Green light back on: Jack Thompson Debate to go on at SGC09

The July 4th SGC09 debate between anti-gamer, former Miami lawyer Jack Thompson and gamer/ attorney Mark Methenitis is all set and raring to go, despite the hump on the road yesterday morning, nearly resulting into Thompson’s cancellation from the event. Reportedly, Thompson had several complaints to event host Screw Attack outlined below:

The July 4th SGC09 debate between anti-gamer, former Miami lawyer Jack Thompson and gamer/ attorney Mark Methenitis is all set and raring to go, despite the hump on the road yesterday morning, nearly resulting into Thompson’s cancellation from the event. Reportedly, Thompson had several complaints to event host Screw Attack outlined below:

• he objected to a one- or two-line introduction (“I have never been introduced with 1 or 2 sentences.  Nobody can be introduced in that fashion…”)
• he objected to a user-created parody video posted (and since removed) on the Screw Attack site; Thompson may have believed the video, “Questions Not to Ask Jack Thompson” at SGC,” was official Screw Attack content

But that’s not all, so it seems. GamePolitics was unwittingly made witness to the preparations chaos that the committee is going through because of the back and forth of demands from Mr. Thompson. Recounts GP:

As recently as this morning, however, Thompson demanded that a post by a Screw Attack user be removed. While it was not taken down, the author, who was also behind the parody video that Thompson found offensive, e-mailed the disbarred attorney a lengthy apology; that seemed to satisfy Thompson.

Next, Thompson e-mailed Skistimas a “proposed text” to be used as his introduction at the debate. The 12-sentence intro mentioned his 2008 lifetime disbarment very briefly, referring to it as “illegal” and blaming the loss of his law license on “lawyers for Take-Two, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto games.”

GP asked Skistimas whether the introduction would actually be used at SGC09. Skistimas told us, “I have yet to review his intro but Jack and I will work together to find an intro that fits both his needs and the time format of the debate at SGC.”

A conference call between Thompson and the Screw Attack team planned for noon today was canceled when the parties decided in late morning that the debate was back on and Thompson was satisified.

This debate should be entertaining, at the very least.

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Via GamePolitics