Game over 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
You've heard the stories where some poor schlub plays Dungeons and Dragons for weeks on end, then freaking out and imagining himself to be in a D&D adventure, before he was finally committed to a mental institution. Nobody sued TSR, Inc., publisher of the D&D manuals -- don't ask me how I know that. I just do, okay?! -- because their kid didn't have a firm grip on reality. Nobody sued the friends of the whacko for criminal negligence just because their game-playing somehow caused his mental breakdown.
So why is a Louisiana woman suing Nintendo of America after her son had a deadly seizure? According to a story in the Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Advocate, Esther Walker of Livingston Parish is suing Nintendo, claiming that her son Benjamin Walker, 30, suffered a seizure that caused his death, because he played on his Nintendo 64 game system eight hours a day, six days a week, since he bought it. Walker purchased his Nintendo 64 in May 1999, and then bought 10 more games in the weeks that followed.
According to Esther Walker's lawsuit, "Benji" Walker had six seizures as a result of the game. The sixth one happened on January 22, 2001. According to the lawsuit, ". . . Benjamin passed out, fell forward and hit his head and mouth on a table, which caused a severe closed head injury, loss of teeth, and moderate bleeding." Walker died in the hospital on January 26th, 2001.
The lawsuit also says that Walker had his first seizure in September 1999, and had five subsequent seizures over the next 17 months while playing the games. Esther Walker claims that Nintendo produced a defective product, but failed to give any adequate warnings about the health risks.
What should they have said? "WARNING: TABLES ARE HARD. DO NOT HIT YOUR HEAD ON THEM."
Or how about this: "WARNING: IF YOU SUFFER A SEIZURE AFTER PLAYING OUR GAME FOR 48 HOURS PER WEEK, MAYBE YOU SHOULD CUT BACK A LITTLE BIT, AND OH I DON'T KNOW, TAKE A WALK OUTSIDE OR SOMETHING? I MEAN, COME ON, YOU'RE PLAYING THE GAME LONGER THAN A REGULAR FULL-TIME JOB!"
The company has understandably denied any wrongdoing. And why shouldn't they? They're not like the tobacco companies who purposely made cigarettes addictive and then lied to the world about it for more than 60 years. Nintendo makes games for people to play. What is there to warn about? "WARNING: THERE IS A TENUOUS, NOT-YET-PROVEN LINK BETWEEN CERTAIN ELECTRONIC VIDEO IMAGES AND SEIZURES. SO DON'T PLAY THIS GAME. DON'T EVEN BUY IT. SURE, WE MAY GO OUT OF BUSINESS, BUT THAT'S OKAY. DON'T WORRY ABOUT US. WE'LL MANAGE SOMEHOW. WE CAN STAY WITH FRIENDS."
As sorry as I am for her loss, I can't believe that Esther Walker is somehow surprised by all of this. Let's look at her own statements. Benjamin Walker played his Nintendo 64 for eight hours a day, six days a week, for seventeen months! Of course the guy had seizures! Anybody who does something that much is bound to have some sort of problem. Whether it's morbid obesity owing to lack of exercise, an exploded bladder, or severe social awkwardness, if you sit in front of a TV for 48 hours per week, something will go wrong.
I can't even work for eight hours a day, let alone all in a row. I usually spend two or three hours a day playing computer games or cruising the 'Net for pictures of Pamela Anderson (Note: if my boss is reading this, that last sentence is completely untrue. I only put it in there for comedic effect. I actually work 40 hours a week, non-stop. Did I say 40? I meant 60 hours a week.).
But what makes it worse is that Benjamin Walker continued to play even after he suffered his first seizure four months after he bought the game. Not only that, he continued on his eight-hours-a-day-six-days-a-week playing schedule, racking up another four seizures. The fifth one happened while he was playing again, and it just happened to be the one that did him in.
Doesn't it make sense that if the family were able to establish a connection between the seizures and Walker's game playing, they would have stopped him from playing? One would expect him to think, "I seem to black out when I play. Maybe I should quit." But apparently this never occurred to him, or if it did, they chose to ignore it.
And here's the added bonus: Esther Walker is suing for unspecified damages for medical and funeral expenses, mental and emotional anguish, and the lost future earnings of her son. Medical and funeral expenses, I can understand. Mental and emotional anguish, no problem. But the "lost future earnings" of her video-game-playing-for-48-hours-per-week son? What kind of future earnings do you expect someone who plays that many hours to have? Grown men who spend that much time playing games don't have great career possibilities, let alone huge earning potentials.
And when you factor in the distinct possibility, although this is just a guess on my part, that Benjamin Walker did not have his own place (i.e. he lived in his mom's basement), the "future earnings" potential is pretty much in the toilet, unless someone finally starts paying video game geeks six-figure salaries for blasting bad guys and picking up magic coins.
So should we feel bad for Esther Walker? Absolutely. Should we learn something about playing video games in moderation. You betcha. Is she entitled to untold millions of dollars because her son didn't quit playing the games that caused his first five seizures? Certainly not.
If anyone should get any benefit out of this, it should be the new XBox game system and their latest advertising slogan: "Now, 64% Seizure Free."
Submitted on 10/18/2002
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
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