That’s the warning label distraught mother Elizabeth Woolley wants put onto massively multiplayer online role playing games like EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot. Why? She claims that her 21 year old son, Shawn Woolley, was so addicted to EverQuest that he committed suicide. Now she plans to sue the makers of EverQuest, and probably everyone else who makes MMORPGs, for both money and to force them to include warning labels on the packaging.
Nevermind the fact that this guy was already known to have a number of mental problems which he refused to get treatment for, the fact that he was so engrossed with the game is enough to get lawyers comparing the addictiveness of the game to that of cigarettes or recreational drugs. Granted, those of us who have played EQ have jokingly refered to it as EverCrack, but it hardly compares to the situation with the tobacco companies as one lawyer is quoted as claiming:
“I am sure we are going to find things akin to the tobacco industry memos where they say nicotine is addictive. There is a possibility of a class-action lawsuit.”
Give me a flippin’ break. Sure, there are a number of people who have allowed this game to ruin their lives by dropping out of college or losing their jobs or what have you because they became too addicted to it, but that would be true of anything they allow themselves to become addicted to be it games, sex, drugs, alcohol, or twinkies. I’m certain that a big warning label on the front of the game is going to solve all our problems by causing people with addictive personalities to stop and think “Whoa! I could become addicted to this game and kill myself! I better not buy it!” Right, and next monkeys are gonna fly outta my butt.
First spotted this over at kevin kearney’s site.
Posted on 04/14/2002 at 12:43 AM 
Ooooo, aaahhhh, Ooohhhh… I wanna watch the Monkey’s fly! But they’s gonna be messy.