I saw alot of this at SGC.
Over the weekend I was in Texas for the Screwattack Gaming Convention, and to sum it up, it was fantastic, the best convention I have ever been to.
At this convention there was a big panel starring as many call "Video Games Biggest Enemy" and Mark Methinitis. Beforehand, there was a Q&A with Mr. Thompson that I was able to see, and I'm going to tell you something.
He's a good guy. In fact, I agree with the things he says. Now, I am not saying I agree with everything. I feel that violence in games is a correlation and not a causation in violent action, but I agree with some of his ideals.
First, his reason for trying to censor games makes sense. He's not trying to say "Let's play with bunnies and kittens." He feels that games need to be more controlled in the market, and the reason being he wants to defend the gaming industry. His argument is (paraphrasing here) that he wants to make it so that stores are not allowed to sell to people under 17 Mature rated games without consequence to make it much more strict and firm so that games would not be the blame if there were an event, as he said "10 times worse then Columbine". If you remember those horrible events, Doom was brought up as a major supposed factor in the students "Training" for the events that sadly took place.
And going off that subject, he brings up how Germany is planning on completely banning M-Rated games for sale because of the rise in teenage violence there, and how he does not want that to happen here. His reason being he wants to defend the 1st Amendment rights, and if the government views it fit, could ban M-rated games as well. Do I think it will happen? No, but I am sick of games being a scapegoat.
When all is said and done, Mr. Thopmson was a very friendly, personable and downright funny guy. It was good to see him in person twice and see him surrounded by gamers. To some of those who don't think the argument through, they hate him, but when both sides are weighed, you can understand where he comes from.
But, in this writers opinion, the most important person is the parents when it comes to censoring a child. I believe kids should be playing games that there parents feel like they can mentally handle.
Comments
Sorry, but Thompson IS as bad as I think. Ignoring whether or not his ultimate goal is noble, there is still the matter of his blatant lies about games and their role in society, from claiming without evidence that video games make people act violent to claiming just about every school shooting to be the product of video games before the bodies are even cold.
He also harasses people who speak badly of him on the internet.
There's valid organizations out there who want to keep violent video games out of the hands of small children, but they don't resort to such despicable tactics.
Completely, totally and utterly wrong, unfortunately, he suckered you.
Don't forget the 7 years of abuse, insults, lies and threats. Do you consider him claiming that the death of Staven Chaykin, whilst saving his wife's life was evidence that 'God Agreed with him' as the act of a nice man? Do you consider calling a judge the 'sort of person who waves children in front of traffic' for disagreeing with him the actions of a 'nice man'?
It never ceases to amaze me how gullible people can be on occasions, just because the wolf is smiling, doesn't mean he wouldn't prefer to rip you limb from limb, this is especially notable when said wolf has been trying to do so for years.
Bear in mind that 4 months ago, he was writing to the President ASKING for a complete ban on games because he didn't get his own way in Utah.
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