What’s stranger than seeing a long tailed cat at a rocking chair convention? How about seeing Jack Thompson speaking at the Game Developers Conference?
Well according to good old Jack, he’s been invited to speak before an audience of gaming professionals at this gathering.
Only one thing is wrong here…the GDC says they never invited him.
The whole shebang started when Thompson claimed the GDC asked him to speak at the upcoming GDC event next year.
"This past Saturday I journeyed to the Pennsylvania Convention Center and debated Lorne Lanning, an iconic figure in the video game industry…
"Because of the quality and coherence of my presentation, I was then asked by the GDC to reprise the Philadelphia debate, this time in February in San Francisco in a 5000 seat arena, as the keynote event."
Nothing like patting yourself on the back, we always say. But it turns out that it was all a misunderstanding (surprise!) by Thompson. He thought he was speaking with GDC director Jamil Moledina at the Pennsylvania event, but in actuality, he was talking with Tommy Tallarico, a music composer for video games.
But the plot thickens and gets even more bizarre. Not only did Thompson "speak" to the wrong person, Tallarico says that he never talked to Thompson in the first place.
According to an official statement from GDC director Jamil Moledina:
"The Game Developers Conference has not extended an invitation to Jack Thompson to speak at GDC 2008. We look forward to announcing the full speaker lineup closer to the show."
Thompson responded with sour grapes at the apparent snub by the GDC and said:
"Since this is how the video game industry treats its critics, no wonder it has a public relations problem with parents. This is an industry that lies about the ratings on its products, sells those products to underage kids behind their parents’ backs, and then wants nothing but an incestuous gathering in San Francisco to congratulate itself on how smart it is.
"Federal regulation of your industry is coming because you folks simply can’t figure out why parents don’t trust you. Fine. When the regulation comes, and it will, don’t blame me."
Well, that settles it. We don’t think Mr. Thompson is ever going to get an invitation to speak at the GDC anytime soon.
Next up on the list: Jack claims that Rockstar is giving him an award for his outstanding contributions to the video game industry.
Well not really, but it could happen in Thompson’s eyes.
[via gamepolitics]
