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Man Subpoenaes Celebrities For WoW Lawsuit

Erik Estavillo, a gamer in San Jose, California is suing Blizzard because he believes that World of Warcraft ruined his social life. He argues that Blizzard's World of Warcraft is a "harmful virtual environment," and that much of its design is "sneaky and deceitful." In particular, this oddball plaintiff believes that World of Warcraft has the highest subscription fee of any MMORPG ($14.99 USD monthly), and that portions of the game, like having to walk to one's corpse and a lack of mounts at lower levels, are all designed to waste his monthly fee.

Hilariously enough, the gamer is also subpoenaing Depeche Mode musician Martine Gore and actor Winona Ryder because they both understand what it's like to be lonely and anti-social. Gore was chosen because "he himself has been known to be sad, lonely, and alienated, as can be seen in the songs he writes," and Ryder was named because of her acting role in J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Previous to this lawsuit, Estavillo also sued Sony for banning him from their Playstation Network while he was playing Resistance: Fall of Man. The case was dismissed in September, but Estavillo has now appealed it, and is also suing Microsoft and Nintendo because a broken Xbox 360 caused him "undue stress," and a Wii update that blocked access to a third-party program interfered with his inalienable right to pursue happiness.

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He should be subpeona'd
# Dec 01 2009 at 10:40 AM Rating: Excellent
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248 posts
Lol, this is one of those things where if you go to far off of one end, you wind up on the other. A talented lawyer could probably use this guy as evidence to sue the video gaming industry en masse as proof of how video games can warp the human mind.

*Hides in dark corner and giggles* Teeheehee
Seriously
# Dec 01 2009 at 10:38 AM Rating: Decent
Be careful what you say here...next he will be going after you all for emotional distress and slander.
Where do people like this come from
# Dec 01 2009 at 7:24 AM Rating: Decent
I rolled out of my chair when I read this what does this guy think hes gona get out of Blizzard I mean millions of people pay the $14.99 a month and never say a word and if hes worred about his social life dude Turn Off the computer man geesh.
Refried Dog Droppings for Brains
# Nov 30 2009 at 10:48 PM Rating: Default
Well hell why not sue? I mean if someone can sue McDonalds b/c they got a FRESH COFFEE and spilled on themselves while driving AND WON!!! But I really dont think this is gonna get very far, hopefully the Judge doesn't have his/her head up their *** calls this guy an idiot and tosses the case out of court. But then again who knows?
WIsh I was the Judge
# Nov 30 2009 at 6:18 PM Rating: Decent
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH how I So wish I was the judge for this case.


I'd ruin his social life by tossing his *** in a ward somewhere.

Last Time I checked, Blizzard didn't have a gun to my head Forcing me to Pay or Play the game.
lol
# Nov 30 2009 at 4:20 PM Rating: Good
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77 posts
anyone else think of the weird al yankovic song "ill sue ya"? sounds like it was written for idiots like this :P
Just hang 'em....
# Nov 30 2009 at 12:56 AM Rating: Decent
Funny, it hasn't ruined my social life and I am a full time college student (who gets straight A's), has a part time job, a boyfriend, and I go out every Friday night.... I've got 5-lvl 80's, 3-lvl 70's, and tons between lvl 20 and 60.... AND I STILL HAVE A SOCIAL LIFE.... Some people are just plain lazy....

Just hang 'em....
# Nov 30 2009 at 9:59 AM Rating: Decent
i have to agree with you one that one i have a life beyond wow and still have all kinds of stuff done a few 80s and others. just cant stand the lazy people. plus he seems like one of them people who will sue you for not smiling at him so it give him emotional distress or something like that. lol
ROFLMAO
# Nov 29 2009 at 10:03 PM Rating: Decent
I'll serve as a witness for blizzard just for this guys stupidity.

NO One forced him to sit and play this game, and if he's too damn lazy to go outside then thats his fault.

What a jerk off LOLOL
clown
# Nov 29 2009 at 9:01 PM Rating: Decent
I would like to countersue this guy for being a jackass and wasting my time for having to read about something absurd.
/facepalm
# Nov 29 2009 at 8:58 PM Rating: Decent
16 posts
wtf! It ruined his social life. I think not. The DESICION that HE made to play the game, probably in excess of what he should have been playing, was what brought the ruination of his social life. Even WoW with their tooltips at the loading screen, if left on, tell you that it's ok to play with your friends IN WoW, but also OUTSIDE of WoW. And believe it or not, the game can help you have a social life...it just happens to be online. If you're that stupid to NOT think about turning the game off once in a while to go out of your own house/apartment and have a social life, then you shouldn't be playing games like WoW at all. And as for the price, if you consider what goes on behind the scenes of a game this big, it's a fair price IMO. Oh, and having to walk to your corpse and no mounts at lower levels? First off, it may only take you a couple minutes to walk to your corpse. Big freakin' deal. Get over it, everyone has to at one point or several (raids on the leaders in the opposing faction's city....it's gonna happen if you're not lucky and the group wipes). Second, the no mounts at lower levels??? Hell, Blizzard lowered the first mount level to 20!!!! How much lower level can you get? I can start a new toon and within a couple days at the most, be to 20 and have enough money to get my first mount...within 2 weeks of starting a toon, I'm to level 40 and have my epic land mount. And you know what? I STILL HAVE A SOCIAL LIFE AFTER ALL IS SAID AND DONE!! Throw this one out the courtroom door please...and have a nice day! :-D
No Life
# Nov 29 2009 at 8:13 PM Rating: Decent
Funny, I keep getting this reminder to the South Park WoW show..."How do you kill that which has no life?" Much like this guy's social life...lol
..
# Nov 29 2009 at 2:49 PM Rating: Default
What a ******, ffs.
Judge should tell him...
# Nov 29 2009 at 8:58 AM Rating: Decent
O-M-G...this is too, well, just weird :)

The judge should tell him, before anything really gets underway that it is his intention, should the man win, that he be banned from any video game - online, PC based or console - for his own protection. The dude would probably leave burn marks as he raced out of the courtroom :)
Weak Burden...
# Nov 29 2009 at 1:25 AM Rating: Decent
This is Soo Funny because any *real* mmorpg player has played much older games then World of Warcraft, like Ultima Online or EverQuest...

I used to play EverQuest too much for my own good, and considering that everquest doesn't have mounts.. requires a considerable amount of time to do anything, back when it started...

In WoW, you can go from just about anywhere in the world, to anywhere else, in an 2 hours, if not under an hour. You can gain 3-4 levels in a day if you know what your doing... you die.. you lose a lil bit of money and have to run from a place nearby back to your corpse

EverQuest.. at least when i left, shortly after LDON... Have some people power level you for the entire day, *at 45+*.. you might gain half a level.. you die you lose 1/5th of a level in experience... Your not a mage class? run from whichever city you last had a mage bind you in.. could be several hours running... and your not a ghost.. you'll likely die 3 more times trying to get your body if your in a bad spot.

New Generation MMORPG'ers don't realize how easy they have it...
he he
# Nov 28 2009 at 9:20 PM Rating: Decent
Quote:
"n particular, this oddball plaintiff believes that World of Warcraft has the highest subscription fee of any MMORPG ($14.99 USD monthly), and that portions of the game, like having to walk to one's corpse and a lack of mounts before level 40, are all designed to waste his monthly fee."
This is hillarious statement WoW is propably one of the cheapest game ever made considering the fact how much content there is but he propably just try to take advantage of jury and judges that dont know much about Computer Games.

And if WoW has ruined this guy life Social Life what it would help to give him millions of compensations. Then he would not have to work anymore to do these ridicilious cases and file them to courts and this could ruin his social life even more. Now he needs to do a lot of these cases and he needs to meet nice people at least in the court and its more social life for him.

This guy really needs to ask himself what I can do to improve my social life rather than go on blame the society.
*Facepalm*
# Nov 28 2009 at 8:40 PM Rating: Decent
Highest monthly fee? Please, I can name 4 MMOs off the top of my head that have the same fee. Not to mention not only are the mount levels he's claiming wrong but at least WoW GIVES mounts. There are plenty who don't. Same with walking to your corpse. Others give XP penalties or port you halfway across the zone. Guys who just try to get attention by doing stupid stuff like this make me want to shoot them myself.
Comical at best
# Nov 28 2009 at 8:11 PM Rating: Decent
3 posts
I do not believe that it takes a law school diploma or license to practice law to predict an unfavorable ruling in the claimants case.
Comical at best
# Nov 28 2009 at 10:42 PM Rating: Decent
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187 posts
I sue you, Pikachu.

...........because you're yellow, and yellow pisses me off!
Will be thrown out, of course
# Nov 28 2009 at 5:16 PM Rating: Good
44 posts
There is no doubt that such foolishness will be "bounced" from the court, but IMO that's not enough in these cases. Nutjobs like this need to be stopped from filing more of these suits. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as well as many state laws, authorize penalties for filing frivolous lawsuits, as well as sanctions against attorneys and law firms that represent these idiot plaintiffs. Unfortunately, judges are reluctant to impose penalties on these people, for whatever reason. That needs to be changed. As contempt of court is one of the authorized penalties, perhaps a little jail time would dissuade these individuals from continuing this kind of nonsense. In this particular case, I believe a court-ordered mental examination should also be levied against the plaintiff.

I don't deny anyone the right to file suit for legitimate claims, but when people like this file multiple frivolous suits, something needs to be done.
Will be thrown out, of course
# Nov 28 2009 at 9:41 PM Rating: Decent
You got that right... there should be plenty of penalties to go around for stupid filing of lawsuits like this... from the plantiff to the lawyers... hehe. The system is broken enough without having put up with these bogus lawsuits.
Burden of Proof
# Nov 28 2009 at 3:35 PM Rating: Excellent
Even if you ignore all the other aspects of this that are ridiculous, will he be able to show that he had a an active social life to ruin? Consider how many other gaming related lawsuits he has filed, gaming is pretty much all he does, it would seem.
Burden of Proof
# Nov 28 2009 at 5:26 PM Rating: Excellent
That's a hilarious insight. If only they could use this kind of stuff in court: "we will now prove that this man had no life before he played games and he totally had no friends." Now lawsuits come with the added danger of being publically shamed by the law.
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