The mother of a 21-year-old man who took his own life while
playing the popular on-line game EverQuest is suing Sony Online
Entertainment, arguing that the company should have distributed the
game with a warning about its addictive nature, according to a
report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
According to the US on-line newspaper, Shawn Woolley “sacrificed
everything so he could play for hours, ignoring his family,
quitting his job and losing himself in a 3-D virtual world.”
His mother, Elizabeth Woolley, told a reporter: “Shawn was
playing 12 hours a day, and he wasn’t supposed to because he was
epileptic, and the game would cause seizures. Probably the last
eight times he had seizures were because of stints on the
computer.” Last Thanksgiving, he shot himself.
A chemical dependency counsellor is quoted by the Journal
Sentinel criticising Sony Online for intentionally making the game
“more intriguing to the addict.” Some players refer to the game as
“EverCrack”.
Elizabeth Woolley has hired a Miami lawyer to help her recover
damages from Sony. She expects that victory will result in Sony
putting warning labels on future games “as a matter of fiduciary
responsibility."
