LiveJournal gets more interesting every day
As I said to queenmatoki, I didn't think any LJ entry following my rant about the UFC could be anywhere near as entertaining. But I might have been wrong. This isn't exactly funny though, especially at first, but just bear with me.
I like visiting the blog gamepolitics for news on video games that's actually competent. Today, I saw a story about a gamer in Illinois who committed suicide via self-poisoning and spent his last hours saying good-bye to his friends on Metal Gear Solid fansite and BBS. I thought it was a sad but touching example of how gamers, as a community, can be supportive and caring for each other. So, I left a comment on the entry saying as much.
Here's where things get interesting.
I don't know how many of you are familiar with Florida attorney Jack Thompson. He's an extremely outspoken critic of video games who has several appearances on CNN to his credit. He's also under investigation by the Florida Bar Association because of his unprofessional tactics. One example that springs to mind was a press release in which he dared game companies to make a title where the main character went on a shooting rampage in retail stores and the offices of the game company itself for making and selling violent games. He stated that he would donate $10,000 to charity if anyone actually made such a game. As soon as people started to call his bluff, however, he balked on the offer saying he meant it as "satire". Another silly thing that Mr. Thompson likes to do is "troll" the occasional gaming website, such as gamefaqs.com and... the GamePolitics blog.
Imagine my surprise when my innocent words illicited an insulting response from none other than Jack Thompson.
The owner of this blog has since decided that his response to my reply, among many other comments he made on this post, were "terribly insensitive under the circumstances" and removed them from the site. So I'll have to paraphrase and work from memory best I can here. Jack Thompson pointed to my default LJ icon as evidence that I need to stop living in the world of video games-- this icon, by the way, was generated through Yahoo! Avatars and has nothing to do with ANY video game. He then went on to say, "honey, get a grip. Get out of games. Get a life."
Yes... he called me "honey". You don't forget something like that.
As a final shot in response to my comment in particular, Mr. Thompson suggested that if gamers really cared about the world, they'd be trying to make it a better place and not "frying their brains" with "mental masturbatory machinations". I tried to reply to this but, like I said before, the comments were deleted.
So all in all... I have to say that made for an interesting evening. You know, now that I've been personally insulted by Jack Thompson, I feel like I can call myself a true hardcore gamer now-- or, in the words of Mr. Thompson, a "pixelante"! I think I'll celebrate with some Diablo II.
I like visiting the blog gamepolitics for news on video games that's actually competent. Today, I saw a story about a gamer in Illinois who committed suicide via self-poisoning and spent his last hours saying good-bye to his friends on Metal Gear Solid fansite and BBS. I thought it was a sad but touching example of how gamers, as a community, can be supportive and caring for each other. So, I left a comment on the entry saying as much.
Here's where things get interesting.
I don't know how many of you are familiar with Florida attorney Jack Thompson. He's an extremely outspoken critic of video games who has several appearances on CNN to his credit. He's also under investigation by the Florida Bar Association because of his unprofessional tactics. One example that springs to mind was a press release in which he dared game companies to make a title where the main character went on a shooting rampage in retail stores and the offices of the game company itself for making and selling violent games. He stated that he would donate $10,000 to charity if anyone actually made such a game. As soon as people started to call his bluff, however, he balked on the offer saying he meant it as "satire". Another silly thing that Mr. Thompson likes to do is "troll" the occasional gaming website, such as gamefaqs.com and... the GamePolitics blog.
Imagine my surprise when my innocent words illicited an insulting response from none other than Jack Thompson.
The owner of this blog has since decided that his response to my reply, among many other comments he made on this post, were "terribly insensitive under the circumstances" and removed them from the site. So I'll have to paraphrase and work from memory best I can here. Jack Thompson pointed to my default LJ icon as evidence that I need to stop living in the world of video games-- this icon, by the way, was generated through Yahoo! Avatars and has nothing to do with ANY video game. He then went on to say, "honey, get a grip. Get out of games. Get a life."
Yes... he called me "honey". You don't forget something like that.
As a final shot in response to my comment in particular, Mr. Thompson suggested that if gamers really cared about the world, they'd be trying to make it a better place and not "frying their brains" with "mental masturbatory machinations". I tried to reply to this but, like I said before, the comments were deleted.
So all in all... I have to say that made for an interesting evening. You know, now that I've been personally insulted by Jack Thompson, I feel like I can call myself a true hardcore gamer now-- or, in the words of Mr. Thompson, a "pixelante"! I think I'll celebrate with some Diablo II.