Child Neglect Is Not Gaming News


Man Let Son Suffocate Because He Was Playing WoW




That's because all these activities, even ones that are inherently risky, like driving a car, are considered normal and acceptable. That they are sometimes involved in otherwise unrelated tragedies do not lead to calls for those activities to be restricted, regulated, reformed, or companies engaged in producing related products somehow held responsible for the parents' actions.

Gaming is no different and should be no different. It is time for the gaming press to acknowledge this fact by treating these stories for what they are: stories of personal tragedy that are, at best, tangential to gaming. I know there's going to be resistance to that position. It will feel, to some, like a cover-up. I don't think most, if any, of the contributors and editors at the Escapist believe that developers are somehow responsible for these deaths, no matter how engrossing or even addicting their products and services are. Still, they feel these incidents should be acknowledged so that seemingly legitimate questions about the nature of these games can be discussed.

I'm not sure that is productive, however. Even when parental abuse is contributed to by the use of dangerous, addictive, illegal substances, and the mainstream media reports on such events, the substances are mentioned in the context of the story not because they are addictive but because they are illegal-- because an apparently victimless crime, drug use, can lead to one that is most decidedly not victimless-- the death of a child. A child can just as easily die while his or her parents lies passed out on the couch from heavy drinking, but this will not lead to widespread calls for a return to prohibition, nor will anyone write about it in a wine tasting magazine.

If the Escapist is about gamers, game developers, and gaming culture, it's time to recognize that not every event that happens to a gamer is relevant-- even when that event is high profile, tragic, and used by those who consider gaming culture as a negative influence to justify their position. Continuing to post these stories at best is preaching to the choir, and at worst, gives credence to the industry's most stalwart and irrational critics.