It doesn't happen often but every now and then the virtual world infringes upon the real world and a disagreement in a massively multiplayer online game has horrible consequences. Whether sparked by theft, competition or the need for cash to pay subscription fees real life violence is the result.
Escape from Reality
Games are a great form of escapism for people. We get to leave our everyday lives behind and become fantastical creatures and heroes in fantasy worlds. When it comes to massively multiplayer games we get to join a whole new world with its own rules and society. We step through the wardrobe, go down the rabbit hole or more accurately log in and emerge as something else. These are places, where, in contrast to the real world, we can make a difference, we can be truly important. We can form alliances and fight battles without real life consequences. Or at least that’s the theory. Sometimes the emotional investment people put it into their online lives is so great that their anger can spill over into reality. The problems that their in game avatars face become so important to them that they can provide a trigger for action in the offline world. In this article we take a look at when MMO drama causes real life violence.
Stabbing in Australia
In October 2008, ABC News in Australia reported that a 21 year old student named Zhenghao Shen had been charged with causing grievous bodily harm and refused bail by the Australian Capital Territory Magistrates Court. He had been playing World of Warcraft with four friends when the victim asked him to turn down the volume on his computer. Shen ignored him and the victim asked again and again before becoming frustrated and challenging Shen to a fight. Shen apparently stabbed him in the head with a chef’s knife and severed one of his fingers.
Clan Warfare Beating in Russia
Back in January of 2008, Russia Today reported that a 33 year old man named Albert was beaten to death in the streets of Ufa by members of a rival clan from an MMO game. Gamers in their thirties, the Platanium clan apparently sparked the argument when they killed a rival member of the mostly student Coo-clocks clan online a few days before New Year. The two clans engaged in a bitter war in the game which led to them agreeing to settle the dispute by meeting in the real world. One man was charged with murder after the attack, but Albert’s sister Albina reported that the rival clan continued to send death threats to her family.