Everquest , the scapegoat for the new millenium!!

[Dreamer128]

Hm, I never played the game before. But if can take hours before you can log-off there is definatly something wrong. Still, its easy to blame everything on the game. The same as smoking. No one forces you to do it, its a choice you make yourself knowing it can f**k up your health. If you feel you can't handle it, then quit. This guy was obviously unstable. He might have killed himself anyway over a different reason. Still, I wonder how many millions US courts will grant the mother should she decide to file a law-suit.

[Lanthir]

Originally posted by Dreamer128: Hm, I never played the game before. But if can take hours before you can log-off there is definatly something wrong.

It really dose not take hours to "logout". As sony said it takes 45 sec. This is set up so that if you are in a hard fight you can not just "pull the plug" to get out of it. Where the several hours comes in is because of the player. Ex You are deep inside Karnors you obviously do not wan tto "camp" there because when you come back online you will be the only one there and you do not want to then die and not be able to recover your body before it can't be raised or worse yet before everthign on it decays. So you have to camp in a safe place near the zone entrance. However that means havign to get your party to fight it's way out and maybe lose it's camp site to another group fighting theere way in [img]smile.gif[/img] So you windup waitign to everyone is ready to go.

As for the mother getting millions I doubt it. Take for example the suits over records causeing children to suicide here those parents lost all the cases.

What really is sad is that some peoples lives are so bad or they at least perceive them to be that a virtual world is more important than real life.

[ 06-04-2002, 10:58 AM: Message edited by: Lanthir ]

[Yorick]

Originally posted by Absynthe: Same shite, different decade. When I was a child, I was warned away from comic books because they would 'rot your mind'. Jazz music was once thought to be the downfall of western civilization. Any new thing, especially a form of entertainment, always has its' naysayers and prophets of doom. This individual life that was lost is indeed a tragedy. It's a sad situation that led to this persons' suicide. Given the fact that he had other influences in his life; depression, epilepsy, shyness, overweight, blaming this on a voluntary pastime is ridiculous. This form of social interaction may have prolonged his life and provided him the kind of relationships that he apparently had difficulty achieving in person. There will always be individuals who fixate on something, gambling, religion, sports, whatever. The cause lies not in the object of the fixation, but in the individuals mind. Our culture has developed a pathetic fixation on finding blame, we seem to feel the need to have a scapegoat for every tragedy, regardless of how little rationality supports it...

Good points Absynthe. Well said.

[Sir Taliesin]

This isn't the first article about this guy. There was one several months ago, (April on MSNBC) in which it was stated that he had a behavoir problem and was was also epilitic (sp) as well.

Having played EQ since September I can tell you that it is very addictive. I play on average 10-15 hours per week. However not at the expense of my family, job or friends. I play at night after everyone else goes to bed. Of course before EQ came along I played BG and BG2 all the time, so it's not just EQ. It can be anything computer related, where you can socialize. Even here!

[uss]

god dammit! now im scared about playing Neverwinter Nights. i belive it will be extremely addictive.

[bilqis]

Originally posted by Sir Taliesin: Having played EQ since September I can tell you that it is very addictive. I play on average 10-15 hours per week. However not at the expense of my family, job or friends. I play at night after everyone else goes to bed. Of course before EQ came along I played BG and BG2 all the time, so it's not just EQ. It can be anything computer related, where you can socialize. Even here!

I agree with you! There are plusses and minuses to everything. For example, online games (everquest & anarchy online) have been a great way for me to connect with my kids. Personal responsibility is part of the issue here. Do we give away our power by choosing addiction?

Moderation in all things for a healthy life ... The trick is to do it.

one good thing - it keep smy brother out of mischief

Originally posted by bilqis: Moderation in all things for a healthy life ... The trick is to do it. [/QB]

Yeah, I mean under certain circumstances alcoholic beverages can be enjoyable, but drink too much of them and you’ll get liver damage,
Ultimately it is all down to personal choice, and some people will fall afoul of that. But that’s a price we pay for what freedom we have,
You are free to drink, but too much will kill you.
You are free to smoke, But It WILL kill you.
You are free to eat as much as you like, but it can (in)directly cause your demise.
You are free to drive a car, but it can kill you, etc etc.

You can’t really go blaming the game for something like this, it’s down to all of us to control our desires and actaions, and if we cannot, due to such things as depression etc, it’s down to others to help us, and/or us to seek help in the end.

[AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe]

Online games can be pretty addictive as I can tell you from playing EQ, but there is no way that you can blame an online game for anyone committing suicide. Its like with anything people just need to develop a little self control and take care of what they need to take care of in RL instead, or at least more priority than playing a game. If somone is going to kill themself they probably have a little deeper issues than being pretty involved in an online game, and anything associated with that. The guy was on a lot of antidepresants and locked himself in his apartment for like 6 days and the friends and family didnt take issue with that? Its not like the game was like flashing subliminal messages at the guy telling him to kill himself. He obviously had some problems none of which could be blamed on an online game.

[adam warlock]

can't get the ***n thing to work in order to be addited to it.
so I'm not to judge