Blizzard in wrongfull death lawsuit

[Toucan]

Parents of a boy in china are claiming that he was killed while attempting to re-enact a scene from World of Warcraft.

As a result they have started a lawsuit against Blizzard over his death.

It all sounds silly, but there is growing support from Chinas anti-internet addiction advocate Zhang Chunliang and California's Cyberaddiction Agency (yes there really is such a thing, scary)

The Chinese government is also starting in on the act, they want blizzard to put in place a time limit that one can play via a fatigue system. After 3 hours of play your character(s) will loose 50% of there strength/powers, after 5 hours of play your character(s) will loose almost all of there strength/powers, only after 5 consecutive hours of not being logged in will your character(s) be returned to full strength/power.


http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27829

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14551&hed=Youth%E2%80%99s+Death+Linked+to+Game&sector=Regions&subsector=Asia

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14613&hed=Gaming+Death%26nbsp%3bStirs+Debate

[GrassDragon]

3 hours?! :O

I don't play WoW, but I play Planetside an MMOFPS, and I can tell you 3 hours is nothing. Blaming games for your kid doing something stupid and dying is lame :\

[L2_1989]

Moving around and get tired is okay, but chatting and doing almost nothing and you lose your powers is nonsense.
I hate the idea of blaming games for a person's death, but that's the government's way, even for the Chinese communists.

[GenocideAlive]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiice. It was only a matter of time before something like this came up. Anyway, there's no way in hell Blizzard will even pay attention to this garbage and China and whomever else doesn't have a fucking leg to stand on. Internet users will go on, WoW will probably benefit from the publicity, and idiots will continue to find something stupid to kill themselves over.

[GrassDragon]

Just read the article (didn't have time earlier), and pulled out this line:

Many Chinese parents contend that their children spend hours gaming in Internet cafes at the risk of their health, work, and school.
How can you blame your kid's death on a game when you let them spend hours at internet cafes?

[Moser]

Congrats China! ...I think that kid got a little to involved in the game, it's his own fault. Besides, I thought Chinese people were supposed to be like.. uber smart.

As everybody else in this thread said, I hate the idea of people blaming video games on death and violence. Thats just the easy way to get out of it all. Did anybody here see the special show played on G4tv about video game violence?

[Modred]

Although Xinhua reported the game involved was the MMORPG World of Warcraft, Pacific Epoch said the suit blamed Blizzard’s Warcraft game, a real-time strategy game. World of Warcraft had not reached China by the time of the boy’s death in December 2004, according to the researchers.

Blizzard Entertainment®, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®, its subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has surpassed 1.5 million paying customers in China - just a month following the game's commercial launch on June 7, 2005.

So the kid was playing WarIII, not WoW. Or else the internet cafes were using pirated, imported versions of WoW. Either way, the case would fall flat in a US court. Anyone know anything on the laws regarding this stuff in China?

[Toucan]

I saw that, think it seems quite odd to. I thought you guys would be interested in these articles and wanted to point them out, as to what the boy was actually playing or how the hell he managed to actually get himself killed is a bit vague.
But as I heard about it down here in Oz, maybe when Fenguin comes on he might know a little more about it.

[DragonPaladin]

Dragonpaladin does not wish to make any comment relating the Chinese government or Blizzard for fear that one of them will hunt him down and pizzaown him. [/disclaimer]

Well, I see a couple things wrong with this.

First:

1.) The kid killed was an act of another human being, not as a direct result of Blizzard.
2.) Video game companies can not be sued for this. I.E. We can not sue auto companies when we crash a car. We can not sue game companies when people use the games to 'kill' or 'harm' themselves or other people.
3.) The scene being reenacted was a choice of the child himself, therefore he assumes the risk.

[hammocksleeper]

The Chinese government is also starting in on the act, they want blizzard to put in place a time limit that one can play via a fatigue system. After 3 hours of play your character(s) will loose 50% of there strength/powers, after 5 hours of play your character(s) will loose almost all of there strength/powers, only after 5 consecutive hours of not being logged in will your character(s) be returned to full strength/power.

Wow, a fatigue system sounds good to me. It might not cause y'all's deaths, but y'all really do spend too much time on those games. Plus, fatigue is just realistic in general. not to mention the potential for increased revenue from monthly susbsrciptions due to the increased lapse of time between playing sessions.

[Moser]

Congrats Moser! On being a racist sack of crap.

Sorry, probably a bit unneccesary. But I believe the correct term would have been steriotypical.

[Sikawtic]

Does GenocideAlive remind anybody else of Ole?

[GenocideAlive]

Sorry, probably a bit unneccesary. But I believe the correct term would have been steriotypical.
Actually, any sterEotypes applied to race are dubbed "racism". Look it up if you're confused; in the meantime, don't try to assign your bigoted comments less appropriate names.

[Whiteknight]

Please calm down and stop this, GenocideAlive and Moser.

In any case, what scene was he re-enacting? Where did it say "You must jump from a large height in real life?"

[frazz]

Wow. The horrible frivolous lawsuits of the U.S. have spread all the way to china.

[Aquarian]

Althought the idea oh putting the time limit and losing powers are quite good,still,blaming BLizzard for the death is just not right...

Does GenocideAlive remind anybody else of Ole?

OMG,if he was,I'll be pissin' in me pants right now.

[bluemicrobyte]

The non gamers: DOWN WITH GAMES!

The gamers: You don't even know how to play a game.....

[DeathGhost]

Wow, a fatigue system sounds good to me. It might not cause y'all's deaths, but y'all really do spend too much time on those games. Plus, fatigue is just realistic in general.

If you were going to make it more realistic then you would try making it instead of only 8 hours of play ou put it at something more reasonable in real life. something like 12 hours for your character to decrease the char stats. and then you could probably keep it at 5 hours.

[loads_of_fun]

The Chinese government is also starting in on the act, they want blizzard to put in place a time limit that one can play via a fatigue system. After 3 hours of play your character(s) will loose 50% of there strength/powers, after 5 hours of play your character(s) will loose almost all of there strength/powers, only after 5 consecutive hours of not being logged in will your character(s) be returned to full strength/power.that is so f***in un-fair even if i dont play
WoW, what if that do that to SC :o
well at least bliz wont do that (hopefuly)

i mean hell some times i play SC for 36
hours stright (minus eating/drinking/going
to the can)

[Xenon]

To all of you making fools of yourselves: I bite my thumb at thee.

[Sikawtic]

Did you bite your thumb at me sir?

[Xenon]

No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.

[KexMex]

Whoa. I don't play WoW, but I have had some experience(Spelling correct?) of WoW fanatics, and they sit there for like, 8-12 hours each day. This'd ruin their life... :(

[blaxican_templar]

this is bull**it!!! How can you blame blizzrd because your kid was probably a stupid no freind wanna be warrior ass clown, and pretended to be a dwarf? damn man, that really pisses me off. Its like people who blame the WWE cause there stupid kids our power bombing each other through tables, and they parylize themselves. How is it the companies fault if your kids to retarded to know the difference between fantasy and reality?

[DragonPaladin]

Wow, a fatigue system sounds good to me. It might not cause y'all's deaths, but y'all really do spend too much time on those games. Plus, fatigue is just realistic in general. not to mention the potential for increased revenue from monthly susbsrciptions due to the increased lapse of time between playing sessions.

See, now there's a man thinking for the game makers and for the activists.

[GenocideAlive]

Yeah, I don't really see how Blizzard wouldn't benefit from a fatigue system. But hey, nobody asked me, and MMORPGs are sort of meant to be played that way. Has anybody ever heard of a MUD?

[Toucan]

Ok, I'll bite.

Whats a MUD, GA?

[kongurous]

Ok, I'll bite.

Whats a MUD, GA?


A MUD is a Multi-user dungeon. It was pretty much the first version of the MMORPG. Most, if not all, are text-based.

[Morkeliph]

We should be thanking Blizzard for taking that kid out of the gene pool.

[GrassDragon]

We should be thanking Blizzard for taking that kid out of the gene pool.
Here's a man with some sense.

[Sikawtic]

Morkeliph: lmao, all hail blizzard!