[MUD-Dev] Death of a game addict

[Matt Mihaly]

On Thu, 4 Apr 2002, Patricia Pizer wrote:

> work out elements of social responsibility in online games as I
> honestly believe the medium is significant and has moved beyond
> the realm of "games." I ran into folks at the GDC (such as a woman
> from a parents' advocacy group) that made me feel quite insulted;
> after all, none of us are parents, right? None of us are members
> of society who give a damn about what we're doing....

I, at least, don't give a damn. I make games to 1) Make a profit and
a living and 2) Well, 'cause it's fun. As I have yet to hold a gun
to anyone's head and force them to play my games, any negative
effects they suffer are not my ethical responsibility. There is no
provision in my ethical framework for taking responsibility for
another person's voluntary actions, whether they be inspired by
smack addiction or a serious love of MUDs (the idea of calling a
love of MUDs, and a habit of playing them regularly an addiction
completely trivializes what -actual- addiction is. I've never seen
someone almost die from going through MUD withdrawl.)


--matt, who doesn't think there is anything wrong with suicide
anyway.



 

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