Ever tilting at windmills, anti-game violence crusader Jack Thompson now wages a two-front war against a pair of formidable opponents, both of which happen to begin with the letter "A". Coincidence or design? You decide. Here's what GamePolitics knows:
We spent a lost weekend reporting on Thompson's dust-up with massive online retailer Amazon.com. On Saturday we chronicled the mounting negative reader reviews and tags appearing on the Amazon listing for Thompson's new book, Out of Harm's Way. We also reported that Thompson issued a deadline to Amazon to remove the reviews.
On Sunday, GP skipped the Eagles-Giants (eh, Philly got hammered, anyway) to bring readers the full scoop on a viral anti-Thompson campaign that employed the full range of Amazon's customer interface in backlash against the Miami lawyer. An evening deadline imposed by Thompson came and went, but the nasty reviews, tags, lists, recommendations and user-submitted pictures remained.
Yesterday, the controversial attorney wrote to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, saying, in part:
"You apparently have in your own corporate division that is supposed to make this illicit activity stop individuals sympathetic to the 'gaming culture' (oxymoronically named). Maybe you need more adults in there... Why Amazon.com would want to knowingly collaborate in violations of the First Amendment, I really can't quite fathom. You're supposed to like books, not spike books... But let me assure, that Amazon.com does so at its own grave risk."
This morning GP notes that the user pics are gone, as are links to lists of gay sex and bondage books. 232 reviews and 154 tags remain, however, as do sex manuals linked to the book's affiliate ad. It's unclear whether the backlash campaign helped or hurt sales of Thompson's book. As we write this, Out of Harm's Way is ranked 88,658 on Amazon...