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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.
I bet he didn't use his dragon sabre to do the stabbing.
The body was easy to find, as the title 'Zhu Caoyuan's Corpse' mysteriously floated over the dumpster he had been dumped in.
"I only speak the truth"
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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.
Just fyi 7200 Yuan = $869.76 USD
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here is a link to a story with no registration http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/200503 30/od_uk_nm/oukoe_life_china_sabre
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
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.
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?
"Qiu Chengwei, 41..."
Stop. There's the problem right there.
If I'm ever this worked up about a video game at 41, then please just put me into an institution somewhere.
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I bet he plays Dungeons and Dragons.
In the future, all spacecraft will be made of cheese.
A case where a video game actually had something to do with a murder...
- AMW
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.
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.
...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?
Ok, having checked out Legend of Mir via Google, I came across the official site that has of course a "screenshot" section. I randomly click on this one and notice that in the chat window people are complaining about LAG and other shots of people calling others NOOB. Now, this is in the screenshots area of the official site, that's suppose to make the game shine and look attractive.
Looks like a winner...
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
Doesn't "Mir" mean peace?
I think therefore I am. Therefore, I think, I am.
There currently is not solid legal ground here to be certain but clearly there should be and that is the larger issue. After all, technically all legal currency in the United States belongs to the Federal Government but they do not own the value the currency represents. The items and gold/plat/whatever in these games are currency of a sort, they represent real labor and even have exchanged rates to other currencies like US dollars that could be tracked set by a mostly free market.
People just look at this backwards. Everyone wants to think in terms of property, but anything virtual is not property. It must be looked at as currency, since that is what we call a virtual representation of real property/value.
They may not be listed on the international exchange, but clearly virtual items/gold are a form of currency and clearly the property is not the currency itself (which is simply data owned by the game company like a 100 dollar bill is less than a pennies worth of paper and ink owned by the federal government) but rather the value represented by it (the 100 dollars of goods and services that half cent of paper represents).
I will admit that lacking an authority who tracks the market and sets a reference exchange rate/value for these currencies it could be difficult to establish how great a value to place on them, but in this case it should be easy. The exchange value was 7200 Yuan.
This should not be handled as theft, it should be handled in the same manner as me loaning you $5000 US dollars and you attempting to pay me back in EUROs (at some arbitrary exchange rate) and me not finding that currency to be suitable or recognizing it to be of equal value.
This is different than if I were to loan you a TV and you sold it and then tried to give me the money. Trading property for a currency is not the same as exchanging currencies. Either could be a beneficial exchange, but currency does not in itself have any value; a TV does have a value (although we could certainly debate how great that value is).
That sounds like the general chat of every MMO I've ever played.
-prator
Was this 'dragon sword' the best sword in the game? If it was well, then ya, its ok to kill the guy. Im mean, after it, it WAS the best sword ever. Thats huge when your trying to pick up chicks.