Will Online Gaming's Addictive Marketing Get Them In Legal Trouble?

from the rethinking-the-marketing-strategy... dept

For years, people have described how online multi-player games like EverQuest were addictive, and the industry loved it. In fact, many started using the phrase in their own marketing materials. Now, however, some are wondering if the self-proclaimed addictive labels are going to come back to haunt online video game makers when lawyers come along to blame them for just about any crime associated with the game. Already there's been talk about blaming such games for suicides and for child neglect -- and calling the game "addictive" in the marketing probably won't help the game makers' side of the story in front of a jury.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    aNonMooseCowherd, 28 Jun 2004 @ 6:30am

    new business opportunities

    This may open up a whole new market of products that alert parents when their kids are ODing on games.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jun 2004 @ 9:17am

    Crack

    Crack - The OTHER white drug !

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Permanent4, 29 Jun 2004 @ 8:15am

    Re: new business opportunities

    Maybe it should alert the kids when the parents are ODing on the games...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    jam, 13 Feb 2007 @ 12:06am

    hehe

    wala lang

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.