An under-age trouble maker has filed a lawsuit against Sony for his banned account. Of course as with most things of this nature, and Transformers–there is more than meets the eye than what is addressed.
Sony is being sued by an under-age gamer for pain and suffering. Apparently, Erik Estavillo was booted by moderators due to his offensive behavior during a multi-player match of Resistance: Fall of Man. After being booted, he then went to the Resistance forums and posted some not-so-nice comments that not only got him banned from the game’s multiplayer, but got his online account banned from PSN all together. Erik (or I would assume his guardians–since he is under 18) has filed a lawsuit for $55K for the loss use from registered Playstation Network cards, and the pain and suffering from being cut off from his only social outlet. Apparently, Erik has “mental health issues” that are alleviated by his social interactions on the Playstation Network.
What strikes me isn’t the lawsuit itself. Gamestooge’s article on this situation has links to all the user agreements involved, and all known details surrounding the case. My problem is with the element in this situation not discussed in the article–namely those responsible for Erik’s welfare. Let’s start with the obvious: You have an under age child playing Resistance: FoM–an M rated game–online. Even with my limited time in online games, I’ve heard enough stupidity from the obviously under-aged to fill several volumes of an Encyclopedia Brittanica set. Kids–regardless of their mental condition shouldn’t be playing M rated games. That IS why we have a ratings system, and situations like this only provide fodder for the anti-gaming Jack Thompsons of the world.
My next point–why is the Playstation Network this kid’s only socialization outlet? Are they serious?! I don’t believe that for a minute, but if that IS the case, his parents and / or guardians need to be charged with the highest levels of criminal neglect. How in the hell can you plug your child into the PSN Network, or any digital network media, and claim you have done your job as a parent? Does Erik go to school? Are there no after school programs available to him for socialization purposes? Couldn’t his parents/guardians register him for some sort of activity after school? How about a trip to the park, or the library? PSN is now considered a “socialization outlet?!” Really?! Would they consider Big Macs and chocolate cake a balanced meal?!
If Erik does have mental issues, I’d like to know if he had been cleared by a psychiatrist to even be able to play videogames. I’m no mental health professional, but it stands to reason that videogames could over-stimulate a child with mental health issues–depending on the type of condition that child has. exaggerating the condition even further.
While this may just be an attempt to get some “quick cash” from Sony’s vaults, the fact of the matter is there are plenty of “part time” parents who would rather sit their child in front of an HD display and plug him or her into a Xbox360, PS3, or a Wii instead of actually parenting. I have seen these people first hand. They’re the kind of parents like the one I witnessed recently. A woman bought her kids a copy of GTA: San Andreas. When the store employee told her it was an M rated title, this “Mom of the Year” contender simply shrugged, and said “Oh well. Its just a game. It’ll keep them out of my hair for a while.” Yup–I’m sure those kids are shouting “fag” and “nigger” over Xbox LIVE or PSN as I write this–doing their best to ruin somebody’s online experience. Way to go, Ma.
I will say, that I am encouraged by Insomniac/Sony’s action to ban Erik’s account for his behavior. *Ahem*–you listening Microsoft? Isn’t it strange that PSN could ban this one particular account among the millions of active PSN accounts, yet those that manage LIVE–which has far more features than PSN at the moment–uses every excuse in the book as to why such things can’t be done on such a “wide network”. You don’t think it has anything to do with LIVE being a pay to play service do you? Naaaa….Couldn’t be that.
I would love to see xbox start banning people. Not just for a little trash talking, because we all do it in a little way. In a friendly competition way I guess. There is a difference though when I was playing halo 3 last night, and a kid was on there. He said he was 11 years old. I asked him his age because he started calling everyone in the room a Nig*** and a bit**. I was pretty upset that it was going on. There is no reason at all for an 11 year old kid to be saying that stuff at all, let alone in an online game for ppl 18 and up.
The whole pay to play thing kinda upsets me. I still experience lag issues quite frequently with Halo 3, Gears of war 1 and 2. I think the only games I own that I don’t have lag issues with is Guitar Hero 3 and Call of Duty 4. if I am going to pay $50 a month to play xbox live, I shouldn’t have this many problems with it. Its not my connection, because i also play PS3 and resistance 2 never lags. I thought Microsoft was going to use servers and stuff since we were paying for it. Playstation make the companies of the game generally host their online play. If I can be in a room on resistance 2 with 64 players and not lag at all, why can I not get the same with my xbox games that are limited to 8 people in a room or 10. It doesn’t really make any sense. If I am going to pay $50 a year from laggy service, I would think I wouldn’t have to hear an 11 year old call me a nigger on halo 3 while im already getting kinda upset that I am shooting someone with a battle rifle emptying an entire clip into him, and he doesn’t die because its laggy.
I want to get involved with a group of people that play online, and have good sportsmanship. I love a really close game in any game, and of course I like to win that close game, but if the other team wins, I don’t want the worse player on the other team that went -9 in their kill death ratio when I went +9 to tell me that I suck and should go kill myself while they screw my mother. Likewise for my girlfriend that lives with me, I started to try to get her involved with gamerchix. we played with a group of them in halo 3, and that was the most fun I had on xbox live in a really long time.
My gamertag is Lightpost911. Add me if you want to play. To the guys that run this site, I am going to just copy paste this message and send it to you. So if you check it and read it twice, Sorry, but just so you know. I will be trying to get it to you some how, because I want to be a part of something that will make my xbox live experience better and hopefully make other peoples experience better at the same time.
Hey James–I feel your frustration. I’ll definately add you to my list. Also, add me to your PSN. I’m GhostPHEONIX on Playstation, and PheonixGHOST on Xbox. If you’re into fighting games, I play BlazBlue on Playstation. Let’s have some friendly matches.
I love ur posts Shonuff, they are always so interesting and always get me so worked up! lol Good stuff, and I mainly work with teens who have social issues and if gaming online is what helps him socially than so be it, but i would ahte to think that it is the parents pawning of their responsibilty and just simply letting him go online instead of actually dealing with his social issues.