The word of the day is "ridiculousity"

    So apparently they stopped fining for stupidity and started rewarding it and suing afterwards.

    So where was the line we crossed that everything that happens after you have played a video game is NOT necessarily connected to it.

    The story goes that some dimwit jumped from 24th floot after playing WoW, and the parents thought that "it was most propably maybe somehow connected to something that might have had in someway have something to do with something like a game or something " so they decided to sue Blizz. Smart move from a stupid animal, it's like a snail started to use a bicycle or something.

    So does anyone else think that this is just starting to go to bit over the top of common sense? My friend jumped from a roof after eating some bread, I propably just in case should sue the company that made the bread, just in case I should sue the company that made the butter and the one that made his jeans, maybe the company responsible of the asphalt had something to do with it, of and not to forget the company that build the building, it was their fault that after eating dry bread he decided to jump off the roof because his jeans were too tight and the butter was supposed to be low calorie product and the building builders made the building way damn too tall and the asphalt was not nearly soft enough. Yeah that was it.

    So should we start a organization that countersued people just for kicks, "sued for stupidity!"

    Link YEAH!

    (disc. ridiculousity is not an actual word)

    This guy almost sounds like a Chinese Jack Thompson

    Anyways, these things happen quite often. But as far as I know, if they ever get to the courtroom they are often dismissed. And if it did turn into a case, I'm sure Blizzard has a bloodthirsty legal team, or atleast the funds to get one.

    Didn't the US Congress pass a law forbidding the suing of fast food company's for making people obesse? I think that this is something along the same lines. People need to stop making excuses and finding scapegoats for their inadequacies.

    I can't take your comments seriously, but if I were I'd have to respond "Who decides who is stupid" The world is based upon opinion in which case majority rules. No single person can judge right or wrong.

    Quote from von*ferret

    I can't take your comments seriously, but if I were I'd have to respond "Who decides who is stupid" The world is based upon opinion in which case majority rules. No single person can judge right or wrong.

    It's a Kosmo thread

    You forget it's also China, and the Chinese government HATES video games. They do not like their citizens to be able to freely talk and interact with large numbres of each other at once. It's why their internet cafe's have a strict time limit.

    Most judges in America would throw this out before it even reached a jury because it failes to show anything beyond post hoc ergo propter hoc (B happened after A, therefore A caused B). Most judges in China will allow this because it allows the Chinese government a method to crack down on people playing WoW, EQ, Lineage, Ragnorak, etc.

    Fletch, what you just said has no accuracy at all and I believe that even in China the judgess will pull the plug on this legal action because it has just no base to begin with.

    I didn't say that Chinese goverment doesn't control their population, but I just said that it's rather arbitrary to say Chinese goverment generally hate games and tries to stop it's population from "communicating" and using MMORPG as an example software of communication.

    If Chinese goverment wanted to bring the hammer down to WoW, EQ etc. I think that they would just outlaw them. It doesn't seem like a goverment that has a solid grip on the balls of it's population would go around bashing some MMOG "for being hazardous to it's users."

    But I'm saying that even if there is a judge crazy enough to accept something far fetched as "WoW making a kid jump off a building" I think Blizz has a solid base for a case that it's not true and their lawyer armies will just present undeniable proof as long as the suing family has money left to fight.

    Quote from Kosmo

    I just said that it's rather arbitrary to say Chinese goverment generally hate games and tries to stop it's population from "communicating" and using MMORPG as an example software of communication.

    The "Great Firewall of China" system blocks aboue 25% of the IP addresses on earth in order to prvent access to information. Search queries are filtered before results return. Chat rooms and message boards are aggressively filtered. Amnesty International reports over 100 Chinese political prisoners in jail on charges of improper bahavior online. Last year nearly 50,000 internet cafes were shut down in China. China exerted enough pressure to get Microsoft to help censor Chinese blogs.

    There is a reason the government controls the newspaper, TV, telephone serivce, and radio. Information is power. Communications is power. Without those, widespread rebellion becomes nearly impossible. Even if hundreds of people riot and rebel in one province, there is no news coverage or communication to help the messge spread.

    Quote from Kosmo

    If Chinese goverment wanted to bring the hammer down to WoW, EQ etc. I think that they would just outlaw them.

    The scary thing is the Chinese government is exceptionally good at what they do. If they were to just outright ban all video games or online games, there would be international retaliation. It all of sudden becomes news. Considering most of those games are made by America, it would probably lead to some trade sanctions (probably centering around technology), which China doesn't want to happen because they are really starting to emerge as a bigger player on the international stage.

    So, no, they are not going to ban them. They'll legislate instead. Internet cafes are already operating under a 3 hour time limit. The govenrment also controls which games are created domestically and which are allowed to be imported. They basically control the market, and the market is good. This ia a multi-billion dollar industry in China. It keeps people employed, and the government gets a big user fee chunk from cafes. If the Chinese government just banned everything, that's a huge blow to local economies. So yes, it was wrong of me to say China hated video games. They just hate our video games. If you want to play video games made or financed by the Chinese government about Chinese history, how evil Japan is, or how to be a good Communist, they've got plenty.

    As for the merits of the original case, I don't think it's going to end in favor of the family. But I think the Chinese government, who controls the newspapers and news outlets, will make a big deal out of the case to once again warns its citizens about how too much internet use can make you go crazy. And I think a lot of people will believe them.

    It's basically what around half the countries in the world do, and most notably countries in middle-east, they block out internet sites that are anti-islam. Ban cartoons that they think are hazardous to children like pokemon.

    It's sad, but you are absolutely right, China controls almost all mediums of informative media. But I don't believe that if China banned videogames that even USA has balls that big that they would set anykind of pressure on China, hell if Bush had his way, I believe he'd do it himself. And the Internet Cafe timelimits are most part there because of the health risk, it's not that common here, but in China, Japan, Korea, people die almost daily due to exhaustion.

    China has banned games in the past, so why wouldn't they ban WoW just the same if they actually tought that it was so hazardous against the goverment. And what comes to political prisoners in China due to the improper use of internet, well, there are hackers in house arrests and in jail in USA and across Europe too. While I believe that China is over the top totalitarian goverment, I still don't think that China has such policy against games.

    The difference is I've actually talked to people who have been to China and seen this first hand. Chinese internet cafes are full of people between the ages of 15-30 who are tech-savy and more mindful that there is a world full of stuff outside of China. These are the people most likely to start any reformation against the current system (whether violent or peaceful). Internet cafes are pretty much the biggest form of socialization for this set. Schools are strict and often seperated (gender and economic status). Workplaces are regimented. These cafes provide a place where similar people whoa re complete straners can hang out, meet each other, and socialize. That is not a good thing for a totalitarian regime (again, you see this in the middle east a lot).

    At KU, we had a Kansas-Asia Scholars program that sent a group of 30-40 students each semester to live for a few months in China and Japan. Since a lot of Poly Sci / International Studies students go on this, a bunch of my friends have taken part. Almost all of them has commented on how wierd they though Chinese Internet Cafes were. A couple of them tried to simply e-mail pictures from their digital cameras and had to be screened first. They still thought the cafes were neat, but there was a defiante big brother feel to them that they didn't see in similar places in Japan. Censorship is just a daily fact in China, right down to the games.

    You can Google it all day long, so I'm not going to insult everybody's intelligence by repeatedly posting links, besides this sample: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3766023.stm

    "Online games with content threatening state security, damaging the nation's glory, disturbing social order and infringing on other's legitimate rights will also be prohibited," said a Chinese Ministry of Culture statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

    Personally, the thing I always find creepy is that Chinese news releases almost always play the "personal safety" card when banning things. To an outsider it seems wierd, but imagine having that blasted at you in the newspaper and on TV and radio every day of your life. If Americans live in a state of fear, the Chinese live in a state of fucking terror. The itnernet is dangerous for you. Having kids is dangerous for you. Eating foreign food is dangerous for you. Learning to read is dangerous for you. Driving is dnagerous for you. Blinking is dangerous for you.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login