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Thompson refuses to make $10k donation to charity

So someone else does it for him.

As another group of developers brings Jack Thompson's infamous game concept to life, the notorious anti-videogames critic is still refusing to keep his part of the bargain - claiming the whole thing was simply a sophisticated piece of satire.

Thompson wrote an open letter to the gaming community last week in which he outlined his idea for a game where fictional characters based on Take Two chairman Paul Eibeler and assorted industry figures were brutally murdered. He offered to donate $10,000 to a charity of Eibeler's choice if anyone was to actually make the game.

The owners of blog Old Grandma Hardcore took up the challenge with a text-based adventure, and now modders Fighting Hellfish - part of the modding community which gave the world the infamous GTA: San Andreas "Hot Coffee" mod - have created Defamation of Character: A Jack Thompson Murder Simulator.

It's a mod for the PC version of San Andreas which lets you take on the role of Thompson himself "As he lives through an insane weekend which changes his life," according to the authors.

After receiving a series of mysterious phone calls, Jack falls under a hypnotic spell and transforms into his criminal vigilante alter-ego, Banman, who goes on to "Commit violent acts in the name of Thompson's morality" - such as destroying trucks trying to deliver copies of Rockstar's Bully to stores.

He also embarks on a mission to catch Entertainment Software Association president Doug Lowenstein in the act of exchanging filthy Sims pics with a hacker - and subsequently hosts a press conference, where you get to choose Jack's comments. Around 85 per cent of them are things he's actually said in real life.

But Thompson said this doesn't mean he's duty bound to cough up that ten grand, telling US website Game Politics: "I'm not interested and won't be commenting on the mod.

"The satirical piece entitled 'A Modest Video Game Proposal' was intended to highlight the patent hypocrisy and recklessness exhibited by the video game industry's willingness to target cops, women, homosexuals, and other groups with some of their violent games.

"To be fair, though, you can't expect a bunch of gamers to understand the satire if they think that Jonathon [sic] Swift, the author of 'A Modest Proposal,' is the name of a new Nike running shoe..." Thompson reasoned.

Ah, satire - so the whole thing was just a big joke, including the $10,000 bit, do you see?

Well, this so enraged Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik - co-founders of gaming site Penny Arcade - that they've gone and donated $10,000 to charity in Jack's name.

And as for which charity... Well, it seems the obvious choice was the Entertainment Software Association Foundation, which supports causes such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Child Welfare League of America. We're sure Jack's very happy.