Slashdot Mirror
Everquest Connection Alleged In Child Death
Thanks to NWAOnline.net for their story regarding a mother facing manslaughter charges which may relate to videogame addiction, following her 3-year-old daughter's death after being left alone in an overheated car. According to the piece, "Authorities said [Mary Christina] Cordell and her boyfriend, Eric Long, 21, may have been so fixated with the interactive game EverQuest that she neglected to pay adequate attention to Brianna's whereabouts on Aug. 8, the day the child died." The article also points out posts to the Spouses Against Everquest mailing-list from Cordell, one of which is controversial, but tragically prescient: "Verant is also an enabler by providing a type of 'entertainment' that
requires an inordinary amount of time to do basic functions of the average
role playing games... I'm afraid that eventually many more people will
be hurt or even killed by this 'service'."
People who would be addicted to Everquest are addicits, anyway. Blaming the developer and distributor for the psychological problems of the player places the blame in the wrong place.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
This child died because the parents neglected it, simple as that. What they were doing doesn't matter.
Just because they were playing a computer game, it makes the news. If they were distracted watching TV instead, we would never have heard about it.
Self-control?
The user decides to continue and forget about life, then it's not the fault of the developer. The person has CHOSEN to forget the real world, for the virtual one. Don't blame the developer if the user neglects life.
It's obvious users like these are missing something from their real lives that they escape so easily into the virtual one.
The average slashdot reader spends so much time browsing and playing games that he's extremely unlikely to have any children in the first place.
Right? Come on, doesn't anyone take responsibility any more? If she was in front of the TV, would it be called an addiction to Fox?
You are responsible for your children, and if this lady ignored her child due to a computer game, well that's not the game's fault.
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Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
While it is certainly sad that someone died, it is unfortunate that videogmes are once again being used as a scapegoat. There are many other hobbies that people participate in for hours and hours a day but are rarely if ever considered an "addiction" or scapegoated in the same way that videogames so often are.
How many people do we know who can't miss an episode of a soap opera? or how many people spend all night every night watching television? It seems highly likely that many more marriages have been broken up over a man who spend all his time working on his car than have been broken up by online games. What about every episode of Behind The Music where the musician neglects his family in order to make music go on tour and entertain? But none of these are stigmatised or scapegoated by being called "addictions."
I'm not arguing the technical definition of addiction. As I said, what I'm talking about is that there are lots of other activities out there that people do that take up just as much time as playing videogames but they aren't commonly called "addictions." Why is this? It seems that once again it goes back to the notion of moral panics and that people always seem to be looking to blame the new thing for old problems as a way of finding easy answers to complex problems. Children have died by playing in cars before and unfortunatly they almost certainly will again. It is terrible, but the problem is not Everquest. That Everquest is blamed is yet another sign that videogames are not respected and that they are even feared.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
I could have gotten FP, but I was too busy playing EQ.
Bush is a cylon.
I ussually hate the slippery slop arguement more than anyone, but this issue is the perfect case to point it out. We are trending towards a society in which no one is ever held responsible for their actions. I know addiction is a serious problem for people but where do we draw the line? Adults have to be treated like adults.
Now that I have a small child I cannot possibly fathom doing anything to harm his wellbeing. Everyday I wake up I have the urge to earn the most I can and provide the best I can for My son, and when I see negligence like this I can't understand how it happens. I don't think there is an addictive substance or activity that would ever have greater sway over me than my son. I can't explain the bond, and I don't try to, but neglecting him to play a game?
What happened to the responsibility people used to have for their children? We live in a world where far to many parents feel like they are entitled to entertainment of some kind and the child be damned if it gets in the way? People constantly drag their kids to places they shouldn't, they constantly bitch about poor teachers when they don't care themselves. I used to feel this way and think to my self that maybe my perspective would change when I had a child. Now I am even more disgusted when I see they way kids are treated/ignored in public and the lack of responsibility people take for them.
According to this report. As of the 22nd of this month, 36 children have died this year from being left in a hot car. Everquest certainly isn't to blame.
Is it just me or did anyone else get the impression that the mother, as little as 3 months ago, was posting to the Spouses Against EverQuest board saying that the was against it, and that her ex-husband was the one that was too engrossed with it? I'd've thought she'd be too fed up with it to play...
Am I the only one tired of this "It's never the criminal's fault" fashion?
... but on the other hand, people, when they succeed at something, are 100% responsible for it.
It's videogame's fault, television's fault, society's fault, and so on - when they don't blame insanity or psychological disabilities.
Here in Canada, a girl who got drunk in an office party - thanks to the boss, with an open bar - drove her car and had an accident.
She sued her boss and won.
I mean, with DNA analysis kicking in, in a couple of years, there will be no more responsability for any crime.
It's good to see that they actually asked someone with a clue to quote for a change. All too often people will jump on the popularity bandwagon and say that its terrible that (videogames/television/insert arbitrary passtime here) is evil and should be banned. I'm glad they hit a psychologist who actually points out that there is no recognised addiction to videogaming. Addiction is a much over-used word, whilst there are real addictions in the world (heroin, ciggerettes, alchohol ...) something that you do because you enjoy it, is *not* an addiction. If it leads you to neglect things in your life that are more important then that can be a tragedy but people need to learn self-control instead of blaming their problems on others.
Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
...sue sombody because it's not your fault.
What the fuck happened to the concept of personal repsonsibility! Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ!
"I murder people because I was abused as a child."
"I rob people because the system keeps me poor."
"I'm addicted to drugs because nobody will give me a job."
BULLSHIT!
It's not the government's job to take care of you. It's not Verant's job to take care of you. It's not Nabisco's or Microsoft's or Anyone's job to take care of you...except you. And if you can't take care of yourself, I'm sorry; But that's no excuse to drag the rest of us down too. If we keep heading down this road, eventually they'll be nobody left but laywers and 'victims', and modern civilization will grind to a halt.
I would like to say, that, although the other 7 messages here are absolutely correct -- EverQuest is not at DIRECT fault for this woman's child's death -- it is NOT the fault of the video game...
... Read the post that she made, referenced in the original article, from LAST October. There's just as much TRUTH in that article, as there is rambling from the mind of a psychological addict -- The game is designed to attract those with seriously psychoaddictive personality issues.
:(
..
.. Obviously the parents realised BEFORE hand that they had problems.. but were unable to solve that problem.. and that led to the death of her child.. and that's just not right.
However
Think about THAT message, in relation to all of this. Massive fore-shadowing, in a very sad fashion
We all know there's massive quantities of EQ junkies, we know there's MUD junkies, we know there's TV junkies, and Pool junkies, and arcade junkies, and Golden Tee Golf Junkies, and there's code-junkies and web-browsing junkies, and porn junkies, and so on, and so on, and so on
But rather than concentrating on why the media picked it up (not a whole heck of a lot of media yet, either, and it's been quite some time), why not discuss something more useful?
I wouldn't just dismiss this as "the parents suck"
Rather than talk about dumb ass stupid shit, why can't we all, as nerds, talk about things that might help someone?
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
Computers are a fairly new thing, and we really don't know to what extent there is a cause-effect going here.
I mean, society isn't accustomed to having interactive games which last for so long time. The process of educating people to use them properly should have taken place somehow, but it haven't.
Just think, if you create a 24 hour alternate reality, why don't try to make the manipulation of your game more adict-safe? Of course the responsability is that of the people malusing the system, but a bit of safety checks in your design wouldn't hurt. At least, TV has frequent 20 second commercials that remind you of a reality different of the inmersive experience.
Not trying to troll, just wondering beyond the usual "yes but game is not in fault"...
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
I suppose academia is a dangerous addiction too...
skye
If EQ made her neglect her kid, then I wonder what listening to Black Sabbath would make her do? After she commits suicide then her family can sue not only Sony but Ozzy too!
This classic slashdot post
It's sickening how many bad parents I've encountered in the game. There was a woman we removed from the guild that used to constantly complain about her 7 year old son and said she has to lock him in a closet during major raids so that he wouldn't interrupt her. Then you have the 40+ year old house wives who flirt with all the 16 year old males all day. It's SICK how many there are of these. Everquest really does have a problem on their hands, their product isn't responsible for it, as these people would be find other things that cater to their mental problems, but they have a great oppertunity to find a way to help people. Perhaps people who log too many hours during a week could be offered counselling via e-mail? They obviously have a problem.
If the kid died because mom was too engrossed in a mystery novel series, I doubt very much that anyone would blame the book or its author.
This is ridiculous.
DiscDividers tabbed plastic CD dividers: divider cards f
Maybe they should sue the car company. Obviously the car gets to hot when left in the summer heat. They, of course, should be responsible. We live in a free country. We should have the right to leave our small children anywhere we want for long periods of time and do whatever we feel like, and not have them end up dead. What is this country comming to?
Teach someone to use the net and they won't bother you for weeks; show them Slashdot and you may never see them again.
Tragically, there have already been 36 kids who've died in the U.S. after being left in hot cars this summer. Similar numbers have been happening since '98 according to this article.
As far as I can tell, this is the only one that's involved a computer game. Yet, sadly, it is far from the only one I've heard about. It might just be that it's the only one most
Still, I know there are plenty of us who are reading the magazines in the pediatrician's office and it seems to come up there every summer, right along with the importance of sunscreen and water safety.
Some people are bad parents, and some make one, really, incredibly tragic mistake. Either way, an innocent kid died because of what they did.
While heroin is a great example of an addictive drug invoking it while having a discussion about psychological addiction isn't really all that terribly appropriate. Physical addiction and psychological addiction are two very different animals.
Check around a bit, I think you'll find that more studies are beginning to show little difference between psychological and physical addictions. In fact, the classification is often considered inappropriate. The reason is that what were previously thought of as psychological addictions have been found to be driven mostly by physical changes in the brain chemistry of the addicted person. For instance, cocaine was once thought to not be physically addictive, yet addicts have altered dopamine concentrations in their brain. With repeated use, higher levels of dopamine are required to function normally (note: this is the same as tolerance increases among addicts, but it's been found that at a certain point the level of dopamine that an addict requires to act like a normal person is higher than the body normally produces, so not only do they need more of the drug to get the same high, but they need the drug to be normal).
True addictions will alter the brain's chemistry in one way or another, even if it's within normal bounds (ie without chemicals being introduced into the body that change them directly). Someone that plays a lot of any computer game may have their brain's chemistry altered due to heightened alertness (extended boosts in adrenaline levels) or whatever state a game like EQ might put your mind in. Over extended periods of time the change in the levels of the chemicals in the brain due to the state in which you play the game may result in the brain adjusting to the heightened levels, and resulting in a very real physical withdrawal when not playing the game (as the brain's chemical levels return to a normal state which the brain is no longer wired to see as normal).
-PainKilleR-[CE]