timewaster

FYI, this Friday ( 8 PM channel 2 for those of you in the NYC area) the TV show "48 hours" has a segment on the EQ addict who killed himself. Might be interesting to watch even though they will probably blame the gaming industry.

Groucho

The good news is that he's finally recovered his corpse!

tygloalex

EQ=Everquest?

khieng

Of course. Blame the gaming industries.

spainlinx0

No one else thought this line was funny? I was cracking up, and I don't even play EQ.

Gizmo

I saw the segment on this kid somewhere else a few months ago.

timewaster

Good one!
I remember all those horrors of recovering my corpse in the middle of mobs.

edstein

It seems his mother felt that the game was so addicting that when something in the game went wrong for him he shot himself. They did make a brief comment that he had a prior mental condition.

They also showed a few others who were "addicted" to the game as well. Ben Stein's son was one of them. One guy was running two computers at the same time, what a geek.

MrKen

They didn't have Curt Schilling on?

He is apparently a major EQ fanatic, although he has never put it in anything but a positive light. It would have been a good counterpoint.

(Since he is away from home a lot, but has a wife and kids at home, and he only pitches every 4 days or so, he plays non-stop on road trips).

or so i read.

lesterlong

This is why I play console games.

Decker

It's a shame that that kid killed himself, but they couldn't even show it was the game that got him upset, only that the menu screen was on the monitor -- I don't think it's fair to blame the game for that. The part of that story I thought was interesting is that the Mother wanted Sony to put a warning on the box that the game could become addictive and they refused. I think that would only sell more games. The whole story was, on some level, a big advertisement for EQ, obviously it has a devoted following that I was totally unaware of. There were some major losers featured in that peice. That dad who never talks to his kids and wouldn't even look up to be interviewed on TV and those folks at the convention; If I ever care that much about a video game, please shoot me!

dgmayor

I've played up to 3 at once. Thanks for the classification

DVDHO

Ben Stein was complaining that his kid played to much EQ yet HE PAID THE 10 DOLLAR A MONTH BILL,who's fault is that?

Now back to the 21 year old kid,if you read the hole article about this,the kids Mother goes on to say how hard she tried to help through his mental illness but I guess she didnt try hard enough,this kid was in no shape to be living on his own,this kid needed help before EQ was even invented,its a scape goat for her so she dont have to blame herself,I dont feel a oz.of sorrow for that kid,he had problems and he took them to a virtue world when he should have been helped or on some medication.

Pasco

The show was about addictions. People can be addicted to other things besides drugs, alcohol, etc.. I feel sorry for the guy and his family, but like anything in this world that brings pleasure, it can be overused and abused. The guy definitely was not exactly stable. He had problems. Was playing EQ too a problem? Yes. Was it the sole cause of his death? No. It's not a black and white issue, like alcohol leading to one wrapping themselves around a telephone pole. Video games / pop culture are often the scape goat of the problems of the day. Look how some are trying to blame the "sniper shootings" on light-gun games and FPS games. There are bigger problems in the U.S.; poverty, education, homelessness, and on and on. Games (and music and movies and TV) are just easy to blame because they don't have a face.

DVDHO

How can you feel sorry for someone who takes his own life?If you kill yourself over a game its not the games fault,its his you have to have mental health issues to go as far as killing yourself over a game,his mom new this yet she still let him live on his own when he wasnt suited to live on his own,she new he had mental health problems and what did she do?Nothing and if she was going to it was to late,now she blames Sony by going on "48 hours"and only telling half the story,the full story will get out in court,this makes game companys looks bad.

Now all the game companys will get the blame for this,now when will parents make a stand and stop blaming everything but the problem itself,whats next no Socom:Navy Seals because there is a Sniper on the lose,Fuk the media there the true evil out of this.