Everquest Connection Alleged In Child Death

Thanks to NWAOnline.net for their story regarding a mother facing manslaughter charges which may relate to videogame addiction, following her 3-year-old daughter's death after being left alone in an overheated car. According to the piece, "Authorities said [Mary Christina] Cordell and her boyfriend, Eric Long, 21, may have been so fixated with the interactive game EverQuest that she neglected to pay adequate attention to Brianna's whereabouts on Aug. 8, the day the child died." The article also points out posts to the Spouses Against Everquest mailing-list from Cordell, one of which is controversial, but tragically prescient: "Verant is also an enabler by providing a type of 'entertainment' that requires an inordinary amount of time to do basic functions of the average role playing games... I'm afraid that eventually many more people will be hurt or even killed by this 'service'."

Ever heard of this word?

[Alpha27]

Self-control?

The user decides to continue and forget about life, then it's not the fault of the developer. The person has CHOSEN to forget the real world, for the virtual one. Don't blame the developer if the user neglects life.

It's obvious users like these are missing something from their real lives that they escape so easily into the virtual one.

"addiction"

[bigbigbison]

While it is certainly sad that someone died, it is unfortunate that videogmes are once again being used as a scapegoat. There are many other hobbies that people participate in for hours and hours a day but are rarely if ever considered an "addiction" or scapegoated in the same way that videogames so often are.

How many people do we know who can't miss an episode of a soap opera? or how many people spend all night every night watching television? It seems highly likely that many more marriages have been broken up over a man who spend all his time working on his car than have been broken up by online games. What about every episode of Behind The Music where the musician neglects his family in order to make music go on tour and entertain? But none of these are stigmatised or scapegoated by being called "addictions."

I'm not arguing the technical definition of addiction. As I said, what I'm talking about is that there are lots of other activities out there that people do that take up just as much time as playing videogames but they aren't commonly called "addictions." Why is this? It seems that once again it goes back to the notion of moral panics and that people always seem to be looking to blame the new thing for old problems as a way of finding easy answers to complex problems. Children have died by playing in cars before and unfortunatly they almost certainly will again. It is terrible, but the problem is not Everquest. That Everquest is blamed is yet another sign that videogames are not respected and that they are even feared.

Hmm...

[Vaevictis666]

Is it just me or did anyone else get the impression that the mother, as little as 3 months ago, was posting to the Spouses Against EverQuest board saying that the was against it, and that her ex-husband was the one that was too engrossed with it? I'd've thought she'd be too fed up with it to play...

Intelligent quote for a change

[smallfries]

It's good to see that they actually asked someone with a clue to quote for a change. All too often people will jump on the popularity bandwagon and say that its terrible that (videogames/television/insert arbitrary passtime here) is evil and should be banned. I'm glad they hit a psychologist who actually points out that there is no recognised addiction to videogaming. Addiction is a much over-used word, whilst there are real addictions in the world (heroin, ciggerettes, alchohol ...) something that you do because you enjoy it, is *not* an addiction. If it leads you to neglect things in your life that are more important then that can be a tragedy but people need to learn self-control instead of blaming their problems on others.

Yes, but I wonder...

[TuringTest]

Computers are a fairly new thing, and we really don't know to what extent there is a cause-effect going here.

I mean, society isn't accustomed to having interactive games which last for so long time. The process of educating people to use them properly should have taken place somehow, but it haven't.

Just think, if you create a 24 hour alternate reality, why don't try to make the manipulation of your game more adict-safe? Of course the responsability is that of the people malusing the system, but a bit of safety checks in your design wouldn't hurt. At least, TV has frequent 20 second commercials that remind you of a reality different of the inmersive experience.

Not trying to troll, just wondering beyond the usual "yes but game is not in fault"...

Re:Slippery Slope?

[nanojath]

I think the issue that is consistently ignored (and this weird little case, as tragic as its outcome is, is just one tip of the big giant iceberg) is that these people are screwed up in the first place - and their neglect of the ordinary things that humans care deeply about, ie their children's welfare, in exchange for artificial accomplishments in an artificial world, are just the outer symptoms of being deeply disconnected from reality and unhappy with themselves and their lives.

How many people who like games haven't spent a few hours too many on some obscure challenge and lost half a night's sleep as a result? Probably not such a great choice, and certainly the nature of games facilitates this choice. Likewise, most people who drink on some occasion drank too much and suffered as a result, and certainly the intoxicating effect of alcohol is what that's about. Indicting the manufacturers of a game for making it engrossing and time consuming is like condemning liquor manufacturers for putting alcohol in booze. It just doesn't really make much sense, and it illustrates the reality that a human being who is trying to escape reality will find some way to do it. If we want to do something social about it we can create more public awareness about compulsive behaviors and the serious problems they can lead to, and put more public money into treatment (which would save us money in the long run), but in the end these problems will always, always exist, because of the people who don't really WANT to change. Personally, I think it is the avoidance of this unpleasant reality that so often drives the urge to demonize what are merely symptoms.

Re:Don't confuse the cause for the effect

[bill_mcgonigle]

People who would be addicted to Everquest are addicits, anyway.

I've never played Everquest, but just hearing so many people call it Evercrack is enough for me to know not to go near it. I've wasted plenty of hours on Sierra Games, Wolf3d, Diablo, etc. Good games are addicting, because fun is addicting. They provide a nice little Skinner box for our overworked selves to escape to.

For others, it's drugs, gambling, porn, name your vice (why do you think it's called a vice?). All of them can lead to the shirking of responsibilites. I've found it's better to just keep busy and challenged, that way you're not tempted. Idle hands are the instruments of the devil and all that. Get into the habit and it's hard to imagine how you ever used to be bored. There is so much to do.

Re:Don't confuse the cause for the effect

[Nizzt]

Normaly I would agree with this 100%, instead I mostly agree.

In my experience playing everquest I found that the game requires you to spend an lot of time playing it to enjoy it. In other words the game is only good if your addicted.

Although, the developers shouldn't be responsible for their users having difficulty with addiction to the game.

I think the developers should make the game worth playing if you only have a few hours a week to play it.

Re:Don't confuse the cause for the effect

[xmurf]

I think the developers should make the game worth playing if you only have a few hours a week to play it.

Well, I think people shouldn't play the game if they don't have enough time to do so. After all, they're the ones doing the buying. It's not like developers rammed it down your throat.

Look, you need a valid credit card to play the game, which (usually) means you have to be "legal" to play it, which (most of the time) means you're mature enough to make choices and be responsible for them. (after all, you've got a "credit" card for a reason). So, if you're the kind of person who would lose your job, leave your kid in a mobile oven, and basically let the whole world go to hell while playing EQ, then you have to be responsible for it, and accept the fact that you have a problem. Blaming the gaming industry for it is not going to solve it. Just leave the game alone.

More where this came from

[Muhammed Absol]

It's sickening how many bad parents I've encountered in the game. There was a woman we removed from the guild that used to constantly complain about her 7 year old son and said she has to lock him in a closet during major raids so that he wouldn't interrupt her. Then you have the 40+ year old house wives who flirt with all the 16 year old males all day. It's SICK how many there are of these. Everquest really does have a problem on their hands, their product isn't responsible for it, as these people would be find other things that cater to their mental problems, but they have a great oppertunity to find a way to help people. Perhaps people who log too many hours during a week could be offered counselling via e-mail? They obviously have a problem.

Re:More where this came from

[Poofat]

Although I think accusing the game is stupid, I will concede that there are some times in the game that for certian classes, require 100% attention for extended periods of time (3-4 hours). Many of these cases are not because of guild/raid leader faults, but because of insane rates of spawn in the general area.

This, obviously, does not place blame on the game makers. It does go to show you, though, how people can feel "trapped" into the game in the immediate sense. (Of course, things like the welfare of your child should take precedednce over everything.)

36th child to die in a hot car this summer

[doofusdan]

As the parent of an almost 2 year old, my first reaction is to feel the tragedy and heartbreak of a poor kid dying this way. Terrible.

Tragically, there have already been 36 kids who've died in the U.S. after being left in hot cars this summer. Similar numbers have been happening since '98 according to this article [go.com].

Just because they were playing a computer game, it makes the news. If they were distracted watching TV instead, we would never have heard about it.

As far as I can tell, this is the only one that's involved a computer game. Yet, sadly, it is far from the only one I've heard about. It might just be that it's the only one most /. readers have heard about, and we only read about it here because it does involve a computer game, ya think?

Still, I know there are plenty of us who are reading the magazines in the pediatrician's office and it seems to come up there every summer, right along with the importance of sunscreen and water safety.

Some people are bad parents, and some make one, really, incredibly tragic mistake. Either way, an innocent kid died because of what they did.

Re:More where this came from

[Anonymous Coward]

Only a deranged criminal would lock their kid up in a closet for a couple of hours so they could raid. Someone should've petitioned that shit. SOE staff can contact local authorities, I've heard of it being done when someone said they we're going to commit suicide.