In South Korea a couple has been arrested for the death of their three-month-old daughter; the parents flat-out ignored their child, to the point that it eventually died of starvation. And what exactly kept the couple so preoccupied? Their other child of course, in the video game world.
This might actually be the worst game related causality that nation has seen yet. For a while, it almost seemed like a week couldn’t go by without hearing of some poor South Korean sap dying due to hardcore Starcraft playing (my fave example is of the guy who sat and played for like four days straight, when he tried standing up, instant heart attack due to all the blood in his system congealing).
Anyhow, the people involved this time is a man of the age of 41 and a woman of the age 25, who met each other online, of course. They apparently spent all their time at internet cafes and only stopped by the home to feed the poor kid powdered milk on occasion.
Meanwhile, they were obsessed with rearing their virtual child in an MMO called Prius Online. According to a police officer involved in the game: “The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn’t have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby… They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby.”
The couple came home after a 12-hour game session to find their baby dead. They then tried to find refuge at the home of the wife’s parents, but was caught not too long after. And needless to say, the tragedy has rocked the nation, with a politician calling for a restriction on the number of hours a person can be at such internet cafes. Probably not the first time such a demand has been made, and if it doesn’t go through, won’t be the last either.
Via The Guardian.