Gamer Sues Over Being Addicted to MMO Gaming

Smallwood... lol.

Haha, oh man, that's just weak. As if he REALLY would have listened to a warning on the box, or at the intro of the game.

Now where I CAN agree that these guys should get in trouble, is that they're trying to addict us using psychology tricks. Great game design is one thing, but using psychiatrist and other experts to study the weaknesses of our brain, creating game elements around that, and purposefully getting us sucked in, that's messed up. Make a great game, have us get "hooked", don't make a game that TRIES to literally addict us.

i plan to sue Tom's for making me read this crap...I am also unable to turn off the computer and stop like the "plaintiff" above.

Just what we need. One idiot that can't figure out that nobody is forcing you to play the game, then next every game will have to have the time limit kickoff so you can only play X amount of hours a day. Someone needs to disconnect this guys Internet and power and tell him to get a real job to earn his way back into gaming like normal people. Enjoyment is supposed to be done in moderation.

Now I'm gonna go sue verizon because I can't stop texting!

Oh I see, can I sue Pepsi now for being addicted to Mtn Dew all these years because it made me chubby around the wasteline? Is that how it works? ...What a Dumb A**!

this is ridiculous....this should be thrown out and filed under common sense and stupidity.

I hope the judgetells him to grow up, get a job, and get on with your life.

Hmmmm....20000 hours over 5 years, that makes 4000 hours a year. Divide that by 365 and you get 11 hours per day

LoL
If that would pass, Blizzard would have to pass on WoW in US.

LOL so can you sue mcdonalds for getting fat?

so if there are ~8700 hours in a year, over 5 years that's 43500 hours. he's spent almost half of the last 5 years playing this game? i think he should sue his family and friends, not the game.

Accountability is failing.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! This boy should be procecuted for being an idiot. Not only is it his fault for playing 11 bloody hours a day for 5 years, but how is that the games fault? Did the game threaten him if he didnt play? This should fail hard...Doing anything for 11 hours a day for 5 years tends to drain your social life a bit

People sure do love to sue...

the court ruling on this better be to refund his purchase price and delete the game from his HDD and ban his account. i only added the refund his purchase price because of the amount of publicity this is likely to generate. all publicity is good, but this kid isn't worth a penny more then stated hahahahaha.

MMOs are addicting because lots of their players finally have a place they feel comfortable and their personality finally shows. The develop friends and stuff. Then you start to accept it as real and reject your basic responsibilities in life because you enjoy the game more.


Basically, it's inherent to the game genre and lots of studies compare the addiction to some of the most addicting street drugs we have today.

His only social life would be the people he plays with. I've been addicted to games before, but 20,000 hours?! That's just insane. Someone get this man laid for once.

I think he should sue his brain for being so stupid.

small woodie is a moron who should grow up and leave his mommmy's home.
what a loser................

might as well sue time warner cause i say i am addicted to cable tv and the internet.

Don't discount this young mans claims. My first roommate in college started playing Everquest for hours, sometimes skipping classes he didn't like. Then he started cutting more classes, going out and partying all night, sleeping during the day, then he started smoking pot and taking ecstasy. He dropped out after his first year, and started working tech support at a call center. If only he could have known that playing online games had led to his downfall, he could have sued Sony.

Of course, maybe both this guy and my roommate were just dumbasses and the games had nothing to do with it. But if that were the case, certainly no lawyer would ever have taken on such a frivolous lawsuit, right?

I think i'm going to sue the porn industry for my low sperm count.. if it wasn't for them I wouldn't have a callas on my hand and would be able to get girls pregnant but now i'll never know what its like to be a father...

Hey, Jane... fixed your title.

Well i was actually thinking to get some real info here, but just got a facepalm lmao.

If lets say he would say that 'The Game' requires one to be in it or maintaining it for 'this and this much of reward' in game, etc etc, then one would say that they made me do it,i had no chioce.


what did i just wrote?

Somebody need to unplug this guys internet connection!

Smallwood is suing Ncsoft because his socal life sucks....

Maybe he can marry a character from the game....

It's worth noting that the reason this has gone past the initial screening is that in the initial phase of litigation, the allegations (that the producers know or should have known about and failed to warn about the addictive nature of the game, the game caused harm, etc.) are taken as true. This is a Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. The next phase will be a motion for summary judgment, where the standard is whether no material issue of fact exists for a jury to decide upon. It's also likely that the plaintiff will past muster here, given the nature of negligence litigation.

Why are you laughing? His name was much worse before he had it legally changed from littleprick.

Oh so this is news in a country where a theif can sue you if he hurts himself breaking into your house.

Although he never called enough is enough, the companies do make a purposeful attempt to addict users. The game should be 'so good' that I don't want to stop playing it, but it should not be psychologically designed to addict me. That's my point of view, however I've already made the choice to stay away from MMO's because I know I can't 'just play' an MMO because it turns into an addiction. In the end, YOU have to know and be responsible for your limits. Although I would like to see the deceptive game design stop.

somebody remind this fellow not to reproduce. this is proof that human stupidity can rival God's power.