Renown developer Blizzard, and their local partner in The9, are facing a new this week, instigated by parents who blame the title for the sad death of their son. The boy died after throwing himself from the top of a building in the city of Tianjin, and the Chinese news agency are reporting that the parents claim the boy was re-enacting a scene from his favourite game, Blizzard's massively-multiplayer online RPG. The game has been at the centre of several controversies in China, where it has a huge subscriber-base in advance of 1.5 million people.

The lawsuit against blames the dangerous influences of their title for the boy's death, and the case is being supported by the vocal Zhang Chunliang, an activist who has in the past sought to educate on the dangers of internet addictions. The suit will be filed soon and Chungliang claims he has spoken to over sixty parents, concerned about the impact of online addictions on their children. Blizzard have yet to respond to the lawsuit, which has yet to be officially filed, but it is likely that this will prove a test case for China's perception of online gaming and the associated risks. More soon.

Source: Eurogamer.net

By Luke Guttridge