Lawsuits — November 24, 2009 at 11:17 pm

‘Sad, lonely’ Martin Gore of Depeche Mode subpoenaed in ‘World of Warcraft’ lawsuit

Depeche Mode's Martin L. Gore, circa 2009

Depeche Mode songwriter Martin L. Gore reportedly has been subpoenaed by a litigious video gamer who’s suing the makers of the online behemoth “World of Warcraft” and wants the famously downbeat musician to testify about being “sad, lonely and alienated.”

According to Game Spot, Erik Estavillo filed the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard on Tuesday in Santa Clara County, Calif., alleging, among other claims regarding pricing and gameplay, that the massively multiplayer online role-playing game alienates players and contributes to mental health problems.

Estavillo — who unsuccessfully sued Sony after being banned from the Playstation Network, among other game-related lawsuits — also references the 2001 suicide of an “EverQuest” player, according to Game Spot, “attributing it to a sense of alienation related to the game and mental health problems.”

According to Game Spot:

“The suit goes on to say the plaintiff has suffered from similar problems including major depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and Crohn’s disease, and he ‘doesn’t want to end up like [the EverQuest player] did as he relies on video games heavily for the little ongoing happiness he can achieve in this life, via the gaming medium.'”

And that’s where Gore comes in. Estavillo doesn’t claim the Depeche Mode member plays “WoW,” but, rather, he tells The Escapist in an e-mail that he’s subpoenaing Gore in his $1 million lawsuit to “be a witness on ‘alienation’ and the ties it has to ‘World of Warcraft,’ since he himself has been known to be sad, lonely and alienated, as can be seen in the songs he writes.” Estavillo also is subpoenaing mopey actress Winona Ryder because of her appreciation of “Catcher in the Rye.”

See the subpoena, which lists Mute Records’ Daniel Miller as Gore’s agent, after the jump…

Martin L. Gore "World of Warcraft" lawsuit subpoena

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9 Comments

  1. On the bright side, I do not think this nut job has an attorney as he signed the subpoena where, if he had representation, the attorney would sign.

    I think he should subpoena the makers of the film Alien Nation too. It makes just about as much sense as the rest of his stupidity.

  2. Wooo…

    Oh, so many illusions to be laboring under: that the US Declaration of Independence or Bill of Rights have any legal weight in civil court (or any other American court, for that matter); that Martin “Master & Servant” Gore is the best example of “loneliness and alienation” he could find; that Winona Ryder is any sort of expert witness (translation: no psychologist would touch the case with a ten foot pole)…

    He claims he can’t afford the $100 fee for Microsoft to fix his ailing Xbox360, but he can afford to keep filing frivolous nuisance lawsuits with no merit on their face… right…

  3. Pingback: Mishka Bloglin » Blog Archive » World of Martin L. Gorecraft

  4. This guy is bush league compared to litigious mastermind Jonathan Lee Riches.

  5. You can’t blame him for trying to get his first million, can you?

  6. Jack's Revenge

    Maybe he should subpoena Uwe Boll while he’s at it, since Boll makes movies from videogames and i probably alienated by being the worst director in the business.

  7. Someone clearly spent too much time in Barrens Chat.

  8. I think the most telling part is the date that he filed the papers on, 4/20/2010 , he was obviously stoned out of his mind.
    xD

  9. classic

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