I’m sure most of you have read the press release that Mr. Jack Thompson sent around to various news sites about his proposed debate at the 2007 Penny Arcade Expo.  If you have been following this story you have doubtless heard Mr. Thompson accuse the guys of Penny Arcade of going against their own ideas of “free speech.”  He accused them of this based on the fact that they told him that if he agreed to the debate he would not be allowed to tell anyone that it was going to occur.

To many of us this did sound quite strange.  But coming from the mouth of Thompson, who was putting his own crazy fucking spin on things, we had to wonder if this was at all true.  And, if it was true, then why did the PA guys make such a stipulation on the debate?

The answer my friends lies in the just released 1up interview with Jerry.  While I could repost it here, I would prefer you give the traffic to 1up.  However, if you are too lazy to read it yourself, just know that the main reason that the PA guys wanted Jack to be silent was for safety reasons.  They did not want an angry nerd mob hurting him or eachother.  Just imagine the fucking crowd control.

Read the 1up Interview.

Chufmoney

I was scrolling through GamePolitics.com and was quickly becoming increasingly depressed while reading the various articles on the site.  There are no specific ones that I feel I should point out here, but I strongly suggest that you read them yourself.  They are definitely worth your time.

The most recent articles all addressed, in one way or another, ways in which politicians all around the country are demonizing video games.  Whether it is through restricting ads and sales of “violent” games or by speaking out against the “poisonus” nature of gaming, these elected officials are trying to infringe on our art form.

While the articles themselves are worth a read I think what is important to take away is that our age group has to be intelligent and well informed in our voting.  In the next 10 years and quite possibly even in the next presidential election, as video games will doubtless continue to grow,  they are going to become a major political flash point.  And it won’t just be the outrageous pundits like Jack Thompson.  It will be your local congress person, and your president.

While our age group may have piss poor voting turn out I strongly urge you to keep up on who is saying what about video games.  I am not trying to say this alone should be the determining factor in who gets your vote, but I think it will be important to understand how society perceives and is trying to regulate our culture.  Just be aware.  Read gamepolitics and other sites of the like.

Chufmoney