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« on: April 19, 2007, 07:15:57 PM »
Well, after watching the AOTS chat they all had back when Bully was close to coming out, I have to say, I was saddened. It seems to me like no one that gets put on the air is able to combat what Jack Thompson says directly to him. I mean, I disagree thoroughly, and I can't believe how convicted he is in his thoughts and actions, but I have yet to see one time where someone has gone against Jack Thompson, and from a neutral point of view, come out on top, in terms of a Television interview, BTW, not Penny Arcade, and not in the courtroom. I think what it comes down to is that Thompson knows his stuff, he knows his point, and remains focused on that, and that he expects what most people have to say. You can bet if Thompson had called onto that show, Limbaugh wouldn't have had such an easy time winning over a neutral audience, provided both sides get a fair say.
I have to agree with Penny Arcade, though. I think the best way to prove him wrong is to show the great things games and gamers have down, while comparing games to earlier media that was censored previously, but is now considered brilliant works of art. It would be important not to get caught up in things that have already been deemed bad by the public, such as Hot Coffee, and instead deem this as a big mistake the developers left in, and shouldn't have. In reference to Super Columbine Massacre, talk about the award it almost received, first off, and secondly, attempt to get footage of the game on air, even if only brief, to allow the audience to know that you couldn't train to kill on the game.
Bring up Child's Play, and ask him what he thinks about that, and then bring up studies about stress, and studies about how gaming relieves stress.
To end up the discussion, I imagine that you could go with one of any different scenarios. You can talk about how there were school shootings before games were commercially available, though you can be sure Thompson expects that, he gets it a lot. You could bring up that when Hitler was in jail was when he wrote Mein Kampf, ultimately, a form of ultimate censorship, and obviously, this didn't stop him from his atrocities against humanity. That may be a little too dramatic, though, and would make you look like a crazy extremist. I suppose another option would be to bring up the value of family, and that, as with any form of media, it is important for families to be actively involved in all types of media their children observe, teaching them what is appropriate, and using the time spent as bonding time as well.
That seems pretty sound to me, and shows that games, just because they can be violent, do not cause violence in those playing them. Somewhere, I suppose it should be mentioned that the Washington Post retracted the part of the article that blamed Counter-Strike. Overall, I really haven't spent too much time following Thompson's actions until now, and on television, I have to say, to a neutral audience, he is a very convincing person. He appeals to things normal people like, and he references things that they don't know about, so they don't know any better than to trust him. It's sad for me to say this, but I feel like most people I have read from on the internet, including the owners of several major gaming sites, seem to be able to see how well he speaks on camera, and how influential he can be. Instead, they become outraged, and if given the opportunity, they react to Thompson like Sessler did, not even intending to. Unfortunately, Sessler was prepared to make an argument, with references and studies, and the like, but he isn't used to being off script, nor is he used to arguing against someone that can purport himself as a hero on camera so easily. If you watched that hardball clip objectively, you'll see that he has little problem convincing Matthews that there were video games out there for people to train how to kill on, despite the fact that Matthews typically remains incredibly skeptical of anyone that appears on his show, especially those who are conservative.
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