Been a while since we’ve seen one of these:
Slashdot: Blizzard Sued for Death of Gamer
It seems a 13yr old Chinese kid jumped to his death re-enacting a scene from World of Warcraft. It’s amazing what they can determine with forensic pathology nowadays.
I think I actually did that quest once – a Spiritual Tauren Shaman chap in a cave in Thousand Needles, The Weathered Nook, who sets you a series of quests involving various aspects of spirituality; the test of strength, the test of endurance, etc. Quite a nicely storied mini adventure, and I quite liked it. Presumably, the Alliance get something similar. One of the tests involves nothing more than you being teleported to a high rock, and jumping off in a leap of faith type of thing. Hell, I tend to jump of tall ledges just for fun anyway, so getting 1000xp for it was nice. Or it might be the recent Darkmoon Faire Carnival sideshow, in the Tauren city, where a Gnome with a cannon fires you half way across Mulgore, and you have to land in a floating ring in a lake to win a prize. Surprisingly tricky, but also quite funny.
Of course as a ‘grown up’, I know not to ‘try this at home’, as do most of you reading this. Kids are different – at 13 the idea of real, actual mortality has yet to sink in. Cause and effect aren’t monolithic certainties at that age. You believe you are immortal, and indestructible, and tend to heal faster and break less at that age anyway. This can lead to all sorts of ill-advised stunts and silly accidents, which is why we have to live with our parents, and do as they say. Parents suck at that age, but on the whole, they do want to see us reach adulthood more or less intact.
Yes, that’s right – I’m blaming the parents again. Don’t get me wrong mind you – I understand all too well the bitter parasitic enervation that is Computer Game Addiction, but speaking from personal experience, the facts don’t match. Gaming addiction usually manifests itself in low self-esteem, neglected responsibilities, withdrawal from society and obsession with the inner game life. While it can potentially lead to depression, and possibly suicide in extreme cases, what we have here seems no different to a child being tragically killed in any number of stupid, and preventable ways. Tottering out into traffic after a ball, pulling on the power lead of a boiling kettle or saucepan handle, playing too close to a fireplace, playing with polythene bags, drinking cleaning chemicals - all senseless accidents in which a child simply doesn’t understand cause and effect, and in such cases, an adult should be keeping an eye on them, and explaining the facts.
Call me a harsh old bastard if you like, but there’s something very wrong when a child manages to form an understanding of the physical world around them rooted more firmly in an online game, than the explanations of their parents and teachers, and I humbly submit the opinion that it probably isn’t the online game’s fault. “Don’t do that…you’ll hurt yourself!” – is it that simple? Hell, it worked on me. Much as I’d like it to be otherwise on occasion, the lesson on “Make Believe vs Reality” is one I learned early, and well, but until it is learned, kids need to be looked after by adults who do understand the difference. This is why kids don’t get their own houses at 5yrs old. Eventually, it becomes safe to leave hanging kettle flexes in reach of the children, because they know that pulling it is a bad thing. This transition is not a magical thing, nor is it genetic memory.
Not that it matters what I or anyone else thinks; we now have a pair of shocked, angry and bereaved parents desperate to lash out at anything they can, simply so they can cope, and live with themselves, and a pack of circling lawyers-in-heat in a money-frenzy, who have just been looking for an excuse to give the Online Gaming Industry the damned good thrashing it so obviously deserves. Round up a few dozen other parents whose kids haven’t been doing quite as well at school since they bought them this ‘Warcraftland’ thing, and hey presto! Let the circus commence! USD plzkthx.
It sickens me somewhat. I’m perfectly willing to agree that MMOs can be a poisonously life-rotting addiction, and that this may be a bad thing, but I refuse to believe that they kill, no matter how many mercenary lawyers and ill-equipped parents try to tell me otherwise.
Since I’m rampaging about with ill-informed knee-jerk thinking today, why not throw out some half-arsed advice too:
Parents: Take the time to learn about your child’s computer games! Get involved! The Xbox is not just an Action Man or My Little Pony! And it is definitely not an Au Pair or Nanny!