Has Jack Thompson Gone To China?

from the rubbing-off dept

Thu, May 11th 2006 5:13pm — Mike Masnick

It would appear that folks in China are picking up on American style lawsuits that shift the responsibility from themselves to some big company when things go wrong. In the US, of course, we have the infamous Jack Thompson, who likes to blame all sorts of crimes on video games, removing the responsibility from those who actually commit the crimes. In China, a family is now suing the Chinese distributor of Warcraft because their 13-year-old son killed himself after playing 36 straight hours of the game. They complain that there's no warning on the game -- though, they don't bother to explain why no one in the family happened to notice the kid was playing for 36 hours straight.

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46 Comments

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dorpus, 11 May 2006 @ 5:34pm

If
If a non-American company sold video games to American kids where the heroes blow up America, would Americans sit still, insist that video games have "no effect", and let "market forces" have their way?
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- thecaptain, 12 May 2006 @ 5:25am
  
  Re: If
  Yay! Dorpus is back! And a lot of people got fished in!
  Bravo!
  
  As for Jack:
  
  If he goes to China, will they let him come back?
  If not, I'm all for it
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- Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2006 @ 5:25pm
  
  Re: If
  Dorpus:
  
  See Deus Ex.
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David, 11 May 2006 @ 6:06pm

Um, Dorpus?
What the hell are you talking about?
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- dorpus, 11 May 2006 @ 6:37pm
  
  Re: Um, Dorpus?
  So if some Muslim country made a "reality" game where they blow up your house, and video game tourists came to take pictures of your house, will you agree that video games have no effect whatsoever on violence, therefore you have absolutely nothing to fear of someone wanting to blow up your house?
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  - weedick, 11 May 2006 @ 6:40pm
    
    Re: Re: Um, Dorpus?
    you rad you rad
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  - David, 11 May 2006 @ 7:14pm
    
    Re: Re: Um, Dorpus?
    Okay, take a deep breath and relax.
    
    The article is about a kid who played a fantasy game about wizards and orcs for a day and a half and then took his life. The game is made in the US and the kid lived in China.
    
    How do you jump from that to Muslim countries making games about blowing up my house? What do you mean by ' "reality" game '? Warcraft certainly doesn't try to imitate reality.
    
    And what the heck is a "video game tourist"?
    
    You really need to either relax or increase the medication, Dorpus.
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    - dorpus, 11 May 2006 @ 7:21pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Um, Dorpus?
      My point was that if Muslims did make a game about blowing up your house, or a game that assassinated Mike Masnick, and some 13-year-old Muslim played such games for 36 hours straight, and really blew himself up at your house, would you just laught it off as "Jack Thompson Syndrome"?
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      - David, 11 May 2006 @ 7:23pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Um, Dorpus?
        Uh . . . yeah.
        
        You do realize that the article has absolutely nothing to do with Muslims, right?
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      - NewspeakIsUngood, 11 May 2006 @ 8:39pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Um, Dorpus?
        Dorpus,
        Are you asking if in the hypothetical situation that a non american game developer made a video game in which the americans are the bad guys, and the protagonist walks around suicide bombing americans, and then a middle eastern kid who played this game proceeded to blow up my house, would I blame the video game?
        
        No. I would not. I would blame the kid for not making a distinction between fiction and reality, as well as not having any moral judgement, and I would blame his parents for either fostering anti americanism and promoting violence against americans or being parents to the kid and making sure that the kid understands right and wrong as well as for not monitoring what the kid is doing.
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        dorpus, 12 May 2006 @ 2:12am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Um, Dorpus?
        So if, say, the kid's family, mosque, and country all condoned the game for "promoting selfless sacrifice", would you still blame only the kid?
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        Ben, 12 May 2006 @ 7:19am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Um, Dorpus?
        These games exist already. They take american made games (mostly first person shooters) and alter the code so that all you kill are americans and the heros are muslim. and so far we havent had any new attacks on our soil. so i dont blame the games at all. i blame the parent who didnt notice the fact that there kid was at a cyber cafe for over a day and a half...
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HuhBukka, 11 May 2006 @ 6:22pm

blh
HUH? Wy waste my time. Chineese are if you please. Make China USA make China Thomason.
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The Chad, 11 May 2006 @ 6:37pm

That's It??
Pfft only 36 hours playing killed him.... I'm dissapointed, I've gone several days with no issue. =P
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haffeysucks, 11 May 2006 @ 6:38pm

Um, blh?
WTF are you trying to say?! English is preferred on this website.
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yossi, 11 May 2006 @ 6:39pm

how the hell
do you play for 36 hours? clearly this kid had a preexisting condition.
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Larry Marshall, 11 May 2006 @ 7:02pm

God bless and save the child. The point is non diretional and god has his own rules (very harsh). Thanks for Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!
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- lorraine, 11 May 2006 @ 7:08pm
  
  Re:
  Larry is right ! His minor sin will be forgiven under the sheperds intervention. Without condition.
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Chris Kirschke, 11 May 2006 @ 7:05pm

Nothing to do with God or politics... Darwin wrote the theory :)
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antarctica7, 11 May 2006 @ 7:14pm

This just in, Dorpus proves ignorance...
Warcraft has nothing to do with any government or people based in reality. There are no Chinese, Americans, Iranians, Indians or any other nation represented in the game. Are you suggesting that Orcs are Chinese or American? Who are the elves and dwarves? Are they the Middle Easterns and Europeans?

How do you get from a Chinese kid playing a fantasy based (as in orcs, elves, dwarves, etc) computer game for 36 hours straight to American houses being blown up to video game tourists (wtf, tourists? where did u get THAT?!?!?) to market forces?

The issue here is exactly what the article states. A Chinese family bringing a law suit against a video game distributor because their child committed suicide after playing the fantasy game for 36 hours straight. The issue IMO is the parents failure to supervise their child properly, thus demonstrating a lack of responsibility and at the same time trying to say it was the game distributors responsibility to raise their child while they were to busy doing other things...
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- Ben, 12 May 2006 @ 7:23am
  
  Re: This just in, Dorpus proves ignorance...
  Thank you.
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Larry Marshall, 11 May 2006 @ 7:16pm

Darwin never discounted God. He was a religious man and kept his foot in the door by believeing that God created evolution as any sane physhic will tell. Peace to you.
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- Chris Kirschke, 11 May 2006 @ 7:27pm
  
  Re: Darwin
  Yes, Darwin never discounted God, his mistake. He also argued that science could provide the same answers as the local papal figure.
  
  And when did psychic's become sane?
  
  A kid plays a game for 36 hours and his parents dont intervene? That is a bad parenting issue and the parents should be prosecuted rather than allowing them to attempt litigation...
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Anti Dorpus, 11 May 2006 @ 7:34pm

The thing I find funny, is that the parents complain that there's no warning label that states playing the game too long and without taking a break might lead to death. (I don't think the kid committed suicide, I think he just neglected his body and died from that, right?)

It shouldn't NEED a label like that. I mean, use some common sense people! Do you need a label on a gun that warns you which end the bullet comes out of, and that it might kill you if you stick that end against your head?

PS: Dorpus is a twit.
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- Larry Marshall, 11 May 2006 @ 7:42pm
  
  Re:
  Perhaps a Union coffee break integrated.
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- Larry Marshall, 11 May 2006 @ 7:46pm
  
  Re:
  Perhaps a Union coffee break integrated.
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Larry Marshall, 11 May 2006 @ 7:49pm

Common sense is an evolutionary concept. Survival of the fittest. In basic.
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Larry Marshall, 11 May 2006 @ 7:50pm

Common sense is an evolutionary concept. Survival of the fittest. In basic.
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Truth, 11 May 2006 @ 8:50pm

The Real Story.
I heard about this story awhile ago. The kid was playing World of Warcraft, an Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing game. He consumed energy drinks while the playing the game for 36 hours straight without stopping to sleep. He suffered a cardiac arrest due to exhaustion and the consumption of lots of caffiene (from the engery drinks).

I assume that since it was self inflicted then they called it suicide in the law suit. When this was first reported they were not using suicide to refer to his death.

Anyways, I have played for around that amount of time in one sitting on that very same game when I was recovering from a collasped lung in which I almost died due to internal bleeding. Of course I am alive since I am writing this. My point to make is that the energy drinks consumed continually over that amount of time at the young age of the kid is what lead to his death.

In my opinion the parents should be sueing the makers of the energy drinks if they do not have a warning about consuming a large amount of the product over that amount of time.

While I think that common sense should have been used to avoid this, it is a common trend that the public holds corporations liable for warning of potential harmful side effects while using their products and it seems that the legal system does too these days.

~Truth
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- David, 11 May 2006 @ 10:09pm
  
  Re: The Real Story.
  Read the article.
  
  "n 2004, Zhang Xiaoyi, from the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, jumped out of a window of his family's 24th floor apartment after playing Warcraft at an internet cafe."
  
  The kid jumped out a window. He didn't die of cardiac arrest.
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  - Benjamin, 20 Jun 2006 @ 4:11pm
    
    Re: Re: The Real Story.
    "n 2004, Zhang Xiaoyi, from the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, jumped out of a window of his family's 24th floor apartment after playing Warcraft at an internet cafe."
    
    Impossible. World of Warcraft was not released to China until June 06, 2005.
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  - Benjamin, 20 Jun 2006 @ 4:12pm
    
    Re: Re: The Real Story.
    "n 2004, Zhang Xiaoyi, from the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, jumped out of a window of his family's 24th floor apartment after playing Warcraft at an internet cafe."
    
    Impossible. World of Warcraft was not released to China until June 06, 2005.
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Burn, 11 May 2006 @ 11:02pm

RE:Re: The Real Story. by David
Ouch, don't you hate it when someone burns you that bad Truth?
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J, 11 May 2006 @ 11:37pm

Jumped Out a Window?
I know the following statement makes me lazy and unemployed so please focus on the point of my post and don’t attack my personal life style. I played WoW for pretty much three months strait. I only stopped for about 4 hours a night to sleep and however long it took for me to walk to the door to get the pizza I ordered. Never during that time did I have the urge to jump out of a 24th story window. I don't see how the two relate. Nobody seems to explain how playing WoW for 36 straight hours makes someone want to commit suicide in that way. Did he think that he could jump out the window and survive? Even in WoW if you took a fall like that your character would die so they can’t be arguing that he tried to emulate the game. Was he depressed? If it was depression then the game probably had very little to do with it. Was he just stark raving mad? Maybe after 36 hours of non stop play, he was on the no sleep equivalent of a bad acid trip, though he was Jesus Christ, and jumped out the window because he thought he could fly? Any other ideas?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 May 2006 @ 11:47pm

Precautions for Parents
Now i dont play WoW or WoW3 but it was easy enough to find a link that a responsible parent can use to set a scheduled play time. Once that time is up he or she is logged out... end of story. For those interested here is the link for instructions. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/parental-control-faq-small.html It is up to the Adult in the family to make the right decision not the child, im sorry if this offends but this is just another case of bad ass parenting..... P.S. Dorpus you are a twit and dumbass....
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www dot lnaclan dot com, 12 May 2006 @ 1:57am

Hmm hmm.
They are clearly shifting the blame. There is no case here.

Sorry, correction. Maybe less shifting the blame and more denial.

I do feel bad for them, but parents put too much trust in their children these days. I am not a father, but I do look after family children and I get to see that my family let their kids get away with too much in fear their children might hate them if they impose any kind of rules/disciplin. Their are, obviously limits. This isn't just my family, I would like to point out. I know alot of people scared to punish or disciplin their children in fear of the consiquences later in life.

The issue here goes way further than a game with no online limitations. I have also played World of Warcraft and I have seen its adictibility, but the issue is with parents enforcing limits on children.

Good for Blizzard and Parental Controls! Someone is getting the right idea.
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2006 @ 9:45am
  
  Re: Hmm hmm.
  The ironic thing is, if they dont discipline them they will have problems now and later in life.
  
  Like when you let your kid play a videogame for 36 straight instead of telling him to turn that shit off and eat/sleep. Then he DIES. You cant blame that on the videogame. You're a fucking bad parent.
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MikeT, 12 May 2006 @ 5:56am

This is not a game-related problem
You can get a fatal blood clot if you sit there hours on end and don't move around at all. This can just as easily happen to office workers who work too long/hard.
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Torgo, 12 May 2006 @ 7:30am

Dorpus
Dorpus wrote:
> So if, say, the kid's family, mosque, and country all condoned the
> game for "promoting selfless sacrifice", would you still
> blame only the kid?

No Dorpus. At this point it becomes a societal problem. They may well preform those actions regardless of the games existance or not.

Just like Grand Theft Auto, most people who play the game do not take it as justification for those same actions in the real world. There are a few who may, but those typically had already started down that road, or were somewhat maladjusted in the first place. But we can't exactly force everyone to take a personality test and psychiatric evaluation before purchasing each game, can we? No, we have to leave it up to the parents to decide what is appropriate for their children to view/play, and in this, they are failing the grade!
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Whatever.., 12 May 2006 @ 4:33pm

what's the big deal?
Another 13 year old not playing Warcraft? Sweet. one down, 32 billion to go.
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Alee, 13 May 2006 @ 3:11pm

Mmk...
It's a sad affair whenever someone takes their own life. But it's moronic to think a game caused this kid (or any other) to take his life. He had to have had other things going on in his mind. Games don't usually promote taking ones own life because for the most part, in most games, you're trying to stay ALIVE...
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China Law Blog, 16 May 2006 @ 11:11pm

The Chinese Love Their Courts
No surprises here. The Chinese have come to love lawsuits and the government encourages them. The plaintiff will probably win and be awarded around $1,000. You heard it here first.
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jimbob, 15 Oct 2006 @ 6:51pm

ROFL
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WOW Fan, 15 Oct 2006 @ 6:53pm

4mil+ ppl playing WOW ofcourse some lil ching chong fuk will die coz hes addicted...What did it say on his grave?
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WOW Fan, 15 Oct 2006 @ 6:54pm

4mil+ ppl playing WOW ofcourse some lil ching chong fuk will die coz hes addicted...What did it say on his grave?
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KLUSTENATOR, 4 Jan 2007 @ 6:29pm

Re: Re: Re: The Real Story.
Yea, but Benjamin, cyber cafes always get games ahead of time, as long as they are out in other parts of the world. This explains why he wasn't playing at his house either, like the vast majority of players, and it might be a reason as to why his parents didn't know about it. Maybe they were away for the weekend, not knowing that their child was playing WoW nonstop. Who knows?
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