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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."
Doom encourages two high schoolers to go suicidal and massacre kids at a school, and all we hear is a public outcry on why violent games are bad. A kid playing WoW dies and Blizzard gets sued? What's the world coming to?
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maybe they should jump on the bandwagon and print safety labels on game boxes, like they put on coffee cups (hot coffe in your lap whilke driving = bad) and microwaves (don't dry your cat in them)!
or they just listened to him: http://www.bash.org/?4753
From TFA:
"The Chinese government has already said it plans to restrict gamers to three hours of consecutive play, using a "fatigue technique" in games. After three hours of play, the online game would lose some player power, and after five hours, the player would lose most power. After that, there would be a delay of five hours before the game could be accessed to its full capacity."
I'd be curious to find out if this proposal might actually enhance gameplay. This could be the first good thing to come out of China's Government... you'd be forced to spend the time you have to play doing worthwhile things that are fun instead of being able to 'grind' players up the rankings...
On the other hand if this was forced on the Game Developers and Distributors legally, ie. they have to build it in to their system... it would set a very bad precedent for all products of all types.... think cars and driving, or cellphones or TV viewing. Imagine a curfew system for using anything electronic, where you can only use it during preset times and for pre-approved purposes (well I guess you don't have to imagine it, just move to China and try using the internet). China's attempt to regulate the people's behavior is going to backlash in a major way soon, IMHO. They want all the benefits of a free market but all the control of a closed market... can't have it both ways...
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Actually, I think this whole lawsuit is China's shield for another crackdown on internet usage. China wants to censor their internet as much as possible. If they can use "think about the children" as an excuse this lawsuit could be, and probably will be, used in the service of propaganda.
I call B.S. This is a convenient story that people that are no longer kids like to tell themselves. I'd bet if you reflected on your entire life, jumping from a tree pretending you were He-Man probably wouldn't make your top 25 of all time stupid things you have done. If you were to make a top 25 list, probabilities would have that most of these happened while you were an adult.
I used to do flips off my roof into a pool. Stupid? Yeah. Top 25 stupid? Probably not. Kids are testing boundries - and there is inherent risk in doing so. Adults more frequently do stupid things out of complacency. There's a reason why people take notice of a kid jumping off a tree and killing themselves. There's also a reason why people don't think twice about people that kill themselves (or worse, another) because they were driving and talking on the cell phone - or some other "normal" activity. Which do you think is more common?
I guess I'll have to wait for the class action law suit of Child Services vs. the parents for letting their children endanger themselves. And if I think more about it, the parents in both law suits did all the work.
I am surprised no typical /. conspiracy theorists did not bring that up.
Would you consider tha chance that the kid was totally normal, and simply fell out of the window? Than the parents are just trying to make a buck ?
OR:
How did the parents know that he was "re-enacting" a scene from the game? Were THEY playing the game and the kid just watched?
Now if they saw or played the game, they should have realised that it was dangerous and just forbid the kid to play it. I have motorbikes, quads, drill machines and whatever else dangerous stuff, if I know it is dangerous I do not let my kid play with it, simple like that. If I do fail so it is my responsibility.
This is just another retarded case of let's blame games practice.
How many people sued the makers of superman ? Or mary poppins? I mean I knew a kid who broke both her arms trying to parachute with an umrella. She landed in front of our garage entrance in fact. She was stupid but not stupid enought to make 1st jump from the 3rd floor, and the first floor jump did not kill her.
Now I ask again: why not sue movies? I mean how many kids movies feature people flying, shooting, killing. Or how many homes are without a channel blovking device with password control for non-suitable content?
It is a joke. Kids see more violence on a day staying home and watching TV that I can experience playing grand theft auto for hours.