::: Gets on his soap box and clears his voice. :::

Funny you should mention this because in another forum, there was a thread that basically talked about how a the old paper and pencil RGP games are going under fire once again by the right wing conservative F$&#$.

Now I've came from the old pen and pencil realm where we were often judged and accused as devil worshipers by the right wing, conservative Christain society. Our RGP games were also accused for helping kids plan bank robbies and murders. And most the most recent attacks were directed at the leaded figureines in which how they led to lead poisoning because some kids were putting it in their mouths.

Well, I got some simple answers for the old pen and pencil realm.
1.) Those folks were screwed up before they started playing RPGs. Their defination of a fun time is playing an AC / DC record backwards to see if they can pick up any hidden satanic messages.
2.) The murders and robbers would of been planned regardless if the perps played RPGs or not.
3.) Want to avoid lead poison, simple, DON'T PUT LEAD FIGUREINES IN YOUR MOUTH.

Now as for EQs? Well, I've been hearing the same old stories as well. Stores like: My husband/wife lefted me for EQ. My husband/wife had an affair with another man/wife while playing EQ. Boy commits sucide after having his character scamed by another player. And my favorite, parent neglects child while addicted to EQ.

Well, again, I have some simple answers for all those sad, sob stories.
1.) Your husband/wife was planning to leave you and would of left you regardless if it was EQ or TV or whatever.
2.) Again, your husband/wife planned to have an affair regardless if they met that person on EQ or in a bar.
3.) The boy had problems long before he played EQ and shouldn't of been playing in the first place. And finally,
4.) That parent was a bad parent anyways and would of neglected the child regardless if he/she was on EQ or not.

The fact of the matter is that everyone wants to put the blame of their misfortunes on someone or something else. They never stop to think to accept responsibility for themselves. It's like dropping a hammer on your toes and then blaming the hammer for breaking your toes. Well, who's the goober that dropped the hammer in the first place? So in my MOST humble opinion, I think that some people should just shut the hell up and accept the responsiblity of their actions instead of trying to pass the blame on something or someone else. By the way, have anyone took a close look at the picture of the mom? Doesn't she look like a dead beat mom; you know, the ones that has 50 pet cats in her trailer home and lives off of cake frosting and canned tunia?

::: Gets off the soap box and dusts it off for the next occupant. :::

That's flippin pathetic.... momma's just lookin for a scapegoat so she doesnt hafta look at what SHE may have done wrong. Leave the game industry alone... if yer stupid enough to be that affected by a game, u deserve to die

When you buy a product, and it functions as it should, anything that you do as a result of the product you have brought into your home, car, etc.. is your responisbility. Like the McDonald's case. Should the cup have had a defective bottom, and the coffee fall out as a result, then the case would have been different. But the functioning cup was meant to hold a hot liquid, which it did, and would continue to do as long as the cup was upright, and the liquid was not disturbed too greatly. Everquest is meant to make Verant a profit, which it does. In return, we get a good time, and some socializing done. Should Everquest stop being fun, this not being a defect of the product but an attitude of the consumer, the consumer has the option to stop playing. The sucide which occoured was brought on by Shawn Woolley's own choice. Anything could have influenced his choice. Everquest, his social life, the state of the world. But how anything influences a person is different for every person. Maybe someone who plays Everquest is influenced to help create a positive influence. Maybe someone who plays the Iksar, sees how they are hated everywhere, and how well PCs of other races and classes work with the Iksar, and decides to campaign for X cause or tolerance of Y. But will EQ ever see any recognition of this? If you have ever seen the movie 'Philadelphia' with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, you may remember when Washington's character, a lawyer said, (Pardon me if it is not exact) - "Explain this to me like I am a 2 year old. You were walking across the street and you fell into this ditch. The ditch that was only at THIS location. And you chose to walk across this CLEARLY marked area, when you could have walked anywere else and avoided falling into the ditch?
Client: "Yes, do I have a case."
Washington: "You bet"

Crusader of the Greenmist, 30th Circle
Arctan Talematros

This kid was a pizzia delivery guy that quit his job for months prior to him kicking the can. Lived by himself in an apartment. Must have had a car to be a delivery guy. So how did he pay for all of this? Did mom pay for all of it...including the monthly EQ bill? The way she is blaming SOE maybe she should be arrested for aiding in the suicide.

Heh, sorry for all the typos and such, forgot to spell check and proof read.

Another incident of a frivolous lawsuit. Reminds me of the people that sued McDonalds because they were burned by hot coffee. Uh, isn't coffee supposed to be hot? Now for the individual that said he has gotten F's because he had to go on a raid, you need to prioritize your real life over your game life. It is a game life, one that shouldn't control your real life. The F's are your fault, not that of EQ. I got F's when I went to college, why? I chose to go out and drink and party with chicks. Whose choice was that, mine. It is a pity that this woman lost her son, but maybe she should have been more involved in his life. After all, she knew the problems he suffered from and knew his state of mind. Her motives are greed, based on her her son's death. She is redirecting the attention that is cast upon her poor parenting skills to that of SOE. Hope her case is shut down before it evens get anywhere.

eq is just a game, its addictive but its still like any other game, and things like this have happend before, like for D&D people killed themselves, did D&D get sued, yes, did the person who sued D&D win, no, because its not there fault if the person took there own life. now in this case you said he alreeady had problems ... mabey thats why he killed himslef, if he had problems he shouldn't be living by himself, smart move with parenting right there, now your trying to go sue SOE, sounds like someones trying to blame someone else so they dont get blamed. dont mean to sound like a ****** but hes dead, he killed himself, there was something seriously wrong with him, people kill themselves everyday cause they have problems, not an addiction to a game

I sympathize with this woman for her loss, but dont agree with sueing every potentially addicting thing as a cureall for a addictive personality problem.
Everything is addictive ..soap operas, music, food, drugs, alcohol, relationships...am I supposed to sue my boyfriend for breaking up with me because I am addicted to his company and have become emotionally dependent on him?
You can take any one of these things too far.
Has everquest played in to the addictions of people with addictive personalities? I'd have to say yes, the same as everything I listed before plays in to addictive personalities and plenty of other things have in the past. Do we sue the grocery store for selling the excess food that makes a person fat? No. Has the game contributed to the ruin of marriages and other human social relationships? Yep i'd have to say yes, especially in cases where there were problems in these areas to begin with. If my marriage is healthy I'm not gonna jeopardize it playing a game to the point it harms the marriage. If my husband hangs out in a bar too much and gets a drinking problem and divorces me for some other woman he found in the bar I can't sue the bar for ruining my marriage, there are some things it is up to you to handle in real life or find help for if it is needed.
Everquest is an entirely too real a virtual world where several real life needs can be pseudo met in the virtual world if you choose to meet them there instead of the real world where real life is happening. It is entirely possible to be a loser in the real world and be very successful and have an **uber** charecter in EQ. But it still is a Virtual world..a game world...not a real world folks.
Teens have plenty of problems finding their identity and forming the real life relationships and habits of dealing with others that they carry through life. Should a teen be allowed to spend 30 hours a week on everquest instead of dealing with creating and maintaining real life relationships? NO...but that is a parenting problem, not a game problem.
If there is any fault whatsoever on the part of the game I would have to say it is the fact that at high level you need several hours of playtime to accomplish anything worthwhile. I have often played low level alts for the simple reason I had 2 hours to devote to the game that day and not the 4 or 5 it takes at high level to accomplish a worthwhile in game goal.That is, and always has been a problem with this game. It can't be minimized, paused or even camped out of without prior planning in most cases. Corpse retrievals can be hairy and take hours of unplanned game time.How many times have you been ready to log and died in a bad place? Being able to join the game and leave it more so at will and being able to acheive worthwhile goals without camping an item for 36 plus hours would be an improvement. Those of us that are adults with jobs and families and responsibilities will likely never be able to take advantage of the things in the game that take those kind of hours to acquire, we just don't have that kind of free time to devote to it.
Spending ever increasing amounts of time on the computer and in virtual worlds whether it is everquest or in some other forum is going to be a fact of life in society from now on due to many social factors that didn't exist 20 years ago.
20 years ago I could afford to do lots of things to entertain myself in my spare time I can no longer afford to do. People with higher intelligence can read a healthy size book in a day for example but a good newly released book on average costs 20 bucks...I can play the game all month long for closer to 12 bucks. Disneyland costs 45 bucks just to get in the door..I could go on and on about what costs what to do down to a nice dinner out with the family...but the point is that people are gonna entertain themselves on the computer because its easier and more affordable in society as it stands today than most other stuff thats fun to do.
The whole idea is that at some point you have to take personal responsibility for your actions and suing for every bad thing that happens to you isn't the thing to do but it is what happens more often than not these days. If my little dog will bite you if you pick him up and squeeze him too hard and i tell you he will and you do it anyway and get bitten would you sue me? most likely because that is the society we have become.There is no such thing as personal responsibility anymore and everything is someone elses fault down to children suing their parents for improper toilet training. Its gotta stop somewhere.
My 2 cp worth
Kirah Brightblade
Bristlebane

No matter what situation you're in there are always the few people who are just not "right." Addictions are addictions and we all have at least one. But giving, a game, a sport, or a television program a black image because of someone's more than plenty problems is I guess societies or maybe just the parents way of dealing with the case. EQer's probably spend less money a year on EQ than smokers do on cigarettes. Also while on EQ you are being kept away from drugs and other things that can kill you a lot faster than "a mindless game." In short how can you judge thousands of individuals on one persons actions, it's sterotyping and almost prejudice. One consequence that will amount from this is a surgeon general's warning on EQ products, to try to stave off the depressed, lonely, and psychotic.

ok the article said plain as day, this man was mentally unstable, in laymens terms it said he was a timb bomb waiting to go off.He went postal people, plain and simple, cant blame EQ, SOE or anyone except him. If his mother had any sense she would realise this, Why was he alone? Why did he have a gun? Thats real intelligent, lets give a looney a gun, next she will be sueing the gun manufacturer.Now dont mean to sound insensitive, but oh well, hes dead, get over it, she needs to sue herself for bad parenting. At least she taught her son how to get his whole face in front of the shotgun, GOOD JOB MOM

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but let me list my points:

1. The man already had a couple of strikes against him. He had the mental illnesses of depression, and schizo-affective behavior which for the layman means that he was a borderline schizophrenic. He lacked alot of social skills and was at high risk for eventual homelessness, drug and/or alcohol dependence, and yes suicide.

2. Although tragic, he killed himself due to numerous factors including his depression, and mental illnesses. I believe his mother is just plain greedy. She basically wants money that she is not entitled to. Even if her son had lived for 50 depressed long years, he would have barely been able to support himself working at a pizza parlor, and would have contributed very little to her financially. She needs to find another way to make money. In fact her greed will strain SoE financially as they have to hire attorneys to protect themselves and that cost will eventually be passed down to the players as we have seen recently with the price hike.

3. His mother should have intervened as soon as she found out that he had a gun. How long did he have it before he turned it on himself? It was her lack of supervision of her son that eventually did him in. Now she is turning her guilt and negative energy into something that will affect us all in this gaming community, it is a shame.

In my experience, Everquest can bring such joy and happiness into my my life when I finally get a nice item after a long quest, or when I loot a very rare item that improves my virtual character. And it can bring me down like when I lose sleep due to a very long raid that I just can't seem to get away from, and I feel very tired the next day at work.. or when I accidently lose something due to a bad multi-quest that is frustrating as hell. However, I wouldn't even think about hurting myself physically in any way because IT IS JUST A GAME.

For this man, if it wasn't Everquest, it would have been something else that would have caused him to pull the trigger. He had 3 strikes against him.

The kid was fat and lonely and sad... What I want to know.. is why are there some truly beautiful people(inside and out, happy ppl..) wasting thier time here.. it's not for losers.. certain ppl like it.. I wanna know why