Daily Mail Implicates Wrong Games in Sensationalist Story

The Daily Mail, and several other news organisations, have run the sad story of a woman who got so obsessed with a computer game after her husband died she criminally neglected her children. Addiction tales like this are always depressing, but that’s not what makes all of this noteworthy.

It seems at the origin of this news story (written, according to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, by the Mercury Press Agency who sold the story on) either the journalist in court miss-heard, or the judge and the lawyers mentioned to the wrong game. Instead of talking about the online casual game SmallWorlds, they are reported to have said “Small World”, the name of an off-line board and iPad game.

Of the several dozen sites and newspapers that have run this article some simply didn’t mention the game, some (such as Kotaku) pointed out there was likely a mistake. And the Daily Mail just went all out stupid.

The Mail‘s article, written by Jaya Narain, features the box art for Small World and makes several mentions of incorrect details such as it being an online game that you can play with friends. As Strategy Informer reports, the Mail also used an image from Warhammer Online with a copyright notice from the Days of Wonder (the makers of Small World) added. This image has since been replaced on the Mail’s website.

Days of Wonder have responded to the Mail’s article on their blog.

While unable to spend a few minutes fact-checking to learn that their story could not be possibly true (Small World has no online play – the only digital version is the two player Small World for iPad); they were able to search our website to download graphics of the board game and further smear our name.

Days of Wonder have said they are currently considering legal action, and have offered a free copy of the game to the editors at the Daily Mail and the Sun (who also wrote about Small World and have since pulled their story).