There's a guy named Erik Estavillo out there. He's your garden variety Internet tough guy, getting banned from PlayStation Network and hacking his Wii to play homebrew software. He's also made a habit of abusing the civil court system with ridiculous lawsuits. His latest target: World of Warcraft.



The complaint against Activision Blizzard accuses the company of "sneaky and deceitful practices" for making players level up before they can buy a mount. The slow pre-mounted movement supposedly extends subscription revenue by making it take longer to do things in the game. The lawsuit asks for $1 million and a court order to make Blizzard change WoW to be more to his liking.



Hilariously, Estavillo has subpoenaed Winona Ryder and Depeche Mode founder Martin Lee Gore to lend credence to his case. The plaintiff shares an interest in J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye with Ryder, and claims that she can speak to the feeling of alienation captured by the book and relate it somehow to World of Warcraft. Gore has "himself has been known to be sad, lonely, and alienated as can be seen in the songs he writes.”



Estavillo has previously filed suit against Sony over suppressing his First Amendment rights by banning him from PSN, Microsoft for the red ring of death, and Nintendo for a Wii update that broke his homebrew hack. None of the suits have resulted in a judgement in his favor to date.



Might we suggest Estivillo look into a middle school civics class to explain the purpose of the civil court system and the limitations of the Constitution instead of wasting everyone's time and money on silly court cases?



[via GamePolitics]