Epic Game Violence Debate Foiled By Secrecy

This year's Penny Arcade Expo was supposed to host game violence opponent Jack Thompson and an industry representative squaring off, but the deal fell through.

In the ongoing debate over video-game violence, no players are perhaps more vigorous and vitriolic in their opposition to one another than Jack Thompson and the guys at Penny Arcade, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. After several public quarrels through e-mail and phone calls, the duo at Penny Arcade apparently decided it best to let Thompson confront someone from the gaming industry in a face-to-face debate at their annual Penny Arcade Expo.

According to GamePolitics.com, the Penny Arcade crew set about planning the debate in secret, both to make it a surprise and out of security concerns. As it turns out, Thompson would have none of it. Alleging that Penny Arcade only intended to use the event as a PR stunt, he publicly declined the offer in a press release. In the release, Thompson claims it was the crew from Penny Arcade that actually declined the debate after Thompson demanded it be public. "When Thompson insisted that he be allowed, given the real meaning of the First Amendment, to tell folks he would be in Seattle to participate in this news-worthy event, Penny Arcade pulled the plug and reneged on the offer, with no further explanation," the release read.

"For Penny-Arcade to take the position that there must be a news blackout on this strikes me and others as hypocritical to the max." he wrote in an e-mail published on GamePolitics. "You guys are the ones who think that even adult entertainment materials should be marketed and sold to children because of “freedom of expression,” and yet I am not allowed to tell media and others of this debate?  Come on, how transparently double-standard-bound in your machinations can you all be?"

The usually vocal crew at Penny Arcade has yet to post a response or explanation.