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Posted on Sun, May. 26, 2002
Mother blames online game for son's suicide
21-year-old kills self after becoming obsessed with playing Sony's EverQuest
By Martha Irvine
Associated Press
HUDSON, WIS. - His mother found Shawn Woolley's body in a rocking chair in front of his computer. His head was slumped to one side -- still facing a screen of the online game that she said had become his obsession.
``That damn game,'' Liz Woolley said to herself as she broke into tears.
At Shawn's side was the .22-caliber rifle he'd used to end his life.
Scattered around him, police reports say, were dirty clothes, fast-food wrappers, dozens of empty pizza boxes and chicken bones thrown haphazardly to the floor. His mother had pounded on his apartment's door and windows for two days before finally cutting through the chain lock to break in last Thanksgiving morning.
The 21-year-old, who'd hastily quit his job more than a week earlier, left no suicide note in the one-bedroom apartment in Hudson, Wis., a small town about 30 miles east of Minneapolis. The only signs of what had been on his mind were a few scribbled names and terms related to EverQuest, the online virtual reality game he'd been playing for well over a year.
Liz Woolley places the blame for his death squarely on the game and its maker -- Sony Online Entertainment.
``Shawn was worse than any junkie I've ever seen,'' Liz Woolley said. ``After he started playing the game, he just didn't enjoy life anymore.''
She believes Sony intentionally added features to EverQuest to keep players online for hours at a time.
Officials at Sony Online declined to comment on the Woolley case. Scott McDaniel, the company's vice president of marketing, said the game should be viewed like any other form of entertainment.
``There's a duty on the consumer to use it responsibly,'' McDaniel said of EverQuest.
The average EverQuest subscriber plays about 20 hours a week.
David Greenfield, a psychologist in Hartford, Conn., said EverQuest is so difficult for its enthusiasts to resist that some call it ``EverCrack.''
A sort of computer-driven Dungeons and Dragons, the online game has more than 430,000 registered players worldwide who form teams, or ``guilds,'' in a never-ending journey to earn points and slay monsters.
The game allows people to effectively live shadow lives, divorced from flesh-and-blood existence. And while most people keep their playing time in check, experts say there are some who can't.
Shawn Woolley's mother said her shy, overweight son became obsessed with the game to the point of self-destruction.
``If you're an alcoholic or addicted to drugs, there's places you can go for help,'' said Liz Woolley as a single tear runs down her face. ``But there was no one there for him -- no one who knew how to help.''
Liz Woolley just started setting up an organization called Online Gamers Anonymous and a Web site to help people like Shawn.
``I can't just sit here,'' she said. ``I cannot let him die in vain.''
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