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Jack Thompson is remarkably easy to pick on, not necessarily because he leaves himself open - which he does - but because gamers are so eager to dislike him. Fact is, the more a comic bashes on Thompson, the better the general gaming audience will respond. It\'s a sad symptom of the fact that Jack Thompson has alienated himself so much from the people participating in the discussion of video games and video game regulation that no one even bothers listening to him anymore. It\'s sort of unfortunate, because it prevents having an actual debate on the issues at hand, actually discussing the rationale behind regulating video games beyond anything that is currently in place for other mediums of art, like movies.

After sending out the letter declaring that he would donate $10,000 to a charity if someone stepped up and made a game meeting his criteria, Jack Thompson claimed that the whole thing was satirical, much like Jonathan Swift\'s A Modest Proposal. The problem is, of course, that it sounded real, and games sprang up everywhere. It\'s hard to say if that was an intended and expected reaction from the game community, or if Jack Thompson was really surprised to find so many people eager to jump behind his challenge. I\'d honestly not be surprised either way.

The up side of all this is that I\'ve revisited Swift\'s written work for the first time since high school, when it was brought up for discussion in an English class. Let me tell you: If there was any doubt that Thompson\'s was a satirical proposal, there\'s no doubt at all that Jonathan Swift was not on the level when he drafted his most famous work (well... Gulliver\'s Travels aside....)

A Modest Proposal was written around 1729, and talked about ways to help feed the starving in Ireland. The proposal suggests killing and eating the young of Ireland, and using their skin to make boots and gloves.

Luckily... everyone knew he was being satirical.

If people had risen to his challenge the same way that the gaming community took on Mr. Thompson\'s, spreading his hands and saying, \"But I was being sarcastic,\" would hardly have freed him from feeling just a tad bit guilty.

Still, one must wonder if he went on the Internet after his proposal and publicly defended it as legitimate - or at least implied through his defense - and kept doing that until someone finally offered him some soup and he was forced to turn it down.

I\'m guessing not...