God Hates Games

This is a repost of a story that first appeared back when this site was called grumpygamer.biz. I thought it was worth saving for posterity. I've reposted it here in its entirety on the correct date, and will also add comments received too.

I've had a rather odd afternoon today. Jack Thompson has been pestering me. Normally he pesters the Florida Bar, videogame publishers and websites that give money to charity because he's to cheap to keep his promises. But today I was the target of his anger. Why should this be so?

Well, you see last week I played Canis Canem Edit, a game otherwise known as Bully. Rockstar Games had invited me over to take a look at the game and having played the PS2 title in question I wrote up my impressions of the game here at Boomtown.net.

Reading the aforementioned preview you may notice that I discuss elements of the game I actually witnessed with my own two eyes. It's a traditional method of writing previews, I didn't think for one minute it might be worth making stuff up about it being a Columbine simulator or featuring rape, bloody murder and the like. Instead I wrote about what I saw, a fun game that takes a wry look at high school culture and actually downplays the real level of violence that many of us would have suffered in our school days.

I thought this might be a fair way of going about things. But alas it seems the article rattled Jack Thompson's cage enough he felt the need to power up his email client and throw some insults my way. Poor Jack isn't quite the technology expert though - ironic given he's a self style expert on videogames, and has a tendency to put most of the content of his email in the subject line. This has the effect that you'll start reading the content of the email and wonder why he's started mid sentence.

Anyway, let's get on to what Florida\'s favourite export (besides Orange Juice) had to say to me.

Are you so naive as to think that Rockstar would put out trailers that show the full-on violence, or allow gamer lapdogs like you to play well into the game to see the "missions" that show the greater violence? Please...

Jack Thompson, Attorney
(Followed by his address, phone number etc.)

There are several things we can take from this. One, Jack isn't very good at writing emails. He doesn't bother saying hello and he doesn\'t say goodbye. He just charges in, says his piece, then runs away again. The second thing is that he likes to fire off insults in brief emails. Given the examples I've seen of his other mails to various gaming websites this seem a pretty common practice for him. One imagines him spending hours a day writing terse one line emails to hundreds of sites per day that dare question his integrity. The other interesting things is that he clearly believes the game has some hidden extra violence that Rockstar wants to push on kids, somehow sneaking it in under the radar of the BBFC, ESRB and PEGI. It does make you wonder if he still doesn't understand what the Hot Coffee fuss was about and the technical issues surrounding it.

Jack has emailed me in the past and I've not risen to the bait. He's an angry older guy who gets his kicks from getting worked up about things. It's a bit sad really. But then I'm still rather narked about his open letter to Bono. This letter is a cynical misuse of the Christian faith, full of the flowery language of a preacher, and full of emotional blackmail. For Thompson, a man whose main preoccupation seems to be insulting people and telling lies to justify his behaviour in Christian terms really pissed me off to a very high degree. The language of the open letter to Bono bears no resemblance at all to the language Jack uses when discussing issues with those who disagree with him - and no resemblance to his emails to me.

So I pretty much told him so. And yes I admit my reply wasn't totally polite, but at the same time I offered to discuss the issue with him despite his insults.

Dear Mr Thompson,

Thank you for your email. Should you wish to enter a dialogue with me then I would be happy to discuss the issues you raised via email. However just sending an insulting email isn't something I would expect from such a public fellow "Christian", should you find yourself capable of bringing that very public love of Our Lord into your private world and thus fashion a polite email to a fellow member of the faith I would be happy to discuss the issues surround the game.

You might then find there are many gamers on this side of the Atlantic who are in favour of controls on the games children can play.

However if your terse, rude and insulting little epistle is an example of the depth of your publicly acknowledged faith, your professionalism and professional courtesy, then I suggest instead you spend some time in your local church and brushing up on basic business correspondence.

The subject of the protection of children from harmful influences is a vital issue in today's world, it is not furthered when those who are most public in this cause behave in such a childish and rude manner to all and sundry.

I bid you good-day
Yours in Christ

I thought that would be the end of it to be honest. I've rarely seen anyone call his misuse of the Christian faith to book and I thought it would be something he just ignored. But he did actually email back some time later. Again it was a rather short email, but there's plenty of meaning within it.

Okay, so you are that naive. Jesus insulted the Pharisees. Get used to it.

So no apology then. I offered him a chance in my email. It said, look Jack, I'm a games journalist who has similar concerns about children playing violence videogames and a fellow Christian. This is your chance for some good press for a change - engage in some dialogue with me. He didn't get it though. But at least I know the extent of his mania now. He seems to think he is Jesus, and those who criticise his actions are just Pharisees. It's kinda scarey isn't it?

I did wonder how to reply to that. I mean, how do you reply to someone who tells you that it's okay to insult you, because he is like Jesus insulting the Pharisees? I bet even Mel Gibson doesn't send emails like that. So I was pondering whether to reply and was moving towards the position of just ignoring him. The conversion had already got too weird.

But then, two minutes after his last email arrived, yet another missive arrived from Jack. I hadn't even replied to him yet and already he was mailing me again. Maybe he was going to sue me in Florida or something. But no, he'd had another couple of minutes to cogitate on my original email and offered the following.

And the self-righteousness wears a bit thin

That's the whole email by the way. I wasn't sure what to make of it. At first I thought he was apologising for the previous email. Maybe he was admitting to being tired and didn't mean the whole Jesus thing. No. He was talking about my original reply to him. Okay, I admit it lays on the whole Christian thing a bit thick. But that's for several reasons. One, this is how a lot of American Christians converse and so I wanted to mail him in a language he would be familiar with. Secondly the nature of my beef with him was the subject of Christianity and how I believe he has misused the faith in his campaign and especially the letter to Bono.

You have read his letter to Bono haven't you?

If you still think I overdid it, then that's fair, I won't argue. But please grant me this, at least I didn't claim to be Jesus. So when it comes to handing out awards for self-righteousness, I won't be getting mine before Jack.

So how to reply. I wasn't going to get into a slanging match with Jack. I genuinely wanted to discuss the issues surrounding Bully and his use of the Christian faith in his campaign. I offered once again to enter into a dialogue with him.

Dear Mr Thompson,

Thank you for your comments. Should you wish to enter a dialogue with me rather than just send more insults then I would be happy to discuss the issues you raised via email.

Regards

H

And so the great dialogue would begin? Well no. Jack doesn't want to debate at all. I am pond scum. I am beneath him. He saves his debate for the likes of Senators Clinton and Lierberman. So instead I received the following.

I have no interest in a dialogue. I have an interest in your stopping spreading your naivete, useful to people with blood on their hands, that they would put out a trailer with the most violent material in the game to be found therein. That is beyond stupid. It is dangerous. Knock it off.

And that was that. I did resend my previous mail to him again offering to debate the issues. But, at the time of writing this blog post, I have received no further reply from Jack. I assume his Sauronic eye is now pointed elsewhere, smiting other worthless videogame Halflings. I find myself suitably chastised and am considering his advice to knock it off.