What D&D can lead to...

Diorhomme

"U.S. authorities say a couple from Reno, Nevada was so obsessed with playing video games online that they left their babies to starve.



According to the Sunday Telegraph, the parents have now pleaded guilty to child neglect after their 22-month-old boy and 11-month-old girl were found severely malnourished and close to death.



The girl, weighing just 10 pounds, reportedly had to have her head shaved because it was matted with cat urine. She also suffered from a mouth infection, dry skin, and severe dehydration. Her brother was treated for starvation, a genital infection, and, due to lack of muscle development, difficulty walking.



The children are now doing well and regaining weight in foster care. Their parents, Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, now face up to 12 years in prison. Prosecutors say the couple was too distracted playing Dungeons & Dragons online to give their children proper care.



“They had food, they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games,” said Kelli Ann Viloria, a public prosecutor.



Straw is an unemployed cashier and his wife does warehouse work for a staffing agency. The couple reportedly spent a $50,000 inheritance on computer equipment and a plasma television."

Source:

http://gamerush.zoomshare.com/files/my_images/GameRush_Entertainment_Parents_obsessed_with_playing_Dungeons_Dragons_leave_babies_to_starve_News.htm

 

elzilcho21

Well, I suppose these people were just crazy and didn't care about there kids. Most people I know that have kids and play games commit more of there time to there kids then the game.

ArmySurplus

I read that this morning and It really upset me. As a father, my son is the most important thing in my life and I just cant fathom how people can do things like this to their own flesh and blood. I pray they NEVER get their childern back and they get the s**t knocked out of them in prison.

 

Leodious

That's terrible.

Some people have no self control. It's the same personality as drug addicts; they just get addicted to games instead. We send them to jail too, but we have clinics to help them also.

Addiction is a serious problem, and if you have self control it won't get bad, but if it does get bad, you need help to get out. You can't do it on your own. We should pity the parents just as much. I feel like just as alcohol companies have to say that you should use it in moderation, more games should do something along the lines of what GW does, where each hour it tells you how long you have been playing and suggests that you log off for a while. What game asks you to log off?

MMOs do everything they can do to keep you addicted and playing, or more often, grinding something, to keep you paying the fee. Instead of having the game just be fun so you want to keep playing, they give you continually changing goals that take many hours of work and make you feel like you need to play constantly to keep up with the hardcore crowd. The companies are at fault in this also.

Some people have addictive personalities, just as some people have alcoholism and some people have anorexia and some people have ADD. We as a society should look for ways to help these people refrain from games a little more and spend time in the real world, but game developers have a responisbility both to change teh nature of their games to promote subscription while not promoting 8-hour raid sessions or month-long reputation/item/experience grinds and to remind people not to spend too much of their time in the game.

a_name

Saw that on the news myself.

These people have a deeper problem I'm guessing. From the outside you can blame it on the game but the likely cause is that they didn't want children after all. If they still manage to go to work then they aren't addicted that bad, I mean they do actually leave the chair. They seem to resent the children and just should've given them up for adoption.

As for them spending money on electronics, why not? If they would've bought kids clothes, they would have grown out of them in a season so it would've been dumb to spend it all on that. They could've set some money aside for college unless they don't expect to pay for it - my mother didn't pay for mine and told both of her kids that it was our responsibility if we wanted to go in our teens. No wonder neither of us went until late 20's lol we were broke and they hold your  parents earnings against you until you pass 25. I'm not convinced that bad parenting is buying home electronics.

The neglect though is clear, they had food and liquid and didn't feed the kids. For that they do deserve punishment as their caregivers - no matter their excuse or how addictive people think gaming is. Those that would blame it on the game remind me of rock music being accused of making teens commit suicide.

 

 

Sinent

you know it sickens me when folks use other things as there excuse for being lazy  this is just another case of it the parents sucked at being parents if it wasnt video games it would have been tv, drinking ,drugs, neihbors wife/husband  i mean folks 

this is whats wrong with out country we let folks do things and then in some way opr another attempt to justifie there strange actions with excuses . these folks should be starved to death and when they almost die give them just enoufgh to keep them going until we grow bored with them.