Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
For many people, a 'second life' can become just as real as the first one. Take the Japanese woman who killed her virtual husband after he divorced her in a game called Maple Story, and now finds herself under arrest in the real world.
Maple Story is a free to play South Korean
MMORPG which has been tailored for an international audience via
country or region specific play portals. The 2D side-scrolling game is
hugely popular, with some claiming as many as 50 million subscriber
accounts around the world.
Players of the much better known, at least as
far as the popular media is concerned, Second Life can get married and
there has been plenty of publicity about this.
Indeed, I interviewed and recounted the tales of happy couples who have
found love in the virtual world (sometimes spilling out into the real
one) in my book "Being Virtual" which
was published earlier this year.
During my extensive research for that book, I discovered that where
there is romance there is also disappointment, resentment, bitterness
and occasionally violence. While this remains in the virtual world of
'play' it is not problematical, you might think. Try telling that to
the as yet unnamed 43 year old woman who has just been arrested in
Northern Sapporo, Japan.
She had travelled, virtually speaking, to the Maple Story town of
Amoria and got married to her in-game lover. To get this far both her
and her 'husband' would have completed a number of quests together, it
is a bonding experience.
Unfortunately, her virtual husband did not remain happy and invoked a
virtual divorce without any warning to his virtual bride. You know what
they say about a virtual woman spurned? Well this one vented her fury
on her ex by logging into his account and deleting his avatar,
effectively killing the virtual love-rat.
This tale does not get any weirder than that though, the woman has not
been arrested on charges of virtual murder. Instead, the Japanese
police have nicked her on suspicion of hacking offences.
If formally charged and convicted she could face a five year stretch
inside a very real prison, or a very real fine of USD $5000.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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