By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press TOKYO: A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday. The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations. The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said. She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000. Players in "Maple Story" raise and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles. The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead. Link to original post Now this is funny.
"convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000" Huh? wOw.... This news is really weird....
LOL I get scared to it. It may be happen to me ^_^ because I am a Online Gamer Maniac and sometimes I love flirting to other girls in some game and sometimes getting a relationship in game.
The sentence is ridiculous.....But so is getting a higher sentence for defrauding the government than killing someone..... Tehn again, they always like to blow these things out of proportion the get people agitated, and know what, IT WORKS!!!!! ARGHAHHA!!!!
Something wrong with the report, in Maple Story, you never die, so there isn't a way of killing your avatar I prefer to call it character. You will be "dead" and resurrected immediately and you only lose some of the experience points.
Cases are getting more and more bizarre nowadays. It moves in the opposite direction with advancement in net technologies.
some people taking online gaming and online GAME marriage a bit too seriously.....that crazy jap woman...
this is probably the most stupid and weird story I have read today...I didn't know you could get arrested just for a bloody online game marriage