Gamer Sues Over Being Addicted to MMO Gaming
A gamer has filed a lawsuit against publisher NCSoft, claiming that he is unable to function because of his Lineage II addiction.
Craig Smallwood says he has played a total of 20,000 hours of Lineage II over a period of five years, from 2004 to 2009. Smallwood believes his addiction has affected his quality of life and alleges in the suit that he is "unable to function independently in usual daily activities such as getting up, getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends."
Smallwood is citing negligence in his claim for an unspecified amount of damages and says in the suit, according to Wired, that NCSoft should have issued a warning with the game, cautioning users about its addictive nature.
Wired reports that U.S. District Judge Alan Kay refused to dismiss parts of Smallwood’s complaint this month.
"In light of plaintiff’s allegations, the court finds that plaintiff has stated a claim for both negligence and gross negligence," the suit cites Kay as saying.
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.
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.
If that would pass, Blizzard would have to pass on WoW in US.
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.
what a loser................
might as well sue time warner cause i say i am addicted to cable tv and the internet.
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?