Ryder called for 'alienation' testimony

A man has called Depeche Mode's Martin Gore and actress Winona Ryder to give evidence in his lawsuit against the makers of console game World Of Warcraft.

Erik Estavillo has filed a $1 million (£600,000) case with the Civil Division of the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara against Activision Blizzard.

Estavillo alleged that the firm "continues to maintain a harmful virtual environment to many of its customers by forcing them to follow the game's sneaky and deceitful practices".

These include getting gamers "to walk or run at a calculated slow pace, resulting in the player taking longer to get where he or she needs to go in the game".

He subpoenaed Gore because "he himself has been known to be sad, lonely, and alienated as can be seen in the songs he writes".

Ryder has been called to give testimony because she can "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".

Estavillo admitted that he "relies on videogames heavily for the little ongoing happiness he can achieve in this life".

He has previously sued Sony after he was banned from the PlayStation Network, Microsoft for a faulty Xbox 360 and Nintendo for blocking homebrew features with a firmware update for the Wii.