The game’s name isn’t important, since this has undoubtedly occurred before and will happen again, but the topic-sparking scenario was as follows. A player checked into a private room at a ‘gaming cafe’ and was roused from his desk 40 hours later. The 18 year old stood up and collapsed, dying from a blood clot that had developed from sitting in one place too long. Since the hapless tragedy, a connection has been drawn between the man’s addiction to games and the lack of concern for his well-being. Developers are once again called upon to take the onus of responsibility because of their supposed contribution to his demise. But this is just about as unreasonable as things get to me.

40 hours seems like such a short amount of time given comas, prison sentences, and standing in line at the DMV, so let’s just extend this out, saying that he checked into a private room in a public place for a full week or more. Let’s pretend that in no way are the Cafe’ owners responsible for monitoring the rooms on a nightly basis and that 40 hours or more is a reasonable time to neglect a broom closet with a live computer terminal and screen. Let’s assume that no one noticed the man missing from work and that he had no caring family or friends to check up on him either. Let’s pretend that he never had an urge to get up and use the restroom and his hunger pangs weren’t kicking in. Or sleep. Let’s assume no sleep and no hunger/thirst because let’s say he was on a legal drug that prevented this or something. Let’s just overlook all of that and assume the only factors here are the fun-ness and addictive quality of a video game and a player who we’ll also assume is a well-adjusted, well-nourished individual with lots of friends. The man dies while playing the game. This game can kill you in less than a 3 day period because it captivates you THAT much.

Given the exaggerated extents of this pretend-scenario, we might have a solid criminal investigation on our hands. However, this is like The Ring all over again where you watch a video and just keel over after the protagonist perpetuates the cycle. Terrible. Outrageous. Sad that we function under a laundry list of assumptions (and these terrible movies).

I genuinely feel for this internet cafe’ guy. It’s hard to tell that I really do.

But how can the blame be laid squarely on a video game developer who has sold billions of non-death causing experiences? I am not the type to step in and defend Big Business; secede that from your thoughts. But I AM the type to call foul when I see someone pinned for simply offering a great experience. This company is well-known for its product support and excellent track record with its fan-base, so undoubtedly, rest-assuredly, they will respond in turn. To my chagrin, there are more “mature” people than myself who will take action to counter these events and tailor their product with even more safeguards or monitoring in hopes of preventing this from happening again. Also terrible. Also outrageous. Also sad.

I believe the main argument against these greedy, lascivious game developers is that they aren’t considering how addictive their product is, or in terms I better understand: “how good and fun the product is”. No one is going to suggest that they make lesser products, but people are instead lampooning things such as incentives to do repetitive actions A.K.A the draws of games like these in the first place. People will mention Achievement systems, where if you do something a lot you get a trophy for it. Not an actual trophy, mind you, but a little gold icon that says “You are Winner”.

People will mention Rare Drops, where the only means for getting coveted materials is to perform more tedium over-and-over again before the calculated randomness of low-probability reaches the threshold of keeping you around. Entire MMORPGs are actually based on this concept and while it’s a little aggravating to kill a single boss 30 times, it certainly extends the replayability of a game. You don’t find a pearl in every clam in every ocean in real life do you? Of course not. Life has many fail/reward systems like this one and, similarly, games would be pretty lame, short, and easy without them.

People will also mention an auction house of sorts and the ability to sell things you find in this particular game. Imagine that? Virtual game assets matter in the real world and can be sold for profit, a concept that is coming into its own in this day and age. Essentially, it makes sense. If you can sell a customer a full copy of the game, a virtual experience itself, and make money why can’t that same customer sell bits of hard work performed in-game to increase someone else’s experience and fatten their own wallet? Virtual capitalism. Trickle-down game-onomics. American approved. I can see how people could carve a full-time job of farming these virtual essentials and be compelled to slave digital droppings for money. Doin’ what you love right?

Apparently it’s more complicated than that. People want restrictions on the non-biologically addictive quality of games, and although no one is saying specifically what needs to be fixed -only “it MUST be fixed”- I found only a few ideas worth mentioning.

“Diminishing Returns” is a way for an RPG to drop less items and give less XP as time goes on and “Hourly Cutoff” can shut down the game when a quota has been reached. You can also have a bevy of obnoxious reminders, similar to the stupid pop-ups that must be clicked through to get a PS3 or DS to bootup. These all pale in comparison to our own bodies wanting/needing certain input and fuel but advocates tout these as genuine “solutions”. Are they really solutions? Do you also need to be reminded that if you swing your arm about, you might hit the stuff around you? Do you need to be reminded that you have epilepsy or that you are prone to aching joints? Do you need to be reminded that you get bad feelings when you sit in one place for too long or that you should take time from the game to form lasting human relationships?

Slapping “Use Common Sense” on a product doesn’t yield the results you might think. Do these warning signs or even outright limitations on uch playtime really fix the problem, ANY problem? Let’s say you allow a gamer to play a game for only 16 hours out of a 24 hour day, the ultimate form of making damned certain that someone doesn’t overdose…. The gamer would only need TWO separate games to fill his manic button-pressing day with even an 8-hour buffer period to spare! He’d only need to switch games twice in a three-day time period to overcome this most draconian of anti-abuse tactics, easily bypassing what would be heralded as the ultimate in gamer safety.

No, the only solutions come from within. This particular man CHOSE not to eat, or sleep, or drink, or pee and stretch, forsaking getting up and moving around, to not listen to what his biology most certainly shouted at him. Unless we need to check if that game was so addicting it disabled his breathing as well. Did he pass out from asphyxiation? Pointing blame at game developers who are quite good about making glorified time-wasters, saying that they aren’t sensitive to the needs of less than the .000001 percent of their audience who died is a bit of an overstatement. Do they actually care? Of course they do. Probably in the same sense that you or I care when we hear that some asshole cracked his skull in a skateboard trick on YouTube.

The point is: what can developers DO about it without wrecking someone else’s experience? Yes, a death is serious and personal, but I pulled numbers into this because there’s always one jackass that ruins it for billions of the rest of us. Funny thing about existing is if you follow the manuals and (God forbid) take CARE of yourself, you can be that much safer and enjoy the experience. The game wasn’t hooked up to his synaptic nerve via electrodes and he didn’t push a Pleasure button until he died, but that is how some people are going to spin this. People are not lab monkeys in cages, nor are they forced into these “cages” constructed of their own design. They have self-awareness, they have motor skills, and they SHOULD have self control (hence the pre-requisites for game-playing). You can’t foolproof anything. A fool will prove you wrong everytime and society will be the ones to suffer the repercussions. Hell, some people even TRY to find the limitations in a given system, thinking themselves bubbled off from life’s dangers.

Casinos. Alcohol. Fast-food. Guns. Aerosol cans. Television. Sports. Motor Vehicles. Hiking. Wildlife Animals. Household Chemicals. Kitchen Cutlery. DIY Construction. I know warning labels come with almost everything we do, everywhere we go, but let’s be honest: Idiots don’t read and accidents and fatalities occur regardless. I skip over the manuals for all manner of products and skim instructional warning signs for nearly everything. And that’s on me. Do we want big brother to know how many miles we’ve been driving in our vehicle before it forces us to pull over to the road’s shoulder? Do we want a representative to prohibit our purchase of Clorox because we’ve met our quota for the decade? So much responsibility is already in our hands over DANGEROUS AND IMPORTANT things that I cringe when I hear about rules being placed on how big a fucking cup of soda can get at a fast-food restaurant. We’ll be tethered in umbilical cords before this thing is over.

Nannying. How did we ever survive as a species?

In the past, it had been natural selection. This person’s death will be a lesson to others, as awful as that sounds, and they will become slightly smarter for a period of time before regressing. This is our last form of Natural Selection since we yanked the plug on our own Evolutionary Process long ago. Just like you can’t tell a kid about the concept of hot without them burning themselves on a stove burner (“I TOLD you it was hot”). Just like the damned people who stick their hands up on a roller-coaster. The danger is there; it’s evident. You can see it. You’re GOING to get your hand hit by a passing beam. You do it anyway for no reason besides the sheer thrill of blood flow and the feeling of true freefall. So even after having graphic stories and graphic media and graphic warning signs while you’re waiting in those long-ass lines at the theme park, people are still actually dumb enough to do it? We’re doomed. We’re doomed because people want to test restrictions, which subsequently causes more restrictions to be placed on the rest of us.

I’m all for improving designs and we certainly need to retain some compassion as a society, but not to the point of detracting from what I consider ‘self-destructive freedom’. I’m trying to stay focused in this rant here, but let me toss this last thing out: two people give birth to a kid. They’ve basically decided -for him- that he is to exist in this world. The kid grows to be a man and decides he doesn’t want to exist any more. He is self-destructive and may want to commit suicide or otherwise endanger himself in creative ways (and no one else gets hurt). Why is it society’s responsibility to do more than merely INFLUENCE that man to want to continue existing? Why are we preventing him from doing it?

Let’s say the man buys a gun and kills himself. We mourn him and his wasted potential, sure, but why are we trying to lay blame, to push responsibility on anyone? WHO would even RECEIVE this blame? The gun maker? The store chain? The sales clerk? The parents? The friends? Television? Do we dodge the responsibility of even ASSIGNING responsibility and just blame society? (That last one, ironically, is yet an additional act of giving up, of defeatism itself.) The man who died from too much video games died because of choices he made on the direction his life was heading. He committed suicide by video game and could have easily done it via any other method since he lacked the foresight, care, and intelligence(?) to do otherwise. This can not and should not conceptually mutate into mal-intent or neglect from a company who wishes to entertain, to make a buck from its LIVING customers. (They don’t make money off the dead.)

Hmm. Maybe those looking to point blame are simply seeking acknowledgment that a problem actually persists in youth and society? Maybe these people want all addictions to be resolved, absolved, and a healthy dose of everything to be collectively digested by a healthy population. Maybe these are people seeking retribution or trying to remove the element of senseless deaths from this world, further proof that we will never stop trying to be better, from always attempting to improve our society.

One step closer to Utopia?

Well, I’m sorry. Senseless deaths exist in this world and wil always occur, no matter how much we tie ourselves down with safety ropes and placenta. Yes, I acknowledge that people have sad, deprived lives and I truly wish that each one of them could be saved from tragic, careless, and meaningless demises. I acknowledge that sometimes the only glimmer of enjoyment and fulfillment is found in flashy graphics and role-playing as a powerful warrior kicking the shit out of bad guys. But when it all starts to go to hell and something bizarre and unexpectedly reckless occurs, you can’t always blame the environment and you certainly can’t always blame a manufactured product when the product was clearly abused.

Sometimes it really is just a matter of self responsibility and the results of poor decision-making, things which can’t be prevented no matter how hard we try.