Arrested: Virtual wife who murdered avatar husband

By Davey Winder
Friday, 24 October 2008 17:33

Networking

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.