"Earlier this month, gamer named Mitchell S. with the online screenname "Kuja105" who posts on a few online videogame forums (including GameFaqs.com and MetalGearSolid.org) committed suicide. On January 2 he posted a message in both forums detailing his intent to end his own life, citing overwhelming complications with school and finances.
A very brief period of initial disbelief was followed by a barrage of replies from fellow forum members pleading that he not take his life, trying to talk him out of it.
For days, no word was heard from Mitchell. Fearing the worst, members and administration from metalgearsolid.org began searching for contact information, spending hours on the phone trying to get in touch with him. Finally on January 4, Ryan K., an administrator at metalgearsolid.org, got him on the phone and spent hours desperately trying to talk him out of it.
Sadly, Mitchell soon ended his own life by consuming antifreeze and painkillers.
Later, members from the site contacted Mitchell's family to find out the grave news. They reported it to their online community, and posted a tribute to their passed friend on the front page of metalgearsolid.org." Full Report Here.
Mr. Jack Thompson then sent in the following letter regarding the situation to MetalGearSolid.org, one of the forums frequented by Mitchell, where he was known well:
"Your "gamer friend" will find peace through the Lord, Jesus Christ, but sadly it's too late for that.
There is a void in every heart. You can fill it up with the things of God, or the things not of God. This unfortunate soul chose to fill it up with combat games. The playing of these video games is masturbatory activity, meaning senseless self-stimulation. If you gamers could use a dictionary you would know that that term is not necessarily a sexual one.
The real tragedy here extends beyond the life and death of this one fellow. There are literally millions of young people and young adults whose despair is deepend by turning to the things of this world and then finding them meaningless.
All of you gamers need to put down the controllers and get a life. The utter inanity of the vast majority of postings here shows how vapid "gaming" really is.
You are one of the cheerleaders for this wasting of time and the wasting of lives. Do you feel any remorse for having contributed to this "culture of death?" Of course not. Hey, let's all play MORE games, and ignore all the really productive things to do with our lives.
Let's pretend to be shocked that a gamer might descend into deeper depression, as his gamer "buds," knowing he was killing himself, couldn't figure out how to call 911 themselves for him. That would have involved leaving their computers I guess.
Sad. Sad for all of you."
I knew Jack Thompson was capable of, and has, crossed the line several times but this is......well if he really did say all of those things...well goodness he's gone waaaaaay too far.
I remember a little while ago he compared Sony's releasing GTA to Pearl Harbor. I thought that was as far as he'd go.
RE: Jack Thompson, crossing the line -
Posted on 23-01-2006 00:46
Posts: 1631 Location: Rockville, IA Joined: 24.06.05
Wow. Makes you look at playing video games a little differently. I remember reading somewhere a while back about a kid who played a computer game for about 2 or three days straight, with maybe 3 hours of sleep in between, then suddenly dying. Some of these kids just get so sucked into them it's basically all they live for. This sort of thing would be unheard of some 15 years ago.
Not sure what "Your "gamer friend" will find peace through the Lord, Jesus Christ, but sadly it's too late for that." means. They think he's "going to Hell" for gaming?
RE: Jack Thompson, crossing the line -
Posted on 23-01-2006 09:28
Jack Thompson is seriously unhinged. He'll attack anyone and anything video game related, and uses any slip, mistake, tragedy, or sad story to further his own name.
My favorite JT moment:
A few months ago, he made up a horrific game concept, and said that if anyone actually made it, he would donate $10,000 to charity. It was, and he claimed the his proposal was "satire" and he didn't have to pay anyone anything. Penny-Arcade decided to donate the money in his name, and he threatened legal action. (http://www.joystiq.com/2005/10/17/thompson-breaks-his-word-on-10k-bounty-says-he-was-just/)
RE: Jack Thompson, crossing the line -
Posted on 23-01-2006 10:01
Posts: 210 Location: san francisco Joined: 04.08.05
Caleson wrote:
Wow. Makes you look at playing video games a little differently. I remember reading somewhere a while back about a kid who played a computer game for about 2 or three days straight, with maybe 3 hours of sleep in between, then suddenly dying. Some of these kids just get so sucked into them it's basically all they live for. This sort of thing would be unheard of some 15 years ago.
I don't think you quite got it, the guy didn't kill himself over the game, he killed himself for some other reason. He just told several game related forums he was in that he was going to be doing it.
Jack Thompson basically took this story, which is very very sad , and he twisted it around to try and make it seem like it was the games that did it. Trying to further his own agenda.
And yes, he said that by playing video games you throw your life away and are going to hell.
As a Catholic myself, I'm seriously offended by the way this guy throws around Christianity, especially since he's not even right about the things he says most of the time.
You maybe familiar with Jack Thompson as he's the one who was in charge of the GTA "Hot Coffee" case
That link to wikipedia has more info on Jack Thompson and his controversial views.
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