Federal Judge Okays Game Addiction Lawsuit
Federal Judge Okays Game Addiction Lawsuit
Posted 08/30/2010 at 7:32am
| by Paul Lilly
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Craig Smallwood, a 51-year-old man from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, will have his day in court. U.S. District Judge Alan Kay made sure of it when he dismissed half of Smallwood's eight charges against NCSoft related to alleged videogame addiction, leaving four charges still to be resolved.
According to Hawaii's Star Advisor rag, Smallwood claims he has a tough time bathing and even waking up in the morning because of "phenomena of psychological dependence and addiction" to the game "Lineage II." Smallwood further alleges that the game caused "extreme and serious emotional distress and depression."
None of us here have a degree in medicine, but it seems like Smallwood could have avoided these claimed ailments by spending a little less time plugged into Lineage II's network. Naturally, the plaintiff disagrees.
"NCSoft is a discretionary and discriminatory in its applications of the rules," Smallwood said in his original October complaint. "Often they will allow certain players to break rules ... while they enforce these rules on others."
The Judge threw out claims of misrepresentation/deceit, unfair and deceptive trade practices, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and punitive damages. The charges that remain include defamation, negligence, gross negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Let the comments begin.
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Slugbait
August 31, 2010 at 1:07pm
I bought Quake II the day it was released. Just after completing the second level, I found out that boot had deployed a Quake II server, so I logged on...and never went back to the single-player campaign. I was hooked on Q2 deathmatch for over two years, played it almost every day, and never finished the game.
I suppose it's a little too late to sue boot now, tho'...
Trooper_One
August 31, 2010 at 11:29am
What a POS Blob.
If he's got enough energy to go grab a cup of water and som food, then he's not 100% chained to a game. He needs to get off his lazy ass or jump off a cliff! Loser!
dpgdog187
August 31, 2010 at 10:19am
I think I speak for all the mmo people out there who spend hour upon hour questing to get epics and still maintain a functional life. LESS QQ MORE PEW PEW!
mcnabbmc
August 31, 2010 at 4:19am
The picture's from a scene from South Park. Hilarious episode, hilarious show. South Park FTW!
Rocketpop
August 31, 2010 at 4:03am
Video game addiction is not a diagnosis in the DSM. As long as that's true, this lawsuit is ridiculous.
Nickompoop
August 30, 2010 at 3:38pm
Wouldn't the time he spends in court cause him to go through withdrawal? He might not be addicted if he's willing to devote that kind of time to something that isn't Lineage II.
He's probably just a dick.
Jstrick9
August 30, 2010 at 3:34pm
Lineage 2 DOES kick ass, one of my favorite all-time games - best PVP system any MMO has seen, imo.
This guys' just looking for some money though, he's full of it.
MF9000
August 30, 2010 at 3:22pm
With this kind of thinking addicts should be suing the pharmaceutical companies when they become addicted to the company's product through misuse. I think the guy should just put the mouse down and move away from the compubox and take a shower. I'd like to know when he started to suspect he was "addicted" and why he didn't get help then. If lived in Hawaii I think I'd be out enjoying the scenery, etc.
Athlonite
August 30, 2010 at 1:26pm
WTF is this dick a fucking Looser or what
Oh poor me i play games alot and now my life sucks I know I'll sue some bastard and then my life wont suck so much
Silver925
August 30, 2010 at 12:39pm
I have a 'tough time bathing' if I refuse to leave my car becasue I enjoy driving it too much. Does that mean I have a cased to take the maker of my car to court for building an enjoyable automobile?
I also 'have a hard time even waking up in the morning' if I stay up too fracking late playing video games!! Or watching movies, or having sex, or fixing my computer, or trying to get the baby back to sleep, or ANYTHING ELSE you do late into the night!
And, I'm trying to figure out what these points have to do with his claimed addiction;
"NCSoft is a discretionary and discriminatory in its applications of the rules," Smallwood said in his original October complaint. "Often they will allow certain players to break rules ... while they enforce these rules on others."
What does now NCSoft's application of their rules feed his addiction? If he wants to argue that NCSOft provides a 'potentially addictive' product without proper warning, then I can see where this claim might have some merrit. I do NOT agree, but that is for the courts to determine.
As has been said. Another case of someone not taking responsibility for their own actions.
nadako
August 30, 2010 at 12:02pm
If the guy had a job because if he didnt i would just tell him to stop blaming some thing for his own problems and just go out side and find a job. I dont think i could see this holding up in court due to the majority of the people that do play video games are not addicted to them. And just this one guy trying to claim addiction is just laughable.
Biceps
August 30, 2010 at 11:28am
And I thought I had to much time on my hands, lol. So sad. How much you wanna bet he misses his court date because he is busy playinge Lineage II?
Keith E. Whisman
August 30, 2010 at 11:07am
I think the reason why the judge is letting it goto trial is because there is precedent when it comes to addictions. Look at smoking, for many years now, governments and courts have pinned the blame for addiction on the heads of the tobacco industry rather than blaming the dumb ass smokers that pay through the ass to smoke and maintain their habit.
Also, certain politicians have for a long, long time now tried to legally place the blame for gun violence and gun crimes on the heads of gun manufacturers and the guns rather than blaming the people that purchase the guns and use them as tools to commit crimes. In fact during the Clinton years the Anti Gun Left were actually successful at suing gun manufacturers for gun crimes committed by idiots that purchased their guns. How is it my fault if I sell an item to someone that apparently qualifies by all the federal gun control and BATF gun laws to purchase a gun and then uses it in a crime? It's the person that commits the crime that is responsible, not the gun and not the gun retailer and not the gun manufacturer. Same thing goes for tobacco, dumb asses that buy cigarettes are responsible for their addiction and not the manufacturers or the retailers.
So NCSOFT is innocent of any wrong doing. It's not their fault that this asshole can't control himself.
Rocketpop
August 31, 2010 at 4:01am
Uh, you're totally wrong. Without availability, these problems you blame the people for wouldn't exist. Fewer or more expensive cigarettes, fewer users. Fewer guns, fewer gun-related homicides. What's hard about that?
Keith E. Whisman
August 31, 2010 at 10:13am
Also studies show that availability has no affect on crime and prices have little affect on the numbers of smokers. people have been addicted to games for centuries. Gambling is a game that even when banned people still suffer addiction because they run basement casinos. Online gambling bans don't work because they didn't work to end gambling addiction. There are people addicted to MySpace, texting, beer, driving, drugs, and drugs are banned in the US and still everyone brags about smoking pot even though the cops still fight to get pot off the streets.
So banning doesn't work.
Hell communism sounds wonderful on paper but in action it sucks. Communism doesn't work unless you break it and install a dictator as an enforcer but then it's not communism anymore.
Keith E. Whisman
August 31, 2010 at 9:44am
Uh, you're totally wrong.
The bad guys are going to have guns even if they are banned in the USA. Not because manufactures will sell them to them, because they never register their guns, they steal or obtain their guns from the black market or make them. Hell look at England, they want to outlaw butter knives because people are killing each other with what ever is available.
What makes the US great is that you have a protected right to protect yourself with a gun. You have the right to keep and bare arms. What that means is that you have a right to own any gun or guns you want and that you can bare it. Bare it means that your aloud to have it on your person. So outlawing guns from places is unconstitutional because it puts a limit on your 2nd amendment rights.
As long as you have the right to defend yourself and that is what the 2nd amendment is, the gun manufacturers can't be held liable for what guns they produce are used for as the manufacturers and retailers abide by federal gun sales laws and they do. Gun retailers are put out of business for the slightest hint of a mistake or law violation when it comes to gun sales. So more legal guns does not equate to more gun crimes.
When I started smoking back in 1990 cigarettes were around $2 bucks a pack. When I quit in 2002 cigarettes were around $6 bucks a pack and are even more expensive today. I know and have seen a whole lot of smokers that are paying the increased prices, even homeless people still smoke. Most homeless people that I observed when I was a city bus driver, rolled their own cigarettes. So high prices does not make fewer smokers. And I didn't quit smoking because of the costs, I quit because my wife (girl friend at the time) insisted I quit or no pussy and I love pussy.
Caboose
August 30, 2010 at 11:06am
What we need now, is a boneheaded lawyer that's just as dumb as this guy!
*lights up the Jack Thompson signal*
He is the terror who sues in the night!
He is the speed bump your low rider gets hung up on!
He is....
Wacko Jacko!
Mighty BOB!
August 30, 2010 at 11:01am
Ridiculous. If he was actually interested in solving his problem instead of making a "quick buck" he would be spending his money on therapy instead of a lawyer. NCSoft is no more responsible for his addiction than breweries are responsible for alcohol addiction. All they do is provide.
Keith E. Whisman
August 30, 2010 at 10:56am
Paul I don't know how you got it but I want you to take that picture of me down or I'll see you in court...
Just kidding not reallly... I wont take you to court and you can leave that picture of me up for as long as you want.
Mighty BOB!
August 30, 2010 at 11:02am
lol, we had an instructor at my college who looked vaguely like that. We ragged on him so hard when that episode came out.
rich5665
August 30, 2010 at 10:53am
I think we heard these ridiculous claims before back in the Eighties when RPGs were popular. Let the witch hunts begin again. What MMORPG will be targeted next? Just one more reason for some idiot in Congress or the Senate to create more legislation trying to ban video games. People need to learn self discipline.
schwit
August 30, 2010 at 9:30am
If the guy is not pro se I would also make his lawyer pay if he loses.
lostcause64
August 30, 2010 at 7:41am
Yet another useless oxygen waster blaming someone or something else for his own problems. Worse, this one lives in what is considered by a lot of people to be paradise and he's too stupid to go outside and enjoy it instead of sitting in front of a pc his whole life. <sigh>
Fecal Face
August 30, 2010 at 8:06am
I don't see how it's NCSoft's fault that he has "video game addiction". NCSoft provides a service. The fact that this man has used that service to the point of "addiction" is nobody's fault but his own.
Although that's stating the obvious. :P
I think the real sad part is that our legal system allows such morons to blame others for their own problems and take them to court.
someone87
August 30, 2010 at 8:50am
I agree, the judge should have laughed him out of court, and sent packing.
How can this even stand up in court? If this goes though, then I should be able to sue my gas company for their services because I am addicted to watching the hot water heater flame.
Idiots.
aviaggio
August 30, 2010 at 1:39pm
Just because the judge is allowing the case to move forward doesn't mean he has any chance to win.
I see it very akin to alcoholism. Yes alcohol can be addictive but for most people it never becomes an issue. It's the same thing here -- yes MMOs can be addictive, but most people know when it's time to leave Azeroth and rejoin the real world. It's certainly not NCSoft's fault. Now if the majority of players were horribly addicted, then MAYBE you'd have a case (like with smoking). But it just ain't so.
The really sad part is that he's going to bring even more ridicule and shame to himself by taking this to court. He really should have sought a therapist first, not a lawyer.
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