Sunday, January 22, 2006

Jack, what the hell.

As a gamer, I think I have to post this
From GamingHorizon.com:

"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[1] 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."

Here is an article written by friends and peers of Mitchell at MetalGearSolid.org.

[1]For anyone who doesn't know, Jack Thompson is a Lawyer from florida who is strongly outspoken against violence and obsenity in public media, especially video games.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's just terrible. Any person who can say things like and that and not feel pain must have truely had their humanity killed.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. He's gone from blaming the games, game companies and the parents to blaming the gamers. He's even hinted at blaming the computers. Next, he'll blame the operating systems, the advertising, the transistors, the power companies, the rivers, the wind, the sun and the atoms. Blame blame blame blame blame. He continues to show he does not understand how people work. He's alienated his only allies, and he will be a lonely, bitter man, known briefly as just another "crazy guy" in the minds of the very few would remember him once he is gone. Such a waste.

Sad. Sad for him.

Anonymous said...

Gee, I wonder which party he belongs to.
Hope he doesn't blow out a nut towing the line.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the first Anon. And Mr. Bury, he belongs to the criminally insane party. Which is actually on heck of a bash. Too bad I wasn't invited...