The Rest of the Story

An unusual thought struck us this morning here at No Prisoners No Mercy.  Those Fallen Earth aficionados among you already know about the many different modes of transportation that are available to players – and all of them craft able. So to speak anyway. You can’t craft a horse per se but you can train it.  For the rest of you who have never set foot in the post apocalyptic lands of Arizona the modes of transportation seem to fall in this order: old nag (a free horse) > horse > atv or motorcycle > improved atv or motorcycle > Interceptor.

Now that “Interceptor” in the paragraph above is a fast back automobile that bears a vague resemblance to the car Mel Gibson drove in “The Road Warrior” movie. In the movie it was referred to as “the last of the v8 interceptors.”  So as the players (including our own Julie) work their way up the vehicular scale we wondered how long it would be before we saw virtual traffic jams in Fallen Earth.

 Now, as Paul Harvey used to say, for the “rest of the story”…(or daily missive in this case)

What do Bill Gates, actress Winnona Ryder, and Martin Lee Gore of the band Depeche Mode have in common? They have all been subpoenaed by one Erik Estavillo in his recent round of lawsuits (you judge whether you consider them frivolous or not).

If the name rings a bell it is because this is the same individual who earlier filed a law suit (and unsuccessfully so..though this has been appealed) against Sony Computer Entertainment of America when he was banned from the Playstation Network. Her is an excerpt from “Banned Resistance Gamer Appeals Verdict”:

“Resistance: Fall of Man player Erik Estavillo originally filed a complaint against SCEA on July 6th of this year, alleging that Sony suppressed his free speech rights by banning him from the PlayStation Network. Estavillo further claimed that disabling his account amounted to a theft of his PSN pre-paid points and that SCEA was unable to stop users under 17 years of age from playing. A judge dismissed Estavillo’s lawsuit on September 22, 2009, ruling that there was no plausible First Amendment claim for relief. The appeal was filed on October 19 in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.” – Gamepolitics.com (available here )

According to an article at Nowpublic.com (available here) Erik Estavillo has filed a “million dollar lawsuit against World of Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard” alleging that the game caused him to suffer from OCD, Agoraphobia, Panic Disorder and Crohn’s Disease. Why? Here is an excerpt from the article:

“In his lawsuit, Estavillo contends that the Warcraft game is filled with illegalities, such as the game’s slow pace.  Activision Blizzard deliberately designed the game so that the characters ‘[take] longer to get where he or she needs to go’” – www.nowpublic.com “Erik Estavillo Files Million Dollar Lawsuit against Warcraft”

Another article over at Gamepolitics.com explains why Mr. Estavillo has subpoenaed Ryder and Gore:

“Gore was subpoenaed because ‘he himself has been known to be sad, lonely, and alienated as can be seen in the songs he writes,’ and Ryder because of her and Estavillo’s common interest in the J.D. Salinger book The Catcher in the Rye. Ryder would be able to, ‘explain the significance of alienation in Catcher in the Rye and will also testify to how alienation in the book can tie to alienation in real live/video games such as World of Warcraft.’” -  Winona Ryder, Depeche Mode factor in WoW Lawsuit (available here )

Now, apparently, Mr. Estavillo is working his way up the corporate ladder (or whatever scale of measurement you wish to apply in this case) by filing a lawsuit against the Microsoft Corporation:

“The subpoena instructs Gates to bring ‘documents pertaining to the true and relative number of actual Xbox 360 units that have been fixed by Microsoft over the past 3 years.’ Estavillo is also seeking statistical data showing the true number of Xbox 360s that experienced the RROD (or other break-downs) and data on the actual number of people banned from Xbox Live for “piracy” over the period of 11/28/2008 through 11/28/2009.” – Gamepolitics.com “Microsoft’s Gates Subpoenaed in RROD Suit” (available here )

Gamepolitics.com reports  (“Banned Resistance Gamer Targets MS and NOA in Latest Suites” available here ) that “Estavillo is seeking $75,000 from Microsoft, due to the ‘undue stress’ he has undergone since the 360 broke and the  ‘sadness he will have in the mean time of finding one he can afford.’”