Online Gamer Murders Other Player - In Real Life

[Chinomi]

LINK HERE (http://wham.canoe.ca/news/2005/06/08/1076983-ap.html)

Definitely a loony.

[ClokeNdagger]

wow thats nuts. Back when I played EQ, I used to pvp alot, as all good rogues do, and some Euro threatened to kill me. I think his exact words were "Tell me where you live, cuz I'll make it so you dont live there anymore". I told him where I lived, but I never heard from him lol. I told him something like "C'mon over, Ill wear something nice for ya". Psychos, takin their games too seriously. I remember when some fat guy who used to play Everquest had lost his job over a period of a few months, and pretty much did nothing but play EQ. After a while, some other guy he regularly played with stole his "lewtz" as we used to put it, meaning an imaginary piece of armor, or weapon worn on your character. The guy, who was like in his late 30's, early 40's, committed suicide over it. His mom tried to stage an investigation with Sony over it, like to see what had been done or said to him over the last few days through his and other characters, but ya see, Sony is VERY iron clad with their "USER AGREEMENT" which makes you agree to a contract everytime you logged onto that game, to even allow them to go as far as searching your hard-drive from a remote location, randomly, to see if you are, or were, altering gameplay at any given time, even something as simple as playing MP3's while the game is running was counted as altering the gaming environment, and you could be banned because of it. So, Sony pretty much said something along the lines of: "No, this is not your Account, and we will not, and are not obligated under contract to share any private information from our game, or other player's information". Riiiiiight around that time...I decided that I wasn't gonna play this game anymore.

[Stray]

Psssyyyychoooooo!

I had a friend nearly kill himself because of EQ related incidents. It went deeper than just EQ though.

[ClymAngus]

“We want Qiu to die, and immediately,” Zhu said.

Now you see that's not really going to solve the problem. Qiu has over 50,000 points built up and as such gets an extra life. Also there is the small matter of him respawning automatically at some other randomly selected area of the game grid after loosing his current life. Needless to say his "helm of bright ruin" which protects him from 50% of the damage inflicted by poison and electricity attacks could also hamper the executioner somewhat.

In all seriousness though some people take this kind of social interaction very seriously. Our world has change but we as a species have not. An attack is still an attack. And don't give me all that "but it's not real" crap it was real enough to Qiu. It's easy to say he's a psycho. What you all have to realise is we've never had to deal with this kind of social interaction ever before, a new world with little or no consequences for any act you may choose to perpotrate. How do you deal with virtual wrong doing? If it was "the real world " there would be a question of motive and intent. Which you have to admit Zhu had both, but with no remit for justice another solution was found. A bad solution.

That said virtual or no, when someone deliberately sets out to do you wrong, it can all become very real very quickly. The items aren't real but the feelings are, the contempt is real, the loss of something worked for is REAL. The intent is real and the motive is real.

In this hinterland of human experience, this mix between reality and fantasy it's easy to label it as a game, that it doesn't matter. Anything that taps the human psyche can have profund and far reaching effects.

"Some times the only way to win, is not to play"

[Runai]

Stabbing the guy may not have been the best course of action, but I believe what Clym said makes a scary kind of sense.

[McCorvic Sucks]

The line between this world and the online world is BEING BLURRED! OH NOEZ!

Anyways...yea...what the C-man said.

[Cefaclor]

wow. people are nuts.

[Cordelia LeFay]

While I'd like to entertain the idea of the blurring of the line, this just takes the cake:

"Qiu reported the loss of the Dragon Sabre to police but was told it wasn’t real property protected by the law."

You know, I wonder if he can't even plead insanity (of course, this may not exist in Chinese law) because obviously Mr. Qiu understands what the police are for! Or maybe by the very fact that it's non-existant proves that he is in fact insane.

[Margo]

41-year-old people play online games??? *Cough* Okay...that was a dumb question @.@;; That's....scary...and crazy... o_O;; I don'no if it's more scary or more crazy.

[Henageshi]

And this is why I refuse to play online games.

People take it WAYYYY to far. ><;;;

[Sadsiren]

It's sad, really. Clym, you've got a really good understanding on it.


And this is why I refuse to play online games.

People take it WAYYYY to far. ><;;;

The actions of the few don't represent the actions of the many.

[ClymAngus]

Coming back to this, have you ever noticed that the internet can be both broadcast and narrowcast at the same time? Say you have something taken from you by another player in an online game, then they proceed to brag about it to the wider online community that play that game. Would that not make you feel angry and to a certain extent powerless?

Admitedly, rationality would kick in for most people and they would conceptualise the situation and put into context. I'm not defending the course of action taken, but you can kind of see how it might pan out.

What I'm trying to say is, was he a man with a slightly fragile mental state and impulse control problem? Probably, but how the hell do you stop it happening again? Prevention? Cure? Anyone? :)

[Sadsiren]

What I'm trying to say is, was he a man with a slightly fragile mental state and impulse control problem? Probably, but how the hell do you stop it happening again? Prevention? Cure? Anyone? :)

You go to the source of the problem and deal with it. This man himself was not in a state of mind to realize he had a problem. Someone with an outside perspective would need to step in and help. But I'm sure that it does draw from the fact that the game had become this man's life, and he felt hurt and offended, by someone he had thought a friend no less. It's likely this touched a nerve on what reality was for him, a world with people who can lie or cheat or hurt or insult. I imagine he was playing the game to avoid it in real life, and seeing it happen to him in game... it lit dynamite.

If he had learned how to handle the pain, instead of the avoidance he'd developed in playing the game...he might have acted differently.

[HiLoPe]

I think that there is - sadly - no way to prevent such a
situation. Online games won't shut down just because
one of their players killed another one in RL.

There are always people, who get situations wrong
by any means. Everyone can become mentally unstable.

By the time the surroundings notice that, it is usually
too late.

The only way was banning games to hell and never
playing again because games include the possibility of
losing. But this makes them interesting, that's why we
play them - it gives us the feeling of excitement!

But even if there were no more games on earth it
wouldn't solve the problem.

The problem is the human being. Not the game.

[Jing]

Often violent online fantasy games are hugely popular in China, attracting tens of millions of players.

OMG... why China.... there are some Commies over there...
This is a sad story guys. Nobody needed to die. They just had too much imagination...

[ClymAngus]

Often violent online fantasy games are hugely popular in China, attracting tens of millions of players.

OMG... why China.... there are some Commies over there...
This is a sad story guys. Nobody needed to die. They just had too much imagination...

All is equal but not in the virtual world eah? Interesting angle. A life so regemented with "even playing field" that it can't deal with "I'm gonna rip you off". Nobody needed to die, I agree. In most if not all areas of human conflict the same would apply. :)

[soundcage]

As I understand it, most MMORPG gamers, especially EQ players are obese nerds who live in their moms basement. If one were to actually show up at my door, I'm sure you could avoid death by offering Season 1 of Star Trek on DVD, or you could help feed them by holding up a mirror and telling them you've jutst cast Slow Petrify and tell them to spare your life or you will cast haste on the petrify spell. or Pizza, fat mammas boys love pizza. SOAP! give them sop, they won't know what the hell it is, but the very touch of it to their skin should cause a chain reaction within their DNA causing them to go into some sort of shock. or you could suggest letting the dice decide. I only wish I were kidding. I've met some of these types, and wow! They really need to reconnect with the outside world, which is another reason they wouldn't come to my place. Sunlight. like the vampire, the EQ gamers main weekness is sunlight, as can be seen by looking at their skin. You will need welding mask just to keep your eyes from bleeding down your cheeks.

[Yami no Kitsune]

You obviously don't know many MMO players, do you? ^^;

[ChrisDark]

http://img345.imageshack.us/img345/9034/ownage20af.png (http://imageshack.us)

[soundcage]

You obviously don't know many MMO players, do you? ^^;

I do know quite a few MMO players, which is why I said I wish I were kidding. you do have to admit that most MMO gamers are seriously lacking a few sparks up in the brain. Anime fans are quite different, usually obsessed with soundtracks, wallart and DVDs, maybe dressing up and trying to sound like their favorite character. that is just a step up from fan, but when someone goes to you house dressed up as a knight, kills you and then tries to smite the police by challenging them to to a sword fight all you because you pissed off his in game CHARACTER, then something is seriously and fundamentally wrong. I base my opinion on the majority of MMO players that I know. Not all are fat mammas boys, but holy hell do most of them reek, cringe in the light, live off of Doritos coke and pizza, and 9 out of 10 that I know personally are 30 year olds who live with their parents, working part time jobs (10-20 Hours a week) so they can pay their EQ/FFXI/Dungeon Siege, etc. accounts and still afford gas, food and convention fees.

[ClymAngus]

Ah, and there I think you've clinched it. We have created to tools of our own social destruction, welcome one and all to the devolution of homosapien.

Quickly, someone invent the computer on legs! Everyone would be a lot fitter if you had to chase after the little f***er to get your e-mails.

[TamTu]

Hey. I like anime, MMORPGs, videogames, my room is full of posters, my shelf is full of DVDs...


And I'm a twig :luv

[Little_Phoenix]

Along these lines, anyone hear about the guy in Seoul, Korea (deepest apologies if i just butchered that spelling) who dropped dead after 50 hours straight of playing online games? He sat in an internet cafe for about 3 days, taking brief breaks to go to the bathroom and take short naps on a couch in the cafe. His playing time totalled about 50+ hours, and about 3 hours after he told his family he'd be home once he finished the game, he died of a heart attack. The doctors said it was exhaustion, and they later found out he'd recently quit his job all together to "spend more time playing games".
When it gets to the point where you start skiving off work or working less or whatever, it's no longer a phase or even a mild obsession. It's an addiction, and a psychological disorder. You need to treat it as such. People don't realize you can get addicted to things other than drugs & alcohol. Remember that episode of "Family Guy" where they had an intervention for Peter's big, foam hat? Yes, it was a non-sequitor but it was still damn funny.
People get addicted to gambling, why can't they get addicted to online gaming? I know i'll go for a few days where i just can't wait to get back to my video games, but it passes in a few days, or after i beat the game. And i sure as hell don't ditch work for it!
When they legalized the lottery in South Carolina, one condition was that the state set up a hotline for people who either have a gambling problem or know someone who does.
Maybe if people started realizing that anything in excess is a bad thing, and obsession of an excess is something worth seeing a head doctor about, the friends and family of people with addictive personalities can nip things like this in the bud.

[TREG]

Oh, I heard about that.

Anyhow, I could technically be considered a computer addict. But I can stop anytime! Really! ;)

[ClymAngus]

It's interesting that bindge gaming appears to kill you about as quickly as bindge drinking would. It's heartening to know that when I sit down to a quick spin on Diablo 2 I'm only 49 hours away from a massive cardiac arrest. Kind of makes me feel like I'm living life on the edge without leaving my seat.

[sakurastar]

I got banned from playing Tekken with my brother by my mum on the account that I hit him round the head with the controls. He kept on using Bryan Fury's mega-punch thing on me, it was so infuriating!

[ClymAngus]

I got banned from playing Tekken with my brother by my mum on the account that I hit him round the head with the controls. He kept on using Bryan Fury's mega-punch thing on me, it was so infuriating!

So he used the Bryan Fury mega-punch and you retaliated with Sakurastar pistol whip. Seems fair. Next time swing it from the cable, much more velocity.

[soundcage]

yeah, see that is another good point. I punched a hole through my wall when i was eleven because I lost a round of Tetris. I've probably spent $500 in my lifetime on new controllers to replace the ones that became wall food during intense long nights of (insert game here).