@Schizoid - don't blame the liberals. The USA produces more lawyers per capita than any other nation in the world (and more than the other 9 of the Top Ten combined). Even lawyers have to eat, and they can't usually get away with just cracking skulls and sucking the brains out of the homeless, so they sue people. They have to have a client to sue someone, and that's why you see so many "ambulance chaser" adverts on TV.

I know this article sounds dumb and leaves you initially thinking that people need to learn to take responsibility for their own lives and actions but it's not always that simple.

I have always been a keen gamer but that's certainly been very much a controlled desire rather than addiction.
However, since being a single parent of an autistic and ADHD child, I have found myself increasingly addicted to the quick and easy sense of achievement a game can give you that my home life certainly doesn't give right now.

That said, I've never really had much problems with addiction so I guess controlling this warped psychological 'easy fix' could have been hugely more difficult for some people.
Fortunately I have been aware of the problem and can control it but I'd say it would be equally dumb to mock this kind of problem offhand.

Now I'm off to play some games!

What if the game has a monthly fee and is co-designed by psychologists to be addictive?

What if psychologists were used to help make the game addictive?

Is it a monthly payment game? If so then the sellers will make more money if it's played over a long time. Perhaps they wanted to make it addictive.

Does it require repeated actions for repeated rewards and a lot of playing hours to get to higher levels? If so then this could be used to exploit a person's natural cravings and patterns of behaviour.

It's not that hard to change a person's behavious pattern if you provide an interesting reward for them. That's the whole basis of MMORPGs. Regular, repeated doses of reward, tasks and some social contact.

It's brain science, it's doable and it's being done.

There are new marketing techniques that can use EEG scanning that accurately predict how effective an advertising campaign will be based on only a small sample of 30-50 people. www.newscientist.com. It's an interesting area.

I expect that if he can show the company has some psych employees or consulted any of these then he's on to a winner. If the company has ever been aware of any warnings of addictiveness and didn't do anything to counter this then he could be onto a winner.

It should be tempered with him having a lot of the responsibility, but if cunning folks want to make something addictive then they should accept the consequences.

MMORPG's should have a timer function whereby if you play for more than 2 hours at a time then your character loses ability/skills/weapons/money or a combination. The fact that they don't have a negative timer says to me that they are not behaving responsibly and are happy for their customers to become addicted.

I am the one at fault. It wasn't her sleeping around and playing some game to help ignore what she was doing. If it hadn't been evercrack, maybe it would have been cocaine or meth. at least evercrack didn't rot my teeth.

"smallwood"....snigger...phnar...

The extent of liability in this case should be no more than the cost of counseling/treatment to get the person "unaddicted". Evidently, that is already the case since he found the time and motivation to find a lawyer to file the case so problem is already solved.

The fact is such "warnings" do not have any functional value as no person would believe that they were predisposed to know that they would become "addicted" to any game or any pleasurable experience for that matter. Sex addicts, game addicts and alcoholics are all unique emotional "escapism" disorders that can't be Warned from happening.

It can't be all that bad if Smallwood's got the time and money to file a lawsuit.

We all know this a ridiculous case; it is like filing suite at the manufacturers of the ball because it became someone’s favorite time suck. “Ball go up, ball go down…” 12 hours later. “What the heck ball?!”

What about people who spend all their time watching movies? Can they sue the movie industry or a particular studio or a network because they watched too much TV?

Most people have a period where they will spend lots of time playing a game and then it levels off. Anyone that doesn’t level off has a problem that could be affected by nurture and nature. People who do not get a grip on how they spend their time probably have addictive personalities. IMHO it could be in the same way people are predisposed for alcohol addiction.

IMHO I doubt the game companies have the psychology of addictive game play down to a science. This seems to be the key to this law suite. If they can prove that developers hold this power over gamers and wield it irresponsibly, they can then rationally make a case. I personally think that the reason the court has allowed this case, is to bring our attention back to the justice system. By no means am I saying that this case should not be taken seriously. If we ignore it, a negative out come does threaten the videogame industry and probably any entertainment industry as a whole (if you want to argue on a slippery slope).

One thing is for sure, Developers and hardware manufactures may need to start to incorporate more transparent time manage tools so people can monitor there time playing games. That is one issue I have had. I have lost track of time, and all I asked was a way to see the time while playing, the same way I can call up the clock on my VCR/DVD player. That way, at least the game industry can show that they are doing something in good faith, even though they are probably not responsible for people who are not able to regulate their own activities given, again, the doubt I have about the developers finding a secret that gives them the power to intentionally addict consumers.

Thanks to the Edu-ma-ka-shun system of the United States and it's system of belief in the idea that it can blame "liberal" ideas for everything - some morons believe that it is the government's fault that this lawsuit is occurring. I think it is the fault of the corporate media that drones mindless media at the public and tells them to "mind their manners" and that "liberals are evil" and that t"thinking for yourself is wrong" that causes such stupidity. Then again, I have a brain and don't repeat what the corporate media tells me in their talking points.

Funny how easily predictable some folks are though. Such lawsuits are nuisance material - where does the family or the young man take accountability and responsibility for his own actions?

Sorry, but this one can go to court, but should be easily won by the developer. Individuals have a responsibility for their own lives and actions. To the bonehead blaming the government - I am a Liberal, and I know that this is a personal matter. The difference here is that you see everything as political, which is myopic and dimwitted. Maybe you should learn to think before commenting.

wow... because one american is to stupid to function in the real world he has become addicted to the virtual world. maybe if he wasn't retarded he would realized that he was going no where in life. maybe i should go get addicted to herion and then try and sue the drug dealer because he is apparently the cause of my useless life. or maybe i should sue America for allowing an useless american to sue a video game company for making a game that an idiot would devote 6 years of his life to for pleasure.. maybe the porn industry for addicting people to beautiful women... idk maybe he should just go eff himself because thats the only action he'll ever get? i can't believe ppl anymore!

What a precedence this will set. With things like this going on no wonder obesity is such a huge epidemic in the U.S. Pathetic! Frivolous lawsuits are destroying the economy and our society.

Perhaps the judge allowed it so this yahoo will be sued into bankruptcy, thereby ending his game addiction AND sending a clear lesson to idiots who think they can make free money for suing over their personal shortcomings.

Mogwai: Everquest is not responsible for your divorce. YOU are responsible for your divorce. 989/Sony didn't make you get divorced, you chose to play the game over your spouse. Put the blame where it belongs: look in the mirror and bitch.

there should be some kind of warning everytime they logon. everquest used to be called evercrack and there are people who killed themselves over that game. perhaps a lawsuit is in order or something to warn people of the addictive nature of some games. i'm not saying to ban them, just let people know what could happen. i myself blame my divorce on evercrack. that was time i should have been spending with her. since then, i haven't bothered with mmorpgs. theres a real world that has beetter graphics.

there should be some kind of warning everytime they logon. everquest used to be called evercrack and there are people who killed themselves over that game. perhaps a lawsuit is in order or something to warn people of the addictive nature of some games. i'm not saying to ban them, just let people know what could happen. i myself blame my divorce on evercrack. that was time i should have been spending with her. since then, i haven't bothered with mmorpgs. theres a real world that has beetter graphics.

It has become the land of the dumb, lazy, irresponsible & unaccountable all thanks to the liberal minded morons who have slowly changed our government, school system, etc. over decades to turn the young generations of today into government drones for their socialistic society. Judge Biotch should've told the punk to exit the building as he was nothing but an insult to his generation.

welcome to the U.S.
the land of the dumb, where any missing label is cause of self injury and death