Nothing like a bit of good news to end the year with a bang, eh? The Child's Play charity movement run by Penny Arcade has reportedly exceeded its projected million-dollar mark for this December. Details on this big news are available in the full article.

Penny Arcade's Jerry "Tycho" Holkins has finally responded to Jack Thompson's statements regarding the canned PAX debate in which the outspoken lawyer was supposed to participate.

Thompson declined to show up for the debate due to Penny Arcade not wanting him to say anything about it to the media. In a recent interview by video game news site 1UP, Tycho revealed that the whole debate was a last-minute addition to PAX.

"PAX is almost entirely laid out by now, schedule-wise, but we've got wiggle room here and there," said Tycho. "We thought we could put some of this wiggle room to use in the form of a debate panel."

The moderator for the debate was supposed to be the administrator of GamePolitics.com. No opponent had been decided on yet, but within twenty-four hours, the PAX team had already communicated with Thompson.

As for the reason why Penny Arcade didn't want Thompson talking about the debate, here's Tycho's explanation:

Before any other concern, it is our deep desire that no person be trampled to death at PAX. Given the human density of last year's show, it seemed as though a Jack Thompson panel would create some dicey situations from a safety perspective.

We asked that Jack not discuss the event for these reasons. When he began to do so, publicly, with all major gaming news organizations, we determined that even an explosive, exciting debate wasn't worth trying to work with him.

Tycho also took the opportunity to respond to Thompson's statements regarding the situation:

I think he is lumping us in with his other opponents, some of whom are almost certainly imaginary. I'm not aware of any machinations that are currently ongoing.

As for the sale of "adult materials," by which I assume he means games rated M by the ESRB, we currently think that the best bet is retail enforcement and parent education. As parents ourselves, his assertion is scurrilous and insulting.

Penny Arcade has recently published a three-frame comic strip in its site based on their experiences finding a copy of the seemingly rare Puzzle Quest. The comic features Tycho and Gabe talking about the game with a dialogue that pokes fun at killing and games. The character talks in a way similar to a certain public figure infamous in the gaming world.

Need a clue? He's been suing people left and right for violent content in video games which he sees inappropriately rated by electronic media regulatory boards.

On a side note, there's been some buzz with people saying that the game is a little hard to find the past few weeks. Although the game has a PSP version, some gamers prefer the one on the PC because of the display size. Apparently, some don't enjoy the game fully when all the text crowds up in the PSP's screen. Blending RPG and puzzle elements, the game has hit a significant niche in the crowded game market.

Puzzle Quest is also available for the DS and mobile platforms.

Just recently, Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik (a.k.a., Gabe) has written a scathing commentary in response to a story that was published by CNN. In his commentary, he expresses his dissatisfaction at the fact that, once again, a murder happens and it all gets blamed on the under-aged suspect's gaming habits, and not on other factors which may have shaped the individual into a killer.

For those who don't frequent CNN's site too often, the article in question discusses the recent rise of the number of incidents which involves homeless individuals being murdered by teenagers "for sport."

As a primary example of such an incident, CNN uses the story of the 49-year-old homeless man, Rex Baum, who was killed in 2004 after he was beaten to death by Nathan Moore, Luis Oyola, and Andrew Ihrcke. At the time of the incident, the killers were 15, 16, and 17 years old respectively. After Baum's body was discovered two days after he was killed, the police were able to track down the teens and question them about what they've done. According to police reports, the eldest answered that Baum apparently "reminded him of playing a violent video game."

That statement from Ihrcke may actually be enough to raise more than a few eyebrows within both the gaming and the legislative community. However, what caught Krahulik's attention was the fact that even though the original article continued to present more facts and examples, and also mentions several other theories on what may have been prompting minors to go on killing sprees, it is inevitable that many would stop reading at the point where video games are mentioned. As Krahulik laments:

These kids have given the media their angle and just like all the other cases where games are mentioned no one will ever look any further. No one will ask what their family life was like, what their parents were like, what the kid was like before all this happened. Games did it and that’s the end of the story ... I'm perfectly aware that the reality of the situation was somewhere between the two extremes. I know full well that violent games did not create this killer and I also know that his parents did not make him a murderer ... The sad truth is that the reality we're talking about here would probably never actually see the light of day. The media will tell the story they want to tell regardless and that story will be about violent games. The parents of these kids will be lucky to get two lines in an article about the crime. If they tell a reporter that their son hardly played games or that he was f***ed up long before they bought a Playstation do you really think that will make it into the final article? You'd never see that side of the story, not in a million years. [Bold format not in original text. - QJ]

However, all that has now changed, as the stepmother of one of the suspects (they did not mention which one) has bravely come out in the open to let everyone know the truth about these teens. Who would have known that the parent of a so-called "video game killer" can actually be a gamer herself? Who would have thought that she was a regular Penny Arcade reader? Who would have expected that she would choose to trust the folks of Penny Arcade with the truth instead of handing it over to the mainstream media?

We'll never be as eloquent as Tycho or Gabe, so click on the "Read" link below, read on, and brace yourselves for what a lot of people in politics would probably hate to hear.