General Discussion

Originally posted by originalegg

@15 years old, do the parents share part of the blame?  of course.

However a lot of people are in denial in this thread about the addictive qualities of MMOs, especially WoW which is designed around giving player carrots on a stick and getting them hooked.

Some of us can control the amount of time play and balance it with real life, but when you talk about young teens and even younger, they may not have developed that sense yet.  This is where the parents should step in.

Tenspotting's analogy of it being the car's fault if someone drives for 24 hours is just ridiculous as the car doesnt had addictive qualities and that is just someone being stupid.  FACT is that MMOs, especially ones designed round the WoW model, have serious addictive mechanics that younger kids may not have enough sense to balance.

cliff notes:  parents played a big part in this screw up, but the MMO was hardly blameless, if anything its 50/50.

so, the parents should allow their child to play a game for so many hours, every single day, until the child is addicted?

as soon as little johnny's grades start dropping, he's late for supper cuz he has to finish an instance, or whatever the bloody change is that is indicative of something "not good"; that game gets gone, or seriously toned down.

of course if mommy is a pill head and daddy is a drunk; then, little johnny is just following in his parents' footsteps.

the entire jist of your post is that mmos are addictive.  yes, they're intended to be that way in order to keep that monthly sub coming in.  to say that the parents are ONLY 50% at fault is like saying they're only 50% at fault for little johnny watching some XXX channel on tv nonstop.

where are the parents while this addiction is taking over?

Originally posted by denshing

 

 

Originally posted by LondonMagus

I blame the parents on two separate counts.

Firstly, they should have taught him to have a bit more common sense as he was growing up.

Secondly, until he is mature enough to get a place of his own it is their responsibilty to ensure he is OK.

Whilst it isn't the parents fault if a kid doesn't grow up to be super intelligent, unless there are mental health issues there is no excuse for them to have no idea how to cope with real life & no common sense at all.

Just my opinion of course. 

 

I think the parents are partly responsible, but at 15 most parents think their "Young adult is smarter than that" Besides he was probably playing through the day, and you half to consider, his parents thought he was going to go to bed in a while. It is hardly possible to keep tabs when you are trying to get a nights rest youself, should parents be forced to put cameras in their 15 yearold adolencents room to make sure he goes to bed? And if they fail to watch him like 24/7, they are bad parents.

Anyone who is 15+ knows in a practical sense wright from wrong, although stupidity gets in the way of that sometimes. I wont even get started on how his parents raised him, there is no rulebook that is anonymously correct on the matter. For all we know his parents where the most loving people to walk the earth. But that does not stop a 15 yearold from playing allnighters.

Also, 15 year olds have enough maturity in the household to have his own place of privacy, whether he is stupid or not is a completely different matter. For all we know he is an A+ student at school, that doesnt stop you from making stupid choices. Age does not affect this, With what you say, he would need 24/7 supervision till he dies of age. Hell this kid might even act smarter than his own father, and act more mature than most adults,  but that doesnt mean he aint stupid.

My point is, this kind of stupity goes into there 20's 30's and 40's. It keep going, Are we going to blame his parrents when dies in a car crash at the age 55? Your opinion just doesnt hold up. Parents just cannot be 100% responsible.

if this kid is playing wotlk; then, he's NOT a new player to the game.  where were the parents all these months/years that this addiction was building?  how many other times had he played 20+ hours straight?  those parents sure don't know.  they found a $15/month babysitter and yes, they shirked their parental duties just as surely if their child had been smoking crack in the basement all those months.

Originally posted by nomadian

24 hours isn't anything- though admittedly I only ever did this once staying up for a Vox and Naggy raid. I can tell you going to get corpses at 6am in the morning isn't fun...(in fact I straight logged off)

Anyway, are mmos to blame? Not likely but I'd point a finger at mmos and their practises. I know there are a lot of kids getting hooked onto mmos and it really isn't a good thing. When people have to invest hours just to get any sort of progress is it any wonder kids and people play too long.

Some people might take exception to my post but being on a mmo site you aren't going to have very many people say it how it is..

honestly, it's not my fault if others are too weak to walk away.  there's been numerous stories on TV news shows about how some husband was so addicted to a game like EQ, that his marriage of 10+ years fell apart.

if it wasn't EQ, would it have been booze? drugs? womanizing?

addictive personalities will find something with which to be addicted.  it's just a matter of who will be the master of these poor souls.  if you realize you're an addictive personality, it's on you to fight it.  if you don't want to, again, i don't know what others are expected to do for you.

The kid was trying to accomplish something that to him was special.  It is hard to blame the parents exactly, kids are persuasive and stubborn.  Even good parents should not be expected to know the best way to relate to their child these days.  15 years ago..  1993.. gaming was not nearly as big of a deal and to even less of an extent, online gaming.

MMO addiction is a new phenomenon.  Not many know an effective method of treatment.  For me, it was new responsibilities and motivations.

To those that might say the parents should just lay down the law and take away the game, or 'slap the kid silly' need to pay more attention to the hidden dynamics of human interaction.

Everyone is an individual and will live their life according to their own ways, even as young as 15.  All we can do to influence them is teach them perspective and maybe a few facts such as .. health issues with sleep deprivation.

8 pages and no informed answer. Where is this world going to?

The kid played for ONLY 15 hours. Yes 15 hours only. I call him a gimp and have no real sympathy for him. If he doesn't have the stamina to stay awake for 15 hours he is already in a really unhealty state.

Also I agree with Glord. I have no sympathy for people who get killed of their own foolishness.

Also here's the link: www.wowinsider.com/2008/11/17/15-year-old-collapses-after-playing-wrath-for-hours-on-no-sleep/

Originally posted by denshing  

Originally posted by LondonMagus

I blame the parents on two separate counts.

Firstly, they should have taught him to have a bit more common sense as he was growing up.

Secondly, until he is mature enough to get a place of his own it is their responsibilty to ensure he is OK.

Whilst it isn't the parents fault if a kid doesn't grow up to be super intelligent, unless there are mental health issues there is no excuse for them to have no idea how to cope with real life & no common sense at all.

Just my opinion of course. 

I think the parents are partly responsible, but at 15 most parents think their "Young adult is smarter than that" Besides he was probably playing through the day, and you half to consider, his parents thought he was going to go to bed in a while. It is hardly possible to keep tabs when you are trying to get a nights rest youself, should parents be forced to put cameras in their 15 yearold adolencents room to make sure he goes to bed? And if they fail to watch him like 24/7, they are bad parents.

Anyone who is 15+ knows in a practical sense wright from wrong, although stupidity gets in the way of that sometimes. I wont even get started on how his parents raised him, there is no rulebook that is anonymously correct on the matter. For all we know his parents where the most loving people to walk the earth. But that does not stop a 15 yearold from playing allnighters.

Also, 15 year olds have enough maturity in the household to have his own place of privacy, whether he is stupid or not is a completely different matter. For all we know he is an A+ student at school, that doesnt stop you from making stupid choices. Age does not affect this, With what you say, he would need 24/7 supervision till he dies of age. Hell this kid might even act smarter than his own father, and act more mature than most adults,  but that doesnt mean he aint stupid.

My point is, this kind of stupity goes into there 20's 30's and 40's. It keep going, Are we going to blame his parents when dies in a car crash at the age 55? Your opinion just doesnt hold up. Parents just cannot be 100% responsible.

Sorry I disagree with you entirely. If parents raise their kid to have no common sense & no idea how to make sensible real life decisions then they have effectively ruined his/her life & yes it is their fault.

Being a parent is a responsibility for life, they brought that child into the world & everything they do has an influence on how it copes in the world. That isn't to say they are responsible for every single action in later life, especially those caused by poor choice of friends & peer pressure, but this kid was only 15 & still living at home so the comments about requiring 24/7 supervision just don't make sense unless they live in a huge mansion where they ate seprately rarely bumped into each other.

I did not use the term '100% responsible', I said that I blamed the parents when a child has no common sense at all & no idea how to cope with real life. This kid didn't just pull a mere 'All Nighter' either he had to be hospitalised. Just how negligent did they have to be to not notice that their child was doing something likely to be harmful. Possibly they were on Holiday or something, but in the UK it is illegal to leave a child unsupervised in that way.

As for the comment about the car crash at 55, it would depend on the circumstances. If his parents taught him that 'Drunk Driving without a Seat Belt' is OK then it certainly would be. Obviously once a child leaves home parental influence is gradually diminished by that of new friends, colleagues & partners, but the core values instilled by our parents stick with us throughout life.

This is why being a parent is probably the biggest responsibility anyone ever has.

Originally posted by Loke666

Is all over the swedish newspaper, a 15 year old kid did a 24 hour gameing session in WOTLK..

Seems like he is ok now but there is lotsa whining about MMOs here.

Doesn't the parents have any sence today? My parents would slap me silly for that.

For you that can read swedish, here is a link:www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/recensioner/spelnytt/article3788342.ab

I like MMOs as much as the next one, and Im in excellent shape but I would never do a 24H anyways, I mean it isn't fun once you get really tired.

I can only say lol.

If i play for more than 3 hours I earn a good backache. ¿15 hours? Well Im sure I'll die.

I jhave stayed up for 24 hours many a times, didnt ever think 24 hours was that long to be awake, perhaps his hospilization was due to the things they may have been using to stay awake like massive amounts of caffeine, meth or ecstasy.