Teen threatens suicide in online game, gets arrested
Jan 6, 2009
Here's a hint for online gamers: when talking to World of Warcraft customer service reps, threatening to kill yourself is not a productive way to get what you want.
That advice will come too late for one 17-year-old resident of Fairfield Township in Ohio, who is due in juvenile court this week charged with "inducing panic" (a misdemeanor) after he told a Blizzard rep that World of Warcraft was the only thing he had to live for and that he was suicidal, the Middletown Journal reports.
The quick-thinking rep called 911, and the young man earned a handcuffing and a trip in a police car courtesy of local law enforcement officers. According to their reports, the teen told police he was just trying to "get what he wanted for the game".
It's not the first time massively-multiplayer games have been linked to suicides. In 2001, a Wisconsin man shot himself in a tragedy his mother blamed on his addiction to then-popular online role-playing game Everquest.
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