Jack Thompson says Rockstar is bullying him

MIAMI anti-videogames lawyer Jack Thompson, who we thought was a bit quiet of late, has sprung out of nowhere in order to make not one, but five accusations of all sorts of bold goings on in the games industry.

The biggest and quite possibly most amusing of the five emails Mr. Thompson sent out was about what he termed an "obscene assault" on his character by Grand Theft Auto developers Rockstar.

Mr. Thompson claims that in the upcoming Liberty City Stories version of the best-selling, car-jacking series for the PSP Rockstar has inserted an easter egg into the promotional site which is inflammatory against his person.

We'll let you work out the details.

Mr. Thomson said: "Take-Two/Rockstar has created and paid for an actual Internet web site at www.citizensunitednegatingtechnology.org for the purpose of furthering the notion that its most abiding and most effective critic, Jack Thompson, is himself a sexual pervert. This is the oldest dodge used by the porn industry, first used on Jack Thompson by radio pornographers whom Thompson got fined by the FCC in 1989...Jack Thompson can assure the world that the only thing to which he is "addicted" is eating entertainment industry scofflaws for breakfast - and golf."

We're sure some will laugh at the joke, though really Rockstar, you guys need to find other ways of marketing your games than sheer controversy for controversy's sake. Rockstar is arguably responsible for opening the flood gates that currently sees the videogames industry on the back foot and facing increasingly tough legislation and criticism, and yet it continues to play like spoiled brats and throw ammunition to its critics. µ