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Fri 24 Oct, 2008 06:08 am
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.
@dyslexia,
About 50 years ago Ray Bradbury wrote a short story that pretty well predicted this sort of thing -- only with much more dire consequences -- in a future world where virtual reality and actual reality cross paths and get all entangled with each other. Unfortunately, I no longer remember the name of the story but it was about a man who "kills" a perfect life-like android double of his hateful ex-wife...and is arrested for murder even though the law knows the murder was symbolic only and the "victim" a robot.
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