Comments on: ELECTRONIC ARTS HAS RESPONDED TO MY LATEST PLEA

By: The Blue Spider

The Blue Spider — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 21:06:52 +0000

A bit mildly dismissive, eh?

By: MMO player

MMO player — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 00:54:12 +0000

And this Peter guy has a PhD and teaches at a top university? How exactly did you want Maxis to respond? And you do realize that actually discussing any steps they might have taken, even seconds after receiving your first comment, most likely is completely against their player privacy policy, right?

In addition, if the 8 year old were hospitalized, one would assume that the parents/guardians already know about the violent situation in the home – and the authorities as well.

How can any company be responsible for absolutely everything said within it’s MMO? It can’t. This whole thing sounds like a griefer baiting to the nth degree. Grow up. It’s not a social experiment, it’s a game.

By: Peter Ludlow

Peter Ludlow — Fri, 05 Dec 2003 22:54:28 +0000

Here is the letter that *I* got from EA on this topic.

Dear Professor Ludlow,

Thank you for taking time to pursue this matter. On the issue of privacy, we try to strike a balance between a member’s privacy rights and our responsibility to the community. Like other online hosts, we do not monitor each conversation but try to take appropriate action when a problem surfaces, even though we are under no legal obligation to do so.

In response to concerns raised by you, and after careful review of our web log, we contacted local authorities and identified the player. Resolution of this incident now lies with the local authorities. The authorities may want to contact you for your input. We have not provided your information to them but would like to do so if they request it. Please let us know if this would be a problem.

I have read the logs, and I understand your acute frustration with the lack of specific answers provided earlier. However, I hope you understand that we cannot provide any further detail. The player’s identity and any action taken by local authorities will remain confidential.

Again, thank you very much for your concern. We appreciate your quickness in identifying a potential problem and your diligence in seeing that action was taken.

Respectfully,

Jeffrey Brown
Vice President,
Corporate Communications
Electronic Arts

By: kale

kale — Fri, 05 Dec 2003 20:33:58 +0000

Not at all– thanks goes to you and anyone else that took an interest in helping to get some action. EA pointed out in their correspondence that they had no “duty” to report this and I think (like it or not, in a strictly legal sense that is true). They do indeed deserve “kudos” on this one for taking some action that could stop a person from suffering possible further harm. It was you that received the upsetting communication (which some people may have just chosen to ignore) and had the integrity to point out something may be very wrong here and it *needs* to be checked into. So, thank you, good sir!

By: Peter Ludlow

Peter Ludlow — Fri, 05 Dec 2003 14:52:42 +0000

Wow! Great job on this Kale, I guess once in a while it pays to be unrelenting. and thanks to Maxis for finally turning this over to the local law enforcement agencies.