Could addictive MMORPG developers be sued?

Mad Mike

I know next to nothing about the legal system either here or in the USA but I wonder if any of you have a view on the possibility of success of future lawsuits against the developers of MMORPGs. For anyone not in the know these are massively multi-player on line role playing games in which thousands of players play out fairytale type adventures in a shared virtual world via the internet. The basic difficulty with these games is that they can be highly addictive. Addicts end up devoting huge amounts of time to them leading to failed exams, lost jobs, broken marriages etc. The following points seem important to me:

- The games are undeniably addictive and that addiction can cause a lot of harm - For more info look at some of these sites: http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_addiction.html
http://www.olganon.org/About/about.html
http://eqdailygrind.blogspot.com/

- Unlike cigarettes or hard drugs the games are not directly harmful in themselves. It is only the addict’s behaviour that causes problems. Addicts often devote 12 hours or more every day to one of these games. This would be a key point in defence of MMORPG producers. I have never heard of a manufacturer of alcoholic beverages being sued because their product is addictive.

- On the other hand these games seem to be designed to encourage and reward addictive behaviour. Game rewards are dangled as carrots to keep players in front of these games for long long hours. Furthermore achieving these rewards almost invariably unlocks the path to another even more time consuming set perpetuating the addictive behaviour. Most of these games also incorporate social networks (guilds / alliances etc. ) which add social pressure to keep playing constantly. Could the manufacturer be sued for deliberately designing a game to be dangerously addictive?

- The most successful MMORPG (World of Warcraft) is well known for allowing players to start with a fairly casual play style but requires them to devote more and more time at higher levels. Could the developers be accused of using the casual entry levels for "training" a new generation of addicts?

- Is financial motivation important? Early online games were "pay per hour" and there was strong financial incentive for developers to encourage long playing hours. Most modern games use a flat rate subscription model so there is no financial incentive for developers to encourage excessive playing time. Yet the trend of encouraging long playing time has stuck fast.

Thirdfox

In China there have been moves by the Government to introduce a time system where exp. points gained from fighting etc. are reduced the more you play e.g. after 3 hours exp. only 50% of normal and so on.

This has become a pretty serious problem in my opinion, in Japan a girlfriend was sued for selling her boyfriend's magical items from some MMORPG account :eek: - the court found against the girl!

Potential claims here may be negligence, the companies certainly have a duty of care to the end-users, perhaps a warning similar to cigarettes can be introduced? If there is a clear communication of risk and the user still decides to proceed then liability will be negated. Beer commercials often have the "drink responsibly" slogan tucked away somewhere in advertisements, I'm sure that's there to lessen any potential liability. Btw negligence action requires:
1. Duty of care - here it's to consumers: Donoghue v. Stevenson!
2. Breach of Standard of Care
3. Causation
4. Remoteness of harm suffered

(sorry don't have enough time to explain all the elements, law exams are taking place and I need to study other things! ) There could be problems proving some of the elements needed (esp. causation and remoteness of harm)

Public policy is also influential, the Gov. don't really get much utility from gamers (e.g. long work hours for doctors are okay ) so there may be legislation introduced to curb this sort of behaviour.

This response doesn't answer your question fully unfortunately but I'm sure there are many others who know more about product liability and negligence cases who can answer this very interesting question.

dermot_sheehan

Don't forget product liability act 1991 establishes a strict liability scheme for "defective" products. defective being:


5.—(1) For the purposes of this Act a product is defective if it fails to provide the safety which a person is entitled to expect, taking all circumstances into account, including—

(

a ) the presentation of the product,

(

b ) the use to which it could reasonably be expected that the product would be put, and

(

c ) the time when the product was put into circulation. (2) A product shall not be considered defective for the sole reason that a better product is subsequently put into circulation.

Thirdfox

I put that in my last sentence... really didn't have any more time to spend on boards.ie! ...Yet I'm back online again...

Mad Mike

Here is a report of a case involving the parents of a Chinese boy who are trying to sue the producers of an MMORPG after the boy fell to his death while trying to re-enact a scene from the game: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/20/156256.

This is a very different and in my opinion far less sustainable position than the addiction argument. The developers of the game never had any intention that people should try to emulate the death defying feats of their on screen characters and I don't think that such behaviour could be described as "the use to which it could reasonably be expected that the product would be put". However it seems to me that it might be possible to prove that developers are deliberately designing a product to be dangerously addictive. The question is - if that could be proven would it be actionable? What view would the courts take on the personal responsibility of the addict in a case like this?

Mad Mike

Thirdfox wrote:

really didn't have any more time to spend on boards.ie! ...Yet I'm back online again...

Speaking of dangerously addictive online pasttimes ....

Thirdfox

Indeed... watch out boards.ie my solicitor's letter is in the post.
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Okay no more posts! ...Maybe just one more, it couldn't hurt right? ... ?

Victor

Ahem

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They might try to claim pre-existing problem though.

dermot_sheehan

Thirdfox wrote:

Indeed... watch out boards.ie my solicitor's letter is in the post.
.
.
.
.
.
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Okay no more posts! ...Maybe just one more, it couldn't hurt right? ... ?

Screw solicitors letter, let's have the circuit court civil bill issued ourselves..

Who's up for the legal board suing the rest of boards?:D

dermot_sheehan

Mad Mike wrote:

I know next to nothing about the legal system either here or in the USA but I wonder if any of you have a view on the possibility of success of future lawsuits against the developers of MMORPGs. For anyone not in the know these are massively multi-player on line role playing games in which thousands of players play out fairytale type adventures in a shared virtual world via the internet. The basic difficulty with these games is that they can be highly addictive. Addicts end up devoting huge amounts of time to them leading to failed exams, lost jobs, broken marriages etc. The following points seem important to me:

- The games are undeniably addictive and that addiction can cause a lot of harm - For more info look at some of these sites: http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_addiction.html
http://www.olganon.org/About/about.html
http://eqdailygrind.blogspot.com/

- Unlike cigarettes or hard drugs the games are not directly harmful in themselves. It is only the addict’s behaviour that causes problems. Addicts often devote 12 hours or more every day to one of these games. This would be a key point in defence of MMORPG producers. I have never heard of a manufacturer of alcoholic beverages being sued because their product is addictive.

- On the other hand these games seem to be designed to encourage and reward addictive behaviour. Game rewards are dangled as carrots to keep players in front of these games for long long hours. Furthermore achieving these rewards almost invariably unlocks the path to another even more time consuming set perpetuating the addictive behaviour. Most of these games also incorporate social networks (guilds / alliances etc. ) which add social pressure to keep playing constantly. Could the manufacturer be sued for deliberately designing a game to be dangerously addictive?

- The most successful MMORPG (World of Warcraft) is well known for allowing players to start with a fairly casual play style but requires them to devote more and more time at higher levels. Could the developers be accused of using the casual entry levels for "training" a new generation of addicts?

- Is financial motivation important? Early online games were "pay per hour" and there was strong financial incentive for developers to encourage long playing hours. Most modern games use a flat rate subscription model so there is no financial incentive for developers to encourage excessive playing time. Yet the trend of encouraging long playing time has stuck fast.

Basically as thirdfox said, due MMORPG developers owe a duty to their customers? You owe a duty to anyone you can reasonable foresee being injured by your actions, though in some cases the courts may exclude duty for policy reasons. Have they acted negligently, below the care required of a reasonable person, that's an issue of fact for a judge (or jury in the states to decide). Did that negligence cause damage and was their a causal link between the negligence and the damage? This is an issue of fact though they would argue that the rational decision of adults breaks the link. That the decision of players to stay online to their own detriment breaks the chain of causation and a company should not be responsible for what free thinking adults decide to do.

Also various defences they could use, big ones being voluntary assumption of risk, contributory negligence, etc.

Product liability is slightly different, all you have to do is prove the product was "defective", which is defined in a message above, and that it caused damage.

seamus

We're missing one key ingredient here though - the addiction.

I think in order to prove a product's harmfulness, or otherwise negligence on the part of the producer, there would have to exist a previously known (and proveable) addiction to the product.

Take cigarettes. People have sued cigarette producers (and won) because the product was knowingly physically addictive, and the addiction rate for those who partake is staggeringly high.
But alcohol, as the other major vice, is not. I have yet to hear of any high profile cases involving the suing of alcohol producers on the basis that their products are knowingly addictive. And that's because they're not. The vast majority of people who partake, in fact don't develop an addiction.
MMORPGS could fall into that category. While some may develop and addiction, most people don't. Thus, it's tough to prove that something is inherently addictive, if most people don't end up addicted.

The other major factor to consider is of course, harm. Cigarettes and alcohol in their own rights both contribute something physically harmful to you in their addiction. But MMORPGS don't. At a stretch, they could be a secondary cause . But a similar secondary contributer is again alcohol - you trip while drunk, crack your head open. Is it alcohol's fault? Of course not.

Mad Mike

Your arguments make a lot of sense Seamus. I can understand that in order to prove negligence on the grounds of creating and selling a knowingly addictive product then it would have to be shown that it was previously known that the product would be addictive. However I do think you are underestimating the level of addictiveness. It is my understanding that a very high percentage of those who do partake in certain MMORPG games (as opposed to video games in general) do become addicted. http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_addiction.html suggests addiction rates as high as 50%. I also think that the game producers could be accused of knowingly making the games more addictive. It is my understanding that developers deliberately introduce serial goals that require thousands of hours of intensive game playing. In this sense I feel that game producers may be even more culpable than cigarette manufacturers. When the weight of scientific evidence began to show the harmful effects and addictive properties of nicotine at least the cig manufacturers started reducing the levels of nicotine in their products. I think that it could be shown that certain MMORPG producers are doing the exact opposite and actually increasing the level of addictive content in their games.

Proving harm is definitely more difficult. As you point out there is no direct harm caused by sitting in front of a computer game. Eye strain and loss of physical condition perhaps but no worse than many of us experience in our jobs!!! Yet there appears to be a trail of broken people, failed businesses, broken marriages and broken homes left in the wake of these games. Of course these are all secondary effects and may not be actionable.

The one point that keeps bugging me though is the question of intent. Neither cigarette manufacturers nor alcohol producers set out with the primary intention of producing a dangerously addictive product. In fact both these groups do make some efforts (albeit half hearted) to mitigate the more harmful side effects of their products. MMORPG producers on the other hand appear to be actively and knowingly enhancing the addictive aspects of their products. Surely this fact alone exposes them to potential liability.