The Big Picture: Remembering the Real Jack Thompson

[Mythmaker]

Does anyone here actually take Bob seriously when it comes to video games? Maybe he says some few things that you agree with, but does anyone actually respect his opinion on this subject?

I don't. Frankly, he should stick to what he's good at, at least with this show.

Eh, sometimes he says something I agree with, sometimes he doesn't. I respect his opinion enough to listen to it and judge it on its' own merits, but I don't go out seeking it.

So in that case he's not overly important to me in the dialogue (Jimothy holds that place for me), but I wouldn't ever dismiss what he says, or what anyone else says, simply because they've said it.

I suppose it could be that I just burnt myself out with his Game Overthinker show. At first it was awkward and unfocused, but I thought it would smooth out overtime. After a while, though, the spite and venom he was piling towards certain segments of the gaming population, coupled with his condescending and shallow analysis of issues he felt compelled to speak about, really soured me on his view of gaming. He came off as very closed-minded, and a lot of the points he was making (and still is making) were much better done by other people.

Honestly, I see him as someone who is fairly uninformed and out-of-touch with the issues he's speaking on.

 

[Nomanslander]

Anita and Jack may be different in terms of goals and sucess,Thompson was a nut case while Anita knew what she was doing and got big because of it.Their views on gaming however are two sides of the same coin,one believes video games cause violence and violent tendencies in people while the other believes they contain sexist elements and can strengthen sexist ideas by playing them.

Both are from two contrasting yet similar mindsets imo.

That and one is a harmless critic that's only stressing an observation to people on youtube, and the other was a power hungry lawyer that tried to take gaming in its entirety to court.

:/

 

[Gorrath]

How is someone getting electrocuted while naked in the bath sexual?If you find that a turn on then that's....unfortunate.

I stuck my nose in his post, so I feel compelled to stick my nose in your response. Something being sexual does not automatically equate with being a turn on. One can appreciate that a work is intended to be sexually exciting and not find it exciting themselves. As to whether this particular image was intended to be sexually exciting, I can't say. I don't find it sexually exciting, but I am positive some people do. I can certainly see why someone might think this image is meant to convey a dark sexual tone. Doesn't matter much to me though simply because even if it was meant to carry such a tone wouldn't make it problematic.

 

[Toilet]

Does anyone here actually take Bob seriously when it comes to video games? Maybe he says some few things that you agree with, but does anyone actually respect his opinion on this subject?

I don't. Frankly, he should stick to what he's good at, at least with this show.

Nope, he's a man-child with a soapbox no different from Dobson or Christian Weston Chandler. Video games and social issues are not his thing especially when he sweeps aside PC gaming as a whole and his only social interaction between conventions and panels is getting a hotpocket from his local 7/11 and a mumbled "hi..." to his delivery man.

 

[alj]

Anita would like to see a trend that exists in gaming not exist, and the only extent that she has done to do this is, well, criticize (hence "critic") the trend. She doesn't say somebody is sexist for liking them, she doesn't say developers are sexist for making them, she doesn't even say that they're bad games.

Errrmm yes she does. She states multiple times that they change and influence people and i quote " the more you think you wont be affected the more likely you are to be effected" that's not what a critic would say , she is not a games critic its simply an outlet for her political view same as Thompson.

 

[itsmeyouidiot]

Oh wow, Thunderf00t. Yeah, that guy's a total idiot. This is just one of the many ways in which he utterly fails.

 

[TyphonNotMe]

I respect what Bob was going for here about symbols needing to be more representative of current figures, but I had no idea who this guy was until about a minute ago. That may just be a perk of living in New Zealand though.

Is he somehow important again in the US? Has he done something new?

I can somewhat see the connection to gamergate, but I think I'll stick to my view of it so far and just go back to playing games. I don't need my time wasted while people fight among themselves and make all gamers look bad.

 

[Silverspetz]

How is someone getting electrocuted while naked in the bath sexual?If you find that a turn on then that's....unfortunate.

I stuck my nose in his post, so I feel compelled to stick my nose in your response. Something being sexual does not automatically equate with being a turn on. One can appreciate that a work is intended to be sexually exciting and not find it exciting themselves. As to whether this particular image was intended to be sexually exciting, I can't say. I don't find it sexually exciting, but I am positive some people do. I can certainly see why someone might think this image is meant to convey a dark sexual tone. Doesn't matter much to me though simply because even if it was meant to carry such a tone wouldn't make it problematic.

Different strokes for different blokes I guess,someone getting fried to death just seems like a weird thing to call sexualized if you ask me.

The presence of a female body with barely covered naughty bits MAKES it sexualized. That is how sexualization WORKS, by introducing titillating elements into a scene that would otherwise not be considered even remotely sexual. This is especially obvious in this picture where the fact that the woman is dead is secondary information compared to the fact that she is naked. She has no obvious wounds or is put in a position where it is obvious that she is not well (compare to the other two ads for reference). The image as a whole is clearly designed to make the viewer go "hot" rather than "ew, dead body". Whether or not someone FINDS the sight of a dead body sexy is a completely different matter.

 

[Silverspetz]

Misquotation.

 

[Mahha]

How exactly are unfounded claims that games cause violence different from unfounded claims that games cause misogyny?

 

[Silverspetz]

How exactly are unfounded claims that games cause violence different from unfounded claims that games cause misogyny?

Well, for starters one actualy happened while the other one is a complete misrepresentation/outright lie.

 

[Zontar]

Oh wow, Thunderf00t. Yeah, that guy's a total idiot. This is just one of the many ways in which he utterly fails.

That was... pretty terrible. Ignoring the bad audio and the bad video, his arguments where pretty terrible. He basically just called f00t an asshole and criticized tropes for existing. With how low quality it is and how few views it has, this almost feels like a case of self advertising. The video was a waste of time, and will doesn't merit a response.

 

[Zontar]

How exactly are unfounded claims that games cause violence different from unfounded claims that games cause misogyny?

Well, for starters one actualy happened while the other one is a complete misrepresentation/outright lie.

They are both unfounded, though, with no evidence supporting either and plenty of evidence countering both.

The only real difference between the two is that Anita doesn't try to make her tone sound as crazy as Thomson (though her message is just as crazy) and that she's a woman. I'd almost go so far as to call the support of her by the gaming media a case of systemic sexism if it wasn't for how ideologically driving it was.

 

[TyphonNotMe]

I respect what Bob was going for here about symbols needing to be more representative of current figures, but I had no idea who this guy was until about a minute ago. That may just be a perk of living in New Zealand though.

Is he somehow important again in the US? Has he done something new?

I can somewhat see the connection to gamergate, but I think I'll stick to my view of it so far and just go back to playing games. I don't need my time wasted while people fight among themselves and make all gamers look bad.

Jack Thompson is a former lawyer who tried to argue that video games cause violence and then attempted to get them pull off the shelves.He got disbarred as a result.

Thanks friend, he sounds like an undesirable. Its interesting we don't get people like that in the public eye here. We have very few if any game restrictions. I think the last game that was banned here was Manhunt. Australia seems to be plagued with them, missing out at least for a while on Fallout 3 and Saints Row.

 

[KazeAizen]

Them being dead is in reality not the important detail in the pictures.

As for Anita Being wrong on one example.

Anyone that actually uses a Thunderf00t video as "evidence" is probably not going to be taken seriously. When the man makes a video titled "Feminism poisons everything" there is no real logic there. No real discussion is wanting to be had. He's not the best person to go to. For any of this stuff. Like at all.

 

[Silverspetz]

How exactly are unfounded claims that games cause violence different from unfounded claims that games cause misogyny?

Well, for starters one actualy happened while the other one is a complete misrepresentation/outright lie.

They are both unfounded, though, with no evidence supporting either and plenty of evidence countering both.

The only real difference between the two is that Anita doesn't try to make her tone sound as crazy as Thomson (though her message is just as crazy) and that she's a woman. I'd almost go so far as to call the support of her by the gaming media a case of systemic sexism if it wasn't for how ideologically driving it was.

How can a position that never once existed be "unfounded"? Anita has never claimed that games cause violence or misogyny, and her craziest suggestion basically amounts to "let's try to move away from these tropes". It is exactly this overblown hyperbole you people keep feeding that makes you so easy to debunk.

 

[sageoftruth]

Yikes. Mr. Thompson was far far worse than I realized. And that's saying something considering how I already felt about him.

 

[SilverUchiha]

I get the message and the point of the video.
What I don't get is the recent resurgence of Jack Thompson at all. I'd like to think I'm fairly in the loop with gaming news and community opinions towards certain topics for the most part. But THIS video (and some of Bob's tweets on the subject) are the ONLY places I've seen ANY mention of Jack Thompson in... well... YEARS. So either I'm not in as much of the loop as I thought I was or people drawing comparisons TO Jack Thompson are in such a minority that unless you are in the trenches looking for the discussions, you'll never actually see said conversation/comparisons taking place.

And all this video does is perpetuate that discussion further by making it more public and more in our face. Sure, perhaps the history lesson is worthwhile. But for those of us who are either neutral or in agreement with Anita (I'm mostly just neutral, but agree that the hate towards her and the hostility in general is completely unnecessary), this episode doesn't really do anything other than just tell us the obvious and reaffirm that we're still the level headed ones of the gaming community. And since I doubt most of the "gamersgate" people Bob is arguing against with this video will watch this (or be persuaded to reason by it) it seems like an altogether pointless video by an large.

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

Did gaming media fuck up? Yeah, they threw gasoline onto the fire

Well, we can agree on that if nothing else.

However, the disparity in treatment towards Thompson and Sarkeesian is the root of them being advocates for different things in entirely different methods, not because one has a vagina and that gaming media is full of white knights who think they'll get laid if they're nice to somebody online.

Who's using strawmen now? It's true that I've joked that Jack Thompson was probably too ''privileged'' to be deemed worth defending in the eyes of some people but I never called any man supporting Anita a ''white knight'' (and I actually find the term ridiculous).

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED