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Gamer Slain Over Virtual Property Dispute

Posted by Zonk on from the it's-just-a-game dept.

cibe writes "A Shanghai online game player has stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber-sword. Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his "dragon sabre", used in the popular online game Legend of Mir 3, the newspaper said a Shanghai court was told yesterday. Qiu and a friend jointly won their weapon last February, and lent it to Zhu who then sold it for 7,200 yuan ($A1,129)." Update: 03/30 21:15 GMT by Z : More commentary available on Game Girl Advance.

15 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Probably killed over the money, not the sword. by Ayaress · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have to wonder if this would have happened if the victim lost the sword, rather than selling it for over $1000. It's one thing to borrow something and then break or loose it. It's another to borrow it and then sell it for a personal profit.

  2. Before we all claim he's nuts... by sporty · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Before we all claim he's nuts..

    If one were to attain a physical object of some want but no need, like a TV, it becomes a reward. You do some amount of work, you get the money, you buy it for yourself.

    Some people equate this in vidoe games. Hell, I'm guilty when some consequence outside of my control gets in my way. This could be in my model making, video game playing or athletic life. Yes, I do have one. Unfortunately, this guy took a route that didn't involve a legal system.

    It happens in US life as well. Try something that's not illegal like hitting on a guy's wife. See how fast someone goes above the law and knocks you out. It's not a perfect example, as divorce could be a route. But people will readily go around the law.

    Lesson to be learned? Careful who you annoy. They may break the law. They may not. But they may get back at you.

    --

    -
    ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only

    1. Re:Before we all claim he's nuts... by Ayaress · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Like I posted above, in this case, the guy may not even have equated the vitual property with real property. He lent somebody else the sword, who then sold it for a large sum of money. $800 is a lot of money, and people have been killed over smaller sums. It'd be nice to know how this would have played out, say, if the sword was lost or looted rather than sold. In that case, the sword is lost, but that's it. The killer may have been angry or annoyed, but I doubt he would have killed for it. But selling it, there's more at stake than just a digital sword. There's been a violation of trust, you lent somebody something and they betrayed you, and there's also now around $800 USD in the mix.

  3. That gentleman needs help by stinerman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think this is a good case that highlights online gaming addiction and how it needs to be classified as a disease. "Detox" clinics, etc. should be set-up in order to prevent this type of behavior. It should be treated similarly to alcoholism.

    When people start getting that upset at things that happen in a fantasy world, then professional counseling should not be far behind.

    1. Re:That gentleman needs help by RootsLINUX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I concur, it's sickening to see how many lives get destroyed by a stupid game. I'm sure this problem is only going to get worse, and unfortunately I'm predicting that the relatives of victims are going to start pointing their fingers to the game producers as the ones responsible. This is, of course, not the right course of action to take, because if a company makes a game "less addicting" then how are they to generate sales? Like you said, it's just like alcoholism and do relatives of alcoholics blame the beer companies for their suffering? Of course not. The only person responsible for their actions (with either alcoholism or game addiction) is the very person who let the substance take control of their life.

      --
      Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
    2. Re:That gentleman needs help by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Uh, the guy who did the stabbing might have wanted his 7200 yuan. Doesn't have to relate to gaming addiction at all.

      --

      There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
    3. Re:That gentleman needs help by GeckoX · · Score: 1, Insightful

      the guy was ROBBED for about $800...


      Lets at least get the facts straight shall we?

      The guy _gave away_ a virtual thing that he obtained by chance. The guy he gave it to then sold it for ~$800.

      So, a) the item had no value when it was first obtained and b) it was given away. You'd be hard pressed to find a court that would jump to the conclusion you did.

      Let's focus on the ownership part, ignoring the virtual worth of the item in question. Suppose you drop by my house with a lovely Katana sword. You then leave said sword in my posession. I turn around and sell it. Sure, I'm a turd, but you are pretty much 100% SOL.

      --
      No Comment.
    4. Re:That gentleman needs help by LordNimon · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I concur, it's sickening to see how many lives get destroyed by a stupid game.

      Zhu Caoyuan's life was not destroyed by a computer game. He was killed by Qiu Chengwei because he believed that Zhu Caoyuan owed him money.

      --
      And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
      To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
    5. Re:That gentleman needs help by fm6 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I think this is a good case that highlights online gaming addiction and how it needs to be classified as a disease.
      I agree that gaming addiction is out of control. But this has nothing to do with that. People kill each other for all kinds of stupid reasons. Hundreds of people (mostly women) die every year at the hands of a current or former domestic partner. People die because somebody thought they were rude, or objected to their style of dress. Homicidal rage is a pathology looking for an excuse.

      An imaginary sword is a stupid thing to get killed over -- but it's glib to dismiss it as unimportant because it's imaginary. The guy put a lot of effort into winning it, and somebody was willing to pay a lot of money to "possess" it. Absurd, if you're not a gamer, but not more absurd than paying six figures for some obscure collectible -- and that happens every day.

  4. Whole slew of legal issues. by dubiousx99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They also have an article about this over at Yahoo. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=58 3&e=5&u=/nm/20050330/od_nm/life_china_sabre_dc The article states that the police refused to do anything for the theft victim because the item wasn't real. Why don't we consider these things real? You can be assured that of a hacker deletes/steals files from a corporation or government entity the police would consider this a real crime. Where do you draw the line?

  5. The Right Way to Loan by dommer2029 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You need a contract. If you're loaning something worth more than $20 to someone you wouldn't trust with your life, write it down. IANAL, but as I understand it, if the court can interpret the meaning of your contract, it's valid. So: I, XXX, loan YYY to ZZZ on DATE. ZZZ agrees to return it, undamaged, on OTHER DATE. If YYY is damaged, ZZZ agrees to purchase a new one, keep the loaned YYY, and give me the new YYY. Signed: XXX, ZZZ, DATE What's happened is not theft, but breach of contract. Without a contract, the authorities can do nothing.

    --
    VFX is more influential than you think.
  6. But so is money by pg133 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The 'assets' of one player could mean nothing to others as they are by nature just data created by game providers," a lawyer for a Shanghai-based Internet game company was quoted as saying.

    So is money, which for the most part is just data in computer systems.

  7. Re:Crazy by blueZhift · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Too bad really. If they could have settled their dispute online in some fashion, they'd both still be alive and free. Sigh...

    --
    To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
  8. $869.76... and hours and hours and hours by JavaRob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...and people who are totally innocent of any kind of theft (virtual or otherwise) are killed over *much* less money, every day. For example (quick google...), $15.

    Yes, it's stupid to kill someone over a virtual sword... just like it's stupid to kill someone over practically anything. But it's *very* easy to understand why the guy might have been furious enough to do something stupid. He was stabbing someone who intentionally ripped him off, and made a lot of money out of it. It's pretty easy to understand why he was mad -- it's not a real sword, but that sure is real money, real entertainment value, and probably a huge time investment getting the sword in the first place that were lost in an instant.

    Virtual worlds are not my cup of tea... but I can imagine the feeling of not having any backups of my hobby programming work for 3 months, foolishly lending my computer to a friend for a day... and finding that he'd sold it. I'm not saying I'd start stabbing... but it wouldn't be the computer value I'd care about. Are you going to tell me all that work is only "virtual" property, and I shouldn't worry about it?

  9. Re:Legend of Mir 3? by prator · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That sounds like the general chat of every MMO I've ever played.

    -prator