The creators of GTA, Minecraft, and more are being sued for making their games addictive.
"Hello and welcome to another GRTV News, the last one of this week, it's the Easter holiday, it's a bit weird, sort of a big thing I think more in Europe than it is across the pond perhaps, but in any case we are here as always delivering the latest and greatest in terms of gaming, gear, tech, entertainment, whatever you like, whatever you love, we've always got it here for you at GRTV News and of course in the wider Gamereactor Network, so if you like movie reviews, gaming reviews, exclusive content and so, so much more, always check out Gamereactor wherever you get it from, but without further ado, today is an interesting news piece, game developers are being sued for making their games too addicting and apparently this is causing some waves, there's been a string of lawsuits sort of compiled by PC gamers here, filed against the likes of Rockstar, who obviously made GTA, Mojang, Minecraft, Activision Blizzard, Call of Duty World of Warcraft, Epic Games, Fortnite, Roblox, Roblox and more for making their games too addictive, it's sort of, we're going to use one example here of an Arkansas mother who is suing on behalf of, or sort of is suing to get compensation because of the behaviours she's seen in her son, she says since the age of 12 he's been involved heavily in gaming and he's now 21, gaming has allegedly caused him to drop out of school, have depression and anxiety and show withdrawal symptoms and physical outbursts and anger, behaviours that she's really uncomfortable with and yeah, the suit alleges that the creators are legible for this as they've made the gameplay so addicting that it has caused basically a sort of similar, almost drug or gambling like addiction with gamers as it would with any other addiction really, but then again on the flip side, the creators are obviously not going to take this lying down and their argument is that really they are expressing themselves, as these are US cases and the first amendment rights are so important there, their argument is that it is their first amendment right to be able to express themselves through gaming and when they create a game, making it too entertaining is something that they can't be penalised for. Now, that's where it sort of gets interesting because is it entertaining or is it addictive? That's sort of the argument that I'm going to leave up to you guys in the comments, but I personally think that there is an argument to be made that games are now asking too much of your time and they can prey on maybe more vulnerable people who aren't, you know, as easily able to turn off the screen. They also provide a great escape though for people who maybe, you know, do have social anxiety already and struggle to make friends and you know, you could make some of all of most people's, I would say a lot of young people, some of their best friends today will probably be forged or even made entirely through gaming and that's pretty cool, but at the same time, yes, I think, you know, the fact that you need to spend a certain amount of hours a month to get a battle pass maxed out or a certain amount of money a month is a bit... not a month, but whenever a new season comes out, you get the gist, basically. It's a bit shaky for the future. What do you think? I think this is a really interesting string of lawsuits as, you know, on the one hand you've got wackos who believe that gaming is the root of all evil and you've got the other hand who believe that gaming is the root of all good. It's probably the truth is somewhere in the middle, as always, but I will see you soon for another GRTV News. Bye-bye."