news story i think people should read

i_am_dogboy

Here's a story I've just finished reading from today's irish mirror, at first i laughed but as i read on i was more shocked than anything with the bull**** being spewed to the public about online games. Its in relation to everquest 2 and is a fairly long story but definitely worth the read. I'd highlight the important areas but i'm a crap typist.

Enjoy!

Eircom bosses are using a computer game which some people claim more addictive rgan HEROIN to promote their latest internet service.
TV advertising for new broadband sevices show eircom's giant mouse sitting at his computer while internet game everquest plays on his screen.
But Everquest, dubbed Ever-Crack by some gaming experts, has been blamed for hundreds of break up's and at least one SUICIDE in the US.
There are even support groups such as everquest widows-which has 3000 members-for people who have lost partners through the game.
Some experts believe everquest is as dangerous as any class A drug and have some up with a new term-heroinware-to describe it.
With more than 50000 subscribers, Everquest is the internet's most popular
game. Thousands of peole log on every day to enter the game world and battle each other as dragons or wizards.
But some become so sucked into their fantasy life they find it impossible to leave.
Shawn Woolley, a 21 year old everquest fan in wisconsen committed suicide in november 2001 after playing up to 12 hours a day.
His mother, Liz, believes everquest was to blame. She Said "It's like any other addiction. Either you die, go insane or quit, my son died"
Troubled screen shot himself in the head with everquest still playing on his screen.
And in florida a nine month old baby boy died after being locked in a cupboard for 24 hours so his addicted father could play.
Tony Lamount Bragg was sentence to 15 years in jail for aggrevated manslaughter after telling the judge he wanted to play everquest.
Chat rooms are springing up across the internet where hooked fans try to wean each other off the game.
Desparate Former game players such as Martin use these forums to warn other players of Everquest.
He said "I abandoned my wife, the woman i loved so dearly"
"She felt lonely, no intimacy, no talking no one there for her to support her emotionally".
"I had played as myuch as 20 hours a day. I would get up in the morning not even go to the bathrom, light a cigarette and log on."
"I wasn't showering, eating or taking care of myself...EQ was all i needed."
But despite these warnings Everquests popularity is still growing.
In a recent survey 62 % of players admitted they were addicted with 15 % spending 50 hours a week, longer than they do at WORK on the game.
A top lawyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, says some addicts are even willing to give up their children to keep playing the game.
She said"One fo the last cases I worked on involved three small children who were grossly neglected and living in horrible conditions due to the Mothers addiction to EQ."
"The children are now in the sole custody of their grandparents and are doing very well in a world that doesn't involve EQ."
"The mother gave up all parental rights and is still playing EQ."
But Sony boss Scott McDaniel refuses to accept his company's game is ruining lives. He said "I guess our game standpoint is the same as all kinds of products-you have to responsible in using it."
"You dont see a disclaimer when you get in a car saying 'Dont run over someone'. People have to exhibit their own good sense and if they have kids, they need to pay attention to ahet they are doing."
Eircom bosses denied they were promoting the game.
A spokesman said: "Everquest wasn't picked for any particular reason-it could have been any game."
"What is shown on the screen is immaterial. What we're trying to get across are the benifits of broadband."
Lahbour's social and family affairs spokesman Owen O Shea said domputer games can be dangerously addictive- and warned parents to always be aware of what their kids are up to online.


Ok thats it. I'm pretty disgusted by the anti internet and games crap that this half wit has given to our great public, i'll write a proper opinion of it later, i'm tired of writing now. Anyone got anything to say?

Creamy Goodness

And in florida a nine month old baby boy died after being locked in a cupboard for 24 hours so his addicted father could play.
Tony Lamount Bragg was sentence to 15 years in jail for aggrevated manslaughter after telling the judge he wanted to play everquest

now he ain't gonna be playing until 15 years away lol


sry don't mean to be funny about what really happened

i_am_dogboy

dont you think it's funny that people are so quick to blame the game on the fact that they are a sad pathetic waste of flesh and shouldn't be allowed have kids, or a computer for that matter

i dont really want to be insensitive but i'm tired of games being blamed for so many of peoples own problems

jammy_dodger

What a load of cack, personally i smell bs.

Besides thats, if you spend your life playing computer games all the time, it isnt much of a life anyway, So suicide probably the best thing for it.

Gummy Panda

I like it, Jammy. Good point.

shinzon

Anyone noticed that all those instances of people being addicted to everquest has come from the states.

Now there all a bit off the wall over there anyways, they could get addicted to sock watching given enough push to do so

jesus what a load of cack, right im just off to play KOTOR

Shin

OOPS im ADDICTED

Capt'n Midnight

Do you have a link to the original article ?

i_am_dogboy

i typed it, it's in today's mirror

Eden

God, that's amazing. They'll blame games for anything these days. Recently my local paper had an article about the fact that teenagers were spiritually malnourished because of computer games. Every single one of which are violent, by the way. :rolleyes:

Stephen

Must have been a slow news day then. I'm surprised they didn't fill the empty space with some crappy celebrity tat. I suppose they've got to put some mindless crap into all those pages their useless big brother coverage was taking up.

btw, I am "spiritually malnourished" because I believe religion is a load of fantasy and make believe used by humans to explain what they couldn't figure out by science, not because I play computer games

All the scandals of Catholic priests buggering kiddies probably helped me along my way to atheism as well.

eyerer

"The mother gave up all parental rights and is still playing EQ."

comical yet at the same time its sad, either a bad lie or people are even worse than i ever thought, and i don't think much of them

is there any chance this is a gimmick by the company that made the game? an attempt to raise interest in the game, thats probably the main effect the article will have, i'm kinda curious myself

_CreeD_

What can you say about a country where a group of immensely overweight people can sue McDonald's for serving them all that junk food.

Shinji

Well, hang on a second here... They have a point! I mean, have any of you actually ever spoken to a long-term evercrack addict? Bloody scary experience that.

I worked in a company once where we had to politely but firmly tell the Everquest players in the office that they were to sit at a different table in the pub at lunchtime, because they were frankly boring the rest of us to tears. Nice bunch of people and all, but their amazing feats in the land of Norrath were of zero interest to anyone else, and they simply couldn't understand this....

Ban it I say! It turns normal, decent people into raving mongs!

Gummy Panda

UO people can be bad but everquest i believe is the worst.

Sure didn't a few Koreans die from playing because of exhaustion. They were separate cases but were playing in cyber cafes over 48 hours straight.

I hope the Cyber cafe got its money though. Imagine the unclean smell of them!!

Squall

Jesus theyll blame anything on games these days

People who get so addicted obviously have some serious problems that need to be addressed. I mean you get addicted its your own fault not the bloody games.

Syth

The people who write these articles are the sort of people who don't play games, so it's alien and scary to them, then they see people doing things they don't understand and dislike, (such as playing for hours on end). Then bad things happen and they don't want to look at their own life or their own society and question how that works, so they take the easy way out, they blame the game, it's easy for them, because it lets them off the hook, and it's a simple quick fix solution and everyone wants quick fix solutions, but unfortunatly there are no quick fix solutions. Life is complicated.

[CrimsonGhost]

I recall reading an article written by a psychologist who was doing research into game addictions. She signed herself up and for 3 months did no work, She finally quit, deleting her character, got things sorted with her husband and wrote her report. In it she outlined just how easy it was, even for someone aware of the dangers, to get sucked in. I'll try and root out the article.

D.

Gummy Panda

Lets do a test ourselfs. We get Retro to sign-up and see what he thinks of the games he likes after a month on EQ.

I bet he would slam them and say EQ is the best. If he does that then it throughly is gaming Crack!!

tman

Originally posted by clownboy
Lets do a test ourselfs. We get Retro to sign-up and see what he thinks of the games he likes after a month on EQ.

I bet he would slam them and say EQ is the best. If he does that then it throughly is gaming Crack!!

lol, now thats a plan i like!
i can just picture it now, "final fantasy is teh ghey!"
hmmm... maybe not

jaggeh

being a neocrack addict myself, and previously Asherons call and Ultima online, i know what its like to be in an emmersive game.

however, thats all it is. a game...........
anyone who takes anything from a game seriously should be on medcication.

Kold

I'm addicted to CS but to be honest if it wasnt CS it'd probably be something else. *** it isnt funny at all. Its fairly damn sad.

Big Ears

well i used to play neocron myself but instead of getting more and more addicted i got more and more bored. Next they will be blaming Fifa and ISS when players get sent off.

Boro

I know that I used to play MUDs (remember them - text adventures over telnet) and for a while i kept playing one. It was just a completely different type of game than what I was used to. Very immersive, etc. Gave it up though after a while and never played again.

I can see why people get addicted to games like everquest. It gives them a chance to act out fantasies and live in an imaginary world. Its pure escapism from a boring humdrum life, or from the pressures of the real world. Once you get involved with a set of strangers on one of these games and make the transition to them being your friends, it becomes even harder to get off.

Anyway, its not the fault of everquest. Its not the fault of any game. Its the fact that maybe the game is working too well almost by providing a better place for people to spend their time than in their own world.

IMHo of course.