Prison Inmate Sues for WoW Addiction

Fri, Nov 7, 2008

Gaming, Massive, Multiplayergames.com

Chances are, you’ve heard of Johnathan Riches. He’s a prison inmate who has filed some of the most absurd lawsuits in recent memory, going as far as suing George Bush, Barry Bonds, and Eiffel Tower (?). This time, his target will be Blizzard, as their addictive World of Warcraft sent him on a crime spree, which in America, is entirely the fault of Blizzard (*sarcasm*). Why is the game at fault specifically you ask? It’s responsible for:

“…. causing [me] to live in a virtual universe, where [I] explored the landscape committing identity theft and fighting cybermonster rival hacker gangs.”

Riiiight. Sound logical. Anyone to start an office pool on how long it takes for this to get tossed out of court?

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This post was written by:

Matt Paprocki - who has written 1152 posts on www.Multiplayergames.com – Multiplayer Games.


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  • DrugLord
    He can win the trial. As Tiberiu84 said, games are proven to be addictive, but that's not the worse part of it. High rated violent games can modify your level of aggressivity and that is not a positive thing by my standards. Game companies have been always asked what they have to say about that, but most of the times there was only one answer: "No comment!". that says a lot about the truth.
    _________________________________________________
    Residential drug program in Oakland
  • gamereviewgod
    Any game study linking violent games to aggressiveness has been flawed. If playing a violent games increases the brains activity level, then so would playing high school football. It's an absurd notion to assume games are the cause for any violent behavior.
  • Good for the inmate. Sue them, and try and get back on the right track :)

    Daniel Callahan
    Alcohol Rehab
  • redsam
    this game is cool
  • tiberiu84
    Actually he could win the trial with Blizzards. Games are proven to be addictive and games that are rich in violent scenes can change the behavior of a person that plays too many hours of that specific game. The crime spree can be interpreted as a high level off aggressivity that was Blizzard's fault. He actually has a pretty good chace of winning this one.
    ________________________
    Alcohol Rehab Center
  • Highly doubt it
  • marshall1193
    cool graphics
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PjxzdHJvbmc+d29vX3NpbmdsZV9pbWFnZV93aWR0aDwvc3Ryb25nPiAtIDEwMDwvbGk+PGxpPjxzdHJvbmc+d29vX3RhYnM8L3N0cm9uZz4gLSBmYWxzZTwvbGk+PGxpPjxzdHJvbmc+d29vX3RoZW1lbmFtZTwvc3Ryb25nPiAtIEZyZXNoIE5ld3M8L2xpPjxsaT48c3Ryb25nPndvb190aHVtYl9pbWFnZV9oZWlnaHQ8L3N0cm9uZz4gLSA3NTwvbGk+PGxpPjxzdHJvbmc+d29vX3RodW1iX2ltYWdlX3dpZHRoPC9zdHJvbmc+IC0gNzU8L2xpPjxsaT48c3Ryb25nPndvb192aWRlb19jYXRlZ29yeTwvc3Ryb25nPiAtIFNlbGVjdCBhIGNhdGVnb3J5OjwvbGk+PC91bD4=