// Published: Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, February 12, 2010 at 11:03 p.m.
MANATEE COUNTY - A domestic dispute over a video game erupted into a domestic melee late Thursday, with one man choking his mother, throwing his son across a room and then being shot in the head by his grandfather, according to reports.
James Swan, 27, was arrested late Thursday on charges he choked his mother, Hazel Summerall, 50, and threw his son across a room after Summerall tried to get him to stop playing the "World of Warcraft" video game.
The incident started about 10 p.m. in Summerall's home in the 6400 block of 12th Avenue East, according to a Manatee County Sheriff's report.
Swan was playing the game in a bedroom shared by several children, and was drinking alcohol and growing increasingly loud, Summerall told deputies. She asked Swan to stop playing, a request he ignored, and then she put a hand on his shoulder as she asked again.
Swan then grabbed her by the hair and threw her onto a bed, according to reports.
Swan then picked up his son, who was also in the room, and threw him onto the bed. As he did, Summerall ran into the kitchen to call police, but Swan ripped the phone off the wall, the report said.
Swan grabbed Summerall, threw her onto the living room floor, jumped on her and began choking her, the report said.
Swan's grandfather tried to stop the choking, failed, and then grabbed a handgun. He and Swan struggled and the gun fired; medical personnel later found a bullet entry wound in Swan's head and no exit wound.
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
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Very very sad. I wonder if the day will come when judges make gaming addicts to come here, like they do with other groups. I guess only time will tell.
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other" -Abraham Lincoln
Yes that is sad to read, and to see the different affects gaming addiction has on people,also him drinking while playing in my opinion adds fuel to the unstable persons fire.
"It's all in your mind...Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life.If you continue to believe as you have always believed,you will continue to act as you have always acted.If you continue to act as you have always acted,you will continue to get what you have always gotten.If you want different results in your life or your work,all you have to do is change your mind." Anonymous...
His actions are no different from the actions of a drug addict when family tries to help them get off the drug. If marijuana is illegal then so should WoW be, even though WoW is more dangerous than many drugs because it's cheap and easily obtainable. At this rate the number of marriages destroyed by WoW or gaming in general is going to get close to the number of marriages destroyed from alcohol or other addictions.
An hour of gaming is an hour wasted.
I rather doubt it, as the judges would find it hard to confirm that they followed through. When we reach a critical mass of open local chapters, I'm sure the first judge will do that, for his or her local chapter.
It will be a transition for both that local chapter, and the involuntary attendee...
But AA's done it, so can we I suppose.
Leveling in Real Life
I think the way they usually do it is that the person's probation or parole officer looks at a log that has to be signed by somebody at the meeting. The meeting attendance is a condition of the parole or probation (sometmes we get people showing up at our church, frantic that the day will go by without the entry... I've been asked, several times, to sign even though I have nothing to do with AA or NA). Or, the way that this was done in my friend's son's case was that they entered a dismissal order that was contingent upon his fulfilling certain conditions. They maintain that "hammer" over the person's head (do X or go back to jail) for as long as the case is open.
I can tell you for sure that in my friend's case, if there had been a F2F OLGA meeting for him to attend, the judge would have ordered it. The Victim Advocate even asked us about it.
Jane in CT
Yep AA does, and a couple others do too. With the way the number of addicted gamers keeps growing, its only a matter of time before we have more f2f (kind of bittersweet.) Anyway, it looks like we may have found someone to run the future Olga Manatee County Chapter.
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other" -Abraham Lincoln
How does blizzard sleep at night... On massive piles of money I suppose.
blizzard never sleeps, it's only legally a person, it has no soul.
It's the people who do have souls that are my concern.
Leveling in Real Life
I think it will get worse in time as well...Having played WoW for several years the game continues to become a little easier with each patch, used to be only the best were top tier raiders, it's becoming more "casual" friendly, hooking younger and younger kids. There coming out with the next expansion later this year...5 more levels, 2 more races, new character classes for races that were not available before, just another excuse to relevel more characters (sorry don't mean to tempt anyone).
You forgot that they are also adding the same repetition, the same never-ending, and the same life consuming in your little commercial.
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other" -Abraham Lincoln
WoW feeds off people's weaknesses to keep them hooked and obsessed with the game. The more extreme you are in your gaming habits the more rewards you get and the more respect you gain from the community.
It's also like a line of sheep where if one of the sheep tries to get away from the line, the other sheep transform into wolves and try to bring the sheep back to the line. In WoW the sheep are players playing too much. When they start playing less the guild members start shouting at them and warning them that they could lose their DKP or get booted from the guild if they continue to have a life outside WoW. Most people succumb and start playing more again.
There are so many things to do in the game that the desire to become the best is a desire that never dies, drawing you further into the vortex of WoW until you forget what life used to be.
An hour of gaming is an hour wasted.
I think it was on Wowdetox, I read someone refer to World of Warcraft as "The Jerry Springer Video Game."
It made me chuckle.
There is a definite trend emerging related to the game: violence and sexual acting out seems to be becoming more and more prevalent.
Devoid of Soul- is how I would summarise the personality of the chronic wow addict I knew.
How can we get this terrible story of violence out to the broader public for all to see?
Elementary and Secondary Schools need to hold events where they show the dangers of WoW just like they do for drugs and alcohol.
Wow...just really shocked as to how video games can actually cause someone to act in such a manner. I can't imagine doing that to anyone over a video game.
I can. I never hurt anyone but end game pvp and raids become super competitive, I've punched the wall, slammed my fists on the desk, screamed curses non stop, usually from pvp...you become so attached to your character when an enemy laughs, "T-bags your dead body" you get mad and want revenge.
I know when i was in a raid ,and we were getting killed on one of the bosses i asked if the druids that were tanking would benifit better from one of my spells to keep there aggro up on vent, just a simple quetion .well needless to say the raidleader chimed in, and said first off there not druids there tanks i was like uuhh...okay.It just made me see even more, how serious some people on there take that game especially in the endgame content .I just laughed to myself, and thought..so this is supposed to be fun?and im having a blast with people yelling ,and blaming others for wipes and being super anial?
"It's all in your mind...Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life.If you continue to believe as you have always believed,you will continue to act as you have always acted.If you continue to act as you have always acted,you will continue to get what you have always gotten.If you want different results in your life or your work,all you have to do is change your mind." Anonymous...
SJ,
I'm in regular contact with a major police agency here in Canada. They're interested in gaining a better understanding of the criminal acting out behaviours associated with a small minority of WoW players. I did an interview for a national TV news program on one particular case that hit the media here a couple months back. It will air in a few weeks.
Hang in there!
-Brad
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
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I agree that PvP (player versus player) caused physical changes. For me as a woman, it caused racing heart beat, and chest pain radiating into my left arm....this was from being dehydrated and from the adrenalin rush. I'd get relentless and so deeply into getting revenge at times...it was sick. And one particular moment that has stuck with me was the elation of killing all the enemy players and just me and one other person on my team left standing. To my mind it was a major life triumph, lol!
For guys, I'm sure it would be worse, combining adrenalin with testosterone has gotta be bad.
hey all, I think one thing to keep in mind is that we can't blame the game for our addiction..those of us here that have had alcohol problems in the past know all too well...it's not the alcohol , it's the person drinking it...many people play games and don't get addicted. I myself am an addict and if it wasn't warcraft i would use another medium for my addictive personality. We are accountable for our actions, not the game designers. placing blame on someone else is just way to take blame from ourselves.
Thanks
Rob
When there is nothing left, There is Hope
Well Rob, this seems to come up all the time. While you're absolutely right that many people game without addiction, just as many folks drink alcohol, use drugs recreationally, and do other things, this does not absolve the game designers of any responsibility for creating a product that is known, under certain circumstances, to become addictive. It is the case that gaming companies use the same algorithms and reward structures and other techniques that gambling software uses. A technique called "variable reward structure" is used to keep people playing. In a subscription environment, the gaming company makes money if people keep playing, month after month, year after year. Of course it's in the company's best interests to make the game as pleasurable, as compelling... as "addictive" as possible.
It doesn't mean gaming should be outlawed. It doesn't mean companies should be "blamed" to the exclusion of the user. But it does mean that the company bears some responsibility for the social cost of its product. To continue the analogy to the gambling industry, in most states the casinos and lotteries are required to contribute a certain amount of money to treatment for addicted gamblers. They are also required to promote the availability of treatment. None of this takes away responsibility from the addicted gambler, but it does mean that the burden is shared as well as the benefit.
Since our focus is on recovery, we don't really talk about "blame" anyway. That's just not a helpful concept. However, I don't think it's unacceptable to acknowledge that gaming companies do, in fact, purposely make their products as addictive as possible. Perhaps at some future time they will be asked to share a bit more of the true cost of their product (just as R.J. Reynolds eventually had to).
Jane in CT
that's hilarious. so sorry but it cracked me up
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