When Qiu Chengwei reported the theft of his "dragon saber" he was laughed out of the police station. So the 41-year-old online games player decided to take matters into his own hands.
Swapping virtual weapons for a real knife, he tracked down the man who had robbed him of his prized fantasy possession and stabbed him to death.
Qiu is now facing a possible death sentence in a Shanghai court case which has highlighted concern about the social, psychological and economic impact of one of China's fastest-growing industries.
A spate of suicides, deaths by exhaustion and legal disputes about virtual possessions have been blamed on Internet role-playing games, which are estimated to have more than 40 million players in China.
Qiu's favorite game was Legend of Mir III, a South Korean game which is a huge hit throughout Asia.
It took him hours in front of a computer to win the dragon saber, one of the game's most valuable weapons.
He used a feature of the game to lend it to Zhu Caoyuan, who reportedly sold it without his permission for 7,200 yuan (US$870).
Although this is considerably more than the average monthly wage, the police told Qiu that they could do nothing because the law does not recognize virtual property.
He has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Zhu, a crime that can carry the death penalty.
The number of Internet users is estimated to have doubled from under 60 million in 2002 to more than 120 million.
More than a third are believed to be game players, creating one of the world's most lucrative online markets. The operators revenue has grown by more than 40 percent in each of the past two years.
Shanda Networking, the biggest online game company with at least two million users at any given time of the day, more than doubled profits last year.
The national leadership said recently that the country's biggest skill shortage was of Internet game developers.
The information ministry estimates that China needs 600,000 online game technicians to fight off foreign competition. But there is also growing alarm about the social consequences. The government has cracked down on unlicenced Internet cafes, which the official news agency called "hotbeds of juvenile crime and depravity."
Newspapers are filled with reports of Internet-game related crimes and tragedies, such as the suicide in January of a boy of 13 who left notes saying he was so addicted to online games that he had difficulty distinguishing between reality and virtual reality.
Last March, two students in Chongqing fell asleep on a railway track after an all-night Internet session, and a 31-year old Legend of Mir addict reportedly dropped dead after a 20-hour session. Many of the crimes are related to the thefts of virtual possessions.
Hard-core players invest so much time and money into building a powerful online character that the loss or theft of a virtual identity prompts some to take violent action.
At the Shanda customer complaints office in Shanghai, where the staff work behind reinforced glass panels, an adviser, Cassie Fan, said: "We get about a thousand complaints a week. I have been threatened on several occasions. People put so much time and energy into the games that some get extremely upset."
One customer was so enraged that he set fire to himself, suffering serious burns.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
RSS