Another bizarre story from the gaming world. Last week I posted about Malaysian Government Cracks Down on Gaming[/url]
The parents of a 13 year-old boy who died falling from a building are suing World of Warcraft developer Blizzard, claiming that the massively-multiplayer online game is to blame for their son’s death.
According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, the parents, who reside in the city of Tianjin, claim the boy jumped to his death whilst re-enacting a scene from the game. They are supported by Zhang Chunliang, a well-known activist whose campaign seeks to highlight the dangers of Internet addiction.
Chunliang, who says he has talked to more than 60 parents whose children have become addicted to online gaming, is now set to file suit against Blizzard over the boy’s death.
There are more than 1.5 million World of Warcraft players in China – making up more than a third of the game’s worldwide subscriber base, even though the game only went on sale there in June. The9 acts as Blizzard’s partner in the region, providing localisation and support services for the game.
Neither Blizzard nor The9 were available for comment.
Source: GameIndustry.biz
So maybe a little more control is a good idea?
I think it’s pretty dumb though, really people need to teach their kids what is real and what isn’t, and how not be fucking retarded.
Sounds a little too much like the American trend of “OMFG YOU BREATHED MY AIR I’M GOING TO SUE YOU”.
I’ve seen some other weird shit happen because of gaming too like Chinese online gamer gets life for murder[/url] after stabbing someone over a virtual sword..
BEIJING – A Shanghai online game player who stabbed a competitor to death for selling his cyber-sword has been given a suspended death sentence, which in effect means life imprisonment, state media said on Wednesday.
Whats going on with the world eh?
WoW is a freakingly good game (read: addictive). If you love your friends and family, stay away!!!
(Well, having said that, i’m looking for WoW players from Malaysia who want to form a guild on Frostmourne! – so contact me!!)
haha…but it is really getting out of hand…..send your kids out there and play some sports and break some bones…….too much of anything is not good
dumb parents are everywhere. I would moonstuck all of them if I could.!
that’s crazy. people should learn to be responsible for their own actions.
A sign telling u dun play too much DOTA. hahaha
People seem to be getting better at finding scapegoats.
yeah rite. blame on the game. Where were u when ur son play the game? don’t beat them. Join them
Aizuddin Danian: awwwwww….i am in argent Dawn, RP server….i like “rping” without the fear of picking flowers and a 60 horde troll fireball “ing” your ass…….
anyway, i have 2 lvl 60s and a whole lots of rank and armour there….hehehe..you might wanna join us ?
about the news is really stupid. every game have people jumping off buildings or tall object.
so back in the 60, playing pac man, when i suddenly chew an apple and decides to eat a human alive, does it mean i am connected and blames on pac man /?
Yeah, I kill someone, and I blame the knife, not me.
Fair enough.
It’s always the game companies taking the blame. *sigh*
I think we are responsible for our own actions, if ya can’t tell between real and virtual, gotta get a head chk. Too bad, there are plenty of distrubed dudes out there who are convinced otherwise.
geez… its the kids fault dammit. dont blame the game!!! grrr…
aiz, interested in joining a top ranked guild, horde side, on Gorgonash? we eat alliance for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper, heheh…
First of all, are we (the non-malays, that is) really to believe that the government will abolish or tone down the New Economic Policy in the near future? We must be realistic, if you have the right to buy a property at a discount and have scholarships for your children, would you let go of these rights?
With Chinese population dwindling in Malaysia, what needs to be done depends on the Chinese themselves.
There is nothing wrong with the brain drain. In fact, we should encourage our children to move to Singapore, Taiwan, China etc. if we disagree with Malaysian government policies that are based on race and religion.
When it comes to the matter of the dwindling number of Chinese Malaysians, we should talk about quality, not quantity.
We should resolve why the Chinese-Malaysian population is reducing. Official figures have more than one million Chinese Malaysians emigrating over the past 25 years. Why did they emigrate? I am sure the government knows.
Straight A students can’t get scholarships or university places. Nothing new, it is been that way for the past 35 years. Nowadays, even enlightened malay Malaysians are speaking up on this injustice. The MCA and Gerakan? Busy making money from private colleges.
What is so great about having TAR College or Utar which took more than 35 years of begging? Why should it be so difficult to set up an independent university when we have scores of public ones?
While we push young talented people away, other countries notably Singapore, the US and Australia welcome them with open arms.
Is it logical that we drive away our young talented ones and then invite retired Mat Sallehs to live here and exploit our low-cost of living?
Singapore’s success in particular owes much to these ex-Malaysians or their descendants including Hon Sui Sen, Goh Keng Swee, Goh Chok Tong, just to name a few.
About 30 percent of top management in both Singapore’s government and corporate sector are ex-Malaysians. We export them so that Singapore can compete with, and then whack us.
Korea and Taiwan, both way behind us in the 70s and 80s are now way ahead. Thailand is breathing down our necks.
Sadly, there is just no integrity in the nation’s leadership.
this is so non-related, if you feel so strongly about this issue, do start a damn blog…no need to insinuate hatred among the non-malays and get other blogs into trouble in the process. you’re a stupid fucker
it is just outrageous to think that they could actually attempt to sue Blizzard over a game since proper ratings are blatantly written on the boxes when they purchase.
but however, i would suggest that certain violent games have a “viewer discretion is advised” warning or WWE’s “dont try this at home” just before the game loads.
Isn’t China trying to reduce their population level? Then this killing games should help them out, ain’it =p
I pity the boy for having greedy parents that make use of his death to gain. It’s pretty obvious that no one is THAT stupid.
I really hate it when games are used as a convenient scapegoat. In the case of this kid, his parents are clearly avoiding the real issues.
For starters, they should be asking themselves why their child was compelled to jump of a tall building? Why did he feel so strongly about re-enacting a scene from WoW?
Sounds to me like his house wasn’t a very happy place to call home. Sure, games are addictive, but surely not to the point where people would naturally abandon common sense.
The only way a game could possibly have that sort of effect on a kid is if he has little, if any, support from significant people in the real world – his parents, for example.
In the first place, how did his parents know that he was re-enacting a scene from the game? Did he explicitly leave a note saying, “Mama, papa… I’m re-enacting a scene from my favourite game, World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment. There’s this part where I made my dwarf jump of a block of apartments – it was so fun in the game, much more significant than fighting monsters, taking part in quests and buying goods from merchants. Yes, my dear parents, I always jump off tall buildings in this game. Say goodbye to my in-game comrades for me.”
Dude.
I have a better idea. Why not print a few thousand copies of this post of yours, and go around town pasting them along every street corner – make sure you leave your name and contact details so that your supporters can contact you.
Then, contact some of the ‘journalists’ at the Malay Mail and get them to run a story on you pasting these signs all around KL.
I guess what I’m trying to say is…
Chill-lah, brader…
dude. u r off the scale. *slap slap* wake up
Hey, Blizzard is a great Game Designing company. They created multiple award winning games such as Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo. Those stupid China kids should be slap across the face to wake them up from their realm of fantasies. Bunch of morons, especially the 13 year old. He’s old enough to even think of what is real or not. I’ve been to the WCG 2005 in Suntec city singapore, and there’s even a 5 year old player. WTF!? 5 year old can even play and didnt jump from a building also.. Stupid. If they sue Blizzard they’re really stupid because clearly they won’t win any stupid lawsuit.
It’s amazing today how many parents shift their parental responsiblilties to TV, Internet and other crap.
It doesn’t take a second to unplug the friggin’ internet if your child is on ig too much. You can also unplug TV’s, confiscate their porn and other stuff if you beleive your kids are getting in to the wrong things.
Instead, they leave the TV, internet etc as some sort of babysittin device and wonder why it doesnt teach them prooper social interaction, or reality vs fantasy etc.
At the end of the day, why was their child playing a game clearly classified for older children, and if the child had an ‘internet addiction’, why didnt they unplug the thing and talk to the child.
wah damn ridiculous la…
sue sue sue…
so retarded…
ur kid eats some kway tiew… become fat bastard… kena heart attack then die at 12 yrs old… parents sue the kway tiaw uncle… etc etc..
walking past neighbours’ house along sidewalk… gigantic mango falls on head and creates a bump… go sue the owner.. bla bla bla..
it’s getting out of hand.. really..
And which fucking disgruntled cesspit did you crawl out from?
Very sien, if you happen to follow webcomics like Penny Arcade and Ctrl-Alt-Del, you’ll hear about this activist guy who was going on about how he’d give money to anyone who would make a game with nothing but violence in a household scene.
Some modders came through, and the prick welshed on his promise. Instead Penny Arcade donate their own money just to prove to him that the gamer community IS caring, mature and responsible.
These activists are just too set in their ways to accept that Video Games do not fuck people up, PEOPLE fuck people up.
And yeah, If you can’t control your kids from jumping off buildings, sux2beu.
Don’t blame video games.
Now excuse me while I make like pokemon and try shoving a cat into a capsule.
Blizzard responded by implementing a new parental control system, heheh. Basically parents can sign on at the WoW site, and set a timetable for their kid’s playtime. The account will only be playable during those hours/days.
To be honest I don’t think it will curb the gaming habit much, since most parents won’t even know this system exists. But I guess the point to Blizzard is that by just being there, the system serves as a buffer between them and lawsuits.
The next time some peeved parent kicks up a legal fuss, they can just say “Hey, we let you limit your kid’s playtime but you chose not to”.