Pixelante

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Pixelante is a term coined in October 2005 by Miami, Florida-based Attorney Jack Thompson (also known as John B. Thompson) to describe what he believes to be corrupted members of the computer and video game community, driven to harassment, threats, violence, and other illegal activities as a result of games like Grand Theft Auto and Doom III.

Thompson officially defined pixelantes as "sociopaths with mouses,"[1] and alleged that pixelantes used "the name of the First Amendment and freedom of speech" in order to threaten him.[2] Thompson also referred to pixelantes as "pimple-faced geeks who use death threats to drive people of faith and with values from the public square," towards the end of his statement.[3]

The term is a portmanteau of the words Pixel and Vigilante, and is pronounced to rhyme with the latter.

1 Context
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Context

On October 20th, 2005, Thompson wrote a statement in which he directly declared what a pixelante was. The statement regarded recent alleged harassment he had received from gamers. The harassment followed Thompson contacting the police over alleged harassment by the website Penny Arcade. The letter was forwarded to the media. ^[1]

Prior to this, Thompson used the term pixelante(s) to refer to posters on the website GamePolitics.com. Thompson has also spoken against Dennis McCauley, the owner of the site, accusing him of "impersonating a journalist."

Ironically, many gamers who frequent forums have taken the term 'pixelante' as a sort of banner representing those who believe that Thompson and his motives are insulting and wrong. Some gamers took the view that if Thompson could call his receipt of the ACLU's "Art Censor of the Year" award in 1992 a "badge of honor", then they could do the same with pixelante. StraightLoop.com designed a Pixelante t-shirt, donating all profits to charity. Later, an unrelated pixelante t-shirt design contest was also held on the website GamePolitics.com, with all proceeds donated to the charity Get Well Gamers.

On November 10th, 2005, an angry Thompson made a statement on GamePolitics.com message boards further explaining what a pixelante is. Additionally, he made what many would consider to be rather bold statements about the gaming community in general, because of the GamePolitics.com contest. Further explaining pixelante as "a contraction of pixel vigilante" , going on by saying, "It is a pejorative term that puts anyone in that category in a category with the KKK and skinheads." [4] Many were irked by the fact that he evidently felt the need to spell it out for them, and subsequently explained that they understood, but adapted it to their own purposes. Ironically, this explanation was supplemented with a Biblical quote Thompson himself had used.

[edit] See also

Pixelante Nation is a gamer activism and anti-defamation organization.
PixelAnteis the website for a 2006/03 student art show and a further definition of the word PixelAnte with the capital A on Ante.