I wrote an open letter to jack thompson this morning (October 18, 2005) which was never delivered due to him having changed his email address (or comcast having at last decided to no longer carry his email). Since he will never see it directly, I figured I would post it up here because it contains my thoughts on his recent tirades against the gaming industry. Here it is posted in full:

Dear Mr Thompson:

Jack, I figured I would take a few minutes out of my day to contact you this morning. I used to work for Diversions Entertainment, developer of One Must Fall:battlegrounds (which recieved a teen rating). You know, I know you have surely recieved a number of emails from those in the gaming community which would disparage your efforts and curse your name. I, on the other hand, would like to understand a little bit about where you are coming from.

From the very beginning, One Must Fall:Battlegrounds was supposed to be a fighter game, a genre which is inherently violent. The Lead Developer, Rob Elam, and the president of Diversions Publishing, Judy Elam, made the conscious decision at every step of the way to remove human violence from the media. The fighting is done by robots controlled by pilots. At no time is a human ever exposed, no human is ever physically violent, and instead the entire game is played out as a futuristic sport where a robot is controlled by remote pilots which bring thier own style to the game and act it out via control of thier device.

The unfortunate fact? The public wasnt interested. Not even as a bargain bin production. Despite years of effort, no actual US publisher picked it up without attempting to impose ridiculous requests on controlling the content and schedule. Eventually the game was fully developed on a shoestring budget in a small office in Florida, and released. People didnt buy it. Retailers had to practically have thier arms twisted to carry it on shelf. Without a publisher, the advertising budget was tiny. Without a publisher, the development team was paltry. They werent interested. It doesnt sell.

Its a sad fact. Do I regret working for them? Absolutely not. I had some great opportunities. I got to work for a couple of oustanding christian people who brought thier values into the game development business and refused to compromise even with the pressure of money over thier head. More than a million dollars went into the ultimate development and publishing effort over many years. They were unwilling to bend or sway to the pressures of the publishing industry even to secure and protect that level of investment. I wanted to illustrate to you my own personal experience that not everyone in the industry is an asshole waiting to stab an industry advocate in the back to sell some titles.

Jack, I have heard alot about you in the media. Almost all negative. Rarely, though, have I heard from you. Never, to my mind, can I think of a time where I have seen you explain exactly what and how you feel about things without a court case involved. I would like to know that and understand what makes you tick.

Sincerely,

Wayne S. Frazee