Why Comedy is Good
Posted by Ray @ 4:43 pmSee, there’s this guy called Jack Thompson, and he’s made me pretty mad.
The guy blames video games for inciting violent crimes. He calls Grand Theft Auto (GTA) a “cop-killing murder simulator” that “trains murderers”. He’s suing Electronic Arts, the publishers of The Sims 2, because he believes The Sims 2 is pornographic.
No, seriously - he says that when your Sims make out, naked, underneath that mosaic blur is an anatomically correct human being, with “full frontal nudity, including nipples, penises, labia and pubic hair”.
That’s an absolute lie; the Sims are like Ken- and Barbie-dolls underneath. Unfazed, our intrepid lawyer claims that you can download third-party mods to fix this obvious omission, and that Electronic Arts is… wait for it… conspiring with the porn industry to corrupt children’s minds.
Dude. For goodness’ sake, it’s the Sims.
Our dear Jack Thompson’s latest shenanigan is what he calls his “modest video game proposal“. I have linked the details of his “game proposal”, because it disgusts me, and I don’t want to write all the details down here.
The gist of it is, his main character goes on a killing spree in an environment loosely based on real life. (As an example, one of the victims of this spree is “Paula Eibel”, CEO of a company called “Take This”. The company that made Grand Theft Auto in the real world is called Take Two. Its CEO is Paul Eibeler.)
If anyone made his game, he, Jack Thompson, would donate US$ 10,000 to charity.
Of course, when somebody actually went and made it, the despicable bastard went back on his word. This crook dangled $10,000 in front of charity and withdrew it. What kind of sad, twisted individual goes back on his word on something like this?
Wanting a little cheering, I went over to Penny Arcade, and was not disappointed in the least. I had a real good laugh, feeling tons better over this whole issue. The chilling effect this hack is bound to have on the games industry is deeply disturbing, but for a brief moment there was genuine mirth in the situation.
And that, people, is why comedy is good.
- The guys at Penny Arcade decided they’d be men about things, and have donated $10,000 to the ESA foundation, an organisation that gives to various children’s foundations. Go visit Penny Arcade, give ‘em some traffic, buy some of their swag. At least click on an ad on their page, you can’t be that lazy, right?
- Jack Thompson has since wrote a letter demanding the arrest of Gabe and Tycho, the creators of Penny Arcade (scroll down for the link). Way to go, Jack.