The Daily Swarm

Slicing Up Eyeballs:

Depeche Mode songwriter Martin L. Gore reportedly has been subpoenaed by a litigious video gamer who’s suing the makers of the online behemoth “World of Warcraft” and wants the famously downbeat musician to testify about being “sad, lonely and alienated.”

Estavillo — who unsuccessfully sued Sony after being banned from the Playstation Network, among other game-related lawsuits — also references the 2001 suicide of an “EverQuest” player, according to Game Spot, “attributing it to a sense of alienation related to the game and mental health problems.”

GameSpot:

After being banned from Sony’s PlayStation Network during a game of Resistance: Fall of Man, a San Jose, California gamer sued the electronics giant, alleging a violation of his First Amendment rights. That case was dismissed in September, but the plaintiff was undeterred. In addition to filing in an appeal in that case, earlier this month he filed a new suit against Microsoft and Nintendo. In that case, he alleged that a broken Xbox 360 caused him undue stress, and that a Wii system update blocking access to the Homebrew Channel third-party program interfered with his inalienable right to pursue happiness.

Are the normal World of Warcraft fees any worse than those of the World of Warcraft Visa card?

With the big three platform holders accounted for, the same plaintiff is now turning his attention to largest third-party publisher. The gamer, Erik Estavillo, provided GameSpot with copies of his latest civil suit, a case against Activision Blizzard filed this morning in the Santa Clara County Superior Court of California. A court clerk confirmed for GameSpot that the suit had been filed.

The suit comprises a handful of complaints against Activision Blizzard, specifically relating to the company’s successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft. Specifically, the gamer accuses the publisher of maintaining a “harmful virtual environment” with “sneaky and deceitful practices.”

via Pitchfork