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Blizzard Sued for Death of Gamer
Somatic writes "In the latest saga over online gaming addiction in China, the parents of a 13-year-old Tianjin boy are suing the makers of World of Warcraft, blaming the game for the death of their son, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua. The parents filed a suit against Blizzard Entertainment on Wednesday, saying their son jumped to his death while reenacting a scene from the game, the report said. The parents are backed by the anti-Internet addiction advocate Zhang Chunliang. Mr. Chunliang has spoken to 63 parents whose children have allegedly suffered from online gaming addiction and plans to file a class-action suit, according to the report."
Your kid is a moron. Please sue either (a) his genetic contributors or (b) the people who raised him poorly enough that he thought that reenacting a jumping scene from a computer game wouldn't result in his death. Anyway, I hope his last sight was looking up at the branches of Teldrassil. I hear it's magnificent this time of year.
Nowhere in that article does it prove that he was re-enacting a scene from the game. By this logic, any family member of someone who played the game and jumped to their death can sue for re-enacting a scene from this game. And surely, the game is not linear, so he would have chosen to jump off the cliff in game as he did in real life, no one forced him to, sue Blizzard for providing the method to fall, sue Nature for providing the method to fall.
I am not a lawayer, but wouldn't they need to prove that Blizzard was reckless in the creation of the video game somehow?
We sit here and ridicule the notion that a video game could sap someone's free will and make them do something as patently absurd as commit suicide. Okay, probably this is a case that's bound to be lost.
But this is an industry where addiction is a major problem. Some video gamers are showing the signs of clinical addiction. These things are making people sick, and what do marketing and design people do? They try to make them more addictive, of course.
Heck, your whole MMORPG industry is built on the concept of "levelling", which some smart lawyer is sooner or later gonna figure out is nothing other than intermittent behavioral reinforcement. Then they'll find that the games like that have whole "support" industries of addicts encouraging others in their addiction.
Snicker, call me a troll, but take a look at the tobacco industry for a second.
Better make it a few minutes -- I'm gonna finish this level before continuing my rant.
Kids do stupid stuff. Heck when I was a Kid me and a bunch of others would climb to the highest point of the playground. a good 10 Feet and Jump off it and onto the pebbled ground pretending that we were He-Man, and those who didn't fall on their face, or have their hands or bent their knees the least won. Looking back to it It was really dumb and we could have easily got hurt or killed ourselves if we fell the wrong way. If it wasn't He-Man we would probably do it pretending something else. Kids do stupid things, they lack good judgement skills that is why 8 year olds are not allowed to vote or drive cars on public roads, it is not that they can't physically do it, but because they have poor judgement skills and left on their own they will more often then not make poor decisions. Older Kids are at an age where they work off their old phobias and see what they can do with their new found abilities. If the kid played Tetris he would probably still jump off the cliff pretending that he was his favorite piece.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I'm not sure if such an organization exists but there should be an organization that sues the parents in cases such as this. Where were the parents? Slacking off? Don't say that parents can't keep an eye on their children all the time becuase that is bs. Both my parents worked and they still managed to keep me from inserting things up my nose and jumping out of windows.
I realize the link is a joke, but it doesn't hit too far from the truth. I'm amazed that someone hasn't tried to outlaw footballs or baseballs. After all, there's a good chance of death resulting from their proper usage.
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
There is no way in this world to prove that the child in question re-created a scene from a computer game, unless he left a detailed suicide note detailing that he was mimicing a fictional world.
Perhaps the world could do with either a) less irresponsible parents or b) less stupid children, or my personal favourite c) both.
I mean seriously, I'm going to consume babies and then sue the Vatican because a passage in the Bible inspired me to do so*. Would I get away with being such a moron, of course not. A much preferred headline would have been: Parents imprisoned for failure to properly raise a child.
* Here is the passage:
"And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son,that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. -- II Kings 6:28,29
C17H21NO4
I dont know about you but if I didnt do my homework, clean my room, take the garbage out and so on, Mom would like clock work un plug the Nintendo...Have parents lost their authority?
This is the same thing as suing Coors or Budwiser for DUI deaths, or liver disease... addiction comes in all sorts of forms. You can't sue the maker of a legitimate product just because the person using said product has an addictive personality.
I know this comment will get me modded bad, but some idiot kid jumping to his death to reenact some scene from WoW or whatever is just a perfect example of what we call "Natural Selection." Survival of the fittest, and if some kid isn't fit enough to know that jumping from on high will kill you dead, well, oh well. The article says nothing of severe depression, or drug abuse - so he just jumped to jump? That sure isn't Blizzard's fault.
Excuse my speling.
Making The Bar Project
Some people are opportunistic enough to want to cash in on their son's death
At first I wanted to state that Columbine happened way before "The Matrix". Upon further cursory inspection, it looks like the Columbine massacre happened less than a month after the theatrical release of "The Matrix". I never realized how close these two events really were. Interesting.
-- I have fans? Wow.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I totally agree. There are two basic related disfunctions in society today. First are the people that are blaming the rest of the world for the results of their bad decisions. Second are the friends and relatives of the first group that got themselves killed as a result of their own poor decisions - they're blaming anyone that was even remotely connected to the deceased as somehow being responsible for their death. People need to take respsonsibility for their actions, and they need to accept that decisions made by others were their responsibility. The whole world is not made for your benefit and protection, and the whole world is not responsible when you screw up. Take ownership of your actions.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
rip off yet another American invention. "For the Children" is OUR excuse for spreading fascism. We invented it, we use it constantly, we depend upon it. Go make your own, dammit.
. . . umm, okay . . .
Now I've never actually played WoW, but from what I hear it's entirely online, meaning that Blizzard didn't create this scene, the child himself did.
www.linuxpenguin.net
Ok kiddies, listen up: 1. You can not fly. Not possible. You do not have hollow bones. You can not use wax to make wings. They will not work. 2. Television/Video Games are a made up environment for the people that can handle it. If you think you can go into your school with a bomb/gun thinking the when it goes off, everyone will magically reappear, then you are wrong. Entirely. You will kill people. And they will never come back. Ever. 3. Cops will chase you if you go 200 mph on the freeway. You will go to jail. 4. If you jump off of a three story building, then you will most likeley get hurt very badly, and/or die. Ok, Next. Lets adress the parents: As adressed to the *cough-cough UNSUPERVISED CHILDREN cough-cough* Video games are fake. If your child can not handle the complex ideas in a video game about killing someone and not being able to do the same in real life, then that child does not need to play the game. Folks, it's all about parents paying attention to their kids. Of course, if your kid goes and jumps off a cliff because he did it in a video game, that means the parents are either not watching what their kids play/do. OR the parents think their child can handle it when they can't. Oh, and don't blame it on the company that made the game. Specific laws are set so that you can see what the content of the game is before your kids see it. ESRB baby, ESRB. Same goes with childs toys. Warning lables say wether or not supervision is needed, and if there is or isn't any small and swallowable parts in the toy. Even movies! They have very clear ratings that say if it is or isn't appropriate. And besides that, use freakin common sense.
and WoW doesn't?
Dont get me wrong this kid was a damn idiot and I agree with all the above comments. But you have to admit that WoW is a very addictive game and I'm sure Blizzard have, and will continue, to make the game as addicting as possible.
But this doesn't sound like a case of addiction. this sounds like a moron kid reenacting something he saw in a video game. He may very well have been reenacting something he saw in 1 of a million movies, tv shows, or books. This kid was 13 years old. I dont know about China but here in the US 13 year olds know that when you jump from a high place you get hurt or die; i think video games and movies have taught me that lesson better than anything.
All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be. -PF
...
Did you even read what they said?
Mcdonalds lost the case because the coffee was not safe for consumption. The coffee caused 3rd degree burns. Who would want to drink something that did that? Even if you wanted to, you still could not without a hospital trip. So yes, its totally unreasonable to sell a drink made to be consumed and have it be not safe. I mean... maybe some people like to drink draino right? I should be able to sell it at bars...
Your comment is among the stupidest things I've ever read on Slashdot. Congratulations.
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
every new born is a mutation
competition for resources is a evolutionary pressure
fitness for lifestyle is an evolutionary pressure
resistance to disease is an evolutionary pressure
I don't think you have a comprehension of the timescales evolution works on
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
so one can reasonably expect it to be served at any temperature up to boiling. Simple physics limits the maximum temperature. McDonald's is not, and cannot be, at fault for serving "too hot" coffee, regardless of the serving temperature others use. The OP burned themselves.
No, one can reasonably expect it to be at a temperature fit for consumption and at a temperature that is reasonably safe.
You don't assume that the hot water coming out of a faucet is going to be 95C. Such a temperature is extremely dangerous for water that will likely come into contact with skin.
Coffee spills happen, particularly when you serve coffee in styrofoam cups with lids that frequently pop off (causing the cup to deform and spill liquid). As such, it is up to McDonalds to ensure that their product is safe if spilled. They aren't selling concentrated hydrochloric acid, they are selling a beverage.
95C is unreasonably hot for a beverage.
Bullshit. Utter crap.
My parents taught me to make tea and coffee when I was a kid. We used a kettle.
The kettle boils water. When it boils, you pour water into the teapot/cup.
Boiling water is 100C. It's safe to assume the coffee I was making was around 95C.
If I can make coffee at that temperature at the age of 8, it's pretty sensible to assume that coffee being bought somewhere else might be that hot. Holding it between my thighs would thus be very stupid.
95C is not unreasonably hot for a beverage. Anybody that pretends otherwise is out to make money from that fact.
so one can reasonably expect it to be served at any temperature up to boiling. Simple physics limits the maximum temperature. McDonald's is not, and cannot be, at fault for serving "too hot" coffee, regardless of the serving temperature others use. The OP burned themselves.
This concept is oh so wrong. Coffee can indeed be too hot. All it has to be is signifcantly hotter than would normally be expected. Serving coffee at 200 degrees rather than the 160 degrees all other restaurants serve it is really a trap for the consumer.
To illustrate, everyone expects brakes on cars to work about the same. similar pedal pressure stops the cars in a similar distance. Suppose one car maker decided to adjust the brakes on its cars so they take twice as long to stop and then they don't tell anyone. The cars will still stop just as fast if you press the brakes hard enough, but still people get injured. After a few hundred rear-enders they get sued, and rightly so. There are norms for many things, and when a company violates those norms and as a result injures people, they are liable. It makes no difference whether the brakes don;t stop you as fast as standard brakes or the coffee is hotter than standard coffee, the company is liable and NOT the consumer.
During this time I saw the local McDonalds put improvised lids on their self-serve coffee pots to make it even hotter than the hotplate would make it. This made the coffee so hot it was dangerous. You had to be careful not to let the steam burn your fingers as you took the plastic lid off the pot to pour it. I knew the coffee was really hot because I poured mine, but the people in the dive-thru getting coffee handed to them had no idea how absurdly hot it was.