I just received an email from Doug Lombardi at Valve announcing that they intend to develop Source-based games for the Xbox 360. This is hardly surprising, considering that Half-Life 2 is already available on the original Xbox. But given the success of both Steam and Xbox Live Marketplace, I’m wondering if there isn’t a world in which Valve could hook Steam into XBL and make their games available for download in addition to retail purchase. This idea is at least technically feasible, especially given the recent 100GB Xbox 360 HDD rumors that have been floating around lately.

It seems somewhat unlikely that Microsoft would want to give away that big a slice of their pie, but stranger things have happened, and Gabe Newell is the kind of old school ex-Softie that has stories about having poker nights with Bill Gates in his apartment. I like to imagine that we live in a world where these kinds of exciting things could actually happen, even if that is not really the case. It helps balance out the bitter disappointment I feel when EA shits out another worthless Madden update and then crushes a creative independent developer for dessert.

There’s a new feature launching today on Amazon.com called Games You Should Play. In a nutshell, members of the game industry write a short guide detailing a few of their favorite games, or games they think their fans would really enjoy. The opening lineup includes Adrian Perez from Bungie, Tim Willits from id Software, Jinx & Kat from Frag Dolls, Tycho from Penny Arcade, Stuart Moulder from WildTangent, and Brian Yeung from Flying Lab Software.

This much about the feature is clear: it was probably conceived, designed, and launched by someone incredibly handsome and intelligent. And red-headed. But who precisely that could be is hard to say.

If you’ve been reading Game Politics as much as I have, then you’ve already heard about how some PA fan went and distributed fliers to Jack Thompson’s neighbors, which of course resulted in another round of angry faxes to the Western Washington District Attorney, the press, and The Justice League. Of course, he has to describe this person as being a PA “operative”, because it really wouldn’t be a classic JT letter unless it included some blatantly fabricated associations, now would it? Anyway, the flyer is now available on the web. It’s not quite as well written as I might have liked, but it’s decent enough and I appreciate any efforts that are both legal AND aggravating to Jack. Some might say that doesn’t make me the bigger man, but every time he makes one of his half-assed assertions about our pastime it raises my blood pressure, so it seems only fair that we as a community get to return the favor from time to time.

On a less humorous note, Devin Moore, the kid who was convicted of killing two police officers and a police dispatcher in 2003, also wrote a letter to JT this week. Jack’s planning on contending that Devin went on a killing spree as a result of his playing Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City in an upcoming civil suit versus Sony, Take Two, and GameStop. Having read the letter, I have no idea exactly what it is that Devin is trying to get across; he seems to be mostly complaining that he thinks he didn’t get a fair trial, but it’s hard to say if he’s writing to support Jack’s anti-games crusade. At any rate, the whole thing just serves to illustrate how grossly uneducated he is, which many people might think has as much if not more to do with this issue than video games. It’s interesting that out of all the possible combinations of people who might have contributed to these crimes, from the negligent parents to the people responsible for providing him with a weapon, the civil suit chooses to focus on those with the deepest pockets. On second thought, no it’s not.

In pleasantly Jack-free news, I’ve been invited to Nintendo’s Gamer Summit at the end of next week, so expect a bevy of news about their upcoming lineup around that time. No word as to whether or not there will be any Revolution info there, but a man can always dream.

I’ve never talked about Jack Thompson around here, and that’s because I make it a point to rarely think about him. This is a self-defense mechanism; the last time I listened to a radio interview with him it made me so mad that I became physically nauseous for about two hours. I have to look out for my health here, folks. Since I’m feeling kind of under the weather today anyway, however, now seems like as good a time as any to say something about the recent news.

One of my favorite sayings is “Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.” I’ve finally decided that Jack appears to be the exception to this rule, as he’s clearly exercising a fearsome amount of both malice AND stupidity. I won’t waste time trying to pick apart his arguments as his attacks are only capable of making sense to people who do not play video games whatsoever, and as last week’s letter from America’s National Institute on Media and the Family shows, he’s having a hard time selling even to THAT crowd. Many people smarter than myself have already taken him to task with well-worded, informed, polite questions that strike to the very core of his campaign, and he has uniformly responded with threats and condescending insults. Hence, I do not feel particularly compelled to try and wield reason against a man who has clearly and repeatedly opted to defy it.

The one aspect of these assaults that seems to go relatively untouched is the Christian aspect, which is probably because people are afraid to come off as seeming anti-religious. That’s unfortunate, because I tend to think he’s a pretty shitty Christian. For those of you who’ve never picked up a Bible, let me fill you in: When Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees, He did not threaten, condescend to, or insult them. I’m quite certain He never uttered phrases like “Go to hell more quietly,” nor called anyone a pissant. Mostly, it was a lot of turning the other cheek, which biblical scholars will recall as being a pretty central theme. There are also a couple of lessons in there about giving, which apparently Jack forgot when he promised to donate $10,000 to charity and then promptly declared it a joke at the expense of the gaming community, but I think the central point I’m trying to communicate here is that Jesus loved and respected the people He was trying to save. So in terms of the whole religion thing, I give Jack an F.

I’m certain that every single American who reads this website has a vested interest in seeing Mr. Thompson’s name drop from the headlines forever, but he’s a tricky beast to defeat. Much like a boss in an RPG, he is immune to threats and angry invectives, which he will only absorb to replenish his health. In this regard, his taunts can be seen as a seductive trap. No, the only way to fell this particular monster is to provide shining counter examples. To that end, please take me very seriously when I say that I must give the utmost respect to Tycho & Gabe for their incredible, unbelievable donation of $10,000 this morning to The Entertainment Software Association Foundation. There’s no good response for a man like Jack Thompson to make to a move like that, which is precisely what we want. It sure makes what I’ve done today seem pale in comparison.

Yesterday I was asked to answer some questions for someone who is apparently writing a college paper on video game violence. I don’t know why I was asked for my opinion; I can only surmise that the more intelligent and well-respected voices in our industry were not available. I guess if you’re writing about celebrities and Kathy Griffin is the only one who returns your calls, you take what you can get. Anyway, if you would like to read my answers, you are welcome to do so behind the cut.

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