Thompson Declines PAX Debate, Blames Penny Arcade

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."

Run the debate anyway

[dmatos]

I'm sure this will be redundant by the time I actually finish it and get it posted, but Penny Arcade needs to call Jackie on this right now. "Okay, Mister Thomson. We'll allow publicity before the event. We'll do our best to provide adequate security for the debate. See you at PAX."

If there's one set of online comic writers whose fans will listen to them when they call for moderation, it's Tycho and Gabe. Anyone going to PAX is going to be well aware of how much furor any pie-in-the-face attempt is going to create, and none of them will want to provide more fuel for the anti-gaming fire.

Jack Thompson, making gamers look well-adjusted

[paladinwannabe2]

I'm actually slightly grateful to Jack Thompson. Someone competent could easily convince the majority of people that games like GTA are a bad influence on children. Thompson, on the other hand, is a walking PR disaster- he alienates people with even shreds of intelligence. He manages to consistently lose cases that even Darl McBride could win in court. Not to mention all the publicity he gives Rockstar...

Marketting Genius

[king-manic]

Whoever at PA who thought this up is a pure marketing gennius. For the cost of a long distance call to a lunatic they managed to garner huge amounts of free publicity. No matter what crazy old jack did they would garner publicity. Pure genius.

The only thing he has to fear

[Steeltalon]

Is that he'd get proven wrong in an open debate. Security can be handled, and that shouldn't be his concern. Either he's prepared and willing to deal with an open debate where he his opinions have to stand on their merits against the arguments of people (who know what they're talking about), or he's not and he's afraid that he'll get his ass handed to him. I figure that he knew that he'd get destroyed in a debate, but also feared that the PA guys would make the announcement that he bailed. So, rather than let them do something like that, he decided to try to play it up like he had to bail because the whole situation wasn't right. Too bad that he's really not smart or cunning enough to pull off a plan like that.

Re:I'm totally on Jack's side here.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree that he has no reason to trust Penny Arcade, especially looking from his perspective that they (as well as most of the gaming community) are out to get him.

Still, I imagine they were prepared to pay him for his appearance. Also, they're hosting the convention, so it's not that unreasonable for them to set a ground rule like that, seeing as they likely wanted it to be a surprise for the convention goers.

As far as Jack being "fairly anonymous," in the gaming world, nothing could be farther from the truth. Seeing as he's the most outspoken opponent of video games, he's extremely well known among gaming circles. It's not crazy to assume that 99% of PAX's attendees will be gamers. As far as security, it only takes one nutjob to cause a problem, and the last thing Gabe and Tycho (and the rest of the gaming world) want is for Jack Thompson to get attacked at PAX. Considering the damage that would do, it's no wonder they were trying to keep it under wraps. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the man has gotten death threats and that sort of thing has to be taken seriously.

Besides, who knows if they tried to compromise or not? The only source we have on this whole thing is Thompson himself, and I for one don't trust his word. It's entirely possible that PA tried to reach a compromise with him and he turned it down.

Perhaps PA will tell their side of the story when the convention is over, perhaps not. Honestly this whole thing isn't that big a deal, and I imagine that PA will want to keep their distance from Jack after this latest interaction. Unless, of course, they want some free publicity. He throws that stuff from the rooftops.

You don't know Jack

[MMaestro]

PA wanted to control all publicity? Well, no shit. Last thing ANY marketer wants is for two marketing campaigns that contradict each other. Jack Thompson would probably put out ads saying "Come see the horrors of video gaming!", while PA put out ads saying "Come see the friendly community video gaming!"

On their terms? "Their terms" basically were, 1) Keep this secret until 1 hour before the debate and 2) let us handling marketing. Not exactly a gag order there.

Flexibility? This is not an 20-year binding contract, its a contract asking Jack Thompson not to blab about the debate beforehand.

The guy has been demonizing video games for almost a DECADE. The guy has been featured on nearly every major U.S. news network from CNN to Fox News. This is not some "fairly anonymous guy". Anyone who watches/reads about the news has at least heard of this guy at least once. You have to be pretty ignorant to have not heard of him by this point, especially if you're posting in the video games section of a news site.