Virginia Tech and Video Games - Round One

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April 18th, 2007 posted by Link in Uncategorized

The tragic events that took place Tuesday at Virginia Tech are fully deserving of the media’s (and the viewing public’s) attention. Unfortunately, a certain someone has taken advantage of this opportunity to push his own agenda. Here we go again…

As the original poster of the YouTube video pointed out, it’s especially fitting that the MSNBC reporter referred to Thompson’s work “specializing terribly in these crimes.” Thompson wasn’t asked on the show to slam video games. He was asked to comment on the nature of school shootings. Instead, he glamorized his own history while completely ignoring the tragedy at hand.

Anyone who plays games knows that his reference to “Super Columbine Massacre” is simply a jab at the name; it’s an RPG Maker game. It’s also one that wasn’t commercially released by a recognizable developer or publisher. According to Thompson, the I’m OK game parodying his “modest proposal” didn’t qualify as a real game because it was released under the same circumstances. So, now, Super Columbine Massacre is worth mentioning on national television, but I’m OK wasn’t enough for him to donate $10,000 to charity?

Thompson also claims to have provided warning of something like this when he visited Virginia Tech last year. If only we had listened, Jack. But then you wouldn’t have a job.

It’s pointless for me to criticize Thompson’s logic any more than I already have because “logic” and “Jack Thompson” shouldn’t be said in the same sentence to begin with. I can only hope that the majority of MSNBC’s viewers are educated enough to see through this political stunt.