Mother obsessed with computer game let her children live in squalor and left her dogs to starve to death

[TheHarlequin]

A mother neglected her three children and let her dogs starve to death because she was so obsessed with a computer game.

 

The 33-year-old woman played the Small World game almost non-stop on the internet for months while her children were reduced to eating cold baked beans straight from the tin with their fingers.

 

Her home became filthy, with rubbish strewn over the floor and the bodies of her two dogs, a German shepherd and a lurcher, left for two months in the dining room it was revealed.

 

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been given a suspended jail sentence and banned from using the internet by a judge in Kent.

 

The horror only came to an end when a neighbour peered through the letterbox and alerted the authorities, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

 

The woman's children, aged nine, ten and 13, were badly neglected for six months, said Deepak Kapur, prosecuting.

 

When officers arrived at the house in Swanley, Kent, in February the woman told them it was 'in a bit of a mess' They then saw rubbish all over the floors in all of the rooms.

 

The woman tried to block officers from entering the dining room and when asked why she replied: 'All right, my dogs are in there. They are dead. I killed them. 'I probably starved them, probably because I have been playing the computer game all the time.'

 

She received an invitation from a friend on Facebook to play Small World and had very quickly become hooked.

 

The game featuring characters such a wizards, dwarves, orcs and giants is played like a traditional board game but online.

DWARVES AND ORCS AT WAR

 

Small World is an online board game featuring characters such as wizards, dwarves, orcs and giants.

 

It can be played independently or through the social networking site Facebook and has a legion of fans who compare it to the popular Dungeons and Dragons

board game.

 

According to the makers, Days of Wonder, players

[Purkake]

Holy paragraphs, Batman.

 

Also, quote tags.

Edited September 13, 2010 by Purkake

[Hurlshort]

Bit more of an Off Topic conversation, unless we are going to seriously discuss the game Small World.

[Purkake]

Hmm, looks like Habbo Hotel with 3d graphics.

[Volourn]

The game had nothing to do with this. The woman has issues. If not the board game, it would have been something else. People were neglecting children and pets well before the creation of video games.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Its like I've said all along, MMOS are the work of the devil!

 

I played one once and my IQ dropped 10 points and I gained 50 pounds... in ONE HOUR!

[Hurlshort]

This was a facebook game, I'd hardly call it an MMO.

[Gorth]

This was a facebook game, I'd hardly call it an MMO.

Is there really a difference between Facebook and a MMO?

 

I thought parts of the addictiveness of MMO's was the interaction with other "real" people. What would be their point otherwise?

[Orogun01]

Its like I've said all along, MMOS are the work of the devil!

 

I played one once and my IQ dropped 10 points and I gained 50 pounds... in ONE HOUR!

"Super-MMO me"

[Oblarg]

The game had nothing to do with this. The woman has issues. If not the board game, it would have been something else. People were neglecting children and pets well before the creation of video games.

 

This is a very valid point that is often ignored.

[Orogun01]

The game had nothing to do with this. The woman has issues. If not the board game, it would have been something else. People were neglecting children and pets well before the creation of video games.

 

This is a very valid point that is often ignored.

Which becomes murky once you consider the amount of time that you need to spend playing an MMO.

[Purkake]

You don't "need" to spend any specific amount of time to play an MMO. There are plenty of people who just play a couple of hours a week. The bottom line here is self control.

[Wrath of Dagon]

I agree the woman had other issues. Probably after her husband died her mental state deteriorated, it's not just a case of a normal person being addicted. I've heard of similar cases before.

[Hurlshort]

You don't "need" to spend any specific amount of time to play an MMO. There are plenty of people who just play a couple of hours a week. The bottom line here is self control.

 

Seconded. I've been playing MMO's since The Realm by Sierra. I play almost all of them that come out. I typically put in a few hours a week with them. I've got a pretty high level character in LotRO, and I get to take part in the end game stuff on occasion. MMO's are actually better when you do play casually, grinding hours every day just means you run out of content faster.

[Walsingham]

When I found out about my Mum's cancer diagnosis I spent three days playing non stop GTA, as a sort of mental airbag thing. Absorbed the shock, tidied up the house, and got cracking on the practical business of helping. I guess it would be simple enough to get absorbed in the escape tho.