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'."

Comments

Don't confuse the cause for the effect

[Quixotic Raindrop]

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.

Re:Don't confuse the cause for the effect

[psyco484]

Addiction is a disease and should be treated as such. The people who are addicted to Everquest are, as you said, addicts. I'm not suggesting a 12 step program for Everquest, though I'm sure there must be one, but to say that this child died because of Everquest is just stupid. The child died because of neglect, it's a horrible situation, but it happens. There are bad parents out there, you don't fill out an application to be a parent, in a lot of cases it just takes enough alcohol and an insistent guy. Did anyone take into account that the mother was irresponsible enough to get pregnant at approximately 17 years old and that she's just not a responsible adult yet? I'm guessing no one has brought that up. There are certainly deeper issues than Everquest addiction here....

Re:Don't confuse the cause for the effect

[bill_mcgonigle]

People who would be addicted to Everquest are addicits, anyway.

I've never played Everquest, but just hearing so many people call it Evercrack is enough for me to know not to go near it. I've wasted plenty of hours on Sierra Games, Wolf3d, Diablo, etc. Good games are addicting, because fun is addicting. They provide a nice little Skinner box for our overworked selves to escape to.

For others, it's drugs, gambling, porn, name your vice (why do you think it's called a vice?). All of them can lead to the shirking of responsibilites. I've found it's better to just keep busy and challenged, that way you're not tempted. Idle hands are the instruments of the devil and all that. Get into the habit and it's hard to imagine how you ever used to be bored. There is so much to do.

Re:Don't confuse the cause for the effect

[Anonymous Coward]

I think being prone to addiction is a disease. Does alcoholism run in your family, or the family of someone you know?

This logic is priceless, though:
If it is a disease, there's an easy cure...

The sheer number of incurable diseases is mind numbing, in just the physical cases. There are thousands of psychological diseases, and many of them require therapy to overcome. I, myself, suffered through depression for 3 years. You don't just one day say to yourself, "You know what, I'm going to be happy today." When you get addicted to heroin, you aren't going to say, "You know that was fun, but I'm going to get a job, instead." Same idea.

I'm not saying it's not her fault; she is obviously a moron if her priorities lie in EverQuest and not her child. So, I agree with you that she is displacing responsibility. She should be blamed. Just be careful how you misrepresent diseases.

Nothing to do with Everquest

[SteWhite]

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.

Ever heard of this word?

[Alpha27]

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.

It'll never happen to any of us...

[lightspawn]

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.

This is joke...

[wbav]

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.

"addiction"

[bigbigbison]

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.

*Tell* me about it!

[ghost.]

I could have gotten FP, but I was too busy playing EQ.

Slippery Slope?

[Captain Rotundo]

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.

Re:Slippery Slope?

[nanojath]

I think the issue that is consistently ignored (and this weird little case, as tragic as its outcome is, is just one tip of the big giant iceberg) is that these people are screwed up in the first place - and their neglect of the ordinary things that humans care deeply about, ie their children's welfare, in exchange for artificial accomplishments in an artificial world, are just the outer symptoms of being deeply disconnected from reality and unhappy with themselves and their lives.

How many people who like games haven't spent a few hours too many on some obscure challenge and lost half a night's sleep as a result? Probably not such a great choice, and certainly the nature of games facilitates this choice. Likewise, most people who drink on some occasion drank too much and suffered as a result, and certainly the intoxicating effect of alcohol is what that's about. Indicting the manufacturers of a game for making it engrossing and time consuming is like condemning liquor manufacturers for putting alcohol in booze. It just doesn't really make much sense, and it illustrates the reality that a human being who is trying to escape reality will find some way to do it. If we want to do something social about it we can create more public awareness about compulsive behaviors and the serious problems they can lead to, and put more public money into treatment (which would save us money in the long run), but in the end these problems will always, always exist, because of the people who don't really WANT to change. Personally, I think it is the avoidance of this unpleasant reality that so often drives the urge to demonize what are merely symptoms.

Hmm...

[Vaevictis666]

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...

Responsability

[ptaff]

Am I the only one tired of this "It's never the criminal's fault" fashion?

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. ... but on the other hand, people, when they succeed at something, are 100% responsible for it.

Re:Responsability

[PK_ERTW]

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.

This is a little off-topic, but since you brought it up, you should get the details correct. This case stinks (and is one of Canada's worst civil lawsuits in my opinion) because the lady drank at the party and was offered a drice home, cab fare, and a hotel room to stay in. She refused all three and instead went to a bar to drink further. She then drove home well after the party ended. Both her employer and the bar were found liable (some percentage each)

This is not only an example of someone taking responsiblity for there own actions, but a travesty that the courts agreed it was not her fault.

pk

When life hands you lemons...

[Dr. Bent]

...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.

Yes, but I wonder...

[TuringTest]

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"...

Re:Yes, but I wonder...

[gl4ss]

so society isn't accustomed to parents visiting theatre, going to the movies(some 3-4 hour movies exist), opera, circus, amateur sports, pro sports, dining out without the kids and like?

uhh. i guess not then.

they neglected their child.. there's no excuse here, people have had much more important and immersive things to do and manage to keep tabs on where their kid is and they should too.

More where this came from

[Muhammed Absol]

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.