Don't go talking smack you jackasses. You're giving that man job security like you would not believe.
Gamers make such an excellent scapegoat. They're relatively new as a subculture, incredibly vocal, stereotypically antisocial, pathetically poorly organised as an interest group, only vaguely defined, and spout some of the most incredibly inflamatory crap you can read on the internet. And they're omnipresent. And poorly understood by older generations.
Plus since "gamer" is such a poorly defined term, the word can be pulled out and used to label anyone who does anything that can be condemned. Someone shoot someone else? Did they ever play one game of Contra? Oh my! "Ban that horrific murder training software! Think of the children!" The tabloid papers get sold, the readers who know no different get scared. And people like Atkinson get influencial.
And then the online knee jerk outrage and contraversy happens; Atkinson couldn't hope for more ludicrous threats and bullshit directed at him. He gets to position himself as a man confronting the dangerous and deranged. As a fearless statesman who'll do his job even when he's being threatened, a man of courage and duty.
If his aides and PR pull it off, he winds up looking like a hero because of some mouthy nerds on the internet who are sick of what he's doing to their passtime. Great job guys; really your finest hour. Bravo.
And so long as people see his side of the story without seeing a human face of gamers presenting their side of the argument he's going to stay in power defending the good people of Croyden from phantoms, boogeymen and flesh eating Halo fanboys.
So to the muppets in the tread here: kindly stop helping his PR machine feed a siege mentality in Croyden. Do everything you can to starve the tabloids of fuel for the myth of threatening gamers, 'til they're forced to deal with the reality that they're perfectly ordinary. And then let their readers judge for themselves if the likes of Michael Atkinson is too manipulative to be trustworthy to make decisions that impact on a national level.
To the Escapist: I hope the banhammer is kept close at hand for treads surrounding this man. Jack Thompson knew the value of showing mouthy gamers comments in an argument, and it won him credibility when he was saying the most incredible rubbish ever before judges. Don't allow a culture of mouth breathing dumbasses without impulse control to royally screw over everyone who ever enjoyed Pacman or Portal. Please, warn-and-ban anyone who helps this man screw Australian gamers over; otherwise this issue is only going to spread and grow the world over.
