Man Subpoenaes Celebrities For WoW Lawsuit

Erik Estavillo, a gamer in San Jose, California is suing Blizzard because he believes that World of Warcraft ruined his social life. He argues that Blizzard's World of Warcraft is a "harmful virtual environment," and that much of its design is "sneaky and deceitful." In particular, this oddball plaintiff believes that World of Warcraft has the highest subscription fee of any MMORPG ($14.99 USD monthly), and that portions of the game, like having to walk to one's corpse and a lack of mounts at lower levels, are all designed to waste his monthly fee.

Hilariously enough, the gamer is also subpoenaing Depeche Mode musician Martine Gore and actor Winona Ryder because they both understand what it's like to be lonely and anti-social. Gore was chosen because "he himself has been known to be sad, lonely, and alienated, as can be seen in the songs he writes," and Ryder was named because of her acting role in J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Previous to this lawsuit, Estavillo also sued Sony for banning him from their Playstation Network while he was playing Resistance: Fall of Man. The case was dismissed in September, but Estavillo has now appealed it, and is also suing Microsoft and Nintendo because a broken Xbox 360 caused him "undue stress," and a Wii update that blocked access to a third-party program interfered with his inalienable right to pursue happiness.

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Will be thrown out, of course
# Nov 28 2009 at 5:16 PM Rating: Good
Scholar
44 posts
There is no doubt that such foolishness will be "bounced" from the court, but IMO that's not enough in these cases. Nutjobs like this need to be stopped from filing more of these suits. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as well as many state laws, authorize penalties for filing frivolous lawsuits, as well as sanctions against attorneys and law firms that represent these idiot plaintiffs. Unfortunately, judges are reluctant to impose penalties on these people, for whatever reason. That needs to be changed. As contempt of court is one of the authorized penalties, perhaps a little jail time would dissuade these individuals from continuing this kind of nonsense. In this particular case, I believe a court-ordered mental examination should also be levied against the plaintiff.

I don't deny anyone the right to file suit for legitimate claims, but when people like this file multiple frivolous suits, something needs to be done.
Will be thrown out, of course
# Nov 28 2009 at 9:41 PM Rating: Decent
6 posts
You got that right... there should be plenty of penalties to go around for stupid filing of lawsuits like this... from the plantiff to the lawyers... hehe. The system is broken enough without having put up with these bogus lawsuits.
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