You can’t sue us for making games ‘too entertaining,’ say major game developers in response to addiction lawsuits
You can’t sue us for making games ‘too entertaining,’ say major game developers in response to addiction lawsuits
21 Comments
Jesus Christ what a trash lawsuit… reading the headline I thought this would be something different and was ready to agree with the suit. But this is a bunch of hogwash. You can’t sue a hobby for being a hobby.
Well this is the dumbest thing I’ve read in awhile.
I like the Mom that says she couldn’t regulate her son’s play because she was afraid of him. So now games are complicit because you’re a coward? FOH
I still remember the summer that me and brother were being lazy bums so my mom took the Nintendo controllers with her to work every day.
Parents need to parent.
Eh, it depends. If they’re intentionally using psychological tricks to make the game as addictive as possible and pushing things like microtransactions and lootboxes while targeting all of that at people they know are at risk of being taken advantage of.. well, yeah. There may well be an argument to be made.
If a parent is complaining that their kid won’t stop playing Palworld until they manage to catch them all, that’s something else entirely.
You can sue anyone for anything… That said this specific instance sounds frivolous to me.
Doubt this case goes anywhere, it’s just someone wanting to blame video games on their poor parenting.
“We’re all trying to figure out who did this”
We can’t keep blaming individuals if there is a clear widespread and systemic issue. Particularly if companies are spending billions in using every psychological trick. They do it because it works better than parenting overall.
I would also add that the consumer doesn’t benefit with better products when companies can rely on these tricks to make big money.
The game companies aint wrong, but telling parents they should actually parent their kids is a tough sell in the “No, raising my kid is *everyones* problem” we have culture going on of late.
Parents trying to blame the school, system, entity for being garbage parents. A tale as old as time
What’s going on here is an epic failure in parenting and the parent placing the blame on the gaming companies for their lack of control over their child. Jfc, I could not facepalm harder.
I was friends with a girl and her husband didn’t have a job, she did. He would just play Xbox all day instead of looking for a job or doing anything productive while she was at work. I suggested she take the power cable for the Xbox and the cable modem while she went to work.
Im guessing this lawyer isn’t working pro bono…
There was a time when the “No Sue” clause was added to the terms of service.
This is what happens when you can’t beat your kids! /s
Games really would turn to trash
Addiction suits are coming as an epidemiologist. I would reconsider loot boxes targeted at children, and other obviously addictive elements that are being added deliberately. They will eventually make you look bad as a company in a similar way that cigarette companies took a public beat down. And to be clear good content is one thing, but gambling is clinically addictive. Like adults have problems controlling themselves around it addicting. Giving that content to kids who don’t have full choice yet is obviously immoral. There will be a reckoning
Dumb parent is aghast at the concept of actual parenting. Seaks a quick buck.
“fast-paced play, satisfying graphics, sounds, and other dopamine lifts.”
… how dare they!
No way this lawsuit isn’t a planned strawman they will use to point to whenever questions of addictive elements of game design (especially in free-to-play) come up on the future. It seems way too perfect to be a “see you’re just like the Arkansas woman complaining about her loser son” in the future.
I find rogue-likes to be on the same level of predatory as TikTok is. Not legally predatory, but maybe a bit concerning. It gives you repeated micro hits of dopamine that keeps you coming back in an endless loop, except roguelikes don’t necessarily present you with any new information. And I say this as a person who has played a ton of roguelikes. I have found the ones that have given a story conclusion where I get a sense of completion to be a healthier choice for myself. If someone wants to play them great, but I found I had to create guidelines for myself to keep it healthy in both my time use and dopamine reactions.