GRRR those youngins and their heavy metal. :P

Great, now Sonic will be branded as a terrorist...

I wanted to post a joke about Sonic the Hedgehog, but I remember this game was labeled as "violent" by some media activists (I'll have to search the exact quote).

By the way, although I'm relieved by this final report, I don't like how the term "war game" is being used.

I suppose Jack Thompson will be sending a letter of apology to Bill Gates?

Not a fucking chance.

Ah, I love the smell of vindication in the morning. All along we have said that games had nothing to do with the VA-Tech massacre and now they have found for themsleves that this is true.

It pretty much leaves the people who blamed video games with egg on their faces. Unless of course we now need to ban Sonic the Hedgehog... Or it might be the fact that the Virginia Tech Review Panel are in cahoots with Blank Rome, Rockstar, Take Two, the ESRB and the Florida Bar! Damn industry stooges!

quick! who's got that Jack thompson just got owned clip URL?

"They will just accuse them of covering the facts up."

Well, of course. The VATech Review Board is filled with a bunch of avid gamers. I personally know that instead of investigating this, they sat around, smoked some pot (gamers do drugs, remember?), and played GTA while fabricating this story.

JT vs U2
JT vs Portland Trailblazers
JT vs Pizza Hut & Dominoes & Papa Johns

Please let me get what I want. Please let me get whaI want . . .

Two Words...


HA HA.

What now, Jack? Enlighten us.

I knew that blue little jerk was trouble, What with all his running and spinning and jumping on the heads of perfectly humble robots to free nasty little forest creatures. And that obsession with rings! Surely he was selling those for crack. *nodnod*

As for Jack, I imagine he'll do one of three things. (He's that predictable)
1. He'll deny the report and accuse the writers of covering up the 'real' facts.
2. He'll continue to assert that games caused the VTech incident, report be damned.
3. He'll let it go quietly and redouble his efforts on some other incident.

"...and had a collection of figurines and remote controlled cars."

Does that mean model kit otaku are now branded as potential terrorist threats? Methinks the feds will start clamping down on all the Perfect Grade Gundam kits in circulation.

After all, it teaches us how to build a weapons of mass destruction...

It's still annoying that they need to mention games repeatedly, as if it's so unbelievable that they weren't involved that they need to keep repeating it. There's millions of things he wasn't involved in, and I think it's still bad that they needed to single out games.

He probably also wasn't interested in nascar, tea ceremonies, non-euclidean geometry, or 19th century French literature, but there's no point in mentioning any of that because it had nothing to do with the event.

Personally, if Jack Thompson comes up and starts going 'It's a cover up! They're siding with the game industry, etc. etc.', then I'll just go, 'Your whole crusade is just a cover up for you to sell bootlegged copies of GTA San Andreas with the Hot Coffee element still active for hundreds of dollars without anyone suspecting!'

If he can make bullshit up, then so can I. :)

"He never saw him play a video game, which he thought strange since he and most other students play them."

Most students play them?
And they're NOT psychotic killers?

Lest gamers feel too comfortable and self satisfied, let us not forget that there still is a link to violent games, violent people, and our violent society. While I'm pretty sure that it isn't games that have caused our love of violence, the violence in games reflects something....

It is nice to see JT shown to be an arse. Too bad no one in the mainstream will remember that he blamed Vtech on video games.

I wonder if Jack (or someone calling themselves Jack) will post a comment on this article; even if it's just to say "mm mm this is some darn tasty crow".

He killed 32 people. Why the hell are we talking about video games? I like video games, I care about what happens to the industry. But honestly this seems so trivial. I really have trouble understanding why it's even an issue. It's absurd.

And guess how much the mass media will report this? If they report it at all, it'll be quiet and hushed up. No one wants to hear the counters to the nice, attention-grabbing scare stories that move papers and viewership.

Dustin, the only reason they're putting this in is to make folks like JT, Dr Phil and the Larouche folks to shut the fuck up and move on. Had they not kept harassing the V-Tech panel, they wouldn't even mention video games in the first place.

@Tristram

Right, there is that link, but the key there is 'violent people.'
People that are already violent may have those feelings exacerbated by the playing of video games. However, given that these people hardly make up a majority of the population, and that they are already violent to begin with, it's illogical to think that video games are the largest causal factor in their tendencies.

Like I've always said, if a person is already out of touch with reality, or unable to distinguish between virtual and real, then yes, video games will only blur the line further. But that's their fault, not the games'.

Ironically enough I wonder if video games would have been just the haven that Cho would need to calm his aggression to a level that would have prevented such an outburst.

Specifically I wonder if the sense of community and the 'people like him' he might of been able to find in an MMORPG or other online community might have given him enough of an outlet to just be another sad victim of MMORPG-addiction or depression rather than such an explosive rage.

Chances are probably not but the thought is interesting (and I'm not a psychologist or anything).

Am I the only one who wants to see what the LaRouche has t say on this subject?

If anything, it seems really odd that Cho didn't play games- especially being a male college student.

AH HA!

So its Sonic the Hedgehog which is brainwashing the youth of America!

Its time to stop the evil blue menace once and for all! Come on People! We have children to protect!

@Dustin1986

Do you why we (right here) are focusing on the video game aspect (or lack of) of V-Tech, or, why critics are focusing on it, or something else?

I'm just waiting for the day when we see a mass murderer who rolls on WoW. I bet he plays a pvp rogue.

"favorite band is U2"

Now I get why he killed all those people.

@ Josh Martz
I think the problem goes further than that. I think that there are so many violent video games BECAUSE we are a society that worships violence. It makes sense that there would be crossovers between the group called "People who solve problems with violence" and the group called "gamers". Neither of these terms are real as they do not express the people within them, only a trait that we use to identify them.

Yes, it also makes sense that violent people will be energized, for lack of a better word, by violent games. Also, interactive medium or no, I think violent movies and tv have the same effect.

@Chris:

quarter circle forward punch - Nasty letter
ditto kick - Litigation.

And JT wields a ban hammer.

Ahem:

This still doesn't actually prove that video games didn't affect him. Since the video games burnt out his frontal lobe years ago, he was forced to linger on in his own madness as his brain was slowly burnt away by the mere presence of video games in the past.

Finally, he couldn't take the pain anymore, and decided to get revenge on all those who had ever played a video game... which was most of the college campus.

Thus... it's all Sega's fault... who is secretly owned by Take Two. and Rockstar. and Microsoft. and also Satan.

Oops. I was so busy getting my ass kicked (and kicking a little myself) in Warhawk that I missed a pretty big announcement.

One word regarding this report: D'uh

Now, off to work.

So where is Jack and his comments? Usually he is on here commenting rather promptly to this topic. It would be nice to hear a admission of being incorrect in his jump to a video game linkage conclusion. This also goes for the others that immediately jumped to that conclusion as well.

Sadly, this is not something that public figures really seem to feel compelled to do. If they do, they will release an apology to the tone of Micheal Vick and do their best to not acknowledge that they did anything wrong (referring to the lack of any admission or apology for his direct involvement with the dog fighting & funding).

"It would be nice to hear a admission of being incorrect in his jump to a video game linkage conclusion."

*snicker*

When he's striking poses from "Boondock Saints" and "Oldboy," something tells me Sonic the Hedgehog isn't what made him kill. I saw all the pictures, and the kid is practically posing for his movie poster. Why can't we blame crazy people going on killing sprees on, you know... them being crazy?

@JT - fuck you. Seriously. Prove it or shut the fuck up.

JT, don't tell it to us, tell it to the V-Tech review panel. They're the ones you should be whining to. We're not the ones who wrote that report after all.

Face it, you've lost. There's nothing you can do. All you can do is whine on a political game blog about "how we're wrong and you're right" when in reality, no one in the real world with half a brain cares about what you do. You will be forgotten like that German Doctor who tried to blame comic books for the decline of American moral values.

And Dr Phil? He doesn't really agree with you. He only blamed violent videogames for the V-Tech massacre because it's "the cool thing to do."

@ Josh

I agree. It reeks of Fake Jack. But if it was the real Jack then I was pretty darn close in my preemptive quote. :)

That is a fake JT, the "attorney" tag is missing. Also, he has never alluded that gamers make other people kill- only games. He doesn't hate us that much- nor is he THAT crazy.

Dammit, stupid auto-formatting. My view is the last paragraph/sentence.

Whether it's him or not, both real and fake THompson sound so genuine hat you can't tell the difference.

There ARE a couple of hints. First, the REAL JT loves to post "HOOAH!" Seconf, he always leaves his name at the end of his reply. Third, Dennis erases the fake JT messages.

@jde:
He's not the real one. he likes to leave 'attorney' at the end, to show off. one time, he even said 'attorney and you're not' in his name.

You heard it here folks, people who play video games are responsible for every psychopathic lunatic who flips out, and directly accountable for their crimes.

I'd like to see you pull off that defense in a court of law, Mr. Attorney.

Didn't Mitt Romney blame the Virginia Tech shootings on the "culturual cespool" including violent games.Now that VA Tech report says that Cho did not play the same games that Romney was blasting on the campaign trail,who's going to take him to task about it in the You Tube debates?

the way thompson handled that was funny as hell. like the next day he gets on fox news or something and starts saying that the shooters roomates and friends didnt know what they were talking about when they said all he did was write crazy stories or whatnot. jack is so caught up in his bullshit i doubt he even knows who the shooter was. how is some nutjob attorny on a video game crucifying crusade who was in no way shape or form involved in the shooters life, going to know more about him than the people that were constantly around him every single day.

im sorry thompson i try to be respectful to others no matter what stupid things they think up, i really do. but you have created a whole new level of stupid. its now to the point where you have made legitimate stupid people look like albert fucking einsteins. just quit now while your ahead. we may spare you out of pure sympathy if you just quit now.

@ jonc2006

When was he ahead? I don't recall that moment.

To be fair, Mr. Jabrwock, his response wasn't exactly hard to predict. Shots ring out and he salivates.

I'd like to get confirmation that the post above was from Mr. Thompson. If it actually was:

"In a way, you’re all to blame."

Wasn't there a portion of Mr. Thompson's mental evaluation that he would try to stop using hyperbole and would try to moderate his speech?

Oh, that's right. He did:

"I asked Mr. Thompson about the hyperbole and sarcasm that I read in some of his motions/pleadings. He said that he realizes that he may have offended some with his ad hominem writings, and he will be more moderate in his writing style in the future."

"I’d love to hear all of you apologise to the victims for this atrocity. In a way, you’re all to blame."


No, you stupid, senile, massacre chasing, schister, failure as a lawyer, Christian, and human being YOU and your ilk are to blame. Cho was a troubled young man who was likely harassed by his peers. He needed serious psychiatric help. But fuckers like you stand in the way of them getting such help. You think you can wave around the magical "ban video games" wand and all the problems will go away. But even if all the video games were banned from the face of the earth Cho, Harris, Klebold and others would still need psychiatric care. But no, you have scared, ignorant parents thinking that without games these massacres would never happen, WRONG. Fuck you Mr. Thompson. These kids need help, but all you offer is scapegoating and fearmongering. You are to blame for Virginia Tech, you are to blame for Columbine.

When your geezer heart finally gives out I hope you pack some SPF 1,000,000 Because you are gonna burn in hell.

@ Dennis

Can we get a confirmation on whether that Jack Thompson was the real deal or not? I doubt it was because he usually goes by the "JACK THOMPSON, ATTORNEY AND YOU'RE NOT" name. But with him, who knows anymore?

GP: The one that made reference to a "gamer-friendly society" was a fake & is deleted... the one that zings me for "getting it wrong" again is the real Miami Jack.

@E. Zachary Knight

hes always been ahead of us. ahead in the be-as-fanatical-and-incompetent-as-you-can-be, race that is.

@JT:
Gamer friendly society? With jackasses like you running around trying your absolute damndest to squash our freedom to play whatever we like? you really have jumped off the deep end, haven't you Jackie-boy?

“In a way, you’re all to blame.”

Of all the, vitriolic, grossly offensive, and horrendous BILE you've spewed on this website, this is beaten only by the incident where you made fun of a sucidal gamer. To accuse all video game players of a massacre in a blanket statement is not only patentedly ignorant on every level of rational and irrational thought, but is also proof positive that your thought processes are so biased and unstable that you should be banned from ANY form of discussion or debate that requires more than minimal IQ.

If you had accused me of being partly responsible for VTech in person, I would backhand you across the face. How DARE you accuse us for the instability of one fruitcake. I'm willing to bet that if a lawyer went nuts and shot up the local courthouse, no one would DREAM to blame the lawyering profession, which has proven time and again to be filled to capacity with lying snakes like you!

Tad DeMartelaere, hoping to GOD you get disbarred before you actually do something effective.

The Fake Jack that blamed us all for V-Tech is gone.

Eh, fake Jack's opinion was unique at least. Real Jack's Opinion is still the same old predictable parrot who sings the same tune. *yawn*

Ah. Yeah, that sounds a bit more like the real one, I was referring to the earlier comment. (Also, how ironic that I made a typo myself)

"The report deals with his gameplay at V-Tech. That’s half the story."

Sorry JT, but dredging up stuff he did 4-5 years ago and hasn't done since... that's just reaching.

You're just mad that they disproved your "his classmates are all LIARS" theory.

For now it looks as if no one knows for sure how much violent video games the guy did or didn't play. Let's just leave it at that.

I am kinda... you know... dissapointed that we can only get the fake Jack here. I kinda want the real one to show up so that we can say "told you so!"

Is it wrong for me to feel these "laugh in his face" urges? DO I need to see a doctor? Maybe its just gas 0-o

@Dustin1986

Oh, then yeah, I'd have to agree with you on that one.

@Jack

Good for you. And Fox News claims Bush is the greatest President ever, and how may people believe that? Exactly; just because it's on the news or in the paper doesn't make it true.

Here's a dare for you, on a random thought, sue me! Sue me for disagreeing with you, I dare ya :P Maybe losing might help with your problem there, you know, the cranial-rectum insertion you suffer from. It's like those anti-drug things, "Everyone is a victim."

I responded to the fake JT post, so Now I'm going to respond to the other.

It's been said before, so say it once more, the washington post took down the part about cho being a gamer because it had no evidence, and there is still no evidence that he was a gamer.

Not to mention there are still no studies that prove game violence = cause of real violence.

*/me falls off office chair laughing at Jack Thompson's comment in this page*

@Rob

You should realize that the deaths Christianity has caused pale in comparison to the deaths atheists have caused. By way of example, Communism (which of course is aggressively atheist) outdid the crusades and inquisition combined easily, 10 times the deaths in a far smaller the time period.

is it just me who didn't notice that other (real) Jack despite reading through all the posts?

GP: real Jack invariably gets stuck in the new spam filter and I haven't yet figured out why... so his posts sit until I can manually clear them. I've encouraged him to register to avoid this delay and to negate the problem with the fakes. However, that apparently make too much sense...

@Jack Thompson

"As the Washington Post reported at the time, Cho was a massive player of Counterstrike"

That's bollocks.
The Washington Post remeoved all references to Counter Strike when it was disproved, and you accused them of a cover up. And you failed to realise they have no ties to anyone in the Games Industry.

There was an NY Times article? What exactly did it say?

"Small world. Counter-Strike was co-designed by a Virginia Tech student, Jess Cliffe, who graduated in 2003. Cliffe now works as a designer for famous game developer Valve. I spoke to Cliffe once, back in 2001– back when he was still surprised that anyone had downloaded his game. These days, Counter-Strike is the most popular online PC “shooter” game on the globe."
(my impersonation of Jacko):
Hey guys, I talked to someone who had something to do with a game Cho used to kind of play 5 years ago who also happened to go to the school where those events took place. That game also is pretty popular, byt the way.
(/impersonation)

I remember reading the book Foundation by Isaac Asmiov, and there was a section that he is reminding me of: Some politician came to the planet full of scientists for some diplomatic meeting, and after a full week when the politicion left they calculated what had actually been said, minus political nice sounding fluff. Nothing had been said. Not a single productive word had been uttered. It sounded nice to those who didn't pick it apart, but it had amounted to nothing.

This is the story of Jack Thompson's entire crusade against video games. It sounds nice to soccer moms, but there's absolutely nothing behind it. His anecdotes are either lies or irrelevant. What a pathetic excuse for a man.

I think we can say it's Arse-Whopping time for Jackie.

Ive said it before and i'll say it again

JT is an intellectual masochist

why else would anyone with a sane rational mind return to post after a story that outs their own opinion, even the washington post thing was thrown out and cited as being taken down during his TV interviews.

His entire response can be brushed off in moments and he probably knew this.

What a sad pitiful excuse for a man he is.

Off topic: The comments counter is broken. It stopped at 123 against Jack, 1 by Jack.

I really hope this takes the wind out of critics' sails. I really hate to bring up Jack Thompson, but his appearance on the news the same day as VT really upset me. Up until then, I disagree with his methods on views on video games, but that incident lead me to believe he's truly a sick man, to look at this tragedy and immediately think "I need to get on TV..."

@Meggie

As many said "before they finished the body count."

I think the more accurate saying would be "before the ambulance warmed up."

@Austin Lewis

look up.

Here is the Jack Post again. Just for clarity:

http://gamepolitics.com/2007/08/30/va-tech-report-rampage-killer-not-a-g...

@Shoehorn O'Plenty

Hah! You basically wrote the exact response I would have written. So thanks for saving me the trouble. 100% completely agreed with everything you wrote there in response to Jack.

@ Kurisu7885
Yeah, sorry, totally missed that.
Don't worry, i've done my bit of tearing him apart.

@austin

Are you saying the Washington Post's source for Cho playing CS in the first place was JT?

Cho was a man with problems, left alone in a foreign land by a family that didn't truly care for him (what was it his grandmother said when she found out? "That idiot."?), and overlooked by a collegiate society that didn't take an interest in him.

Societally, we should probably take and learn from this that all the world's children need a lookout, to be cared about if not by grandmothers, then by friends and neighbors.

But instead, we'll just blame the video games industry, rap music, and horror movies, so we can get back to ignoring our neighbors (who are probably scary video game playing gun and sword owners anyway). It's easier that way.

If you want to do good by Cho's memory, ask your neighbor their name.

@HCF

A great sentiment, but sadly with people like jack scapegoating, it wont happen any time soon.




I just had a wierd thought, Dennis has Jack's IP right? one or several that were banned. Does anyone want to throw it into the wiki-edit checker everyone was raging about the other week. I'm curious as to the results (I just checked the GP article it doesnt say "Dennis is a poopy-head-NON-journalist, why doesnt he love me?" so we can assume Jack hasnt had his way with that one).

@JT

I understand that you are a lawyer, and thus have absolutely no knowledge of statistics (See? I can make generalizations too!), but if you had actually read the study that you claim shows a correlation - http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bbushman/BBS06.pdf - you would actually find that the study merely shows a link between violent video games and a rise in desensitization, rather than a link to actual BEHAVIOR. There's absolutely no evidence that violent games increase the player's actual behavior. And I'm positive that psychologist Jonathan Freedman of the University of Toronto in Canada (See? I can pull random authoritative sources out of a hat too!) would agree with me by saying: "Although games can 'habituate' the brain to violent images, there is no good evidence that exposure to lots of [video] violence desensitizes you to real violence."

And, the same psychologist, Brad Bushman - http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/brad.bushman/files/BRDKB07.pdf - also claims that scriptural violence leads to agression. As such an avid Christian, as you say, you must also be suffering from violent tendencies (which your inane comments here could probably be attributed) since you believe in this man's testing. Did you also know that Cho likened himself to Jesus Christ? Think there might be a connection there? Of course not...you've got a one-track mind.

Whether or not the religious aspect is true is irrelevant. You fail to actually focus on the logic found in front of your face. People exist that are unbalanced, and have been before video games ever came around. Video games did not cause these people to become unbalanced. Do people that have the inability to distinguish reality from fantasy understand that video games belong in the fantasy realm? Maybe not, but that wasn't what caused them to become irrational in the first place. You need to stop focusing your attention on the irrelevant details, and focus on what initially caused the person to act irrationally.

Ah, there we go.

Alberto Gonzales firing those people broke no law; people in the whitehouse are employed at the president's pleasure, and can be fired at any time for no reason at all.

@ Austin Lewis

If you click on the Date/Time link beneath the name on the comment you want, the browser will open up with that comment's id in the URL. Just post that link.

It took me a while to figure it out.

I doubt he even thinks it's a righteous cause. I just bet he kicks hippie arse at Counterstrike and GTA San Andreas.

Worse than an ambulance chaser really.

Heh...oops. If you don't mind, could you delete 159005, 159016, 159017, and this one? :)

@ Jack Thompson

"Well, Dennis McCauley gets it wrong again."

How? All he's doing is publishing the Official VA Tech Report.

"This is getting monotonous."

Truer words were never spoken before.

"As the Washington Post reported at the time, Cho was a massive player of Counterstrike"

Jack, that report was recalled as being inaccurate, yet you still continue to use it as the basis of your argument. How does that description of insanity go? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the results to be different?

Then again, we continue to prove you wrong in the hopes that you'll shut up, so who am I to judge? Maybe we're all insane.

"as anyone who studies this stuff knows (ask Dr. Brad Bushman of the Univ. of Michigan, there is a demonstrable long-term effect of violent video game play."

First of all, Jack, close your parenthesis. More importantly, I (and almost all of my friends) have been playing violent video games for many years and not one of us has ever committed a crime. Violent media does not create violent people. More likely, violent people are attracted to violent media.

To quote Chris Rock, "Whatever happened to just being crazy?"

"The Washington Post spoke with people who knew Cho during high school who said Cho played the video game 'Counter-Strike'"

Then why didn't that appear under his list of hobbies? Most people who play video games these days don't go keeping it a secret on the off-chance they go insane later in life.

This is the Jacob Robida thing all over again. An official report versus your word based on the alleged comments of unidentified individuals. And from a report that, again, has been disproven.

Seriously Jack, get a life. And a clue.

... And it's all gone quiet over there! And it's all gone quiet over there!

@BlackIce

what? Vote for the idiot pretending to be blair? Why would we want to go through that a second time, knowing only that he's a shoddier version of blair?

If I were Jacko I would be worried. He says that he has played these games himself in order to see what they are like. You never know when Jacko might get flashbacks of playing those games and go berserk!

Hrm, anyone feel like contacting the Washington Post?

To GP: I was talking about the one that Jack mentioned in his last paragraph, the "new" one.

GP: I don't believe there is a new one. AFAIK, the link I've provided you is the WaPo's final word on the topic. Were there something more, I'm sure Miami Jack would have made sure that we heard about it. I also must give more credence to a governmental commission which had months to investigate the situation vs. a quickie news report that was so shaky as to be removed by the editorial staff at the Post. And it's not like the VA Tech Panel was unaware of the video game link allegations, since the Lyndon LaRouche people testified at least 3 times before the panel, including citing the WaPo story that Miami jack raises. We've got A/V of those VA Tech Panel hearings if you search GP for LaRouche.

This is what I was talking about.

Jack Thompson Says:

"UPDATE: The Washington Post spoke with people who knew Cho during high school who said Cho played the video game “Counter-Strike” then, but it was unclear whether Cho played the game at Virginia Tech."

@zero: Knowing Jacko, violent video games.

XD

Jack Thompson is willing to do whatever it takes to get his way and also his fame. He is willing to say that any massacre was caused by a game that was played every so often a few years ago by the killer.

Alright, then why dont you answer as to why all the millions of people including teenagers and people in their twenty's who have been playing these violent games nonstop and have not done these kind of killings.

I dare you. Yet knowing you, you would not answer to this question because you want everything to go your way.

@chris

Because it's him or Cameron. And I don't know about you, but i'd prefer someone who isn't acting as a Lapdog for Pres. Bush.

Oops, used sense instead on since and usually is speed wrong.

@Archgabe:

"Do you ever admit that your are wrong? Why do you feel that you must claim conspiracy every single time you are proven full of shit?"

Jack? Admit that he's wrong? LMAO. That's like hell freezing over, the sun rising in the west for a change, and a politician not lying under oath.

@E. Zachary Knight:

Don't worry I'm sure the real one blames us just as much.

@chris:

Well you know he's not really sane. (I refuse to believe otherwise till he's evaluated by someone he doesn't already know.)

Also I'd like to point out if he really wanted a dialogue, he'd be replying to your guys' posts here... apparently this is not the case.

Man I wish they'd disbar him already, this is getting monotonous. XD

@DarkTetsuya

A disbarment won't stop him, won't even slow him down. In fact, it will probably encourage him to greater heights of obnoxiousness, smug in his perceived martyrdom.

@ KenshinSlayer

Whoops, sorry, I must have skipped over you mentioning DOOM, but your info and my can work together, heh.

JT is also the same guy who wrote a letter to the friends & family of a gamer GLOATING over his suicide (the metalgearsolid.org incident). I have a hard time deciding if that makes him crazy or just an utter villan.

@ KenshinSlayer

I suppose, but as far as I see it. The people who call him names are only defending themselves. After all it was him who called all gamers drugged up idiots and such. He's the one who decided to generalize and condemn gamers for their gaming habits just because it wasn't something he agreed with.

I agree, not insulting him goes a long way in improving the image of gamers, but it's hard not to when he's constantly belittling everyone and acting superior while lying about things right to our faces, so to speak. It's hard not to insult a man that ignorant.

Mr. Thompson,
As much of your time appears to be spent Googling your name, you will undoubtably come across this post. This is most fortunate. I feel that, in many ways, you require education.
Why do you seem to cling to the concept that Mr. Cho played Counterstrike? The official report says that he, in fact, did not. Furthermore, why should it matter? He could very well have watched Power Rangers at age five and seen random shit blowing up. It doesn't mean he's going to grow up to be a psychopath, and likewise playing Counterstrike at some point is not going to dramatically warp someone's psyche.
I'd love to hear a comment. It's so fun mocking people who think they're smart.

-G.

Truly there are none so blind as those who will not see. Jack Thompson has seen and heard every fact that shoots his ideas full of holes and continues to hold onto his flawed opinions. Despite staggering empirical evidence to the contrary he sincerely believes that video games turn normal people into monsters; logic is not going to elucidate the issue for him.

You're not your.

Darn you no edit button.

If its not video games its heavy metal, if its not heavy metal its rap, if its not rap its comic books, if its not comic books its dungeons and dragons, if not that its TV, if not TV its movies, and if everything else fails then just blame it on satan...

If ignorance could be described as a cool breeze, one post from Thompson could freeze hell.

I seriously question if its that he cant /admit/ when hes wrong, or that he cant /understand/ when hes wrong. I mean at this point youd think he would understand that the washington post got their whole counterstrike thing /from/ his comments and then later removed them because they found out he was full of it. The man seems to live in an alternate reality and his computer just happens to have a net connection to this one.


Cant say I care tho. I mean he keeps screwing up his lawyering work, finding excuses to run away from debates, or being dropped from the guest list of the few sensationalist shows that would even still have him. Thompson is quickly becoming insignifigant and its partly by his own hand.

Even if Cho did play Counter-Strike some years before the VT incident, the connection that he used the game as a vehicle for training for a school massacre is largely disproved.

@ Hackangel & Rob

Slight correction, the list is Jack Thompson, Dr Phil, Dave Grossman and Lyndon Ladou.. I mean, Larouche and his cult.

@Rob -- if I remember correctly, Dr. Phil claimed a connection between violent video games & the VA Tech shootings based on information he got from Jack Thompson. In fact, I'd expect most (if not all) of the list kurisu7885 presents falls into two categories: Jack Thompson, and "people who got information from Jack Thompson".

Apparently now the hyperlink I have in my name seems even funnier and more relevant now. Click it and see.

Oh, and Dr. Phil did not base his comments on what I said. He based it on the demonstrated fact that an extraordinary number of the school shootings have been at the hands of gamers.

Washington Post - retracted the statement, as it was false.
New York Times - "video game player." No mention of the word violent. So what if he played Sonic?
Brad Bushman - Congrats, you can read. So it's a long term effect, and as other psychologists have reported, still has no effect on BEHAVIOR. Go sue Sega for him playing Sonic the Hedgehog.

You contradicted yourself. How did the the Washington Post suddenly know what he was playing, if Cho had no friends to report on what he was playing? You too are claiming to know what he was doing, so shut it.

As for fact-challenged, just because we can put two and two together and get four while you end up getting five doesn't make us fact-challenged. It just makes you wrong.

So... the government of Virginia is being bought out by the video game industry to cover up... what exactly? I mean, honestly, If what you're saying about Cho was actually true, it'd be a political gold mine, seriously, look at all the "No Tolerance" BS that was passed all over the country post-Columbine.

There is no logical reason for any politician to ever lie about the involvement of video games in a tragedy. It's a scapegoat for the masses, a sure-fire way to get reelected.

In fact, to quote the report...

'Cho went to bed early and got up early, so his roommate just left him alone and gave him his space. The only activities Cho engaged in were studying, sleeping, and downloading music. He never saw him play a video game, which he thought strange since he and most other students play them.'

So what this actually is, is a case of a non-gamer going out and killing a load of gamers.

You know Jack after you anti-homosexuals rant a few days ago all i can think of you is "Pathetic".

'sides, how come theres all these video game playing people out there who arent killing their friends?

You do gotta love that.

"Finally, Cho, according to the very report that you all are supposedly quoting, had no friends, and thus nobody had any idea whatsover what this jackass was doing in his spare time, and yet here you are claiming to know what he was doing in his spare time."

Yet Thompson has done the same thing several times over the course of just this specific event. Hell before the dust and blood even settled or before we even had a name, Jack was saying the guy played counterstrike. And then when on national TV again later calling Cho's roomie a lier when they said they never saw Cho playing any video games.


Cheer and Geers all around, Thompson just 'pwned' himself. Everyone settle in and we will see if he can top himself when he tries to explain why its right when he does it without facts but wrong when we do it with them.

It's funny how he claims 'No-one knew what he did in his spare time' and then proceeds to tell us what he did with his spare time.

@goodrobotus:

Yeah I don't know where Jack got 'Cho stayed up for hours on end playing Counterstrike till 4AM' out of that either, but ok... anything he says.

Man, JT. The oldest flaw of the human mind. We will chase it to our graves.

Causality. Forgive me, but the easiest way to express my opinion on the subject of a human informing me that a causal relationship exists, is unfortunately a link to a longwinded story,

http://www.mercenary.net/blog/index.php?/archives/5-Causality.html

Which is a story about two men who realized that an extraordinary number of times they had lost power (100%!), a nearby generator had been operating.

"He based it on the demonstrated fact that an extraordinary number of the school shootings have been at the hands of gamers."

Let me make another observation. An extraordinary number of school shootings have been at the hands of humans that have one X and one Y chromosome. Significantly fewer shootings were at the hands of those who had two X chromosomes.

Therefore, we need to root out the Y chromosome's evil from these lands.

Or maybe Causality is hard.

Mr. Thompson.

Perhaps you can clarify something, for my own edification if nothing else. You point to a retracted Washington Post story as your "undeniable truth" that Cho was an avid player of violent games.

How does a RETRACTED story prove anything? One would think that, as a lawyer, you would know the difference between "good facts" and "bad facts".

If he truly didn't play these games to the extent you claim then one can only conclude that you are providing false witness; which, if my memory serves me correctly, is a direct and willful violation of one of the Ten Commandments.

I'm curious what your response will be to this question.

Wait, you're hoping for a response or an random conglomeration of letters that he hopes form themselves into something coherent (PROTIP: They haven't, yet)?

@ bayushisan

I think I can save him the trouble. The response would be something like this:

"Nope, you're wrong. I'm right. Hooah!"

You're better off arguing with a brick wall.

@ bayushisan
you know he doesnt. the whole world knows he doesn't.

Thompson, that’s not what the reports say and you bloody well know it!

“…according to the Washington Post, [he] was an obsessive player of Counterstrike…” –Thompson

Here’s what it actually said before it was edited (otherwise I’d link to it):

“Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns.”

Does that say he was an obsessive player? No, it certainly doesn’t.

“The New York Times, after that Cho fact broke, reported in the Sunday New York Times magazine that Cho was, according to his family, a compulsive video game player as he went off to V- Tech.” -Thompson

No again. Here’s what the article actually said:

“When Mr. Cho entered Virginia Tech, which is crouched in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, his parents drove him to school with guarded expectations. Perhaps he would no longer retreat to video games and playing basketball alone the way he did at home. Perhaps college might crack the mystery of who he was, extract him from his suffocating cocoon and make him talk.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/us/22vatech.html?ex=1187409600&en=5679...

Andrew Eisen

@ bayushisan

That sounds more like the old Jack Thompson. These days, he'll refute anything with, "I'm right, you're wrong, the end". He just to be perversely entertaining in his crusade. Now, he's just dull. If you try to be civilized, he insults you. If you tear apart his argument, he ignores you and repeats his flawed information as if it were gospel.

In short, what was once an entertaining self-destruction has become a boring waste of time.

"Oh, and Dr. Phil did not base his comments on what I said. He based it on the demonstrated fact that an extraordinary number of the school shootings have been at the hands of gamers." - Thompson

An extraordinary number of school shootings have been at the hands of people who eat breakfast. Every day.

What's your point?


Andrew Eisen

99% of school shootings are by students who attend school!!!!!


OMFG I FOUND THE SOLUTION! GET RID OF SCHOOL!!!!!


P.S. Fuck you John Boy, You Lying Scum of the Earth.

Exactly. It's reverse logic to further your own agenda. The thing that scares me is that some of these people may even believe their own bullshit.

It's quite humbling to know they also have the right to vote.

all this talk about Thompson and VA Tech reminds me of this satire article: http://www.brainsnap.com/national/518/jack_thompson_a_person_of_interest...

If only it were true, then he'd be an accessory before the fact...

Finally, Cho, according to the very report that you all are supposedly quoting, had no friends, and thus nobody had any idea whatsover what this jackass was doing in his spare time, and yet here you are claiming to know what he was doing in his spare time. -Thompson

Funny, you keep claiming you know what he was doing in his spare time. How? One retracted sentence from a Washington Post article.

We're saying he didn't play games based on the findings of two official investigations, the fact that no games were found in his room, and the testimony of his roommates who, although not his friends, lived with him.

Pathetic indeed.


Andrew Eisen

@Jack Thompson

Jack just tell me one thing. Exactly what proof, what soild evidence do you have that Cho "trained" on Counterstrike? You know there is a huge difference between shooting in a video game and shooting in real life. Its not as easy to shoot a gun in real life as compared to a game. You should take a kid who has never used a real gun before and have him play a video game such as Counterstrike or GTA and have them shoot in the game, and then have them shoot a gun on a shooting range in real life. Now If this kid can shoot a gun in real life as effectively as he can in one of these video games then mabey I'll give you some support.

@Austin Lewis:

And there you have it, so today's final score:

Austin: 3
Jack: 0

(Actually there may have been more, but that's just the ones from your one post.)

@bayushisan:

At least with the brick wall they wouldn't insist they they're right and you're not and call you names... reminds me of that skit with the donkey on Family Guy, come to think of it. (kinda ironic, huh?)

@Gamer81:

I doubt it, his selective memory tends to block those incidents out.

Can anyone please point me to any logical connection that Mr. Thompson has ever made concerning this case? As an attorney, I would expect he understands the concept of "reasonable doubt," correct? If there exist no concrete primary accounts of Cho's video game obsession, Mr. Thompson must understand that the theory of reasonable doubt would state that there exists a more easily apparent string of cause and effect at hand here. Truly, the theory that Cho was unstable, socially isolated (see Durkheim's theories on suicide), and obsessed with a "cult of death" via his reported activities with dark media of both visual and aural nature becomes a more apparent and understandable causal tree from which violence and terror sprang forth, correct? I doubt that any of us "gamers" would doubt that one who fits the psychological profile above would enjoy interactive media of a grisly and sadistic nature, right?

So I remain confused as to why Mr. Thompson continues to trumpet the theory that an external expression is to blame for the internal imbalances which would be, logically, a more suitable focus of inquiry. Right?

Gamers are not fact challenged... it is JT that is logic challenged... face with the same facts he comes up with ridiculous conclusions.

and the facts do change, when the Washington post realized that they made a mistake (multiples ones - Counterstrike was not published by Microsoft) they fixed it. The only FACT there is that the Washington Post made a mistake (something that JT doesn't want to acknowledge). JT looks at the evidence that the earth is round but will continue to claim that it's flat because it was once fact.

Also, I remember on Chris Matthews, JT stated that 80% of students play video games (he used it to prove that Cho MUST have played violent video game). Why then aren't 80% of student murderers Jack?

FIX your broken logic. Continually perceiving things incorrectly in relation to reality is a classic diagnosis of schizophrenia, I don't understand how you passed your psyche exam.

Did you stop to think that perhaps it was the very reason that Cho didn't have any friends that caused him to do what he did?

I will conclude by saying what I always say when games are implicated in these tragedies - Video games are not the cause, but they can be a symptom.

You know, if what I'm seeing is really what JT is writing, I might have to recommend that Paris Hilton take the Bar exam...it seems that they'll let anyone in.

Austin Lewis,

"The Washington post later withdrew that remark (and @ Andrew Eisen, when they first started reporting he played CS they said that an expert (JT) had said this. They may have changed their tune later, but they got it from JT in the beginning, trust me)."

I've never seen that. Can you source it?


Andrew Eisen

whoops, my links didn't appear! GP, please delete that last comment by me. Here's what I meant to type:


@ jack thompson
http://tinyurl.com/3cg825

No credible sources, no credibility.


P.S. - location of original image
http://xkcd.com/285/

Sorry Jack, you're wrong. It's as simple as that, you ran out going on a wild crusade against games with Cho as your poster child. Unfortunantly, you went out half cocked with blanks in your gun and wound up getting dirt on your face for your troubles.

Newspapers report wrong things all the time, so do any forms of media, they twist and distort the truth to get higher ratings. That is the media game, one which you've shown you have an ability to manipulate, so why can't you believe that the Washington post manipulated the facts too?

Simple outcome, the GOVERNMENT investigation revealed no game related links, and that Cho was simply screwed up in the head. You can keep ranting and raving about the washington post until you're blue in the face.

Tell me, you're a lawyer, which evidence would a court of law consider more factual? A 12 month government and coroner's investigation, or an article written in 15 minute by a journalist across the other side of the country?

Sadly, I can't, but it occurred in the first issue of the washington post wherein they discussed the 'connection' between Counter Strike and Cho's shooting. They said that an 'expert' had said Cho played CS. The only 'expert' who had said this anywhere was, of course, Jack Thompson.

I remember this because I was at my stepfather's house at the time, and read it will taking a piss (he leaves newspapers on the sink to read while he's on the toilet) and I thought to myself this has JT written all over it.

But as I said, I can't source it; the source is the washington post, but I don't doubt that they've felt foolish over trusting what he had to stay and changed their tune.

okay, here's what I don't understand. JT posts a comment that a ton of people debunk and tear apart, and when he finally responds, he posts the same exact lies in different wording, how he thought this would change anything, I have no idea.

here's another thing, Dennis posts the article with a direct word for word report on VA, and JT acts as if dennis wrote it and it's his fault for how the report came out.

I've come to two possible conclusions about Jack Thompson.

A) He knows what he says is false, in which case, he's a lying piece of shit out to manipulate the weak-minded.

or

B) He not only believes every word of his bullshit, but also has the ability to vote and care for a child.

Neither conclusion is particularly settling.

As to the claim that all killers played videogames, I have something to say.

"It's not like Jack The Ripper played Grand Theft Buggy all day"
-Robert Coffey, EGM

Mind you, there is a lot of debate as to whether Jack The Ripper actually existed or not, but there were still sick sadistic murders long before the first Pixel was designed.

Jack Thompson,

I'd also like to reason with you on the matter of your disbarment. When you are rude to the judge, don't expect anything good to come out of it. If you think your sensationalist attitude is contagious, you are very wrong. You only shame yourself and your Evangelical Church with your malice.

@ monte'

The report by the state of Virginia just released today clearly states:

None of the video games were war games or had violent themes.

Counter-Strike is a war game, IIRC, and certainly would have violent themes.

Oh, OK.

Ah, well, the state of Virginia proved Jacky Boy, Dr. Phil, Mitt "The Mormon Moron" Romney, and the LaRouche cult wrong.

Story of their pathetic lives.

"Sorry to spoil the party here, but Cho, according to the Washington Post, was an obsessive player of Counterstrike, "

Oh so your still on about a "fact" that the Washington Post itself no longer endorses? It retracted that statement Jack. I think the person who holds onto a statement pulled by said paper and denied by the panel is the one who is "fact challenge". Pathetic.


[quote]Oh, and Dr. Phil did not base his comments on what I said. He based it on the demonstrated fact that an extraordinary number of the school shootings have been at the hands of gamers.[/quote]

Holy fuck. You call yourself a lawyer? I mean this is the most sad attempt at logic and evidence I've ever seen. So you and Quack Phil had already made up your mind regardless of any facts whatsoever because "well the other shootings were by people who played games". My god. You shouldn't be disbarred because you are a rude, racist, troll of a man. You should be disbarred because you are a piss poor lawyer.

@Monte'
I'm not sure I'd honestly trust the BBC on this; British politicians have as much an ax to grind with gaming as the other countries, and BBC is just as bad as our MSNBC.

But I didn't see that, and I appreciate you bringing those fax to light.
@Erik
You sir win 1000 internets.

*looks up* Curse you Diet Dan and your more prompt pointing out of the SSI. *shakes fist.*

Hey, quick question. Does anyone know if they ever found Cho's harddrive to his computer? Wasn't it missing or something?

"Sorry to spoil the party here, but Cho, according to the Washington Post, was an obsessive player of Counterstrike, which was the game of choice of the author of the second worst school shooting in world history–Robert Steinhaeuser of Erfurt, Germany."

The Washington Post (as if we need to tell you again) withdrew that fact from their coverage as they knew as well as all of us sane individuals, videogames ha nothing to do with this twisted and disturbed individuals actions.

"The scientific research of Dr. Brad Bushman of the University of Michigan, and of others, is that the effect of violent video games on young men is long-term, not short-term."

And has proven that their is an increase in aggression. Mr Thompson, you have shown aggression in your pursuit of lawsuits against Take 2, and you are not a killer. Chess players have used aggressive tactics against their opponents. Going over and buying a drink for a pretty lady is a lot more aggressive than sitting in your seat hoping she notices you. Aggression does not equal violence. I have aggressively engaged in my studies, in my profession, and I have taken an aggressive stance while playing sports in the past. I have never killed anyone or inflicted physical harm upon anyone. Perhaps I'm just a random exception...

"Finally, Cho, according to the very report that you all are supposedly quoting, had no friends, and thus nobody had any idea whatsover what this jackass was doing in his spare time, and yet here you are claiming to know what he was doing in his spare time."

If someone lives in the same dorm as you, that does not make you their friend. I lived with 3 stoners who were complete junkies during my first two years in college and would have nothing to do with them outside of sorting out the rent. I was not their friend but living in the same house meant I saw every goddamn thing they did. you don't have to be someone's friend to see what they are doing. They could have hated Cho's guts, but that did not stop them from seeing that all he did was write his disgustingly violent prose, watch movies and listen to music.

"Video gamers have to be, as a group, the most fact-challenged of all people in the world."

Pot to kettle, pot to kettle, you are black!

"The facts do not matter."

Mr Thompson, no-one has proven this more than yourself.

"Only the industry agenda matters."

Only the truth matters, and you have shown that the truth is something that you cannot deal with.

"Pathetic. Jack Thompson"

I will not argue with you on this count!

"Oh, and Dr. Phil did not base his comments on what I said. He based it on the demonstrated fact that an extraordinary number of the school shootings have been at the hands of gamers."

Fair enough, several school shooters have played video games. How then do you account for the following individuals!

Charles Joseph Whitman: Shot and killed 14 people (including those who survived the initial shooting but later died as a result of their injuries) and wounded 31 others from the observation deck of the University's Main Building of The University of Texas at Austin on August 1, 1966, after murdering his wife and mother.

Edward Charles Allaway: On July 12, 1976, shot nine people in the basement and first floor of the library with a .22-caliber rifle. Seven of the nine wounded victims died.

Brenda Ann Spencer: Wounded eight children and one police officer and killed principal Burton Wragg, and custodian Mike Suchar, in a shooting spree at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, on Monday, January 29, 1979.

I could go on and on with people who have slaughtered innocents with firearms before the first video games came out, but i think i have made my point. People were nasty and violent and crazy, long before video games ever appeared, and they will continue to be. Don't blame today's entertainment for a phenomenon that has existed for decades.

@ PreciousRoy

To my knowledge, the investigators still haven't found Cho's computer hard drive.

I'm beginning to believe that it will never be found, though it would be nice if it was and it just confirmed everything in today's report.

Jackie, Jackie, JACKIE. I know you will never change you opinions so easily, let alone by a bunch of irritated gamers. Sadly, those opinions you stand by are severely flawed and as logicless as a Wikipedia article written by 14-year old wiggers.

I wish that I can just STOP complaining about you. All you do is badmouth the people and ideas you conciter inferior, like if they don't agree with you NO ONE should. One may ask what the world is like through your eyes, but they don't have to look far.

In -your- eyes:

1- Video games and violent media are the root of all evil. From petty theft to terrorism to genocide. They are NOT new forms of artistic expression.

2- All gamers are senseless, stupid forms of primordial waste. All they do is waste air, make idle threats over the internet, and waste away collecting fat and gas on their couch pretending to be a plumber/elf/vigilante. They have no ability to think or make logical ideas. Any minute NOT preforming the above statements causes great pain.

3- All school shootings, including those at Virgina Tech, are the result of years and years of playing and watching violent media. Psycological disorders, childhood trauma, personal vendetta, and/or already present anger are NOT factors.

4- Anyone that defies your ideas may as well be executed. Ideas or expressions that are not your own should be burned and wiped away from memory. If it does not live by the word of you, your associates, or God; it must be spat upon by the mainstream society.

That is the second time I had to type that, for I ended up exiting the page before posting. Oh but i'm not done.

Jack. Why must you think censorship is a gift from God? We can't go back time and prevent Adam and Eve from eating the fruit of knowledge. (If that comment is wrong, bash my lack of Bible knowledge all you want. Won't make you a man.) That title you hold so dear to you, "Art Censor of the Year", is fucking terrible. That's NOT a positive comment, despite what you think.

Also, how come everytime you open your mouth, you spew some acidic substance that degrades other groups of people (Gamers, Homosexuals, Muslims), makes your supporters distancer themselves from you, and make you look like an ignorant, non-thinking, old fuck?

It is my humble opinion that you are NOT out to protect our children. That's the excuse and 'goal' that ALL politicians and outspoken people use. What I think you are out to do is make some expressionless 'utopia'. Your idea of a perfect world that combines the worlds of "The Giver" and Act III of Frank Zappa's "Joe's Garage". (And, speaking of Frank Zappa; isn't it rather ironic, if not hypocritcal, that one of your favorite musicians was all about innovation and expression and NOT religion and censorship? A mind is like a parachute.) It's too late to fix the world in the way God may have intended. To do that, your would have to kill the entire human race.

I pity your son. Like many children, one day he would have to bear with the legacy of Jack Thompson and his actions. Some father you are, using your own flesh and blood as a pawn in your scheme. AND FOR THE RECORD, THAT JUST -MY- COMMENT, NOT THE ONE OF THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY OF JACK THOMPSON. MAYBE ONE DAY I WILL PAY FOR MY COMMENTS ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL LIFE, BUT FOR NOW I DON'T CARE.

We gamers have even tried to make peace with you on various occasions. Flowers for Jack? An apologie from the gaming community for the hateful words many gamers flooded you with during post-Hot Coffee. Did you even BOTHER to look at the words wishing you good health when GP posted the story about your chest pains?

I feel that the reasons that nobody has had you killed is because:
1- Gamers already have to live with stereotype of being homicidal outcasts. Why the fuck would we want to live up to the reputation just so a bunch of massacre-chasers like yourself can exploit us?!
2- The same reason we can't immediatly kill Osama Bin Laden: a group of people are going to think you're some martyr like Jesus Christ or a fallen hero like Martin Luther King Jr.

The day you chose to censor art and entertainment for a carrer was the beginning of your now-tainted legacy. You're mad. Driven to the brink of insanity by you're beliefs. Your recent comments further ruin your legacy and gives your opponents more ammo. I'm just so exhausted of you I want to just want to stab my leg, and so dumbfunded by your aformentioned arrogance I can't really focus on typing this comment or thinking of more negativity.

Like all of your haters, I have grown tired of you. This is just an era video gaming has to live through. We'll get through this. You'll be lucky to get a wax sculpture in a museum for video game and/or cenorship so the world will remember you as the arrogant prick who just didn't get with the times.

I spit on you.