This is a rant! Consider yourself notified that the following text is nothing other than my own personal opinion about matters that may or may not concern you in the least. You have no obligation to read what I have to say, much less agree with any of it. I am not giving you the a slice of the truth, just a piece of my mind. I am in no way smarter than anyone else, I don’t have a degree in law and I often studder when speaking in public due to being nervous. I have once spent time in a court room (School trip, 7-8 years ago). I sometimes leave my dishes in my sink for several days and more often than not, I don’t make my bed. So that’s me. Take this text for what it is and don’t get all worked up if you don’t agree with me. Given the choice I would most likely not try to harm you for disagreeing with me and I hope you would be of like mind.
The gaming community’s public enemy No.1, Jack Thompson, might be going to jail.
http://www.lazygamer.co.za/general-news/jack-thompson-is-getting-owned/
Imagine the following scenario:
A few days after a school shooting family X sits down by the TV to eat dinner. There is MomX, DadX and SonX. A newscast appears on TV and the anchor speaks shortly about the school shooting then introduces a guy named Jack Thompson. A fancy looking man in a suit, a spray-on tan and slick haircut appears on screen along with the words ”Jack Thompson, Lawyer” at the bottom.
”This is a horrible incident. Me and my family was shocked when we heard, as I’m sure all of you were as well. To think that something this horrible can happen in schools where we send our children for education!” he says, and continues ”This student was heavily immersed and involved in violent media entertainment primarily video games and has lived in a subculture that glorify violence and guns…”
At this point SonX has finished his meal and stands up to go back to his computer to play some Call of Duty 4 and MomX looks up to him and says: ”Honey, I don’t want you to play video games! They will make you crazy and you will go shoot people in your school!”
SonX stops. His hands sinks into pockets in his torn pant as he turns around with the look of uncomfortable and slightly embarrassed-for-his-parents kind of look that only a teenager can truly pull off. He is wearing a worn out and color faded black T-shirt with a picture of a random heavy metal band, all in make up and posing provocatively under the name of the band written in a spiky looking font with blood dripping off it. SonX’s hair is in disarray, all glossy with wax and spray that came to be in attempts to mimic the hairdoo of whatever band that was hip that month. His skin is very pale for spending too much time in front of his computer screen and being a teenager he has the odd acne problem around his nose and chin. SonX looks at his mother, shrugs and says ”Lol, mom. Relax, that guy is a newb! I’ll be in my room nailing Hs in COD4” and then he turns around and goes to his room. Let’s just ponder for a minute what his mother is thinking at this point ”Lol? The guy is a what? you’re going to nail a what to a four fishes?”
This is the third time I’m writing this rant on account of open office being a bitch and crashing on me and only recovering part of the document. Because of this I’ve had some time to think about this whole thing and other than coming to the conclusion that I should be writing in some other program I’ve come to change perspective on this matter slightly. At first I was going to say that we, the gaming community, are idiots for not standing up better for our medium. Of course parents and the general public will be put off by this teenager that seem to be speaking a completely different language and of course they will buy into this fancy looking guy on TV that’s giving them easy-to comprehend-answers. Of course they think that maybe video games are the reason why their teenagers are acting all crazy. In the end teenagers playing video games are the most common representative of our medium to the people ”outside”.
While I still believe all the above to be true neither the parents or the teenagers are to blame. Parents are parents and it is in their nature to worry about their kids and keep them out of harms way. They’re scared, feel uninformed and are looking for easy answers and their kids aren’t giving it to them so when they find someone who does it is only natural for them to buy into it. You can’t blame the teenagers for being better spokespersons either because… Well, come on: Teenagers more often than not go out of their way to be rebellious and and stand up against their parents. They’re trying to find their individuality and more than anything else they WANT to alienate themselves from their parents so you can’t relay on teenagers to stand up for gaming infront of their parents other than screaming ”I HATE YOU” at the top of their longs, go to their rooms and color their hair black write dark poems or play the guitar or as SonX, ”lol” them. That their parents doesn’t ”get” gaming is just cool for them. Also, teenagers acting all ”crazy” isn’t because of gaming; It’s because of HORMONES.
This is just what parents and teenagers do and it’s an awesome cliche that I think most people recognize themselves in atleast as one of the characters. I encourage teenagers to be this cliche because it is their fucking right to act like this, to find their individuality and be rebelious and thrive in their ignorant picture of how they think the world works. Also, I encourage it because it’s really funny seeing teenagers in that stage of their life.
Parents are parents, and I have no real experience what this is like for them so I’m not going to indulge myself in writing about it but needless to say they can’t be blamed for looking after their kids.
So who is to blame? Jack ”Fucking asshole” Thompson. I would employ this guy to go on with his critasism for the gaming culture because critasism forces stuff to evolve and hopefully for the better but this guy is just full of crap. Mostly I think it is great to see people so heavily invested in something they belives in because people like that are the people that achive great things BUT Jack Thompson isn’t out to make the world better. He isnt trying to prevent future incidents of violence. He is just out to prove his conviction by any means necessary. This guy has been caught so many times lying on record I don’t understand where he gets credabily from and why people even bother listening to him. Add to that that he is playing teenagers and their parents against eachother to further his cause is just… Well, thinking about I get a bit upset.
The guy is a jerk and people need to realize that.
Peace.
