WoW Suicide Threat Results in Arrest

[modeps]

Some stupid 17 year old kid must have lost his epic gear or something, because he called up Blizzard customer support and claimed he was going to kill himself. The CSR he talked to called 911 and reported him. Next thing you know, he's been pinched and charged with a 1st degree misdemeanor. GamePolitics (http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/12/31/teen-makes-phony-suicide-threat-blizzard-rep-gets-arrested) has it:

The teen was having an online conversation with a representative of Blizzard Entertainment, an online video game company, when he typed that "he was suicidal and that the game is the only thing he has to live for," according to the report.

The company representative called 911.

The juvenile told police it was a joke "to try to get what he wanted for the game," according to the report. He was then handcuffed and placed in a patrol car.

Warcraft is serious business.

[felix]

Well, I hope he learned a lesson.
Blizzard will not negotiate with terrorists.

[lockwoodx]

Joking or not, blizzard over stepped their bounds and will proabbly settle out of court with the family.

[thejeromer]

Joking or not, blizzard over stepped their bounds and will proabbly settle out of court with the family.

Really? Sure you can never tell if someone is being serious or not online or over the phone, but I still think a customer service rep would have a responsibility to report any kind of threat like that, even if it's a threat of suicide.

[SuperMonkeyFighter2]

Joking or not, blizzard over stepped their bounds and will proabbly settle out of court with the family.

That's a big negative. Had Blizzard not acted, they would have been negligant. Some kid called them with a threat, and they reported it to the authorities. How is that overstepping?

[JazGalaxy]

This kind of thing blows my mind.

It's this new concept of not playing games for fun, but for the acheivement points or loot or whatever that has nothing to do with the actual challenge or design of the game that makes me think gaming has turned into this whole other thing that I don't understand and want no part of.

[riposte101]

Blizzard did the right thing here by reporting this. If it was not a joke they need to make sure this guy gets help.

[lost]

Joking or not, blizzard over stepped their bounds and will proabbly settle out of court with the family.

Not to berate you but companies are kinda obligated to do something about this.

At work if any of the staff get concerned about a call they have taken or a particular comment from any customer we call the appropriate authorities. There was one occasion where, whilst calling in to the bank, an older women appeared to get into some distress. The paramedics in her area were sent around and it turned out she had had a bit of an accident.

On the other hand, living for WoW? Pretty sad.

[Emabulator]

Blizzard did the right thing here by reporting this. If it was not a joke they need to make sure this guy gets help.They definitely did the right thing.

When my wife and I were playing WoW there was an asshole that kept hitting on her. After I told him to get lost he started telling her he was going to hunt her down and do all kinds of perverted shit. She reported him and they must have banned him on the spot after looking at the chat log. We never saw or heard from him again.


Mrs. Emabulator's Epic Gold Farmer Quest:

My wife infiltrated and took down a gold farming operation. She befriended a gold farmer and over the course of a month she found out the name of the company, size of the operation and numerous other details. They had two floors of an office building in Indonesia, with four people per server (two at a time, working 12 hours shifts, seven days a week).

The gold farmer gave her his boo-hoo life story, which we figured out was bullshit when the night guy gave the exact same story a few days later. Within a few days they both tried to con her into buying them an account. She got one of them talking about it so she'd have it in the chat log. Then she reported it to Blizzard, along with all the details on the farming outfit.

A few days later the gold farmer she knew best was telling her he got to work and half the characters in the place were banned. By the end of the day the whole operation was banned. A few days later they were back power leveling new characters (they'd always use three hunters per worker). She reported them again and about a week later they were all banned again. That was the last we heard of them.

I think that was the most fun my wife every had in an MMO. ;)

[Amalor]

Emabulator, your wife is possibly one of the greatest people on earth :) Gold farmers are such crap, never thought to take them on myself though.

[Emabulator]

Emabulator, your wife is possibly one of the greatest people on earth :) Gold farmers are such crap, never thought to take them on myself though.I'll tell her you said so. :)

[rubbishfoo]

Mrs. Emabulator's Epic Gold Farmer Quest:


Now that is freaking awesome. Good work!

[GhostSheets]

Joking or not, blizzard over stepped their bounds and will proabbly settle out of court with the family.

Over stepped their bounds? In what way? By erring on the side of caution? What if they had not alerted the authorities and the kid actually killed himself? You'd probably be the first idiot to come in here and bitch Blizzard apart for not doing enough.

Happy New Years...

[Conco]

Wow, blizzard just saved that kids World... of Warcraft account.

[lost]

Hah, excellent Conco. Fucker can't pay his subscription dead.

[pwnophobia]

The Blizzard employee has to do something if a threat is called in or said like this in game. They did the right thing.

[BigBPlaya]

It is interesting that the article doesn't appear to have all the facts.....it mentions that "presumably" the game is World of Warcraft.

Whatever game it may be, they should just ban the kid and call it a day.

[AversionFX]

Joking or not, blizzard over stepped their bounds and will proabbly settle out of court with the family.

Overstepped their bounds on calling 911 to - from their end - prevent a kid from taking his life? Yeah, damn you Blizzard, and your concerned CSRs!

:rolleyes:

[fashionhot]

Wow what an idiot kid
http://photosnag.com/img/1859/u09i0101zeui/smile.gif

[balamoor]

My wife asked me to stop saying that the average WoW player has a mean IQ of 82.......but with stories like this. :rolleyes:

[sol740]

Mock him if you must, but know ... know for certain, this child is an example for us all. Not a user in this very thread may judge him ... more than he ... has judged ...


himself.

[TeeCakes]

That's a big negative. Had Blizzard not acted, they would have been negligant. Some kid called them with a threat, and they reported it to the authorities. How is that overstepping?

I was just gonna say this. The only scenario where Blizzard would've been liable is if the kid followed through on the suicide, and the company tried to sweep it them not contacting the authorities under the rug.

[greenapple]

Mock him if you must, but know ... know for certain, this child is an example for us all. Not a user in this very thread may judge him ... more than he ... has judged ...


himself.

Speak for yourself. I'm a pretty optimistic guy and therefore can happily say that I'm sure that he's waaay below the bell curve.

[Amalor]

Mock him if you must, but know ... know for certain, this child is an example for us all. Not a user in this very thread may judge him ... more than he ... has judged ...


himself.

I'm cool with that. [Judgment mode engaged] The kid is a weenier.

[balamoor]

Speak for yourself. I'm a pretty optimistic guy and therefore can happily say that I'm sure that he's waaay below the bell curve.

Word. :cool:

[Virtuoso]

Damn you all for continually quoting lockwood. I have the asshole muted for a reason.