Gamer Sues Over Being Addicted to MMO Gaming

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I've played other MMO games for quite a few years so I think I can add some more to this supposed discussion...

The grind factor: spending endless hours at such things to gain a title or special item is only giving a person's ego the illusion that they are special or somehow better than others. In reality only other in-game people striving towards the same goal are impressed.

MMO community: Yes, this is a big part of the addiction. Take the anonymity of the internet and combine it with the social nature of humans. bingo! People can act how they want (unless it violates the EULA) without any repercussions. It boosts the ego for some when they arent very adept at face to face communication.

Engineered to be Addictive: Every video game craves to make a player want to play their game. More so if its a pay to play. This does not mean that a person is *required* to play. For the obvious counterstatement that accounts will be deleted if you stop playing: This is all stated in the fine print.. and we all know how many people actually read that.

My opinion on this: Addiction to most substances or activities is entirely the users fault. Obviously certain things will generate a strong "need" but this is in reality just a "want". The mind can control such things if a person really desires that outcome. A person can quit cold-turkey from cigarettes. A person can quit cold-turkey from games. The question is: do they really want to?
 
[citation][nom]descendency[/nom]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.[/citation]


lots of experts are idiots,m when you stopplayign a game you don'tgetnear lethal withdrawal symptoms. this is just a simple case of some one tryign to blame somthing or some one else because they are a loser.
 
[citation][nom]mpdugas[/nom]The thing that is interesting about most of the MMO programs on-line today is that they use behavioral conditioning as part of their effort to keep players coming back to the game by way of intermittent reinforcement schedules that condition a player to continue to seek more drops, loots, etc.Of course, this maximizes revenue for the MMO producer.What is significant about such conditioning is that it reaches the psychology of the player, even when they are not in the game, by creating a DESIRE to play more. So for people who have a tendency to addictive behavior this conditioning is more effective.I am certain that MMO designers used behavioral psychologists to set up their reinforcement schedules to maximize this effect. I have seen the same sort of reinforcement scheduling when working with animals in behavioral conditioning laboratories; what works on lab rats works on us, too.It isn't a trivial matter; the Internet is full of stories about players
who took their on-line experience to unhealthy extremes.[/citation]
[citation][nom]gogogadgetliver[/nom]OK, gonna get downrated for this probably.The guy should have sought help just like any other addict but to deny that MMOs are addictive is naive. Also to deny that this is intentional is naive. MMO designers put in a grind to stretch out content. Then they sprinkle that grind with rewards to keep the player going.Read up on the psychology of "Operant Conditioning" if you aren't familiar. Take WOW as an example:badges from heroic dungeons = fixed ratio operant conditioning.daily quests = fixed interval operant conditioningloot drops = variable ratioboss drops in weekly instances = variable intervalThis is REAL manipulation of human psychology. A Vegas slot machine can leverage variable ratio to make an old lady pee herself before she'll get up from the machine.But again: this guy should have sought help. I'm sure if he told the company he was having a problem (instead of suing) they would have been happy to disable his account.[/citation]


i have yet to see an MMO that i even liked much less get addicted to and i can really burn soem time away on games in general myself , so that throws your addction beleive right out the window.
 
If he's capable of making a sue, he's capable of dressing himself and getting up too!
What a jerk, just wants money.
He'll most likely has to pay for the court costs, and at best, even if he wins, will not gain a cent, but just annoy gamers around the world by making a law that games should mention addiction.

Besides, many gamers who got addicted to games, got over it in a few years!
 
First off, this guy needs someone to hold his hand while he pee's. Second, nice parenting job by his folks. C., When did it become ok to sue a company because you have become a weak-minded fool that can't stop playing a video game?
 
To all guys who posted comments here, should we all get together and sue sombodies? I mean some companies? We might get rich quick!

By the way, is this game really that good? maybe I should check it out... :)
 
[citation][nom]rhino13[/nom]First Tobaco now video games. Soon it will only be safe to produce stuff if you do it in China, beyond the reaches of the US courts.[/citation]
NC-Soft is Korean, while they have SoCal and Texas operations they're based in Korea. Location of production doesn't save you from US courts.

This is just a stupid lawsuit. This guy made a choice to sit down and play every day. I don't buy addiction as an excuse for anything for one second. Yes, you can have physical and psychological withdrawals from quitting addictive behavior/substances that can be quite awful but you still make the choice to do or not do something, no one is making it for you, whether it be smoking, drinking or poop-socking for a video game. It's not like NC forced him to play for hours upon hours grinding to get that 0.004% drop rate item, he made that choice to do that with his time. He has to sack up and accept responsibility for his own actions and not blame them on someone else.

 
inviriti...are you a 1L haha. The case will go to court. Summary judgment will not be granted. A judge wants to hear this. I doubt we will see gross negligence. But, I think there is a good chance for a negligence ruling in this case. Duty, breach, cause in fact, proximate cause, damages...all present and working for this guy. He might see some money.

I played EverQuest for about 2 years...probably as bad as this guy....I played like 6-12 hours a day. I had to quit cause I didnt wana end up living in a box. It was theraputic for me...had some things to work out and the game helped get my head straight. But, as I have been saying for years..it is white boy, middle class, crack. The primary problem is that you dont make any money doing it. If I could figure out how to make money with the game...I would probably still be playing. If someone can invent a way to turn those games into a job...instant millionares haha.

Also, the game itself gets to be an actual job after a while...you just dont get paid. You join a guild...you basically have bosses that can kick you out of the guild if you dont show up to work on time. You have to show up on time for the raids every day. These games are a gold mine for sociologists and psychologists.
 
When all is said and done, the plaintiff AND his attorney who agreed to take the case should have to pay all court costs and all legal and incidental expenses incurred by the defendent (NCSoft) in defending the suit. In addition, both the attorney who agreed to take this frivolous case to court and the plaintiff should be fined an amount equal to the total court cost plus the total cost to defend this suit.

Maybe this will result in an addiction to working 11 hours a day, seven days a week to get this fine paid so they can stay out of jail.

Somehow, the Judge that allowed the case to even be heard needs a huge shot of reality.
 
The unfortunate part about operant conditioning is that it works at the subconscious level, which means for all the Nancy-Reagan aficionados, you can't "just say no". Conditioning simply isn't a rational-level phenomenon; it is more like a post-hypnotic suggestion. Psychological addictions are very potent.

Many merchandisers use variations on this theme, so it isn't new, but in the case of the MMO producer, it sure generates revenue.

Fortunately, despite those who think that control of an addiction is a matter of will-power, even behavioral psychology knows that conditioned responses will eventually reach extinction levels.

Eventually, even behavioral conditioning reaches a limit called "extinction", when the conditioned response no longer occurs when stimulated.

That is why even Blizzard may be in trouble: Cataclysm is just more of the same.

I think the plaintiff's lawyer will eventually convert this to a class-action suit, once 'discovery' reveals the planning behind the programming of the reinforcement schedules.
 
So, I can sue the porn industry for giving me boners?... Not that there is a problem with porn, but I'm low on cash.
 
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