Parents Sue Blizzard Over Teen's Death
by Mike D'Anna 
Jan 22nd 2006 at 11:24PM
The parents of a Chinese teen who committed suicide have, according to this
article from exzibit.net, apparently sued
Blizzard Entertainment, claiming that his addiction to World of Warcraft caused him to end his own life.
In recent years, we've heard a lot of debate over games having adverse affects on young players (GTA, anyone?), and RPG's have never been exempt from these accusations (there were lawsuits filed against Dungeons & Dragons before it was even a video game), but as far as I know, this is a first for the MMORPG era, though correct me if I'm wrong. The article doesn't go into much detail, but it will be interesting to see how this case plays out.
*UPDATE*
As a helpful reader pointed out, the article in question is slightly off with it's facts; the game in question is actually Warcraft III, not WoW. It seems that the foreign press picked up on the story & the facts only got loosely translated, as the same erroneous information has appeared on several news sites. The article located here attempts to clear up the issue. Thanks to Andrea for pointing out the mistake.
article from exzibit.net, apparently sued
Blizzard Entertainment, claiming that his addiction to World of Warcraft caused him to end his own life.In recent years, we've heard a lot of debate over games having adverse affects on young players (GTA, anyone?), and RPG's have never been exempt from these accusations (there were lawsuits filed against Dungeons & Dragons before it was even a video game), but as far as I know, this is a first for the MMORPG era, though correct me if I'm wrong. The article doesn't go into much detail, but it will be interesting to see how this case plays out.
*UPDATE*
As a helpful reader pointed out, the article in question is slightly off with it's facts; the game in question is actually Warcraft III, not WoW. It seems that the foreign press picked up on the story & the facts only got loosely translated, as the same erroneous information has appeared on several news sites. The article located here attempts to clear up the issue. Thanks to Andrea for pointing out the mistake.
Filed under: Virtual selves, Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Silvertusk Jan 23rd 2006 12:43AM
Isn't this, like, extremely old and was debunked? I'm not sure.. unless this is a different one.
forzaq8 Jan 23rd 2006 1:30AM
didn't a mother sue Sony over Everquest ?
forzaq8 Jan 23rd 2006 1:33AM
found it http://www.gamespy.com/articles/494/494931p2.html
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently had an article on the suicide last November of a 21-year-old who lived in Hudson, Wisconsin, near the Minnesota border. According to the article, the man's mother has hired a lawyer to sue Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) with the claim that his son was "addicted" to EverQuest (EQ) and to force SOE to put warning labels on its games
Andrea Jan 23rd 2006 2:59AM
This is a very old article, and not WoW-related at all. Apparently it was mis-translated when it originally appeared in November and has spread like wildfire since then. The boy committed suicide well before WoW had been released. See here for more details.
Andrea Jan 23rd 2006 3:47AM
Duh, I should read about linking the next time I try to use HTML in a comment. :) The link would be http://www.pacificepoch.com/blog/46367_0_26_0_C/
boneyard Jan 23rd 2006 4:17AM
indeed, it sounds like something i heard about months ago and didn't even turn out to be about wow.
Stormgaard Jan 23rd 2006 6:38AM
Uplug the frikkin' computer!! Lazy ass parent...
DireSandMan Jan 23rd 2006 8:15AM
I recently did a report on the addiction of videogames. There is a lot of information on the web about it if you look for it. I found that playing video games release a hormone called dopamine. This hormone mandates several things one of which is pleasure. This hormone is found in ritalin to make school and work more enjoyable so it would be easier to pay attention. Some doctors even say this can be equivalent to a dose of speed. Video game playing also can cause your body to release adrenalin. Many of use know this when you get the humans fight or flight instincts. If a player experiences this often enough he or she could be addicted to it. If you know video games could be addicting or can harm your child?s health then why give them to them? No kid has the money in 6th-8th grade to shell out $200+ on a game system let alone $40+ on a game they want, all this money comes from the parents. How many parents buy there children crack? They don?t. If it killed there child would they then go and sue the person they bought it from? Hell no. And with my research I found that most of the kids who commit suicides have more problems then just playing a lot of video games. I think that blaming video games is just an easy way for parents to place there blame on someone else when there child commits suicide.
Clay Jan 23rd 2006 11:29AM
Blame displacement. Nice that they don't pay a lick of attention to what their child is doing, and then don't want to accept the blame that they are bad parents when something goes wrong. What's next? People sueing a fast food chain when they spill hot coffee on themselves because they are too stupid to know not to drink hot coffee while they are driving???
Dave M. Jan 23rd 2006 12:22PM
The story was interesting back when it was news, but this is so old now, even in internet time, that is it really worth posting about?