Better & Shorter

Here's a comment from Nathan off of the Jack Thompsons post. I don't think there's a more apt response to Mr. Thompson than a fistful of reality:

As someone who is actually in the Army, I am always amused when people refer to the amazingly lifelike videogames that we use to become mindless, cold-blooded killers. If such games exist, I need to get my hands on them, because they must be pretty damn good. There is a laughably large difference between being good with at Ghost Recon and being able to hit anything on the rifle range. The America's Army game comes a little close, because it's designed by the Army and geared towards realism, but even the colonel in charge of that development product admits that it's more of a public relations tool than an actual training or recruitment device.

What people like Thompson will never understand is that even if videogames could transfer combat abilities to the person playing (which trust me, they don't), it's not about the capability to inflict violence, but the choice to do so. My commander is a huge Metal Gear Solid fan. He also spent a year in Iraq doing stuff that desensitizes you a lot more than a PS2. Yet, amazingly enough, he's still a loving husband and a great guy, the kind you wouldn't mind babysitting your kids.

People who engage in indiscriminate violence do so because of a lack of impulse control. It's not about how many dangerous skills or resources they have accumulated, but simply that they are unused to being held accountable for their actions. What a surprise then that thanks to Thompson, they still don't have to be held accountable.

Excellent. More or less pulls the carpet from essentially everything about Thompson's argument with one sound, honest report.

On a side note, I'm trying to contact Best Buy to get more details on Thompson's claim of a successful lawsuit against them. Currently, I can only find his own words as evidence.