Gamer Slain Over Virtual Property Dispute

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.

Comments

Re:Whole slew of legal issues.

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember all those people bitching about people selling items online? Remember how the companies that make the game explicitly say they aren't real?

That's why they aren't real. Because the game companies don't want to be liable if they accidently delete your character. Or if they ban a player for no reason. Or if a player gets hacked and has virtual property destroyed.

So... they aren't considered real, and it's not considered a real crime. Even by the companies themselves. If you lose something in game, the game company won't do anything, and so the police can't really do anything, either.

Re:Before we all claim he's nuts...

[UWC]

I could say the same of modern currency. The limits on supply are artificial, dependent only on willingness to produce, not ability. And with so many transactions being electronic these days, the difference between "real" and "perceived" value breaks down further. Regardless of the game designer's capabilities, they chose to make the item "rare," which thus increased its perceived value at the moment.