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Tag Archives: Threats

WoW is for terrorists?

September 16, 2008 – 9:00 pm


WTF? This cant be for real you must be thinking, well unforatunately it is. Seems like the US government believes that World of Warcraft can do more than just corrupt a young person’s mind and waste your time in real life. The government believes that WoW can be used to plot and set into motion dastardly terrorist plans on a real life scale.

There’s been no public proof to date of terrorists hatching plots in virtual worlds. But online spaces like World of Warcraft are making some spooks, generals and Congressmen extremely nervous. They imagine terrorists rehearsing attacks in these worlds, just like the U.S. military trains with commercial shoot-em-up games. They worry that the massively multiplayer games make it incredibly easy to gather plotters from around the world. But, mostly, virtual worlds are nerve-wracking to spies because they’re so hard to monitor. The accounts are pseudonymous. The access is global. The jargon is thick. And most of the spy agencies’ employees aren’t exactly level-70 shamans.

The thought process is that the in game capability of chatting and the games lingo can be used to develop a plan that no one currently would be able to decode. Using in game talk like raids, loot, races and city names to take the place of actual real life targets and strategies. Seems to me that the FBI needs to employ some hardcore gamers to help them crack some of this.

Hit the jump to read more about World of Warcraft as a terrorist plot and to see a mock scenario that has been set up.
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By Al Zamora | Posted in Loot Ninja | Also tagged , , , | Comments (7)

Jack Thompson - Likes to Makes Threats

February 6, 2007 – 11:33 am

So I’ve always been hesitant to post a story about good old Jack Thomson, because of his wonderful record of threatening to sue anyone who talks about him. Today, my friends, is a new day. I read an article this morning from Brian Crecente on Kotaku regarding a threatening letter he received from Jack Thompson about Crecente’s recent story about all the ethics issues raised against Mr. Thompson in the Florida Bar. Now, bear in mind, I’m quoting from these articles here. The first articles details (with PDF scans) some well documents cases against Mr. Thompson. In response, Jack emailed Crecente threatening his job at the Rocky Mountain News, which he writes for. The best part of this email is when Jack lies about cases the Florida Bar has on record against him.

“Summary: This record was on the verge of being deep-sixed when I rescued it from the Florida Bar. Unfortunately, it is very light on details. All I can gather is that Thompson was accused of, and later admitted to, trying to get someone to hire him as a lawyer after the person already had one.”

I demand a full retraction and apology for the above, pursuant to Florida Statutes 770, et sequitur, as I intend to sue you for this false and defamatory statement. [...]

As to the above, I NEVER was even charged with “trying to get someone to hire him as a lawyer after the person already had one.” Never heard of that charge, was never charged with it. It never happened. Yet you state that I pled guilty to this! I am sending this email to my lawyer, Ray Reiser, to alert him that this is what comes from “video game journalists.”

Ok, so either the Florida Bar has cases incorrectly filed from 1992, or someone is lying. After seeing the behavior of the defendant, I tend to believe the Florida Bar. They have much more credibility. And to further the point, Crecente contacted the Florida Bar again just to confirm, and got the same information.

It seems to me, and many, that Jack has backed himself into a corner, and is threatening to sue anyone who disagrees or writes their opinions which don’t fall in line with this beliefs on the video game industry. I personally don’t understand how anyone can get the conclusions about video games that Jack has come to. The thought process just doesn’t add up. The guy seems to have priorities mixed up, and doesn’t understand the root cause of the problem, which is bad parenting.

Anyway, I’m sure we can expect more entertaining tirades from Mr. Thompson in the near future. And if Jack is reading this and wants to share some opinions, please contact me.

For the record, Jack (again, if you’re reading), our thoughts and prayers are with your wife after her surgery. I hope she has a safe and speedy recovery.

By Matt Banks | Posted in Loot Ninja | Also tagged , | Comments (0)