Violence and Video Games: Jack Thompson

Jack Thompson, an unfortunately infamous name in the world of video games. Why is he so infamous? He blames video games for every violent attack possible. He was the lawyer who represented six of the victim's families from Columbine. He claims video games are simulators in which people practice how to kill (rehearsal is the word he uses). He contends that Seung-Hui Cho, the shooter behind the Virginia Tech massacre, practiced killing in High School by playing Counter-Strike (I also must have practiced killing by playing Counter-Strike, as I was very involved in the competitive CS world then, and I was pretty good at the game too .'. I am a good killer). Most recently he thought (on the day of the shooting with no real investigation) that Steven Kazmierczak, used video games (again Counter-Strike) to practice the massacre that unfolded on Valentine's Day of 2008 (Feb 14) at Northern Illionois University. Infact here is a video that includes most of what I've said, but out of his mouth:

Amazingly, the news reporter saw through his tirade and claimed they were out of time. Which has not been the case in the past. Jack Thompson is often referred to as a "School Shooting expert" and is usually interviewed on the day of school shootings for his opinion. News stations are desperate to fill time, and he is desperate to get his message spread. Both of them benefit from each other.

Regardless of his punditry, Jack Thompson's most famous event was when he offered $10,000 to charity if anyone/any company made a video game he proposed. His proposal was called "a modest video game proposal" as an attempt at allusion to "A Modest Proposal". The point was to make a game where you kill people at E3 (the expo) including the CEO of Take-Two: Paul Eibeler. He wanted to prove that games were "murder simulators" by making a game of his own that actually is a "murder simulator". That is confirmation bias to the EXTREME: fabrication of evidence to support your hypothesis. Luckily for us, Jack Thompson is not a man of reason, he is a man of frivolous law suits. And so he allows for dissections of his arguments and a very good dissection is done here.

Thankfully, the media and even NIFM, the National Institue on Media and the Family, have been distancing themselves from Jack Thompson. Even the Flordia BAR is considering revocation of his privilege to practice law. It's good to hear he's losing credibility, I guess that's what blatant lying and misuse of scientific research does.