Regardless of the legal merits of his case, however, this isn't the sort of attention gamers need. It may seem like a joke to anyone familiar with Thompson (although in the case of the $50 face-punch bounty, it's hard to say there's not some measure of seriousness involved) but to those on the outside looking in, it can appear more serious. Would anyone ever smack Thompson across the face with an Atari 2600? Of course not. (Those things cost money, you know.) But without context, it looks like a threat; and we, the gamers, end up looking like juvenile idiots or, worse, the violent psychos Thompson has worked so hard to make us out to be. Thompson never learned how to tone it down and it cost him his career. We don't need to make the same mistake.
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