Jack Thompson rises from the dead and threatens Valve

[ARKphoenix]

Jack Thompson may have been disbarred for life but that's not stopping him from keeping up the fight against the videogame industry and what he sees as the "murder simulators" it produces. Thompson's latest target is none other than Valve Software and specifically the big cheese, Gabe Newell, who Thompson seems to think is somehow involved with the infamous School Shooter: North American Tour 2012 mod.

Thompson's letter in full:

"Dear Mr. Newell:

You either know or should know that the more moral midgets who run Checkerboarded Studios have created a mod for your company's Half-Life which they call School Shooter: North American Tour 2012. This mod is a full-blown Columbine massacre simulator which cannot function without your company's assistance and acquiescence.

Attached herewith is a letter from FHE-ASAP that expresses their, my, and others' concerns about this Columbine massacre mod. As you either know or should know, your Half-Life murder simulator was obsessively played, and thus became a training aid, for a) teenaged Robert Steinhauser, who authored at Erfurt, Germany, the worst school shooting massacre in European history, and b) Seung-Hi Cho, who authored at Virginia Tech University the worst school shooting massacre in world history. As to the latter, the sources of this information are the Washington Post and the New York Times. Now some sociopaths have made reprises of Erfurt and Virginia Tech far more likely.

Given the fact that your company has the technological ability to stop the operation of School Shooter, you must undertake steps immediately to do so.

Speaking for myself alone (for now), you have until five o'clock pm Eastern standard time this Friday, March 18, 2011, to shut down this public safety hazard I predicted years ago this school massacre game would arrive. I hate being right all the time.

GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.

Regards, Jack Thompson"

Thompson claimed that copies of the letter were also sent to Checkerboarded Studios, FHE-ASAP [the Florida Higher Education Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention], the United States Secretary of Education and "significant others."

It's a bit tricky to fathom what role Newell has to play in all of this, aside from heading the company that created Half-Life 2 back in 2004. Moral obligations notwithstanding, I'm not so sure Valve can just wave its magic wand and make mods disappear, nor that, if it can, it should. As to the implied "or else" in his message, Thompson gave no indication as to what sort of punitive measures he intends to bring to bear should Newell fail to heed his warning. Based on his history, I expect it will involve further threats, but we'll keep you posted just in case.

Contrary to Thompson's assertions, the official U.S. government report on the murders of 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007 made no mention of videogames whatsoever.

[Galoku]

I find it appalling that anyone would create game mods that reflect/re-enact such a tragic incident and allowing it to be publicly available. The creator/s should have been far more sensitive when dealing with such issues, even if we were to consider the freedom to create anything from the mind, the purpose of the mod may have even been a practical joke, however once this practical joke leaves the enclosed room of its creator it’s only a matter of time before it begins to create anguish to anyone affected by such event and this in turn generates resentment towards both the gaming industry and in this case the original creators of Half life 2.

They created a world for us and allowed everyone access to it so we could use our own imagination to bring our ideas to life. However, they only provided the tools; the creators are the ones responsible for the content of such mods.

Having said that, I personally believe that sending hate mail to gaming companies and hoping for a big scandal is not the way to resolve the on-going psychological issues present in our society. It is easy to point a finger towards the gaming industry and tell them it’s their fault it happened, but one has to take each case individually and see where the problem emanated from. Child abuse, bullying, environmental and sociological factors could have all played a much bigger role in the outcome of an individual’s behavioural issues.

Studies have examined the link between a gamer’s aggressive behaviour and his tendency to play violent games. However the enjoyment between violent and nonviolent games showed no significant difference for a gamer with aggressive tendencies.

“Although many people, including many game developers and popular commentators, assume that violence motivates players or adds to video game enjoyment, our findings do not support that intuition. Instead, they suggest that video games are enjoyable, immersive, and motivating insofar as they offer opportunities for psychological need satisfaction, specifically experiences of competence and autonomy, to which violent content per se is largely unrelated.”
The Motivating Role of Violence in Video Games , Andrew K. et al., Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2009 35: 243

I do not condone what happened, it was tragic and heart breaking.

However in order to fully understand such atrocities it is necessary to examine all contributing factors and not merely find a scape goat to place the blame upon.

[zak13317]

I've noticed that video games are all extremely violent anymore. Honestly though, I think that the youth edits just as much from television as they do video games. Ever watch MTV, or any U.S cartoons lately? In almost every cartoon they mock god, and encourage violence, and sex.

Yep I give it a few more years before I lose all hope in the direction humanity is going in.