February 15th, 2008

ECA boss responds to Jack Thompson

Published at 6:03 PM PST

Hal Halpin, head of the Entertainment Consumers Association has recently spoke about the latest comments of Jack Thompson:

We'd like to extend our condolences to the families, friends and classmates of those who were affected in the school shooting at Northern Illinois University. Separately, we are disgusted, but no longer shocked, to find that anti-game activists are again rushing to conclusions about what drove Stephen Kazmierczak, the clearly disturbed 27 year old who police say was responsible for this tragedy, to commit such an act.

Blaming video games for the behavior of the mentally-challenged is vile on many levels. And, as Generations X and Y mature, it is extremely likely that just about all of us have played at least one video game at some point in our lives. Drawing a parallel between games and violence without any substantive proof is sensationalism for its own sake. This is a sad event, made worse by the irresponsible actions of attention-seekers and the media that has given them a platform for their reckless venom.

We would also like to extend our sympathies to the familes of the school shooting. It's people at Fox News that makes us wonder how they sleep at night, video games has clearly no involvement and Jack Thompson should (Atleast) issue an apology.

Via Kotaku