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| Anti-video game lawyer Jack Thompson has not only threatened the industry with lawsuits related to what he perceives as inappropriate content (he has a particular bug with Grand Theft Auto-maker Rockstart Games), but he's also harassed journalists, industry leaders, and gamers alike with his particular brand of condescending arrogance. This is the man who has compared Entertainment Software Association president Doug Lowenstein to Hitler and Saddam Husein. Well, now his charm is starting to wear off. Recently the National Institute on media and the Family - a group that Thompson claimed to be sympathetic with - denounced the Florida lawyer. Thompson cited the Institute and its founder Dr. David Walsh in many of his open letters on the subject of video game violence. Walsh and the Institute resented Thompson's use of their name without their permission, Dr. Walsh says, "Your commentary has included extreme hyperbole and your tactics have included personally attacking individuals for whom I have a great deal of respect. Some of the people that you have peblicly critisized are not only people of integrity, but are people who have worked to improve the lives of children." Dr. Walsh wants no further reference to him or the Institute from Thompson Thompson hit back at Dr. Walsh and his colleagues in typically outrageous fashion. Thompson claimed htat the Institute is funded by retail chain Target and has ties to Best Buy, insinuating that Dr. Walsh is being bought off by those that would benefit from selling controversial games such as Rockstar's Bully. In another of his open letters, Thompson wrote of Dr. Walsh's dismissal: "The mistake I made, apparently naively, is in thinking that a person of his expertise would use it actually to help some bereaved families rather than choose to protect his relationship with portions of the video game industry and its reckless retail network." Of course, the Jack Thompson saga only gets weirder. Thompson recently contacted the game community with a proposition: He would donate $10,000 of his own money to a charity if someone were to make a game depicting the murder of characters thinly disguised as Paul Eibler (president of Rochstar parent company Take-Two Interactive), his family, and other leaders in the industry. Well, bloggers Old Grandma Hardcore took Thompson up on his offer with a text-based game named Zork Thompson. But, as always Thompson wouldn't cave when faced up with the facts. He reneged on his deal, saying that it was "satire", and told the bloggers that they weren't a major video ga,e company - which, he said he was really targeting. As if Thompson wasn't already making himself look bad, zeitgeist puveyors Penny Arcade really nailed him. Mad that Thompson wasn't following through with his end of the bargain, co-founders Jerry holkins and Mike Krahulik donated $10,000 of their own money in Thompson's name to the Entertainment Software Association Foundation, a charity that raises money for sick and disadvantaged children. Despite this generous donation, at the time of this writing Thompson has refused to make good on his promise of a donation. While Thompson has been welching on his promises to help charities, the ESA Foundation has raised over $6.7 million over the last eight years. Said Holkins and Krahulik on their site, "We're just made the donation you never would, and never meant to." Of course, Thompson is threatening legal action against Penny Arcade. In spite of the counter-productive efforts of Jack Thompson, the research into video game violence continues. A recent study by Michigan State University have showed that the 13 German male participants (between 28 and 26) who played an FPS in the study showed brain activity patterns "that are considered as characteristic for aggressive cognitions and affects." Researchers had the participants play Tactical Ops: Assault On Terror for an hour while their brain patterns were being monitered as they synchronized with the events in the game. The paricipants, on average, played games for 15 hours a week on their own. The researchers say that the study establishes a "short term" causal link between violent video games and activity in the brain associated with aggression. However, the study does add that despite these links, the player's interpretation of that violence is also very important. |
