You know, I'm not sure if they really have grounds to win this case, but I'm surprised at the insensitivity of people here. If I lost my sight, I would do what I could to keep being able to do the things I enjoy, and I don't see why you could blame anyone for attempting the same.
What would y'all do in that case? Just roll over and die?
If you're building an mmorpg, or if you'd like to share ideas or talk about this industry, visit Multiplayer Worlds.
You know, I'm not sure if they really have grounds to win this case, but I'm surprised at the insensitivity of people here. If I lost my sight, I would do what I could to keep being able to do the things I enjoy, and I don't see why you could blame anyone for attempting the same. What would y'all do in that case? Just roll over and die?
No but i wouldn't blame the company that makes entertainment the requires focusing on moving pictures on a screen and reacting by clicking on certain points of the screen with a small mouse icon, either. They have the right to feel bad, and if I lost my sight, my whole world would be completely ravaged, I don't for one second deny how much i rely on them for entertainment.
But to blame others for being "insensitive" about something that is primarily focused around one sense, like music for the deaf, video games for the blind, a choir for the dumb, gormet food for those with no sense of taste, or well..erotic massage...for those with no sense of touch, is completely absurd, and by feeling that these peoples cause is righteous, you empower them to do things like this lawsuit.
If he wants to play an MMO, let him go to WoW which he so pointed out allows the programs he needs to play. Its a dangerous precident, that if he wins, indie companies could be next, and they can't afford to make the change. and is it really their responsibilty to ensure that all people can enjoy their product, is blue bell ice cream required to ensure their dairy product can be enjoyed by the lactose intolerent? and if not should they be forced to change the product so they can, even if it means that others won't enjoy it as much anymore?
No.
Edit: I realized after my rant that your not neccessarily defending the case, but by being insensitive, we show how outrageous this is. sometimes it takes harsh words especially for sensitive issues, to get the point across.
You know, I'm not sure if they really have grounds to win this case, but I'm surprised at the insensitivity of people here. If I lost my sight, I would do what I could to keep being able to do the things I enjoy, and I don't see why you could blame anyone for attempting the same. What would y'all do in that case? Just roll over and die?
No but i wouldn't blame the company that makes entertainment the requires focusing on moving pictures on a screen and reacting by clicking on certain points of the screen with a small mouse icon, either. They have the right to feel bad, and if I lost my sight, my whole world would be completely ravaged, I don't for one second deny how much i rely on them for entertainment.
But to blame others for being "insensitive" about something that is primarily focused around one sense, like music for the deaf, video games for the blind, a choir for the dumb, gormet food for those with no sense of taste, or well..erotic massage...for those with no sense of touch, is completely absurd, and by feeling that these peoples cause is righteous, you empower them to do things like this lawsuit.
If he wants to play an MMO, let him go to WoW which he so pointed out allows the programs he needs to play. Its a dangerous precident, that if he wins, indie companies could be next, and they can't afford to make the change. and is it really their responsibilty to ensure that all people can enjoy their product, is blue bell ice cream required to ensure their dairy product can be enjoyed by the lactose intolerent? and if not should they be forced to change the product so they can, even if it means that others won't enjoy it as much anymore?
No.
I'm not saying they're correct, that's for the courts to decide. I just feel all this hateful derision is uncalled for.
If you're building an mmorpg, or if you'd like to share ideas or talk about this industry, visit Multiplayer Worlds.
I wouldn't call alot of this hateful, its more....tactless, which I will whole heartedly admit me to being about this. But then again, I'm one who will laugh at you, then when you come back at me, laugh with you, and think that the sooner we can all make light of the seriousness in the world, well all be able to deal with it a little better.
I wouldn't call alot of this hateful, its more....tactless, which I will whole heartedly admit me to being about this. But then again, I'm one who will laugh at you, then when you come back at me, laugh with you, and think that the sooner we can all make light of the seriousness in the world, well all be able to deal with it a little better.
Well, good for you. I respect that.
If you're building an mmorpg, or if you'd like to share ideas or talk about this industry, visit Multiplayer Worlds.
I wouldn't call alot of this hateful, its more....tactless, which I will whole heartedly admit me to being about this. But then again, I'm one who will laugh at you, then when you come back at me, laugh with you, and think that the sooner we can all make light of the seriousness in the world, well all be able to deal with it a little better.
I read the article linked and the additional blog posting about the visually impaired gamer. I do feel for a visually impaired people, I've taken care of my Grandmother who is blind for most of my adult life. I'm not going to knock on this poor guy for being blind (that's something that is beyond his control). Neither article states if this guy is sueing to expose "an injustice" but with the following passage in the suit: "Additionally, Stern contends that he is suffering a financial loss because SOE will not make their games accessible. Sony runs an official auction site where gamers can sell the items they've gained in the games for real money." I doubt that it is.
As far as the ADA of 1990 and the updates of 2008, there is nothing in there that states that a consumer based product ( in this case an online video game) has to conform to disabled persons.
This passage is also in the suit:
"Stern contends that developers of other MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft and the developers of the PC adventure game Terraformers provide modifications either directly or through third-party modifications."
This is also weak grounds because that is a choice of the developers and lays in the hands of a third party developer to produce another product, which you can have for $9.99. Also 3rd party applications/modifications are usually banned by developers EULA as Open UI's and 3rd party apps can cause harm to the user experience of the game.
<opinion>
IMHO this is just a frustrated person who was greedy enough (see first passage in red) and found a big enough dirtbag of a lawyer to file a suit for him. Dude you just wasted money/time in a state's judicial system that is already so far in the red... nevermind.....
In addition to epileptic seizure and 'motion sickness' warnings, we now need warnings in Braille, TTS and BCI reading:
ACCESSIBILITY WARNING: Gameplay requires visual and auditory senses, finger mobility, basic literacy, assisted or unassisted breathing, and a lifespan greater than the duration of the installation process. Consult your parent, legal guardian, doctor, therapist, handler, interpreter, alternate personality or imaginary friend before use.
Favorites: EQ, EVE | Playing: None. Mostly VR and strategy | Anticipating: CU, Pantheon
In addition to epileptic seizure and 'motion sickness' warnings, we now need warnings in Braille, TTS and BCI reading: ACCESSIBILITY WARNING: Gameplay requires visual and auditory senses, finger mobility, basic literacy, assisted or unassisted breathing, and a lifespan greater than the duration of the installation process. Consult your parent, legal guardian, doctor, therapist, handler, interpreter, alternate personality or imaginary friend before use.
Could get away with leaving off at least half of those for WoW.
----- The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
In addition to epileptic seizure and 'motion sickness' warnings, we now need warnings in Braille, TTS and BCI reading: ACCESSIBILITY WARNING: Gameplay requires visual and auditory senses, finger mobility, basic literacy, assisted or unassisted breathing, and a lifespan greater than the duration of the installation process. Consult your parent, legal guardian, doctor, therapist, handler, interpreter, alternate personality or imaginary friend before use.
They can sue them all they want... THEY'LL NEVER SEE THE MONEY! LMFAO!!!1one
But no on a serious note, they should also sue GM, Ford, Honda, ect for not making blind-friendly vehicles... then sue the Govt. for not making the signs BIG or CLEAR enough to see with poor vision.
**off note** Which makes you wonder... why do they have braille menus available at drive-thru's? In case a blind person is driving, or in case the driver is an asshole and won't tell the passenger what is on the menu? If you think I'm lying request one next time...
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
p.s. On second thought, maybe they could do something like with what they did in "Mr. Holland's Opus" when he made that song for the deaf with the big light show.
But don't blame SOE or anyone else... people have a hard enough time agreeing on the differences between:
PvE vs. PvP
Sandbox vs. Themepark
Camping vs. Questing
Hardcore vs. Casual
How in the hell would gamers agree on making a VIDEO (a sensory thing that has to do with your EYES) game for the blind. If I have no arms, I'm not going to sue Microsoft for not making a keyboard I can use by typing with my forhead. Hmm lets see...
7yytgrfuiietghyjkmi,lplijlootgrf4k,
Nope don't work. Imagine that.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
2 all of the Soe hater's go suck on WoW's balls or something stop really it's dumb now. Soe yes they are not the best company but make better games then most out there Aion, lotr, WoW and etc.... Just cause you dislike them doesn't mean they suck or should go under. Now with that said.
Really people are dumb and will sue for anything as long as they think it will bring them money.
Ruined Everquest
Ruined Planetside
Ruined SWG
Ruined EQ2
Why wouldn't anyone hate them?
you can hate SOE all you like. but don't let your fanatical burning obsessive hatred blind you to the fact that this Lawsuit is fucking ridiculous.
No more stealthy rogue classes in MMO's anymore I guess. I wonder if this kid understands the damage his lawsuit could cause to the Gaming Industry if he succeeds. I suppose that wouldn't hurt him too much though, but does that mean we can sue him for not looking out for the rest of us? Sorry kid, but this one goes two ways.
"The suit, which doesn't mention SOE games by name but appears to focus on massively multiplayer online titles,..."
I do believe all of SOE's published titles are Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Perhaps I'm incorrect?
I think that this is a good thing. This will force other game development companies to create open UI's (the suit claims that because of WoW's open UI, several 3rd party developers have come out with ease of access mods) which will lead to further development of new technologies and features.
No it's not a good thing, at least not in this genre.
Open UI's ruined AC1 and WoW, to name a couple prominent games.
Your opinion, not fact. I wouldn't consider WoW ruined at all
Open UI's open the door for hacks and cheats that ruin the game for those that don't use them.
All games have cheats and hacks without open UI- Look at AOC, Aion, AO, LOTRO just to name a few
Open UI's lend themselves to botting/macroing, both HUGELY bad for MMO's.
Again, open UI's don't encourage Botting (macros are built into many games- I have no idea where you are getting that from) Bots are almost always an EXTERNAL program and UI openness has nothing to do with it
Open UI's make things more challenging for the developers as well. Not only do the devs have to design content to challenge the players within the mechanics of the game, they have to design content that takes into account mods that players create in an attempt to trivialize content. This goes with the second example I listed as it quickly brings about the NEED to use mods to do certain content, at least in players minds, and thus spawns the "you can't be in this group/kin/whatever if you aren't running X mod(s).
So? Are you telling me that Deadly Boss Mods ruins raiding because it helps you notice the stuff that's easily mised with all the visual "noise" going on? "Developers have to work too hard?" Please. Trivialize content? Double please, most of the features of mmos that are coming out are responses to the popularity of certain mods and addons. Addons inspire creativity. People will hack code and cheat at games no matter how open or closed a UI is, what open UI's do is allow for third party developers to fix things that annoy the rest of us and free up the developers to focus on content instead of having to fix UI issues all the time.
And those are just a few examples of why open UI's are bad.
"In 1992, a seventy-nine year old Albuquerque woman (Stella Liebeck) bought a coffee from a McDonald’s drive through. Her grandson was driving and he parked the car so she could add cream and sugar to the drink. She put the cup between her knees and pulled the lid toward her – inevitably the coffee spilt in her lap. She sued McDonald’s for negligence because she claimed the coffee was too hot to be safe. Unbelievably the jury found that McDonald’s was eighty percent responsible for the incident and they awarded Liebeck $160,000 in compensatory damages. But it gets worse: they awarded her $2.7 million punitive damages! The decision was appealed and the two parties ultimately ended up settling out of court for a sum less than $600,000." (from listverse.com/2009/01/28/top-10-bizarre-or-frivolous-lawsuits/ )
If a company can be sued because hot coffee is hot... then yes anything is possible... in the US as far as legalities that is. It's not about what's "right" or "wrong"... but more how the lawyers can interpret or misinterpret the wording of law to the point it becomes believable to the majority. In a way, I'd classify them as your common exploiters in MMO's. They use the rules to their advantage, and then their defense is "well it's part of the system, so it's fair... even if it wasn't part of the intended design."
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
"In 1992, a seventy-nine year old Albuquerque woman (Stella Liebeck) bought a coffee from a McDonald’s drive through. Her grandson was driving and he parked the car so she could add cream and sugar to the drink. She put the cup between her knees and pulled the lid toward her – inevitably the coffee spilt in her lap. She sued McDonald’s for negligence because she claimed the coffee was too hot to be safe. Unbelievably the jury found that McDonald’s was eighty percent responsible for the incident and they awarded Liebeck $160,000 in compensatory damages. But it gets worse: they awarded her $2.7 million punitive damages! The decision was appealed and the two parties ultimately ended up settling out of court for a sum less than $600,000." (from listverse.com/2009/01/28/top-10-bizarre-or-frivolous-lawsuits/ ) If a company can be sued because hot coffee is hot... then yes anything is possible... in the US as far as legalities that is. It's not about what's "right" or "wrong"... but more how the lawyers can interpret or misinterpret the wording of law to the point it becomes believable to the majority. In a way, I'd classify them as your common exploiters in MMO's. They use the rules to their advantage, and then their defense is "well it's part of the system, so it's fair... even if it wasn't part of the intended design."
I am so tired of people using this as an example of wasteful lawsuits. Fact: this particular McDonalds had been sanctioned for keepign their coffee too hot on several occasion in the past. Fact, this coffee was so hot that it burned of parts of this woman's genitalia which required skin grafts to repair. This was not a minor burn, and this McDonalds had a history of keeping the coffee too hot as in to the point where safety was an issue and it was documented and made the case a whole lot easier for the plaintiff.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
Comments
LOL thats rich, whats next, Leg amputee sues Nike for refusing to sell singles? Or Deaf man sues Rockband for profiting on a lifetime of misery?
I know we all think the same things, and those of you who are geniunly concerned about the fairness he is fighting for...
There are bigger problems out there.
My Thoughts on Content Locust
You know, I'm not sure if they really have grounds to win this case, but I'm surprised at the insensitivity of people here. If I lost my sight, I would do what I could to keep being able to do the things I enjoy, and I don't see why you could blame anyone for attempting the same.
What would y'all do in that case? Just roll over and die?
If you're building an mmorpg, or if you'd like to share ideas or talk about this industry, visit Multiplayer Worlds.
BECAUSE THE MEDIUM IS ABOUT SIGHT IF YOU DONT HAVE YOU DONT PLAY
1. WHO MADE YOU THE MMORPG POLICE?
2. IN A WORLD FULL OF WAR, GENOCIDE, TYRANNY, TORTURE, AND MURDER, WHY DO YOU CHOOSE TO RAGE ABOUT THE GAMES BLIND PEOPLE PLAY?
Ugh, I hate getting into these things.
If you're building an mmorpg, or if you'd like to share ideas or talk about this industry, visit Multiplayer Worlds.
No but i wouldn't blame the company that makes entertainment the requires focusing on moving pictures on a screen and reacting by clicking on certain points of the screen with a small mouse icon, either. They have the right to feel bad, and if I lost my sight, my whole world would be completely ravaged, I don't for one second deny how much i rely on them for entertainment.
But to blame others for being "insensitive" about something that is primarily focused around one sense, like music for the deaf, video games for the blind, a choir for the dumb, gormet food for those with no sense of taste, or well..erotic massage...for those with no sense of touch, is completely absurd, and by feeling that these peoples cause is righteous, you empower them to do things like this lawsuit.
If he wants to play an MMO, let him go to WoW which he so pointed out allows the programs he needs to play. Its a dangerous precident, that if he wins, indie companies could be next, and they can't afford to make the change. and is it really their responsibilty to ensure that all people can enjoy their product, is blue bell ice cream required to ensure their dairy product can be enjoyed by the lactose intolerent? and if not should they be forced to change the product so they can, even if it means that others won't enjoy it as much anymore?
No.
Edit: I realized after my rant that your not neccessarily defending the case, but by being insensitive, we show how outrageous this is. sometimes it takes harsh words especially for sensitive issues, to get the point across.
My Thoughts on Content Locust
SOE should counter-sue him for being a noob.
Trolls = Hardcore
Fanbois = Carebears
The only posts I read in threads are my own.
No but i wouldn't blame the company that makes entertainment the requires focusing on moving pictures on a screen and reacting by clicking on certain points of the screen with a small mouse icon, either. They have the right to feel bad, and if I lost my sight, my whole world would be completely ravaged, I don't for one second deny how much i rely on them for entertainment.
But to blame others for being "insensitive" about something that is primarily focused around one sense, like music for the deaf, video games for the blind, a choir for the dumb, gormet food for those with no sense of taste, or well..erotic massage...for those with no sense of touch, is completely absurd, and by feeling that these peoples cause is righteous, you empower them to do things like this lawsuit.
If he wants to play an MMO, let him go to WoW which he so pointed out allows the programs he needs to play. Its a dangerous precident, that if he wins, indie companies could be next, and they can't afford to make the change. and is it really their responsibilty to ensure that all people can enjoy their product, is blue bell ice cream required to ensure their dairy product can be enjoyed by the lactose intolerent? and if not should they be forced to change the product so they can, even if it means that others won't enjoy it as much anymore?
No.
I'm not saying they're correct, that's for the courts to decide. I just feel all this hateful derision is uncalled for.
If you're building an mmorpg, or if you'd like to share ideas or talk about this industry, visit Multiplayer Worlds.
I wouldn't call alot of this hateful, its more....tactless, which I will whole heartedly admit me to being about this. But then again, I'm one who will laugh at you, then when you come back at me, laugh with you, and think that the sooner we can all make light of the seriousness in the world, well all be able to deal with it a little better.
My Thoughts on Content Locust
Well, good for you. I respect that.
If you're building an mmorpg, or if you'd like to share ideas or talk about this industry, visit Multiplayer Worlds.
Well, good for you. I respect that.
Let me guess, your a liberal?
Trolls = Hardcore
Fanbois = Carebears
The only posts I read in threads are my own.
If you want to talk politics, there's a forum for that.
I don't want to derail this thread anymore, so I'm probably done here.
If you're building an mmorpg, or if you'd like to share ideas or talk about this industry, visit Multiplayer Worlds.
I read the article linked and the additional blog posting about the visually impaired gamer. I do feel for a visually impaired people, I've taken care of my Grandmother who is blind for most of my adult life. I'm not going to knock on this poor guy for being blind (that's something that is beyond his control). Neither article states if this guy is sueing to expose "an injustice" but with the following passage in the suit: "Additionally, Stern contends that he is suffering a financial loss because SOE will not make their games accessible. Sony runs an official auction site where gamers can sell the items they've gained in the games for real money." I doubt that it is.
As far as the ADA of 1990 and the updates of 2008, there is nothing in there that states that a consumer based product ( in this case an online video game) has to conform to disabled persons.
This passage is also in the suit:
"Stern contends that developers of other MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft and the developers of the PC adventure game Terraformers provide modifications either directly or through third-party modifications."
This is also weak grounds because that is a choice of the developers and lays in the hands of a third party developer to produce another product, which you can have for $9.99. Also 3rd party applications/modifications are usually banned by developers EULA as Open UI's and 3rd party apps can cause harm to the user experience of the game.
<opinion>
IMHO this is just a frustrated person who was greedy enough (see first passage in red) and found a big enough dirtbag of a lawyer to file a suit for him. Dude you just wasted money/time in a state's judicial system that is already so far in the red... nevermind.....
<opinion>
*edit for grammar *
In addition to epileptic seizure and 'motion sickness' warnings, we now need warnings in Braille, TTS and BCI reading:
ACCESSIBILITY WARNING: Gameplay requires visual and auditory senses, finger mobility, basic literacy, assisted or unassisted breathing, and a lifespan greater than the duration of the installation process. Consult your parent, legal guardian, doctor, therapist, handler, interpreter, alternate personality or imaginary friend before use.
1. WHO MADE YOU THE MMORPG POLICE?
2. IN A WORLD FULL OF WAR, GENOCIDE, TYRANNY, TORTURE, AND MURDER, WHY DO YOU CHOOSE TO RAGE ABOUT THE GAMES BLIND PEOPLE PLAY?
Ugh, I hate getting into these things.
For a moment there I thought you said WAR, GENOCIDE, TRANNIES...
Was gonna say, don't pick on the cross dressers for no reason.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Could get away with leaving off at least half of those for WoW.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
I laughed so hard I was in tears at this.
They can sue them all they want... THEY'LL NEVER SEE THE MONEY! LMFAO!!!1one
But no on a serious note, they should also sue GM, Ford, Honda, ect for not making blind-friendly vehicles... then sue the Govt. for not making the signs BIG or CLEAR enough to see with poor vision.
**off note** Which makes you wonder... why do they have braille menus available at drive-thru's? In case a blind person is driving, or in case the driver is an asshole and won't tell the passenger what is on the menu? If you think I'm lying request one next time...
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
p.s. On second thought, maybe they could do something like with what they did in "Mr. Holland's Opus" when he made that song for the deaf with the big light show.
But don't blame SOE or anyone else... people have a hard enough time agreeing on the differences between:
PvE vs. PvP
Sandbox vs. Themepark
Camping vs. Questing
Hardcore vs. Casual
How in the hell would gamers agree on making a VIDEO (a sensory thing that has to do with your EYES) game for the blind. If I have no arms, I'm not going to sue Microsoft for not making a keyboard I can use by typing with my forhead. Hmm lets see...
7yytgrfuiietghyjkmi,lplijlootgrf4k,
Nope don't work. Imagine that.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
Ruined Everquest
Ruined Planetside
Ruined SWG
Ruined EQ2
Why wouldn't anyone hate them?
you can hate SOE all you like. but don't let your fanatical burning obsessive hatred blind you to the fact that this Lawsuit is fucking ridiculous.
No more stealthy rogue classes in MMO's anymore I guess. I wonder if this kid understands the damage his lawsuit could cause to the Gaming Industry if he succeeds. I suppose that wouldn't hurt him too much though, but does that mean we can sue him for not looking out for the rest of us? Sorry kid, but this one goes two ways.
"The suit, which doesn't mention SOE games by name but appears to focus on massively multiplayer online titles,..."
I do believe all of SOE's published titles are Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Perhaps I'm incorrect?
No it's not a good thing, at least not in this genre.
Open UI's ruined AC1 and WoW, to name a couple prominent games.
Your opinion, not fact. I wouldn't consider WoW ruined at all
Open UI's open the door for hacks and cheats that ruin the game for those that don't use them.
All games have cheats and hacks without open UI- Look at AOC, Aion, AO, LOTRO just to name a few
Open UI's lend themselves to botting/macroing, both HUGELY bad for MMO's.
Again, open UI's don't encourage Botting (macros are built into many games- I have no idea where you are getting that from) Bots are almost always an EXTERNAL program and UI openness has nothing to do with it
Open UI's make things more challenging for the developers as well. Not only do the devs have to design content to challenge the players within the mechanics of the game, they have to design content that takes into account mods that players create in an attempt to trivialize content. This goes with the second example I listed as it quickly brings about the NEED to use mods to do certain content, at least in players minds, and thus spawns the "you can't be in this group/kin/whatever if you aren't running X mod(s).
So? Are you telling me that Deadly Boss Mods ruins raiding because it helps you notice the stuff that's easily mised with all the visual "noise" going on? "Developers have to work too hard?" Please. Trivialize content? Double please, most of the features of mmos that are coming out are responses to the popularity of certain mods and addons. Addons inspire creativity. People will hack code and cheat at games no matter how open or closed a UI is, what open UI's do is allow for third party developers to fix things that annoy the rest of us and free up the developers to focus on content instead of having to fix UI issues all the time.
And those are just a few examples of why open UI's are bad.
Find new examples
A witty saying proves nothing.
-Voltaire
There is no way a Judge is actually going to take this seriously.
What happened to the good ol' days when we used to push lawyers off a cliff?
"In 1992, a seventy-nine year old Albuquerque woman (Stella Liebeck) bought a coffee from a McDonald’s drive through. Her grandson was driving and he parked the car so she could add cream and sugar to the drink. She put the cup between her knees and pulled the lid toward her – inevitably the coffee spilt in her lap. She sued McDonald’s for negligence because she claimed the coffee was too hot to be safe. Unbelievably the jury found that McDonald’s was eighty percent responsible for the incident and they awarded Liebeck $160,000 in compensatory damages. But it gets worse: they awarded her $2.7 million punitive damages! The decision was appealed and the two parties ultimately ended up settling out of court for a sum less than $600,000." (from listverse.com/2009/01/28/top-10-bizarre-or-frivolous-lawsuits/ )
If a company can be sued because hot coffee is hot... then yes anything is possible... in the US as far as legalities that is. It's not about what's "right" or "wrong"... but more how the lawyers can interpret or misinterpret the wording of law to the point it becomes believable to the majority. In a way, I'd classify them as your common exploiters in MMO's. They use the rules to their advantage, and then their defense is "well it's part of the system, so it's fair... even if it wasn't part of the intended design."
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
I am so tired of people using this as an example of wasteful lawsuits. Fact: this particular McDonalds had been sanctioned for keepign their coffee too hot on several occasion in the past. Fact, this coffee was so hot that it burned of parts of this woman's genitalia which required skin grafts to repair. This was not a minor burn, and this McDonalds had a history of keeping the coffee too hot as in to the point where safety was an issue and it was documented and made the case a whole lot easier for the plaintiff.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.