I read Penny Arcade quite regularly. It's a comic strip devoted to gamer culture which is an often funny, mostly clever, well drawn strip that I've been checking out since I went to school in '99. These guys have done great things with their exposure; Child's Play--a drive that they have organized and run the last two Christmas seasons--has donated ridiculous amounts of games, toys, and money to children's hospitals around the country. These guys have also butted heads with pretty much everyone possible. They've been forced to take a comic down by American Greetings, accidentally signed their publishing rights away, and now: Jack Thompson.
I first heard of Jack Thompson in an interview with EGM wherein he detailed his anti-game violence agenda fairly well. I got the impression that he was an intelligent lawyer who was concerned for the youth of today. You better believe he was all over the Hot Coffee thingy. Things have gotten odder and odder, though, as he seems to have begun a campaign of misinformation and bizarre proposals:
Miami, Florida Attorney Jack Thompson, a long-time outspoken critic of violent and sexually explicit videogames, has done something totally unexpected. Thompson today actually proposed a violent videogame, and will pay $10,000 to the favorite charity of Paul Eibeler (the Chairman of Take-Two Interactive) if any videogame company will "create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006" based on a scenario he created.
You can visit that article if you want to see a description of his "game" but it's pretty wretched, so maybe you're better off just staying here.
Anyway, somebody met his challenge and built a modification of an existing game to meet his criteria. Thompson chose to then pass off his proposal as satire, therefore no $10,000.
Penny Arcade's response?
Thompson now claims that his repellent suggestion was "satire," and we must conclude that his financial offer was also satire, some new breed of satire apparently that I'm sure is just hilarious to people in need.
You know what, Jack? We're going to be the men you're not. You said that your insulting, illusory ten thousand dollars would go to the charity of Paul Eibeler's choice. We've got a good guess that he'd direct your nonexistant largesse toward The Entertainment Software Association Foundation, a body that has raised over six point seven million dollars over the last eight years. We've just made the donation you never would, and never meant to. Ten thousand dollars' worth. And we made it in your name.
Absolute cojones. I love these guys.
If you want to read more from Penny Arcade's side of things (and in much better prose!), check these two news pages:
PA News 10/14
PA News 10/18
4 comments:
i think the title of that post was perfect. wow, indeed. now penny arcade should pay a company to make a videogame about this!
While I admire greatly the cojones of...well, anyone willing to use them, I'm a bit shocked that no one in the entertainment world caught on that it was satire. A Modest Video Game Proposal...how could this not be obvious? Did all of these game designers just skip high school English?
Yeah, it was a little surprising that nobody mentioned the similarity of the title. But given Thompson's apparent insanity, I'm more inclined to think the satire was an accident. I mean, come on. Dude's nuts, yo.
My favorite part of this is the underestimation going on Jack's side. He seems to think that because Penny Arcade is on the Teh internet they don't have any money, legal chops, or business savvy to call him on his bullshit.
Given the absurd number of readers of Penny Arcade, you'd think it would have sunk in that they run a real life business and can't be pushed around by stunts like trying to have them arrested for no reason.
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