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It's just a game... -Silent Whisper - May 30 09:20am |
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I was doing some reading on the Star Wars: Galaxies forums and ran across an interesting topic. It had a link to the story of Shawn Woolley, who took his life after being PK'd in Everquest. I'm saying this because it's a little after a year since his death and we need to remind ourselves that this is just a game. If you find yourself getting too involved push your chair back, go outside, breathe some air, and say "It's just a game." You can read Woolley's story here: http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar02/31536.asp?format=print |
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Battlin' Billy - Student 
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This is the 1st I've actually read this article or even heard about it. I'll just say this: It's a shame the guy did what he did. But bringing a law suit against Sony is just ridiculous. Would a warning label on the game change what happened? NO! This reminds me of a much-publicized law suit from the 80s. 2 teens were huge Judas Priest fans and made some kind of suicide pact bcuz of a song called "Suicide Solution" I believe. The parents were trying to sue the band!!! Luckily, logic prevailed and they lost the case. There was also a guy who lived like down the block from me that killed himself bcuz a D&D character "controlled" his mind and made him do it, a Mindflayer if I remember correctly. That didn't go to court, thankfully! Like I said, I'm sad to hear that the guy did what he did, but the law suit is just completely ridiculous, and us tax paying Americans I'm sure footed some of the bill. We should sue this lady for that, as well as all the other frivolous(sp?) law suits! _______________ Midbie Council Member #2 - Profile ID 2073 | Member of B@rtM@ulS@ar | Owner of Monty's 2000th comment & D@RtHM@UL's 8100th comment | Former Padawan of SilkMonkey & Arcuss JA Goaltender & NHL Fan | Fellow Rush fan to Axion|Plo Koon is my oldest JA friend Post your RL pics HERE! | Post you JK2/JK3 screenies HERE! |
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Plo Koon - Student 
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yeah np Ruuk  BTW- my Father plays it too,some people knit for hours some people carve things for hours and some people Quilt...And some people take time with video games-gather components and smelt them in a forge for a armor peice for instance,we all need to just chill out and have fun!  _______________ Free Tibet! Click this link,and learn Here too This comment was edited by Plo Koon on Jun 02 2003 02:40am. |
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DJ Sith - Jedi Council 
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Suing Sony is akin to suing gun makers on behalf of the Malvo sniper victims or suing Smirnoff because someone's kid was killed because of a DWI. Or like the mothers of Columbine victims suing Id for making DOOM. I'm glad this lawsuit went nowhere. The guy was obviously depressed. The circumstances could have ranged from EQ addiction to heroin addiction and had the same outcome. Some people are just messed up. Don't hate on the game. _______________ My car is made of Nerf. |
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Ruuk Haviser - Retired 
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Plo Koon- Well, seriously, thanks for updating me. My impressions were made from the Everquest of several years ago, and since I didn't actually PLAY the game, I musta filled in some of the details with my imagination. *points at self* My stupidity! I think I'll just delete that last post... *walks away sheepishly* -rh _______________ Back from the dead... |
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Cango - Ex-Student |
"This is a sad reminder of how much video games can lock us into an un-escapable reality." Its never an unescapable reality. If you get so involved in a game you start crying because someone took some gold you need to unplug your computer, and break the CD. I mean, all it comes down to is colored pixels. If it was the fact a friend stole his gold, he killed himself because certain pixels would no longer turn a certain color on his monitor. The guy had problems other then gaming addiction, the game just let it be released. And the mother just wants to try and blame whoever she can. |
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Plo Koon - Student
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First of all ruuk,all of that is wrong...You can do a spell called "BIND" where it binds you to that spot and you can respawn there.Act? he was just having fun,and it is a fun game,In Everquest you can choose from many many servers BUT acouple Servers are Player Versus Player and on those servers your able to walk up and start attack people,that man had the choice not to go to a PvP he had a Problem and those of you who think everquest is bad its not you cant blame anything on the game it was his Choice. A player kill is when on PVP servers anyone can walk up and start attacking, ON a reguler server no one can attack you except NPC who scowl at you(racial tensions) or you can challenge someone to a duel or Accept one,your choice. And there is newer exspansions where you can go to the astral plans and fight the gods and it includes a teleportation system near every city there is!. In this game you attack things creatures,bats,rats ect ect later on higher level beasts,everytime you kill one you get Experience on a meter bar and it raises everytime you kill a creature or beast ect,once the meter gains up to full it makes you go to the next level and you can go train in skills. At level 10 if you get killed in a fight with a NPC (non player character computer ect.)or Duel your armor weapons and money or whatever you had will stay on that characters body.just go back and retrieve them.Its a really fun game. YOUR body cannot get looted by other characters or NPC's,only yourself the higher your levels get the longer your corpse stays there. Its just a Game dont get so worked up about it,play and have fun. P.S(I choose to play on a non PVP servers because their might be higher level jerks just come up and kill you or anyone attack you...those are cowards.YOU have the CHOICE NOT to go there.)sorry ruuk most of that it totally wrong,just putting in my well,$50 bucks in  ) _______________ Free Tibet! Click this link,and learn Here too This comment was edited by Plo Koon on May 31 2003 06:58pm. |
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Gish the Monkey - Ex-Student |
Dude, that artical pissed me off. Don't get me wrong, it's crap that the guy wacked himself but seriously! Blaming it all on the game? Give me a break. The mother doesn't want to own up to any mistakes she made (which is understandable) and the guy didn't have the courage to face another day. Regardless of even what I just said, life is a choice. Every person chooses to think, do, behave, etc, a certain way. Because of that, in the end, the responsibility lies in the guy and soley in the guy for making the choice to committe suicide. Blaming Sony for his suicide will only provide an escape from the reality that we alone are responsible for ourselves. No one else can make us do a thing. We have to choose to. _______________ Have you ever watched charismatic Christians change a light bulb? It takes 1 to actually change the light bulb and 10 others to pray against the spirit of darkness. |
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Jacen Aratan - Student |
This reminds me of Jedi Kenshin who earlier said he would commit suicide... *shivers* I hope he was unserious but now we'll see...... |
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SirBizNatch - Student 
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hmmm games make me paranoid...i somtimes watch out for those snipers too...lol... _______________ Personal body guard to teh 1337 Jacen Aratan! Midbie Council Memeber||Member of the Almighty FiZZsters |
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CGRumler - Ex-Student 
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Another thing that you have to remember (in terms of Sony being sued) is that this article is from just over a year ago. And I haven't heard ANYTHING about a lawsuit against Sony. Anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong about this. _______________ I am nothing and everything. |
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Sauron-the-rasta-mon - Student 
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Thats jsut messed man, and sad though but it isnt all the game company's fault the parents should have rescricted some more _______________ Ω Allehelgens Død Helveds Rike Ω |
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JavaGuy - Student 
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The kid was definitely suffering from clinical depression. If getting PKed pushed him over the edge, then he was already teetering so precariously on the brink that _anything_ would have tipped him over--a telemarketer, a flat tire, or whatever happened to be the next thing that went wrong in his life. It's very sad. If you know someone suffering from serious depression, make him/her get help! Drug companies push doctors to overprescribe antidepressants nowadays because they're big money, but for people who really do suffer from clinical depression it's a life-threatening condition, and in most cases the cause seems to be (nobody really knows for sure yet) brain chemistry, and it's treatable in most cases. _______________ My signature is only one line. You're welcome. |
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Icco - Student 
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... its just not funny... _______________ "this is Icco. Icco is old. Icco is lost. Icco is cool, but Icco doesn't know what the meaning of 'macrophageal sex'." - Vaughn /Icco |
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Lian Del Rey - Student 
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Lucky Dark Age of Camelot doesn't allow PKs. _______________ slorp |
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Phantom - Student 
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OMG Wispy your so right god _______________ -Phantom Ex-Master to Threat. Proud owner of Sazabi's 1500th comment! And Threats 50th comment "Insanity: a perfect rational adjustment to an insane world" |
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Halendor - Ex-Student 
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Do you 'respawn' after a PK? |
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Ash - Eats Babies 
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a PK is a player kill. that means someone else in the game (not an Non Playable Charecter) came up and killed his charecter. _______________ "We keep odd hours...." ----------------------- They Live, We Sleep |
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Ulic Belouve - Student 
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I'll weigh in only briefly. I've recently been in discussions over the freedoms of people, more specifically, over an issue that would allow normal people to get their toungues split (not pierced, SPLIT), by normal people. So one needs to ask, when is it time for some agency to step in and intervene in the freedoms of the individual. One could make the argument that everyone is smart enough to make their own choices, but you also have all the tobacco company settlements, where people argue that "someone should have told me cigarrettes were addictive." So this is sad, unfortunate, etc. I'm in Milwaukee, and have lived in the area nearly all my life, so I heard of this. I also don't think it's that far fetched. When I started out at the JA, I remember once where I had some lamer completely go off on me. At the time, I was undergoing medical treatment for a stress-related illness (like ulcers), so I got worked up, and was in some form of pain. And so I just let the Council know, etc. And then I stopped taking it so seriously. But just think that it's not really a "he was messed up" scenario. I know that many people can get very worked up over video games, as I did that one time. So I thank the courtesy of the Council to keep us in mind, and I do also ask people to take this seriously. You never know if someone is taking it way to seriously. And I have no idea what a PK is, so if someone an help me out, that'd be great. I'm also probably not going to play Galaxies. I can see myself getting really wrapped up in that, so I'll avoid it. _______________ Jedi do not fight for peace. That's only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace. |
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Plo Koon - Student 
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Well lianiotte i Think you know the difference between Reality and Fake,lets hope we all do. BTW i play everquest and i really enjoy it,doesnt mean im going to kill myself when something i dont like happens and if the mother knew he had seizures before hand why did she let him keep on playing... thats just wrong. May the Force be with them. _______________ Free Tibet! Click this link,and learn Here too This comment was edited by Plo Koon on May 30 2003 07:51pm. |
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..PJ.. - Student 
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Jeez............Can you believe it? You know, I don't think the lesson here is about playing too many videogames on the net, but I think the lesson is that if you play MMORPG's, or go on the Academy often, you should really let people know the situation you are in. if games are your lifeline, like the guy who killed himself, then let people know dammit!! If people can't help face-to-face, tell the people you talk to most! In the Academy, we all have regular friends, so if YOU are in the same situation, tell us! WE ARE ALL HUMAN, AND WE ALL HAVE A SIDE OF US WHICH WANTS TO HELP YOU, SO IF YOU ARE IN A BAD SITUATION, TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT IT, OR POST IT ON THE FORUMS. THAT WAY, YOU WILL KNOW THAT PEOPLE WANNA HELP AND BE YOUR FRIENDS!! _______________ JK2 pwnz0rs JK3. |
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Halendor - Ex-Student 
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People kill themselves all the time because they live in misery, this was the first (media-hyped) suicide that involved a game-addiction. What a shame. The lawsuit on Sony is because they want warning labels on addictive games ("Warning, extensive playing could be hazardous to your health"  , which I think is a good initiave, as long as they don't put any (more) age restrictions on it :pBy the way, what's a PK  |
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Monteeeeeee - Nugget 
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maybe he was a test subject for a secret weapon, BRAINWASHING via VIDEOGAMES! w0000000t and he liked figured it out and had a fight with his head and well the gun went off and damn it got him! this is really unlikely but could be very true!!!! < hides underbed, i think my computer is watching me!!! And on a more serious note, yep the guy was nuts and needed help unforunatly not that kind of help so sad............. remember get off the computer at all times! excpet for when playing JK2 _______________ If you add me to MSN, tell me who you are
Best Movie Character EVER!! |
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DoriaN - Ex-Student 
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Frankly you have to be mental to do something like that, it doesn't just develop the guy was obviously nuts and it was just a matter of time. _______________ JiM |
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Sniya - Student 
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God. there was an article about how emmersive games are-eg gamers who play games for long periods will still look out for snipers for 15min after stopping playing _______________ The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. Bertrand Russell http://www.thejediacademy.net/forums_detail_page.php?f_id=970 |
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Doppelgänger - Student 
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I think you're right about the mother Ash but I think it's important to recognize these traits in people and try to help. We all know the signs of suicide and even though we don't like it when someone threatens it the first step to killing yourself is to threaten suicide. I don't think we have student's that involved in the game here but I think we should be cautious and watch our friends and take serious issues like suicide serious. _______________ "Look not back in anger, nor forward in fear But around you in awareness." Ross Hersey |
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