Related Sections: MMOs
Ohio boy arrested for World of Warcraft suicide threat
Most of the stories you hear about customer support in online games are about things going wrong. You hear about unresolved problems, inaccurate information, and poorly stated company policies. You hear about the brouhaha when a GM tries to shut down a gay-themed guild in World of Warcraft. Or maybe a GM tries to, uh, "cyber" with the customer. But when customer support works, you generally don't hear about it. A problem happens, a GM fixes it, the game goes on.
But Blizzard is getting some much deserved recognition for a customer support story gone right. In Fairfield Township, Ohio, a 17-year-old boy was in the middle of some sort of support issue with a GM. In an effort to convince the GM to help him, he seems to have threatened suicide. The GM called 911 and the city sent an ambulance and police cars. Remember, kids, Blizzard has your parents' billing address! The boy was arrested, charged with a first-degree misdemeanor, and will be tried tomorrow.
There aren't many details in this story in the Middletown Journal, which seems to be one of those routine police blotter stories assigned to some guy at the city desk. But good for Blizzard for taking seriously what seems to have been a frivolous threat.
By Talisker at 9:52 AM ON 01/05/09
I'd imagine Blizzard has an explicit policy to take any sort of suicide threat extremely seriously, given the fallout from public suicides on other sites/services.
By budgethero at 12:54 PM ON 01/05/09
thank goodness i dont play WoW or this would give a weird "i know where u live, haha" feeling.
By wow gold at 8:56 AM ON 01/23/09
Thank you to the customer support who reported this to the authority. We can never tell whether the teen was just trying to make a joke or he was supposed to do so. To all the teen players out there, be patient in farming <a [url=http://wowgoldpig.com]wow gold[/url]. Let's not ruin the image of the game, you'll soon progress in your game.
By Darthbovine at 5:06 AM ON 01/25/09
Only one issue with that report, it's not illegal to kill yourself in any of the 50 states, so how could they place any kind of charge on him?
By Xanapus at 3:20 AM ON 02/14/09
I'm sorry that the kid threatened to commit suicide though. There was an incident in 2002 when there was a guy who quit his job, quit cleaning and quit showering and played EverQuest all day and all night long and he killed himself over the way people were treating him. He was found with the EverQuest character select on the screen. There was a 20/20 special about it.
On another note:
"You hear about the brouhaha when a GM tries to shut down a gay-themed guild in World of Warcraft. "
Excuse me? Gay people aren't allowed to have their own guild? That doesn't sound right. Why wouldn't gay people be allowed to form their own guild? I'm glad to know that Blizzard are such homophobes.
By me at 10:09 PM ON 04/01/09
http://content.ytmnd.com/content/b/e/8/be88176f084571d8612a18059e280c22.jpg
not my pic. still funny though
me:
http://content.ytmnd.com/cont...More »