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."

Relavent link

[suso (153703)]

Fun toy banned because of three stupid dead kids [theonion.com]

Re:Relavent link

[IAmTheDave (746256)]

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.

Dear Parents...

[charlesbakerharris (623282)]

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.

Anyone else see the irony in this?

[gcnaddict (841664)]

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?

Re:Anyone else see the irony in this?

[Blackwulf (34848)]

iD has been sued several times by the victim's families of school shootings. Maybe not for Columbine, but they were sued in connection with the Peducah, KY shootings, along with Sony, Square (for FF7), Activision, and some retailers. Kinda like the Strickland v. Sony lawsuit in Fayette, Alabama, but that's more against GTA than Doom.

Darwinism?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Or is it Intelligent Design?

You be the judge.

safety warnings

[ilf (193006)]

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 [bash.org]

Re:safety warnings

[prichardson (603676)]

I really want to clear this up because the likes of Jay Leno have really twisted the story.

The McDonalds in question had repeated complaints about the temperature of their coffee, and the woman burned wasn't just burned a little. She recieved third degree burns on her thighs. They knew their coffee was too hot and they didn't do anything about it.

McDonald's Coffee

[Pyromage (19360)]

Mod parent up - more people need to know what happened.

First, the person burned was the *passenger*. Secondly, the car was stopped at the time for her to put some cream & sugar in it. Third, McDonald's coffee is served 40 degrees hotter than that of other fast food restaurants. The temperature that other restaurants serve it at *would not* cause third degree burns.

And the very large sum of money that she was awarded initially totalled less than a day's coffee sales for McDonalds. And that was reduced significantly, as well.

I don't like the comparison, because McDonald's did screw up, and this kid screwed up. Blizzard just made a kickass game.

Re:safety warnings

[Surt (22457)]

I don't understand. I've never had a problem drying cats in the microwave.

My favorite recipe for dried cat:
1 40 oz cat.
1/2 oz orange peel.
1/4 cup mustard.

Shave the cat if not purchased pre-shaved or hairless. Wash cat in disenfectant soap and warm water (warning, many cats do not like water and may become agitated).

Coat cat liberally in mustard, then garnish with orange peel. Dry on low power in microwave for about 50 minutes at 300 watt power (check your microwave manual, microwave power will vary). Dry for additional 10 minutes if cat is still moist or squishy to the touch.

Dice and serve in a bowl or party tray.

Stupid kid

[garylian (870843)]

Why didn't he cast invulnerability, like the other kid that jumped? Oh, he was only a warrior? What a moron!

These kids today... They just don't read the game manual and class abilities in game.

Maybe it was a Chinese translation error?

Mario bros.

[El_Muerte_TDS (592157)]

Please raise your hand if you ever tried to smash a brick wall reenacting a scene from Mario Bros.

Dumbass!

Re:Mario bros.

[jcorno (889560)]

Please raise your hand if you ever tried to smash a brick wall reenacting a scene from Mario Bros.

It left me paralyzed from the neck down, you insensitive clod.

Re:Mario bros.

[zippthorne (748122)]

You're supposed to punch while you jump. Not even Mario broke bricks with his *head*.

A time bomb for the game industry?

[DingerX (847589)]

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 [slashdot.org]. 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.

If you get your penis knob stuck in a CD.......

[CyricZ (887944)]

Suppose a man wishes to have sexual intercourse with a video game CD, and proceeds to place his penis into the hole in the centre. Now let us suppose that while thrusting, the CD manages to tear his cock's knob off. Should the video game designers and the CD pressers be held liable for creating a dangerous product, one so heinous that it resulted in a man losing his glans penis?

There is a point.

[jellomizer (103300)]

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.

Sue The Parents

[przemeklach (905526)]

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.

This is starting to piss me off.

[Xarius (691264)]

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

Governing Gameplay from on high...

[foniksonik (573572)]

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...

An interesting letter from a parent

[Absolut187 (816431)]

Although I disagree with the conclusion, some interesting arguments in this letter [senate.gov].

Personally, I approve of the controls on selling violent games to minors.
But I don't approve of liability for game studios when the parents have purchased a violent game - ignoring the rating - without evaluating the game themselves.

Protecting your child from harm is a parent's responsibility, and not just in the video game arena. It's your job to make sure that your kid wears a helmet - and not Schwinn's responsibility. It's your job to make sure your kid doesn't stick a fork in the electrical outlet - not National Power's. It's your job to teach your kid right from wrong. I would more willingly accept civil and criminal liability of parents of murderous children than liability of artists.

Do we really want liability for companies who make violent movies?
Yes? Ok, no more movies about Vietnam, WW2, or Iraq. Oh, and no more news coverage either, could get sued. We will all just have to trust our righteous leader that the war is going great. We don't want our kids to see it on TV. We don't want to hear any social commentary if it's bloody. We don't have time to keep violent images and games away from our children. That's the government's job.

It's sad when people die, but blame the right people: The murderous little bastard's parents.

Re:An interesting letter from a parent

[v1 (525388)]

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.

maybe the kid just fell?

[dindi (78034)]

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.

Re:This Is Good News...

[MobyTurbo (537363)]

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.

Re:Good luck with that one

[fwitness (195565)]

At first I wanted to state that Columbine happened way before "The Matrix". Upon further cursory inspection, it looks like the Columbine massacre [wikipedia.org] happened less than a month after the theatrical release of "The Matrix". [retailsoup.com] I never realized how close these two events really were. Interesting.