Man Let Son Suffocate Because He Was Playing WoW

[Desert Tiger]

If you jump to the conclusion without it happening though, are you any better? If an article says "Teen shoots up school because he plays violent video games," it is directly blaming video games for behavior and ignoring the person, and deserves the criticism, but the difference between something like that and this article is that the video game was a key part of this story, so there was no forced connection. The guy, himself, said he didn't want to stop because he couldn't pause.

It wasn't the game's fault and nobody said it was, so there is no reason to persecute them for saying something they never said. If you read an implication that it is blaming Warcraft in this article, you are reading too far into it. Plus, if everyone immediately protests that the game isn't to blame, it's going to bring the attention of people like Fox journalists to the possibility of the game being to blame, just like shouting "I DIDN'T DO IT" will make people suspicious of you for a crime, whether you really did it or not.

I know what you are saying, and it is correct in some senses. If it was a film I would accept that without further complaint. But gaming is still treated as a disease by some people in the US. The same sort of people those parents protested against TV, and those grandparents thought radio and cinema would ruin society. I'm simply irritated because I am almost certain someone somewhere will publish this story and use it as an excuse to bash an entire form of media on the basis of an unfair example.

I'd just like to draw attention to this for people who are tempted to comment about the relevance of the title and the subject matter. Whereas articles making ASSUMPTIONS that incidents are caused or are directly or indirectly connected to gaming just for the hell of it are ridiculously egregious as of late, articles like this really shouldn't be hated because the game in question IS (rightfully or not) relevant. He definitely WAS (or at least that's his story) playing WoW during the time of the incident. There's no speculation, and so the article has every right to have the title it has.

 

[Shirokurou]

So because a bad parent is playing a video game and lets his son die, no one else should be allowed to play said video game?

Did you even think before you made this post? The video game is not to blame here, the parent is.

I'm not saying WoW is 'teh root of all evil', just saying that I don't hear a lot of "he was playing Tetris and let someone die" or clinics to cure Metal Gear Solid addiction.
I mean of course I understand that they are just the Sun and it's Icarus' fault for flying so close.
But everytime I hear someone die cause of it, I just get these EMP+WoW thoughts.

 

[punipunipyo]

It's people like him, their acts, and their coward acts to blame the video games, for their OWN incompetency. makes me sick, they are going to bring us all down, it's hard enough that the game artists are pushing TOO HARD to poke around sensitive subject manners, and getting unwanted attentions, publishers CLEARLY trying to sell M to teens, and now, people admitting game is root for mistake...

People REALLY SHOULD THINK TWICE B4 GETTING THEIR GF knocked up! If you are NOT ready for parenting, DON'T! I see countless "MISTAKES" (not saying the problem kids them selves are, it's the family they "spawns" from) made in to our school systems, ADHD? bull shit, i called it LACK OF PARENTING! we had to go and FIX/heal/adjust/treat these, and it takes us HELL! I've even saw parents that are "OKAY" feeding their own kid "Redolent" the moment the under qualified teacher (my opinion) suggested for shutting the kid up! clearly the teacher is NOT worthy of the title, and parents who are READY to drug their kids to get the kids off their backs, should all go to hell(again, my opinion...)!~ So... if you are NOT ready, DON'T get one! it's a tragic/pain(for the teachers, because we end up cleaning your asses)/problem (to the society (if teachers can't fix, and kid grows up, messed up) waiting to happen!~

It's going to be bad, i knew it, fox, and jacki all over this, and it's going to be talk of the town, and worse of all... angry moms are going to agreed... think... how stupid is this? they are now going to claim that video games are like drugs, addicting, even to ADULTS (using this one as case example)! why the hell are these people empowering game haters to try to (and fails, because he's still going to get 10 years ANYWAYS!) save their own sorry asses? Watch, as they enforce some stupid law against video games... Didn't he testify that "he saw the baby under pillow"? and "chooses game, over saving the baby"? this is a murder BY CHOOSES NOT TO HELP THE HELPLESS!~ HE KILLED THE BABY~ CHOICE!~ YOUR SON IS WORTH LESS THAN LEVELING UP!?~ WHY HAVE HIM?! SHOULD HAVE BOARDED(or NOT MARRY IN THE FIRST PLACE!~)! YOU ARE NOT READY TO BE A DAD!~

 

[Alarid]

Well, this provides some solid incentive to add a pause button to WoW.

 

[Arawn.Chernobog]

The news should read: "Man let son suffocate." And nothing more, his own damn fault for being an idiot and an incompetent parent.

 

[samaugsch]

You know what? If nobody came right out and told me, I wouldn't move the pillow off my child's head. I sleep buried every night under thick blankets and pillows, so I wouldn't be miffed to see a child like that as well. I really don't see this guy as being all that bad-- children being able to suffocate from a pillow isn't something I consider common knowledge.

Well, the man said that he heard his kid crying so he should've gone to him anyway to see what's going on. Unless you're saying that if you saw your kid face down on a pillow, you wouldn't remove it from his face.

 

[samaugsch]

Achievement unlocked: bad father
Let your son suffocate while playing your favourite game.

I didn't know that WoW could be played on GFWL

 

[samaugsch]

How is this WoWs fault? This man is just a bad parent. He could just as easly been watching football or something and this could have turned out the same. Blaming WoW is just an excuse.

WOW is an addictive POS without any meaning and substance. I think it's time someone ban game studios and publishers from hiring psychologists to help them make a game more addictive. Yeah, sure, the guy is an idiot, but so are Blizzard. There are to many examples like this one to be a mere coincidence.

People could just not play addicting games when they have to do important things such as what that guy had to do.

 

[ozium]

I absolutely detest WoW but this cannot be blamed on the game. The guy is clearly an idiot, a moron an imbecile.

If you give a retard a car and he runs someone over, do you blame the car? Exactly.

 

[hecticpicnic]

April fools..i hope.*Sigh* i thought this kinda thing always happens in south Korea.
I think they charged him with too much.It was his child, he has to live with the guilt there is no need for all the hate.I don't mean to be insensitive,but if it was the woman she wouldn't get this much flak.Oh and i bet she went insanely angry toward him and is on the prosecutor.
And also the way the late confession is described it seems of like there's more to this but the lawyer just wants pay check.

 

[samaugsch]

How is this WoWs fault? This man is just a bad parent. He could just as easly been watching football or something and this could have turned out the same. Blaming WoW is just an excuse.

Basically, this.

I dislike the fact that it seems the media often uses an extreme example to paint the entire gaming community. Also, is it just me or are stories like this becoming more and more common?

I don't believe this kind of thing happens as often as the media would like us to think. They just happen to broadcast the events every time it does happen.

 

[Chefodeath]

Look, don't you find it a bit hard to believe that a man will just think "Well my son's dieing, but shit I gotta finish this raid."

I think there's a good case to be made against WoW, assuming this isn't just a case of one man's gross negligence. Perhaps its time we analyze Wow for its potentially dangerous addictive qualities.

So you are saying blame the game, not the player?
Football as a game isn't violent, the players are.

So you are saying that; Blizzard as a company should be held responsible over this morons behavior that led to the death of hes child. That Blizzard should babysit the babysitters. You assume they have some mythic power to be observing everything that is going on around the player.

So let say this.
You are a proud owner of a distillery, you make beer for your living and it is selling really well.
A person drinks always your beer - exclusively. One day this person drinks too much of your beer and passes out, while hes child suffocates to a toy.
Your beer was so good that this person drank it too much and might also been ADDICTED to it, it lead to a death of a child. Should you be held responsible over the death of the child, because the person was unable to take care of the child because he got intoxicated by your beer.

Can you be held accountable? Because one thing we know that exist for sure and that is chemical addiction. One thing we still haven't found any evidence is gaming addiction, it must be either social addiction or behavioral pattern, not an addiction.
So can you be held accountable?

(recaptcha "the führer" - I think someone is trying to tell me something!!! )

Man, that was such a pathetic attempt to strawman me that its not even funny.

I did NOT say to blame the game and not the player, I said that this scenario is reason to suspect that Wow may have addictive qualities to access.

I did NOT say that Blizzard should be held responsible for player actions. The only thing we might hold them accountable for his creating what they know to be an addictive product without any disclaimers or safeguards, and that's a big maybe.

As for your example, imagine that your distiller brews his alcohol and doesn't bother to put the surgeon general warning on the back. He just calls it "MAGIC WATER!!!" the water that makes you happy and all your problems disappear. The man drinks this magic water, finds it to be to his liking, and drinks to the point that he passes out. His child then dies. Who's fault is it then?

That's basically the case you might make against blizzard. They might be producing a dangerous product without any warning as to the consequences. I'm not condemning blizzard just yet, I'm just saying that a situation like this might be call to run some empirical tests to see just what is the addictive nature of Wow.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I wonder who's going to hammer him harder, the civilian judge, or the court martial judge?

In case you were wondering, he's currently a sailor.

 

[Iwana Humpalot]

This is just horrible, it must have been hearthbreaking for her mother to find her son dead while the dad is playing a video game.

I wonder if this man needs anymore punishment than just knowing that he could have prevented his sons death by simply cheking up on him instead of playing the game for couple minutes.

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

How is this WoWs fault? This man is just a bad parent. He could just as easly been watching football or something and this could have turned out the same. Blaming WoW is just an excuse.

We don't let heroin addicts off for this kind of crap and their addiction is 100 orders of magnitude worse than WoW addiction.

This guy lacks any sort of parental instinct. If only he had castrated himself somehow in the process, this would make a great Darwin award.

 

[Someone Depressing]

*Andrew dick head : There is a difference between "A dangerous addiction" and "Man slughter" you f*ckin' idiot. Just goes to show that not only does it turn People into socially retarted, dumb, Photophobic creeps, it also hypnotises them into murdering their own childern.

 

[Bags159]

So because a bad parent is playing a video game and lets his son die, no one else should be allowed to play said video game?

Did you even think before you made this post? The video game is not to blame here, the parent is.

I'm not saying WoW is 'teh root of all evil', just saying that I don't hear a lot of "he was playing Tetris and let someone die" or clinics to cure Metal Gear Solid addiction.
I mean of course I understand that they are just the Sun and it's Icarus' fault for flying so close.
But everytime I hear someone die cause of it, I just get these EMP+WoW thoughts.

You do realize that if we got rid of idiot parents (not that this is possible) we wouldn't have stories like this, but if we got rid of WoW we'd still have stories like this? Right?

No video game has ever been addicting enough to ever make me consider doing what he did. I think this comes down to he predisposed to be a horrible parent / become engrossed in something and WoW was just his medium of choice.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Wow, just...WOW. (No pun intended)

Yet another reason for me to dislike people... *SIGH*