Blizz Faces Lawsuit

[VGsatomi]

Blizzard entertainment is facing a lawsuit by the parents of a Chinese youth who's death was blamed on WoW.

Chinese anti-addiction policies are no doubt going to expand after this one....

You can read up on the full story here;
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14551&hed=Youth’s+Death+Linked+to+Game
(Thanks to Vexorian for the link)

 

[Chuckle Brother]

I don't really see where people get off suing a company for something their kid did. Something that someone the age of 13 ought to know is dangerous and could very well prove fatal.

But I do believe that these anti-addiction measures are good, half my friends who play the game almost never leave their homes anymore. :?

 

[Vexorian]

They get the possibility of getting money.

Much like the fat boys that sue macdonalds...

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

They get the possibility of getting money.

Much like the fat boys that sue macdonalds...

Yep, I remember one funny where some fat lady sues macdonalds because she tripped and spilled cofee over herself which she has just bought. She then claimed that it had burned her so badly she needed a skin operation or something :roll:

 

[Nasrudin]

Maybe the parents are trying to overlook their faults by charging the authors of the game. I can only wonder how painful should be knowing to be responsable of the death of their son.

 

[Ex-AnGel]

Omg thats sick..
Getting money just bec..
Low... Nothing more to add.. There could be more reasons..

 

[Venom]

:shock: thats Kinda Retarded.... i bet those Chinese Parents Killed There Kid becuse he had a addiction to the game and they werent feeling teh love so They had to KILL there kid and sued the company so they could get some Money on the side Those!!!!! :evil: (BleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeP) !!!!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :|

Poor Kid never had a chance

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

:shock: thats Kinda Retarded.... i bet those Chinese Parents Killed There Kid becuse he had a addiction to the game and they werent feeling teh love so They had to KILL there kid and sued the company so they could get some Money on the side Those!!!!! :evil: (BleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeP) !!!!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :|

You are stupid.

 

[Ghost27]

i knew that yellow ppls are stupid, it is normal that they die cue of online playing, they go to PC play like 3,5 day and die, then another come and grab dead corpse of man that die few minutes earlier, drop them somwhere on ground and he start playing for 3,5 day then die, then another come and grab dead corpse....etc

 

[ElfWarfare]

Please try to keep from spamming, flaming and all possible kinds of useless and idiotic posts :roll:

 

[Flaming]

I think the chinese lost a game or something :?

 

[Capcy]

It can only happen in Amerca.

Oh wait, the Chinese are idiots too!

hmmm only to true (Im Australian) but damn they are suing blizzard for something their stupid kid done shame on them. Maybe they can sacrifice themselves that would be more idiots out of this world

 

[Ex-AnGel]

This world is sick.
Money, money, and again money.
Is this all that we are looking for?
WELL I AM NOT.
All that I have now is love and thats all I also need.

 

[cheesdude]

Who gives a crap..

Its their problem that they let their kid play it and it was their responsobility to look after him.I say its their own fault and blizzard is innocent..

 

[TheBeerinator]

Im am officially embarrased to be human now.....

common sense just cast permanent invisibility on itself.... with it went intelligence, but I think stupidity is at level 60 :roll:

 

[Raiju]

i was expecting to see some indignated comments, but i see some of you cant just see beyond all this (coincidence all WoW players)

this is not the first time it happens, i saw in the tv some really freakin shock tratments (like those who were done in the old asylums) in china for MMO addicted players (not necessary WoW)

curious, it happens mostly in asia (especially in korea and china). dunno why but they are already makinga whole program of anti-addiction, but i doubt it will work since Online Gaming is one of the msot lucrative business of there

this is another proof of how far MMO addiction can go...

 

[Protocon2000]

i knew that yellow ppls are stupid, it is normal that they die cue of online playing, they go to PC play like 3,5 day and die, then another come and grab dead corpse of man that die few minutes earlier, drop them somwhere on ground and he start playing for 3,5 day then die, then another come and grab dead corpse....etc

yellow ppls are stupid?

...heh. alot of people are like that, no matter what color of their skin...

more on MMORPG addiction...www.nickyee.com/daedalus/

 

[Gaal]

This is barely news though. Origin was sued several times, once because some player couldn't get ahead in the game and felt OSI should reimburse him for the wasted chunk of his life that he threw away witout any prompting from anyone.

There was a guy who died because he played Everquest. The truth, later discovered, was that he was suffering from depression and Everquest was his escape. One day he quit his job, bought a TON of cheetos, locked himself in a closet with his computer and went on a non-stop gaming spree. The found him dead with cheetos everywhere and his long-dead EQ character on the screen.

There hasn't been an MMO based company that hasn't been sued by someone because they think it's the game developer's fault that a certain person decided to do something stupid. And the sick thing is, to keep things from going overboard these companies will often have their own blood-sucking lawyers to reduce the case as far as possible in as short a time as possible, and then pay off whatever's left in the suing party's wish list to close it before it gets news-worthy.

More than likely the parents simply found "the evil game", as many parents call these games, on their kid's computer screen after some completely unrelated incident causing their child's death, and assumed it was due to the game because they're too lazy to look around and find out what REALLY caused the problem in the first place. The kid could have been suffering from depression as well, and got bored in Wow... so decided to see if he could respawn too. -shrugs-

I haven't read the article at all though. I just don't have time to read about stupid people doing stupid things because somehow they believe that large amounts of moeny will make them forget the loss.

 

[SeaGull1723]

Anyone can be an idiot. Period.

On the serious side, THIS is not the first time it happened. I can remember how a Korean was found dead at an internet cafe and played WoW a day straight. Another one involved a couple who went out but returned to find their baby daughter starve to death.

No matter, there will be idiots everywhere. And it's these parents that make themselves stupider than the addicted idiots.

Hope some pathetic people fall in a hole and die.

 

[antihero]

Case has no merit, well in the US it wouldn't....f*cking commis.

Dying from starvation because you didn't want to get up from playing a computer game is the most pathetic death possible.

 

[Gaius Julius]

http://www.wc3campaigns.com/ is Down! Might Wanta post it!

 

[Afronight_76]

*sigh* they always forget to read the warning lable

 

[vicky2004]

*sigh* they always forget to read the warning lable

Woooaaaah,you're gonna need a BIG magnifier so u can "read" this.Btw i bet ppl already did but still who will even believe it....Anyways Wow is dangerous just by throwing the box into somebody's head.Mine is heavier than a melon itself.

 

[MeTaL Guard]

Every time i hear someone died from MMO game addiction i thank myself i didnt buy any.

About wc3campaigns: too bad they fell, i found some good stuff there. :|

 

[Ramza]

WELL I AM NOT.
All that I have now is love and thats all I also need.

Sure... :?

Its their problem that they let their kid play it and it was their responsobility to look after him.I say its their own fault and blizzard is innocent..

I agree
Its the same as some1 lets his dog walk on a highway and if the dog dies that person accuses the car makers (Did that make sense? )

 

[james1654]

That is warning is not on the front at all. I looked. mmos are a form of escape. Anyone being bullyed or in stress or with their life in a mess can be equal with other ppl, can make freinds, can do stuff and start a new perfect life on wow where they feel no pain. The person would go into denial, and just not care about anything else, just ignoring it, and shutting themself off from everything. Nobody can bully them on wow, nobody can hurt them, they get no stress and can have fun.

Their house would get into a big mess if they lived on their own and they would not clean it (save a meter or two around the computer). They would get loads of food and water that dont need to be cooked (like gaal said about the cheetos)They would probably sleep at their desk (maybe even do /sleep comand and then log off, so they can imagine they r the wow character)

The problem is that soon enough real life would catch up with them and just before they died they would relize how foolish they had been.

The above is an example of what can happen, and i beleive in anti adiction mesures to be made, they r very important. Blizzard should definately do more to prevent adictions ( maybe have a 6 hour limit for each acount on wow, and if they relize someone is on it about 10 hours a day, they should send him an email and tell him that he ought to stop)

 

[Raiju]

WELL I AM NOT.
All that I have now is love and thats all I also need.

Sure... :?

Its their problem that they let their kid play it and it was their responsobility to look after him.I say its their own fault and blizzard is innocent..

Its the same as some1 lets his dog walk on a highway and if the dog dies that person accuses the car makers (Did that make sense? )

not that simple Ramza...blizzard will not be charged in anything for now because:

1-it is still not illegal addicting MMO games

2-if a charge comes anyway, blizzard will be responsable by a minor part of it, the sh!t will go all to the local distributor wanna bet?

3-good old bribes...remenber that blizz get a obscene amount of money with WoW, MMo is the recipe for success nowadays

but if you think in the moral part of the history, you would see some guilt in blizz, i mean, the guys who produce cocaina or any other drug KNOW they are making lethal addicting products, so they can be responsible for the poster deaths. same thing for blizz. but money moves the wheel of the world, and like i said before, MMO is the recipe for succes nowadays...

better get used to it, this is not the first time it happens, nor the last...

 

[Ramza]

The above is an example of what can happen, and i beleive in anti adiction mesures to be made, they r very important. Blizzard should definately do more to prevent adictions ( maybe have a 6 hour limit for each acount on wow, and if they relize someone is on it about 10 hours a day, they should send him an email and tell him that he ought to stop)

THats a great idea, but Blizzard cant force peepz to stop from gaming. There should be a line in the law saying its forbidden to computer more then 4 hours a day or sumthing. (They cant check if they play single player but thats alot more boring so they will stop anyway)

 

[Ramza]

Quote:
Its their problem that they let their kid play it and it was their responsobility to look after him.I say its their own fault and blizzard is innocent..

I agree
Its the same as some1 lets his dog walk on a highway and if the dog dies that person accuses the car makers (Did that make sense? icon_razz.gif )


not that simple Ramza...blizzard will not be charged in anything for now because:

I know. I agreed with him. I think Blizzard will not be charged either.

 

[Ramza]

Quote:
Its their problem that they let their kid play it and it was their responsobility to look after him.I say its their own fault and blizzard is innocent..

I agree
Its the same as some1 lets his dog walk on a highway and if the dog dies that person accuses the car makers (Did that make sense? icon_razz.gif )


not that simple Ramza...blizzard will not be charged in anything for now because:

I know. I agreed with him. I think Blizzard will not be charged either.

 

[TheBeerinator]

HOW STUPID ARE THESE PEOPLE!?!?!!?!

This will never ever stand in court because its the parents fault for letting the kids play the game soo much until their minds said they were in the fantasy world...

 

[VGsatomi]

Sorry, that would actually require "parental responsibility" which is now banned by law in some countries....or it least it seems to have been. :?
-VGsatomi

 

[N00byStance]

The above is an example of what can happen, and i beleive in anti adiction mesures to be made, they r very important. Blizzard should definately do more to prevent adictions ( maybe have a 6 hour limit for each acount on wow, and if they relize someone is on it about 10 hours a day, they should send him an email and tell him that he ought to stop)

THats a great idea, but Blizzard cant force peepz to stop from gaming. There should be a line in the law saying its forbidden to computer more then

4

hours a day or sumthing. (They cant check if they play single player but thats alot more boring so they will stop anyway)

Man, what are you talking about? I spend at least 4 hours a day. And I'm not gonna kill myself or die due to starvation. Only idiots can let themself die in the front of the PC... because they were too lazy to get something to eat. If someone wants to die due to MMO playing, let him die. If someone wants to drink to blind, let him drink. His choice. You're kinda "mortal ranger", who think that HE knows what's better for somebody. I don't like such people.

BTW, how long was he playing till he died? A week? At least 2-3 days, otherwise how could he die?

 

[Cyberatog]

Heh, Im sorry, but I cant weep for someone who took suicide without a jolly good reason.

I dont play games more than 1-4 hours per day, and never all those in a row, thats purely boring.

Last time I heard someone sue a company because people died of games was the russian suicide cult that they said had played too much Final Fantasy (I laughed till I couldnt breath) And that was four years ago so I guess I havent been listening to this in some time. I think humans are getting more advanced techologyvise but that doesnt seem to have anything to do with intelligence. Thats why Im happy you cant sue people here because with such laws people dont care if what theyve done has to do with plain idiocy, as long as they can make a buck.

Hell, why not be a member of the majority? BURN THE WITCH! BURN THE WITCH! SHE TURNED ME INTO A NEWT!

Parents should know that games are rarely educational. Dont let your kids stay staring at the screen like it was some sort of robot teacher Youve bought!

Any people who remember when people died in the sofa watching TV? No? Well, that was far before you were born.
History is repeating itself, I guess people died of radio once, and books before that, and reading runes before that, and reading papyrus before that, and looking at pictures on rocks before that, and listening to Shamans telling stories before that...

 

[Mecheon]

Once again the parent's fault

Hell, MOST things in life are the parents fault. Lets wait to see what happans. I'm predicting legal dispute

 

[vicky2004]

NEWSFLASH!!!!!

_________________________________________
Parental Control
_________________________________________


Kids Beware!!!Btw now it's up for the parents....

 

[Ramza]

BTW, how long was he playing till he died? A week? At least 2-3 days, otherwise how could he die?
_________________

I read a man died cuz he played 50 hours without breaks.
If u dont drink u die within 3 days or something?
But those freaks also dont sleep, so put those 2 together and u die withing 2 days

 

[MeTaL Guard]

Well, i play about 8 hours a day if my bro isnt in home, and i always remember to get something to eat/drink and i go sleep max. at 11:00 PM, not later. And i know im a computer addict, yes. :roll:

 

[DarkShadow]

Our funny government decided to make a law making so called "killer games" (basically all fps-games) illegal. Let's so how far they'll get with it.

 

[XelNaga]

I normaly never post. But this is worth it!

I cant belive that poeple are actualy backing them. I know the world is full of morons but where is the limit!
I dont remember who said it but on page one some one said somthing about the parents killing there kid just so thay can sue blizzard. Then some one said that was stupid. Step back for a second. 2 Parents are sueing a company blaming the death of there son on them. now THATS stupid. Killing a loved one for insurence money happens all the time!

If theres an anti-addiction "group" then why is there not an Anti-moron group? Now that would make the world a better place!

 

[blademasterEXO]

man, who is stupid enough 2 copy a game scene or something. Everyone knows its ridiculous, especially if it involves on jumping of a roof or somethin. But still, its not nice 2 talk about dead people especially if u mock him or somethin.

Hope this incident does not bring down world's most famous game creator... Blizzard!

 

[Matt540 sheep god!]

God wtf do people hate games so much?

Sheesh ive seen more people angry over a f*cking monoply game. God how many times do I have to explain it after my video games dont cause violence debate: Games do NOT cause aggressive behavior. For those parents outraged and spamming vg to get me banned, visit http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/05/0809videogames.html, or http://sweetness.typepad.com/game_on/2004/02/bbc_article_gam.html. God do people understand its A F*CKING GAME FOR ENTERTAINMENT!?!?!? GOD MY PARENTS DONT EVEN UNDERSTAND IM NOT ADICTECD TO WC3!!! God 1 child out of chinas 1 billion....yeah it will make all the difference in the world, since the kid would invent time travel, marry bill gates's daughter and be the richest man alive, and unite the planets in world, solar, and universal peace....god every1 else in china has the same chance of doing it as every 1 else in china: 0/9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

 

[gigawing2]

Jumping off a roof reminds me of the kid who committed suicide after listening to Ozzy. There's nothing in WOW that says "Please re-enact this scene in real life." By age 13 you should know how gravity works.

That said, Blizzard is far from innocent...$30 million a month is a LOT of money in software, and with that cash, they should be able to fix bugs like displaing the monster hitpoints in WC3 or alphabetically listing the maps. Blizzard can do 3D graphics pretty well but letters and numbers still trip them up.

 

[GruntsnRaidersGG]

Heh, Im sorry, but I cant weep for someone who took suicide without a jolly good reason.

I dont play games more than 1-4 hours per day, and never all those in a row, thats purely boring.

Last time I heard someone sue a company because people died of games was the russian suicide cult that they said had played too much Final Fantasy (I laughed till I couldnt breath) And that was four years ago so I guess I havent been listening to this in some time. I think humans are getting more advanced techologyvise but that doesnt seem to have anything to do with intelligence. Thats why Im happy you cant sue people here because with such laws people dont care if what theyve done has to do with plain idiocy, as long as they can make a buck.

Hell, why not be a member of the majority? BURN THE WITCH! BURN THE WITCH! SHE TURNED ME INTO A NEWT!

Parents should know that games are rarely educational. Dont let your kids stay staring at the screen like it was some sort of robot teacher Youve bought!

Any people who remember when people died in the sofa watching TV? No? Well, that was far before you were born.
History is repeating itself, I guess people died of radio once, and books before that, and reading runes before that, and reading papyrus before that, and looking at pictures on rocks before that, and listening to Shamans telling stories before that...

insightful?
maybe its a good thing he died.
i mean, your life gotta suck if you stay two days straight playing a video game, death is a liberation..

 

[ChirusHighwind]

Death and Suicide

Most of you claim these people to be stupid for their actions.

In many cases, the death of a loved one can cause extreme stress and distraught in a person. This loosens their reasoning, and they are depressed and rash. I can see why the parents would sue Blizzard - they feel so much at a loss they are trying to take their anger out on the company that made the game their child was imitating. However, World of Warcraft was not the cause of the childs death.

Also, a person does not need to be stupid to die from starvation while playing a video game. I myself know that when you are depressed, you feel like nothing in the world is worth doing. Eating becomes unnecessary. I suspect that when the person thought about eating, he was too weak to get up and eat.

Great, deep feelings can sway a persons reasoning, causing them to make stupid judgements. That is a simple fact.

 

[Hellguard.]

......

How could you file a lawsuit for crying out loud its a game my sister can tell the diffrence my 8 year old reltive can tell the diffrence from, a gmae and real life its a game not everything is real for exmpale you got undead walking around do you see that in real life?No i dont you got orcs as well iv never heard of orcs being real and a ummm i dont think theres a moive in WOW where soemone jumps off soemthing are anything the can be reacted and what did this kid jump off if it was a small house then thats kid was plian dumb if it was a three story house then well that kid is insane.ima warcraft fan and stuff im even submited to websites and well i played WOW and Warcraft 2 and 3 and expaions and didblo and i did not jump of anything becase of it i did not renact anything tehy are games not real life and well i support blizzard in alot of theings and i think they just think they want mnoey to amke therelifes better this si long but im not done. blizzard iis very good i love there work yeah and they let peopel paly online on WC3 for free yeah there chargre for WOW becase they need room to keep all stats and invotys and poeple so your like renting a home for your person well aynoen way aback to the point its there fault for letting the kid play in the frist palce if they did not then t he kid would of never done things liek this they should make sure the kiud undderstands the diffrence from games and life.......thats all

 

[Josh007CL]

This whole thing is bs. First off the addiction part. You cannot blame WoW for addicting people, because even if it wasn't made, people would still be addicted to other games and THE Internet itself!

Now to the point of the kid. Why would reeinact a scene from a game??? Someone who does that deserves to die! And he was 13 was he? Wow he is stupid! Apparently the world has some very stupid people, who shouldnt have played it in the first place if he wanted to live... And doesn't blizzard have a terms agreement for WoW? Like saying, We are not responsible if you hurt yourself in this game... IE: seizure, etc, or somethnig stupid like jumping to your death! Guess Im done talking, I hope I filled your minds with something to think about.

 

[Matt540 sheep god!]

Most of you claim these people to be stupid for their actions.

In many cases, the death of a loved one can cause extreme stress and distraught in a person. This loosens their reasoning, and they are depressed and rash. I can see why the parents would sue Blizzard - they feel so much at a loss they are trying to take their anger out on the company that made the game their child was imitating. However, World of Warcraft was not the cause of the childs death.

Also, a person does not need to be stupid to die from starvation while playing a video game. I myself know that when you are depressed, you feel like nothing in the world is worth doing. Eating becomes unnecessary. I suspect that when the person thought about eating, he was too weak to get up and eat.

Great, deep feelings can sway a persons reasoning, causing them to make stupid judgements. That is a simple fact.
_________________

Well to bad. Depression is temporary. Its death thats permanent. Sadness may seem horrible, but thats no reason to sue. If that were true, somebody could sue the police for their sons death if he was a hostage. Or the mayor. Or even another hostage. Its an endless chain that will never link together ever. Simply put, just learn, like me, to tune out the greif and sadness...I have suffered from depression countless times, and im smart enough to stay with my life

 

[Nerull8883]

wow my friend Gloomfrost showed my this a few days ago and franky its sad i have played WoW and true it is a bit addicting but if a kid desides to try and act it out that is his problem and i dont think blizzard should suffer for it. I meen think about it any smart kid would know the diference between reality and fantisy. unfortunatly i belive they will get away with it because of the amount of people that agree with it but honastly i know that if i had a kid that died trying to play WoW in real life i wouldnt be sueing Blizzard id be at his funeral instead

 

[Fmacgt]

The truth

Actually, the game he has played is not WoW, but WarCraft3. There was no WoW hen he died.......