Thompson Declines PAX Debate, Blames Penny Arcade 101
GamePolitics is reporting that Jack Thompson, who was invited to debate at this year's Penny Arcade Expo is now blaming the PA gents because he turned down the debate. Essentially, PAX organizers were aiming to keep the debate a secret until the event actually happened. When Thompson declined the invitation, he did so in a public forum, revealing their intentions. He now claims that he turned it down because PAX wanted to use the event as a publicity stunt ... somehow. From Jack's letter to GP: "What GamePolitics or others need to do is get to the bottom of why they really wanted to announce the debate one hour before it occurs. Now THAT would cause a stampede that would not allow them to have passes in the hands of those who want to go. I'm surprised, Dennis, frankly, that you have so naively taking this dodge. I believe what happened is that they thought I would never accept the debate offer, and they planned to use that for p.r. purposes."
Re:Say What? (Score:2, Insightful)
STFUJT (Score:3, Insightful)
Since you didn't, the world will never know...
Uh, what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nice try Jack.
Fun (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless you're Jack Thompson apparently.
Possible Reasons - Free of Charge (Score:5, Insightful)
The first reason would be security, Jack Thompson is a "polarizing" individual, to put it mildly. It would only take one crazy gamer to take any kind of shot at Thompson to make him a martyr. Making the announcement onsite would allow the PAX crew to avoid anyone planning in advance to engage Thompson either with hostility or protest.
Secondly, this would be the huge surprise for the audience. PAX has made it sort of a staple to have some kind of surprise for the show.
Thirdly, pick a smaller reason, but with Jack any reason could balloon overnight. Between now and PAX Jack could go further off the deep end with some of his crusages. Perhaps he would decide to sue PA for something outside the scope of his PAX committments. In either case, PAX would lose the ability to quietly remove Jack.
Any of the three would be enough for me to want to keep Jack on a short lease. However, this could still happen, but I would expect PAX to have greater security at the actual venue.
Re:Fun (Score:5, Insightful)
PA wanted to get Jack Thompson in front of their crowd so they could knock him down and make themselves look like heroes in front of their adoring fans. The correct action for Thompson to take would have been to either privately (and politely) turn down the request, or simply ignore it. However, Thompson is apparently not capable of doing anything privately, so he turns them down publicly, hence giving them exactly the publicity he criticizes them for seeking.
The debate was a trap, Thompson was right about that, but the way he handled it was just stupid.
consummate pro (Score:5, Insightful)
Use it against him (Score:4, Insightful)
The guy could rationally talk and get on the front page of every game site in 1 switch shocking hour or so. Yet instead he declined and proves he doesn't care what we do, just cares for the money and/or fame.
It is worth noticing that... (Score:5, Insightful)
I always found PA to be upright about things and there again. Besides these guys are involved in more than just games thru the likes of their annual toy drive.
Re:Fun (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know why they bothered to ask him...He's notoriously unable to deal with people disagreeing with him, and it wouldn't make much of a debate to have him screaming at whoever he was supposed to be debating.
Re:Fun (Score:5, Insightful)
I call Shenanigans. Sure, Tycho and Gabe can be sarky bastards, but I think the real intent was to have Thompson be debated by people who actually have a clue about videogames, something that doesn't happen every time he pops up on network news. That's also the reason he declined. His past tactics and behaviour bear this out. He's a guerrilla figher, sniping from a distance, doing hit-and-run smear pieces, never getting engaged in anything but the slightest and tritest discussions.
One day, somebody will eventually get the chance to poke him hard, and he'll crumble like the house of cards that he is. Looks like he managed a dodge on this one, but it won't be long now.
Jack won't show... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm totally on Jack's side here. (Score:2, Insightful)
Penny Arcade wanted to control all publicity. They wanted everything on their terms. They did not allow Thompson any flexibility. Didn't they consider that Jack might have wanted something out of it as well?
Would it really have killed Pennny Arcade to have announced this debate in advance? Is their security so hopeless that they can't protect a fairly anonymous guy from a crowd of middle class hobbyists? Why not let Jack accept the alleged security risk? While they may have lost out on the big splash of making it a big surprise, they would have still had an excellent item. It seems like a better compromise than what they ended up with.
Re:Use it against him (Score:4, Insightful)
No, I think he'd rather make your parents paranoid, just like these [wikipedia.org] villainous [wikipedia.org] fuckers [wikipedia.org] tried years ago with a different medium.
Nobody ever went broke by banking on stupid parents.
Re:I hate Jack Thompson... but (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Possible Reasons - Free of Charge (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It is worth noticing that... (Score:3, Insightful)
Sadly, you are mistaken. He is relevant, but not because anything he says is accurate or valuable. It is rather because policy-makers take his statements (heck, sometimes solicit his statements) at face value and use them as justification for public policies. Whether we know he's an asshat is irrelevant; the sad part is he can get on a CNN talkshow or in a meeting with a mid-to-high level bureaucrat and the vast majority of sheeple nod compliantly along with his screed. As much as it pains you and me, he does need to be reported on, argued with, and neutralized. The whole ostrich strategy just doesn't seem to work well at that level; as much as replying to his arguments plays into his hand, not replying plays even more.
It would be nice if the media were capable of screening for asshats, but sad fact is even if they were capable they would not be willing as asshat-screed sells newspapers and ad space better than dispassionate, reasoned, and evidenced policy debate.
Re:It is worth noticing that... (Score:5, Insightful)
JT's worst enemy is himself. Anytime he shows up in the mainstream press (which is actually extremely rare) he makes a fool of himself. That's good, that is something that I approve of. His arguments, if you can call them that, are patently absurd. I think the most recent time he hit the mainstream press was right after the VTech shootings. He and Dr. Phil both tried to play the odds and pin the killer down as a gamer, something that was unsubstantiated and shown not to be true. That might not phase JT, but Dr. Phil won't be making that mistake again. And even if it was true, guess what, most people play videogames. Correlation does not equal causation, and people are more than willing to entertain the idea that a seriously unstable person might enjoy playing a game were you kill people, knowing full well that it wasn't the game that made them unstable. Yeah, the media will continue to talk to JT when something extreme like this happens because he's an entertaining asshat. That doesn't make him relevant.
People aren't as dumb as you seem to think, they see right through JT. And even if they don't, it doesn't matter, because people don't decide policy. However, any time he shills a new law, and that law gets passed because some populist governor wants to make the news doing something "for the children", what happens? The ESA smacks that law right down. It's only then that JT has any semblance of relevance, the only time anyone needs to pay attention to him. Unfortunately, it looks like that needs to continue for a little longer so that other governments will finally wise up to his antics and stop costing their tax-paying constituents hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. When one of these laws fails it is an embarrassment to all those involved in its passage. Whatever public policy you are referring to doesn't exist, or at least not for more than a couple of days. We have the ESA to thank for that, not the fringe press. JT will never be able to overturn the constitution, and there is no constitutional way he can hurt gaming. He is not as big a threat as everyone seems to think.
Re:It is worth noticing that... (Score:2, Insightful)
JT: Video Games are destroying our youth and corrupting young minds!
GL: Actually, games can be quite educational and improve hand-eye coordination. Studies even show that doctors who play video games make fewer mistakes and perform surgeries faster.
JT: SHUT UP! YOU F*CKING LIE! STOP HARASSING ME OR I'LL SUE! I'M GONNA SUE ANYWAY! THAT WAS DEFAMATORY!! I'LL KILL YOUR FAMILY IF YOU DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE! I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO TALK TO ME!!!!!!