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I know this isn't really a "miniature gaming" thread, but I know that enough of you play online games to be interested in this news story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081023/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_avatar_murder

Comments?

Hopefully, none of you can identify with the suspect in the above story.

Morale of the story kids is "don't get married in real life or even in a virtual life, because eventually they'll take you for all your worth."

Thats just pathetic and wont hold up. First off he gave her the ID/Password so its not "hacking" and it did not brake the term of use for MapleStory because she in no way edited the game files.

And calling it "murder" is just the reporter trying to draw up emotion, and it is very bad reporting at that, there supposed to be neutral to all storys, not pick one side or the other.

If he actually gets charged with anything it will be another show at how pathetic the world governments are becoming, I expected Japan to be better about this type of thing, they have bin leading the world for years now.

This thread would probably be better in off-topic or video games, but....

Is this for real? I am not familiar with that game, but I highly doubt someone could be fined or jailed for killing an online character. If someone actually got sent to jail for that it would just be too surreal. I'm curious what they are official charging/convicting her for?

They clame it as "murder" but all she did was log in to his account using the ID/Password he gave her and hit Delete.

She's being accussed of what looks to be a minor form of identity theft because she used his login and got into his account, not because she aced the nimrods avatar. She is not being charged with murder.

Dear sweet baby Jesus, not sure I want to see the day when the world has gone quite that far down the toilet.

Remember, everyone, this is taking place in Japan, so any understanding of the legal system from another country isn't really applicable.

Under Japanese legal code, she might very well be guilty of the potential charge of illegally accessing the account. Just because she had, at one time, been given access by the account owner, doesn't mean that she therefore has permission to access it from that point forward, indefinitely. It depends upon the statute and judicial system in Japan.

Though...the owner of the account in question was a moron for not changing his passwords after dumping his online girlfriend.

Saldiven wrote:Though...the owner of the account in question was a moron for not changing his passwords after dumping his online girlfriend.

He's a moron for giving it to her in the first place, so his track record isn't the best.

Saldiven wrote:Remember, everyone, this is taking place in Japan, so any understanding of the legal system from another country isn't really applicable.

Under Japanese legal code, she might very well be guilty of the potential charge of illegally accessing the account. Just because she had, at one time, been given access by the account owner, doesn't mean that she therefore has permission to access it from that point forward, indefinitely. It depends upon the statute and judicial system in Japan.

Though...the owner of the account in question was a moron for not changing his passwords after dumping his online girlfriend.

Wife.... and I Know this. The article clames she is a "hacker" because she logged on his account. She was given the ID/Password so there was no hacking involved. And given the company that owns MS, if the man can prove his avatar was deleted by her and he did not wish it to be deleted they will recreate the account for him from its last save point.

Platuan4th wrote:

Saldiven wrote:Though...the owner of the account in question was a moron for not changing his passwords after dumping his online girlfriend.

He's a moron for giving it to her in the first place, so his track record isn't the best.

Very true.

grizgrin wrote:She's being accussed of what looks to be a minor form of identity theft because she used his login and got into his account, not because she aced the nimrods avatar.

Not that minor if there is a $5000 fine!

It is sort of a double-standard. In the Real World, marriage has laws attached to it. But this virtual marriage does not hold up in the same manner. The woman in question became angry - she obviously took this marriage as seriously as she did a real marriage - to the point where she would commit an act of revenge!

But RL law does not recognize the virtual marriage. Only the destruction of virtual property, in this case, the man's online persona.

It depends if virtual items in this game are traded for real money, like in second life. Then it gets serious. Funny story though.

Platuan4th wrote:

Saldiven wrote:Though...the owner of the account in question was a moron for not changing his passwords after dumping his online girlfriend.

He's a moron for giving it to her in the first place, so his track record isn't the best.

Exactly. He gave the PW, he's responsible.

It's gone too far when someone robs someone or kills them for an in-game item.

In another Japanese news story two kids held up a third to get game items off him. In China there has been a game-related murder about a sword.

It is human nature at work.

I leave the final comment to Penny Arcade.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/07/16/

Another thought -- let the game company restore the dead character from backup.

Surely that's better than a criminal trial and five years imprisonment.

Again, the charge isn't for the deletion of the character. I'm sure at this point the guy's probably got his avatar back, possibly less a few days effort, depending on when they did their last backup.

The Charge is her accessing his account without authorization.

Sure, he's an idiot for giving her his password, but think of it this way: If you go to your neighbors house looking to borrow, lets say a rake, but he's not home. Frustrated you try his garage door anyway, and find out he's forgotten to lock it. Are you legally able to enter that garage and take what you need? No, as soon as you do you can be charged with theft, break and enter, tresspassing, and I'm sure some other things I can't think of, even if, in the past your neighbor has lent you the same stuff.

Now, in the above example, if you bring the rake back promptly and explain to him what happened he'll likely let it slide and remember to lock his garage up next time. But he would be fully within his rights to have you arrested.

This news story is the virtual equivalent to that example, with the added bad blood of a virtual divorce to make sure he presses every legal charge he can against her.

Kilkrazy wrote:I leave the final comment...

Kilkrazy wrote:Another thought...

lolwut?

Does this mean I can tell the Police to arrest that guy on Runescape who killed my level 41 character?

thats so stupid... 5 years? GTFO.

Huh?

By analogy: "Here's the key to my car - help yourself whenever you like, and have fun!". "I hate you." "What?" "Haha, you never asked for you key back, or changed the locks, so I drove it into a lake! Loser."

Can he prove that nobody else got access to his password?

Can he show that his password sharing doesn't break the MMO's TOS (most MMOs forbid password sharing)? If not, then there cannot be any agreement, as any agreement would be a contract to break the terms of another contract, which automatically makes that agreement null and void. That is, the courts will never enforce an agreement to do something illegal.

Assuming that his password sharing was legitimate, when did he explicitly revoke authorization? When did he explicitly limit allowable actions? Is there a contract that we should know about?

As far as I'm concerned, giving his password without a countersigned, notarized contract gave her carte blanche to do whatever the hell she wanted. It's his fault for being stupid, so he got what he deserved. She's blameless.

While different in out of character morality this reminds me of an assassination in EVE Online.

A player used his pirate character to kill stranded enemies in lifeboats. This is a common occurance called podding, and you can earn a bounty on your head for it.

Some players thought in one case this was not enough.

They wanted a full assassination on the character.

They got an associate to befriend the pirate, join his guild and become his faithful supporter eventually getting access to all his guilds secrets corporate accounts and ships. This took the best part of a year.

Then at a preordained time gave false information to his boss and encouraged him to take to battle in a powerful and rare (read irreplacable warship). It was a trap.

While his precious ship was being taken apart his 'loyal' right hand man lied to keep him from fleeing promising supprt was arriving, it wasnt. Only more ambushers.

eventually the pirate was blown up, his lifeboat was shot down and he respawned at the spawning vat. Only to find all his ships sold and all his stock redistributed by his right hand man. Along with a letter of explanation.

The account could not be destroyed, but they did the next best thing, stripped him clean.

The player complained, but the ploy was upheld as it happened entirely in character and not from game mechanics abuse.

Oohh... That's awesome revenge served cold.