man sues NCsoft for games too addictive

http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2010/0 ... ge-ii-addiction.html

Plaintiff Craig Smallwood is suing Korean publisher NCSoft for $3 million in damages on grounds of defamation, negligence, gross negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Smallwood claims he became so addicted to playing NCSoft's 3D MMORPG Lineage II that he was "unable to function independently in usual daily activities such as getting up, getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends."



he was banned for real world trading which of course he denies. he has some conspiracy theories about why he was banned etc etc and sues

Dunno why they bother. Wont get anywhere.

Can't agree with you more there. Everyone always blames the games for everything, when it's really just the people. The games don't really impact the people that much.

You would think someone would sue Blizzard for WoW, not over a game that 90% of us have never heard of before. Never really liked NCsoft games, couldn't bring myself to stay on Gulid Wars that long. Not to mention that Exteel wouldn't even finish downloading for me. Can't wait to see how many more people try to do this, also can't wait to see how fast it all ends.

What a waste of time and money

this is ridiculous....i mean i can see why the guy would try to sue for the game being addictive, but hes just wasting his time and money. i can guarantee if by some weird cosmic disturbance he wins, he will move on to some other MMO.


P.S. im off to sue jagex because runescape is addictive!!!!! -.-

Heres a question:

Would you sue the makers of a drug if it was too addictive? If you started taking a drug and then later found out it had many addictive properties? What is the difference between that and a computer game?
It can be just a bad. (Just something to think about)

But still I don't think he will win or he should have sued in the first place.

Mmm. I'd argue otherwise. Yes, a drug is different in the fact it actually physically alters your mind and body in negative ways, but games (though not physically ingested...not yet anyway xD) can have the same effect on the mind. People can get addicted to games to a point where it requires intervention or help to get away from it. I know that I myself and quite addicted to gaming and find it hard to pull myself away from the computer much of the time. So I don't think you can deny that games are not capable of getting you addicted or pulling you away from life, but you can say that drugs and games are completely different things that can cause the same effect.

On that note, your comparison is a bad one, Kiljoy. One, drugs are required to be certified by an agency in certain places before they can be given out. Two, those types of medications are usually prescribed by a doctor, whereas a game can be purchased in a store without a prescription. Lastly, a drug like that would probably not last long on the market or in hospitals if the addiction was worse than the cure or positive affects. Granted, I can already think of some drugs that might be like that and to that I say those drugs shouldn't be available, but are because the government allows it. Regardless, my point is that drugs and games are not the same and drugs would be treated much differently from games, esp. when it comes to addiction.