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Dead Chinese Gamer Wasn't A WoW Player

Posted by Zonk on from the bad-story dept.

Despite earlier reports to the contrary, GamePolitics has the news that the dead Chinese gamer whose parents were suing Blizzard was not a World of Warcraft player. From the post: "World of Warcraft (WoW) was not released in China until May 2005... the actual lawsuit claimed he committed suicide after playing the real time strategy game Warcraft III... Without WoW, it would have been much harder to pin the blame on Warcraft because it's a strategy game, not role playing. But with WoW, and the recent focus on the alleged addictive qualities of MMORPGs, the lawsuit gets much more attention..."

5 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Release dates by secolactico · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the post: "World of Warcraft (WoW) was not released in China until May 2005"

    So? Lots of players from several countries (including Asian coutries) play on the US servers. Several from Europe did too.

    WoW does not do geolocation to filter connections.

    Likewise, almost all "chinese farmers" in WoW play in the US servers. That's where their customers are.

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    No sig
    1. Re:Release dates by Larch · · Score: 5, Informative

      From the article: "the actual lawsuit claimed he committed suicide after playing the real time strategy game Warcraft III"

      So if the article is correct the lawsuit was always about Warcraft III and not WoW. It doesn't really have anything to do with release dates or being able to access US Servers.

  2. Ahh, natural selection at it's finest. by adminsr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Once upon a time, there was a guy named Darwin. Though his ideas have been contorted into the Theory of Evolution, his principles were brilliant. This is clearly an example of natural selection. This one deserves a Darwin Award for sure. http://www.darwinawards.com/

  3. China by king-manic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When I was in china in may, I coudl nto find 1 legitimate copy of WOW. I couldnt' find 1 cafe that had a real copy of WOW on it. So if it turns out that not only was he not on WOW and was playing an illegal copy of war3, what possibel responsibility could blizzard have?

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    "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
  4. Where in this game? by Xarius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A thirteen year-old Chinese boy jumped to his death last year from a 24 story building, allegedly after playing too much World of Warcraft. -- Joystiq.

    I was just wondering exactly what portion of World of Warcraft, Warcraft III, or any Blizzard game contains a 24 storey building. And what part of this fictional game area involves you jumping to your death from it?

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    C17H21NO4