

Blizzard could, if they chose, effectively make sure nobody played its game for a biologically unsafe amount of time. The game will continue to sell with or without a "safety net" for compulsive gamers. "Diablo 3" smashed every PC game sales record there is in spite of the Internet requirement.

Perhaps Blizzard asks too much of its customers by requiring persistent connection to their servers to play what is ostensibly a single-player game, but there's no going back from that road. "While we recognise that it's ultimately up to each individual or their parent or guardian to determine playing habits," it reads, "we feel that moderation is clearly important, and that a person's day-to-day life should take precedence over any form of entertainment." The company's statement to The Mirror after the death in Taiwan is fairly standard boilerplate for such an event, but it does carry an interesting message about where the company stands on self-regulation. While it crosses very real "big brother" lines, the existing requirement for a connection and the player's mandatory deference to Blizzard's servers would make such a move a smaller step than usual. If Blizzard already has live data on every single player online, it seems like it would be technologically simple to boot off players who are connected for, say, 24 hours consecutively for a few hours to take an enforced break.
