Jack Thompson v Halo 3 by in Opinion / September 24th, 2007
What a morning already! Via the article on Slashdot comes an article on GamePolitics.com about how Jack Thompson is trying to get Halo 3 declared a public nuisance! Basically, he wants to use legislation (aimed at closing down brothels and rowdy gambling joints) to stop a video game from being released. I can understand why… there’s always been a very real danger of kids dressing up in armoured suits and shooting aliens with sci-fi weaponry, and THIS GAME MAKES IT SEEM LIKE FUN!
Bastards. Those Bungie guys… what were they THINKING? Alas, poor Covenant… I knew them, Horatio!
The thing in the article at GP that doesn’t actually work for me is this:
More troubling by far are the long term implications of this action. Thompson apparently feels emboldened to invoke Florida’s public nuisance law against any video game he desires to target. That is the essence of censorship and the video game industry cannot allow it to continue on any number of grounds – legal, moral or creative.
I would have to say that the video game industry needs to let ol’ Jacky-boy have his fun, because the only thing that will finally shut him up, is for him to ruin his credibility so often that no news organization will print his name ever again (nay, not even when reporting his inevitable disbarment), and he can reflect upon his life with a lonely bottle of whiskey as the world goes to pot around him. Or something like that.
But my point is: don’t try and shut Jack Thompson up. He is his own worst enemy, and it’s much more entertaining to see him dig his own grave.
Tags: games, jack thompson
