Over at Crispy Gamer, game scribe Kyle Orland pokes fun at the whole Jack Thompson is a media creation bit, with GamePolitics coming in for some extra attention:
A group of prominent game journalists is gathering together to fight the recent disbarment of anti-game crusader Jack Thompson. The group, headed by GamePolitics editor Dennis McCauley, issued an open letter to the Florida Supreme Court this morning, urging them to reinstate the controversial former lawyer...
The statement also included a link to an online petition where gamers could sign up to "get Jack Thompson off the bread lines and back in the headlines, where he belongs." Signatories on the letter include prominent writers for Kotaku, Joystiq, Destructoid and dozens of other gaming blogs...
McCauley is worried that those reveling in Thompson's fall from grace haven't fully absorbed what the game journalism landscape will look like without him... McCauley went on to argue that Thompson delivered "the spittle-flecked, borderline-incoherent rants that gamers wanted -- that they needed -- and in that he'll be nearly impossible to replace. We've lost a giant, and we need to do everything we can to get him back."
GP: Funny stuff, Kyle.
Oh, and I have just one word for you: paybacks... 
Comments
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
Kyle works for Joystiq if I remember?
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
Hahaha! Well played!
"Volume helps to get a point across but sharp teeth are better."
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
I'm kinda sad to see him go... sure, he was a raving, incoherent, illogical demogogue with delusions of grandeur and an irrepressible knack for fabricating his own "evidence" out of even the most clearly obvious realities, but he was OUR demogogue.
And yes... we helped to create him.
But what's more, I don't think it was the media alone that helped to create Thompson. As a matter of fact, I think that WE, gamers, created him even more than the media did.
We egged him on. We called him names. Some of us even harassed him. When he talks about recieving death threats from gamers I believe him. How could I not? [i]I've[/i] recieved death threats from other gamers simply by beating them online or by winning arguments in gaming forums.
Every time he came here we pushed him. In fairness he pushed back, and in our defense we probably (here at GP) weren't as bad as some other places he likely frequented, but the more he was in our sights the more strident he got.
I think Lowenstein should have stood up to him more, I really do... but I also think he has a point. Moreover, there's a difference between "ignoring a problem" or "sticking your head in the sand" as a method to deal with a bully and egging the bully on with taunts, slurs and name-calling.
We gamers have as much to do both with Thompson's rise and with his fall as anything or anyone else.
As much as I hated what he had to say, the reality is that this is a man. He's just a man... and now his life-long career is over. I don't think that's anything to celebrate, especially given my own belief that we, as a community, may have had a hand in that.
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
Well I have to disagree with you. We didn't help the situation, however he was this bad in issues against Janet Reno and against Live 2 Crew. Proclaiming lies and his usual rhetoric bs. Jack when tackling against gamers, he unexpectedly found opponents that are more logical than him (not saying much really).
Thompson had his rise from Live 2 Crew and taking on shock jocks. Games were the new medium and the new target. We didn't create Jack, he did it himself.
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James Fletcher, member of ECA Canada
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
I'm not saying he wasn't a piece of work before he entered the gaming ring, what I'm saying is that we, at least in part, helped to make him the strident blow-hole he was with our behaviour. If you go back through archives of interviews he was always bizarre, but the closer you get to 2008 the more bizarre he becomes and usually in response to whoever it is that's providing the counter-point.
You can see that in all his correspondences as he becomes more and more frantic, be they motions or simple posts on GP. That certainly had to do with his own mounting failures, but I firmly believe that it also had much to do with the way he was treated. Remember, he always considered the way we behaved to be a validation of the picture he painted of us; Sadistic, sociopathic, blood-thirsty, juvenile, etc... and in many cases those observations, when he made them, were bang on. I've seen it here, in this very place.
Ultimately, however, even if you disagree the reality is that he sunk his own boat... but we didn't help. Moreover, while you'll find no more staunch a critic than I for what Thompson had to say and what he stood for I think it's innapropriate to take joy in another man's downfall.
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
Yeah, if you follow the Reno stuff, he was screwed up a long time ago, and like I said before, he needs psychological help...
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Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
LOL. All I have to say.
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James Fletcher, member of ECA Canada
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
Yeah that's real cute... what kind of green are they smoking... and question two, can i have some?
Jesus Jack Jones Thompson.... is dead... (funeral udruge, followed by Celebrate :D )
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
Ah, a good chuckle to start my day!
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
I was truly worried for a moment that someone actually wanted to support JT.
Glad to see it's a "Stephen Colbert" styled joke.
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
Hahaha... Well, that is like Tina Fey voting republican, it is only in the best interest of her career, haha. All of the Palin stuff she could do over the next 4 years would be funny.
I would love to see the look in Jack's face though if that did happen...
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Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
Actually, i think Tina Fey has said she hopes the republicans loose just so she can STOP playing Palin =p
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
That reminded me of a really old interview with Jon Stewart, I think I read about it in rolling stone, where Jon was asked towards the end of Clinton's second term how the daily show would handle Clinton no longer being preisdent. His response was something along the lines of 'If I never have to do another semen stain or Monica Lewinsky joke that would be fine with me'. Oh and nowadays he was asked if he could find ways to make fun of Barak if he became president his response was 'are you kidding his Dad's a goat herder'. Comedians will always find a way to make fun of society.
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God created alcohol so that the Scottish and the Irish could never take over the world. -Chris 'Jedi' Knight
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
THEY report
WE decide
Re: Crispy Gamer Roasts GP Over Thompson Coverage
Isn't that the tagline of Faux news?