The increasingly crazy gaming activist Jack Thompson has set a new precedent in legal history by being the first attorney ever to use the “NOT!” joke in a briefing. It’s part of his new legal action against the readers who posted comments on the gaming blog Kotaku (they have a link to the PDF of the briefing HERE if you don’t believe me - the “NOT!” is on page 27).

Thompson had made it into the news recently for saying, within seconds of the shooting, that the Virginia Tech killer played violent video games. When it came out later that the kid apparently hadn’t played any such games in years, Jack went on TV and declared that we KNOW the kid played violent video games, because he went on a shooting rampage. And nothing else can make a person do that. Hey, listen to him say it for yourself.

Massively absent from Thompson’s comments this time are any references to the scourge of society Grand Theft Auto. Why? Because that company sued him and he settled it by agreeing to never mention games by that company ever again and to never accuse them of wrongdoing. Knowing that, watch the above-referenced clip and notice how desperately he grasps for other examples of games.

I’ve sort of stood up for Jack in the past (see Five Reasons Jack Thompson is Right) but mostly out of my belief that we need someone credible who can criticize some of the bullshit we see in gaming without the guy also being batshit insane. You don’t have to be insane to hate the way women are portrayed in DoA, for instance. But Jack’s nuttiness makes it almost impossible to talk about graphic sexism and violence in gaming without feeling like you’re sitting in the same boat as he, hurtling down the rapids toward a 100-foot drop off Crazy Fucker Falls. And that’s just one more reason to hate him.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 12:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.