), and is recinding the offer. I'm sure that the causes that might have been looking forward to Jack's generosity are quite amused by his "keen wit."

The climax to our story is one which ceases to impress me any more, now that I know exactly what Mike and Jerry are capable of. They made good on Jack's offer, and just donated $10,000 of their own money to the Entertainment Software Association Foundation ... and they made the donation in Jack Thompson's name.

Whether the donation was in the name of "Jack 'Motherfucker' Thompson" or "Mr. Jack 'Motherfucker' Thompson" is unclear. Hopefully we can get some clarification on that.

Kudos to Tycho and Gabe ... it's truly an honor knowing the two of you.

And for the record ... any kid who has played any violent game or seen a violent movie has only their own slack-ass parents to blame. Parents need to take a more active role in their kids lives, and stop letting MTV and PlayStation be thier kids' babysitters.