Category Archives: Jack Thompson

It’s hard to know what to say in the wake of the appalling loss of seven adults and 20 children in a shooting spree in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, but there’s no denying that violence in games is back in the mainstream media spotlight.

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Jack Thompson is back. He’s protected “our culture.” Don’t believe him? “Go to Hell.”

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Tim Willits from id Software and his rich, Texan accent showed off RAGE at the Eurogamer Expo today, and we were there liveblogging what was shown of the post-apocalyptic shooter.

It sounds like an awesome game, and you can get caught up on what we saw below.

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Disbarred attorney Jack Thompson has called Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick “a sociopath” in an interview with VGChartz.

No joke. He also insulted his parents. Just for good measure.

When asked if he thought parents should be lawfully punished for purchasing M-rated games for their children, Thompson disagreed – but only to an extent.

“How would you have me target irresponsible parents? Throw them in jail? There’s a bit of a constitutional/legal problem there,” he said.

“If we were going to start targeting irresponsible parents, then we should be throwing Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick’s mother and father in the federal penitentiary. Now that would definitely be a good thing. They raised a sociopath.”

Read the rest through there, if you can be bothered.

30 days and zero appeals later, Jack Thompson’s career in “law” is finally kaput.

The Florida Bar’s website, after a quick search for the unsuccessful law-fighter, serves as official proof of the man’s disbarment. A large, bold, “Not Eligible to practice in Florida” is now the most noticeable aspect of his profile. Neat.

Go check it out, if you feel like it. Make Thompson’s defamed profile your desktop background or something.

Thanks, GamePolitics. You made our day.

[Doesn't this mean he can just go and practice in Ohio, or something? - Ed]

By Nathan Grayson

Kotaku’s reporting that Jack Thompson has finally, genuinely been disbarred. Or at least he will be 30 days from now.

A US court has approved a previous ruling made by Judge Dava Tunis that Thompson be permanently removed from the law professions, stating:

The Court approves the corrected referee’s report and John Bruce Thompson is permanently disbarred, effective thirty days from the date of this order so that respondent can close out his practice and protect the interests of existing clients. If respondent notifies the Court in writing that he is no longer practicing and does not need the thirty days to protect existing clients, this Court will enter an order making the permanent disbarment effective immediately. Respondent shall accept no new business from the date this order is filed.

So long, Jack. He’s already filed an emergency motion to try to stop all this happening, but, like, seriously. Dude. Go sit by the beach, or something.

In a letter to the Judicial Qualifications Commission, Jack Thompson has called judge Dava Junis a “raving wild woman” and labelled her “unhinged,” writes Kotaku.

Judge Dava Junis was the woman who recommended that Thompson be disbarred for 10 years and undergo a mental health exam.

In his letter which of course rebukes her recommendations, wild man Jack wrote:

Finally, maybe there is another explanation here: Maybe Dava Tunis is mentally impaired. The raving wild woman I saw in the last minutes of our trial in December 2007 in which she stood up behind her bench and was shouting and waving her arms was someone who had become unhinged. Is she still unhinged?

Last time round we wrote: “Jack, for Christ’s sake. Take the fucking hint.”

Looks like he didn’t.

By Mike Bowden

God. Just stop. News arrives today that the Florida Supreme Court has told anti-game legal nutter Jack Thompson that he’s not allowed to bring any more cases to the court’s attention and must instead hire another lawyer.

The lawyer is also facing disbarment, a case currently in the works.

Assuming you can be bothered, hit this for more.

This is proper bonkers. Jack Thompson has now accused EA of lack of due diligence in its attempt to take over Take-Two following the publishers rebuttal this morning of Jack’s offer to “help” with the deal. Thompson says he has a client that’s been heavily “stiffed” by Take-Two, a tale he sees an endemic to the way the publisher does business.

“If you all at EA want to pursue a purchase of Take-Two without fully knowing what is ‘out there’ in the form of liabilities, posed by my client and others, of your take-over target, you got [sic] right ahead,” he said. “I’m sure EA’s shareholders will be impressed with your lack of ‘due diligence’ exhibited first by your ‘don’t help us, Mr. Thompson’ and now your anticipated ‘we don’t want to know about contractual liabilities of Take-Two’ posture. Maybe the new corporate logo of EA should incorporate an ostrich.”

Read the rest through the link. We might actually stop writing about Thompson soon. Bit boring, isn’t it?

EA would “strongly prefer” if Jack Thompson had nothing to do with its dealings with Take-Two. The anti-game lawyer had previously offered to lend a helping hand to the gaming giant in its efforts to take control of Take-Two, primarily as a way of taking out Jack’s nemesis and GTA publisher, Strauss Zelnick. No thanks, said EA.

Mr. Thompson,

We have received your letter to EA’s shareholder site. In response to your offer to assist in the proposed acquisition of Take-Two, we would strongly prefer that you not get involved in this matter. EA is a strong supporter of creative freedom for game developers. We feel that your past statements – including false claims about content in our games – make any collaboration with you impossible.

Sincerely,
Mariam Sughayer
Sr. Manager Corporate Communications
Electronic Arts, Inc.

Consider yourself told, Jack. By the way, next time we’re in the US or you’re in the UK, do you mind if we take your portrait? All the shots of you on the web are rubbish.

Jack Thompson has offered his help to EA in securing a take-over of Take-Two, and in the process getting rid of Strauss Zelnick, the publisher head he blames pretty much everything in the world on.

“I am delighted to work with Electronic Arts to evict the Zelnick Trojan Horse from within Take-Two’s corporate walls,” he said in a letter sent to EA. “In doing so, I can get the new Take-Two into the clear as to the trouble I and others can send its way.

“Zelnick is the source of trouble headed Take-Two’s way, not I, and EA can make the case, with my help, that such trouble can be avoided.”

He doesn’t mention how he can help EA buy Take-Two. The letter was CC’d to various media outlets. If you can help by engaging in a campaign of shameless self-promotion, Jack, we’re sure EA will be interested. Great portrait, by the way.

Jack Thompson has written to North Illinois University threatening a lawsuit if the institution doesn’t hand over any documents related to killer Steven Kazmierczak’s experience with videogames.

“Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request production of copies of all documents that reveal Steven Kazmierczak’s play of violent video games, including but not limited to the use of his computer to play Counter-Strike, which he apparently, according to the New York Post, used to rehearse for his Valentine’s Day Massacre at NIU,” said Thompson in the letter faxed to the University today. “The killers in the two worst school massacres in history — in Erfurt, Germanay, and at Virginia Tech University—similarly trained on Counter-Strike to rehearse for their killing sprees. If I am not provided with this information, I shall bring a civil action to secure these documents.”

The editor of GamePolitics.com got in touch with Thompson, asking him if had really sent the letter. Thompson replied:

“Of course I sent it to them, you idiot. The NIU investigators have already responded, professionally, and told me they will get me this information in due time. This is how you do this, which you wouldn’t know.”

Us? Stunned.

Lord. Anti-games protestor Jack Thompson can’t help himself. Not content with launching ostensibly insane claims about last week’s North Illinois University shootings, he’s now decided to ‘join in’ with the Destructoid community’s discussion about his involvement with the situation.

“We need to get you sociopathics kiddies off these murder simulators and back to doing your homework,” he said.

You’re not doing yourself any favours, Jack.

In response to Thompson’s claims that games such as Grand Theft Auto are “murder simulators,” Robert Gauss, a simulator expert that’s worked with the US military, said, “How well does GTA simulate murder? Just even a cursory look can see how GTA fails this test: Everything is presented via a 3rd person view… weapons auto-load and auto-aim… computer people mostly walk and drive around aimlessly and helplessly… computer people don’t… act in a realistic manner when attacked… bodies disappear and respawn — hardly like murder if they keep coming back to life.

Our “gang games” mentioned above do not even represent murder, but rather a cartoony environment… It’s not just unfair to call Grand Theft Auto a ‘murder simulator,’ it is laughably incorrect.”

You keep setting them up, Jack. Common sense will keep knocking them down.

Anti-games campaigner Jack Thompson has written to the president of North Illinois University – site of this week’s shootings by former student Stephen Kazmierczak to again link the crime to “mass murder simulation game, Counter-Strike”.

Following the shooting, Thompson appeared on Fox News to immediately associate the killings with gaming. Yesterday, the New York Post “revealed” that Kazmierczak used to play Counter-Strike while enrolled at the campus.

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 S. Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146

February 16, 2008

John G. Peters, President
Northern Illinois University
1425 W. Lincoln Hwy.
DeKalb, IL 60115-2825 Via Fax to 815-753-8686

Re: Part of the Explanation for this Awful Disaster

Dear President Peters:

First of all, my condolences for this terrible loss. I have had the disturbing privilege of representing a number of families devastated by these types of incidents. I represented all six parents of the three girls killed by a 14-year-old video gamer in the Paducah, Kentucky, school massacre. I currently represent the families of three policemen in Alabama who were slain by a teen who trained to kill them on the cop-killing simulation video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. This case was featured on 60 Minutes. See [here].

The day after the NIU tragedy this week, I was on the Fox News Channel predicting that the killer on your campus would be someone who was immersed in violent video games, as this is a common thread in almost all of these incidents. I mentioned in the interview the mass murder simulation game, Counter-Strike. It was the game of choice by the killers in the two worst school shootings in history—Virginia Tech and Erfurt, Germany.

Sure enough, the New York Post reports today the accuracy of that prediction. I attach herewith the Post article.

Governor Blagojevich was on Fox hours later echoing my specific concern about the linkage between violent video games and school killings.

I have addressed roughly 200 college campuses about this problem. I am more than willing to come to your campus, free of charge of course, to explain to the students and faculty and surrounding community why these games, played by students, pose a public safety hazard. Brain scan science recently coming out of Harvard explains it well. There are multiple reasons why these evil events happen. Immersion of young males in murder simulation as a form of entertainment is one of the more powerful reasons.

Blessings,

Jack Thompson

To be honest, Jack, it rankles that we have to give you air-time. Maybe you should be looking into the fact that any kid can buy a gun on a US street for about 50p instead of taking issue with creative entertainment.

The Murdoch-owned New York Post has linked the fact that Stephen Kazmierczak – the guy that shot five people dead at North Illinois University earlier this week – played Counter-Strike four years ago to the other fact: he was sick as a sack of hats.

“He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud,” dorm mate Ben Woloszyn, 24, told the paper.

In a story headlined, “COLLEGE KILLER CRAZY FOR VIOLENT VID GAME”, the Post describes Counter-Strike as “ultra-violent”, adding, “In the game, players use imaginary money to buy shotguns, pistols and other equipment they need to move around an imaginary world in which they’re constantly under threat of being killed by roving terrorists.

“In real life, Kazmierczak – who had become ‘erratic’ recently after shunning medication for an undisclosed illness – purchased weapons like those used in Counter-Strike, including a Glock handgun and a pump-action Remington shotgun, which he bought legally on Feb. 9.”

Sensible, responsible journalism. Half the internet’s already kicking the shit out of Jack Thompson for this astonishing Fox News interview on the subject of the shooting, so it should come as no real surprise that other areas of Fox are jumping in. Note the word “Fox”. Starting to see a pattern?

This is pretty shocking. As you can see from the video below, US attorney Jack Thompson made more than a passing reference to games on Fox News yesterday in relation to the llinois University shooting this week.

The first thing Thompson said in the report, in response to a question about what can be drawn from the fact Stephen Kazmierczak was 27 years old and had already graduated from the university, was , “Well, we find from brain scan studies out of Harvard that if you get started, for example, playing violent videogames you can, ah, more likely to copycat the behaviours in the games. And the disturbing thing that keeps popping up in many of these, as in Virginia Tech, Columbian, [something else which we can't make out] where I represented the parents of the three girls shot and killed, is that you can rehearse these types of massacres on simulators which are called videogames, and can therefore be made more proficient in doing this.”

We would say something. But we’re speechless. Watch for yourself. So far there has been no evidence at all that Stephen Kazmierczak played videogames.

According to this, anti-games campaigner Jack Thompson appeared on Fox News this morning to blame yesterday’s Illinois University shooting on games such as Counter-Strike.

As far as we’re aware, no evidence has linked anything that happened during the shooting with gaming in any way.

Stephen Kazmierczak opened fire on a class at the university yesterday, killing five and injuring 15 before killing himself.

Anti-games activist Jack Thompson has said he’s not concerned about sex referances in Mass Effect in the wake of the EA/Fox/lie-gate debacle, branding the entire affair “absolutely ridiculous”.

In an email exchange with Kotaku, Thompson shrugged off the controversy surrounding the game, telling the site, “This contrived controversy is absolutely ridiculous. Report that, why don’t you?”

Thompson is now widely known in the games business for his extreme views on, specifically, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, regularly dubbing the series a “murder simulator”. Guess he’s not so worked up about alien fumbling. Good for you, Jack.