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Dad Hires In-Game 'Assassins' To Get His Son To Stop Gaming
An anonymous reader writes
"An irritated father of a 23-year-old gamer hired 'In-game assassins' to attempt to make his son quit playing video games and have him get a job. 'Feng's idea was that his son would get bored of playing games if he was killed every time he logged on, and that he would start putting more effort into getting a job.' While the son recently had a job at a software development company he quit because he decided he didn't like the work."
No need for that, just kick him out.
He will find a job when he needs a place to live and food to eat.
How does this crap get on Slashdot? Seriously! Can we possibly have some tech related news that promotes some form or interesting and educational discourse?
Please!
in game assassin. 200 bucks a day, plus expenses. I can even see the misspelled gold lettering on my office door.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Because he thinks his son should make money instead of game all day, he hires someone to make money by gaming all day?
If you kill him, he will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
At best, you would be encouraging him to find a different game. Presumably, he would find one without player kills.
People generally find jobs because they need a job--not because they are too bored to do something else.
I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person that I'm preaching to.
Prepay for 1 yr min, and I will be on it.... Alias AC.
When you can't sit due to Dad's foot in your ass.
I'd love to see someone try to make a career out of this! Pick a game like WOW and then advertise that you will make the game hell for whoever for a fee in an attempt to get them to quit. Two main clients I'd image: dad's and girlfriends. Wonder how long before Blizzard or lawyers step in.
Well, with the little money the kid made before he quit that software development job, the kid should buy the best in-game gear he can and PK his dad every time he tries to assassinate him! That would be so funny. Wonder what the dad would do as his next course of action?
Kid: don't forget to loot your dad's corpse if that's allowed in the game you play! Maybe some uber items will drop if he's red (high murder count).
To dissuade his own son from being a bum, he encourages other sons to be a bum. What a selfless man.
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
What if his son is running a business by selling his services as an ingame assassin?
Considering that a 1st grader just got suspended from school for making a gun with his finger and saying "pow" http://abcnews.go.com/US/maryland-grader-suspended-pointing-finger-shape-gun/story?id=18123294#.UOcsEaXstuo , I can totally see the son pursuing his father in court for "attempted murder". And then he won't need a job. He can just sue and live off the money he gets from his father. Oh the irony...
Sounds like the kid is living a good life at home; he's fed, he's got internet, presumably some pocket change. Time to cut off the internet, stop paying for the cell phone, etc. Kid needs incentive to get a job it sounds like; he needs to learn to appreciate what it takes to afford the life he's been living. Don't kick him out; that's draconian and it risks the kid winding up on a street with no food, etc. and no prospect of landing a job.
Given some reports, I'd have to say that getting killed by virtual assassins might be better than getting sent to addiction camp...
On the other hand...
Unhappy with his son not finding a job, Feng decided to hire players in his son's favorite online games to hunt down Xiao Feng. It is unknown where or how Feng found the in-game assassins—every one of the players he hired were stronger and higher leveled than Xiao Feng.
You've got to wonder how addicted the so-called assassins were to the game to get to a higher level than his addicted son (or perhaps how inept the son was at playing the game) and what the father's contribution to the assassins' addiction. I guess if it isn't specifically your problem, you don't care. Welcome to the wonderful new virtual social media world...
Wonder how did "dad" get the in-game currency needed to hire 24/7 assassins.
This is exactly how you're not supposed to parent a child.
If you're assassinated in a video game, what happens to your assets? I can totally see a new a career here. First, I play video games all day long and get really good at them. Then, I offer to assassinate other players with the stipulation that I get to keep all their goods. So I get real world cash for the hit and virtual world goods from the person I just wiped out. And all while sitting on my ass playing video games. Hmmm I think I need to take this idea to a good VC firm before Zuckerberg steals my idea and integrates it into Facebook.
If a dad tried this in the USA he'd probably find himself, along with the assassins, being charged with some cyberbullying statute. The kid would then sue successfully, making enough money to move out, get his own place and continue gaming full time.
I thought South Park already covered this idea or at least the idea of getting whacked every time you start a game. Doesn't seem like it deterred them. http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s10e08-make-love-not-warcraft
When I was a professor, I knew my student's counter strike source servers. The night before a project was due / exam I would jump into their game and grief them until they went back to work (or more than likely went to a different server).
On rare occasion I would get caught up in the game myself....
Just cut his internet connection ... a perfect incentive for the internet gaming addict to move out and find a job
I think the father is overthinking this. I can't get at TFA from here, but if the son is living at the father's house, there are much better solutions. If it's a game console, disconnect it and donate it to the Salvation Army. If it's the son's personal property, fine, but if the son is living at the father's home, the internet connection probably belongs to the father. Login to router, disallow son's device. (And change the admin password.)
What it comes down to is this: "It's my house. If you want to live as you please, go out and get your own place. You're old enough. And if you think you can keep an apartment as a professional game player, let me know how that works out for you."
We had a similar issue at my house. I was at work and missed the fireworks, but I'm told they were spectacular. Wife was absolutely addicted to a Facebook game, wouldn't get off the couch except to go to the bathroom. Daughter needed food, couldn't get wife's attention. So daughter went out to the garage and turned off the router. (Wife doesn't know a router from a coffee pot, didn't know what to turn on.) Whoo boy. Initially wife's reaction was "I'm not going to do anything for you until you turn the internet back on" (imagine that much louder and a bit hysterical). Daughter's response "you weren't doing anything anyway, so what have I lost?" I'm told that after shouting back and forth for awhile, and a half hour of sulking, wife finally got up and made dinner with very bad grace. As soon as the food was ready, daughter turned on the router.
Later, I got home, said "hi" got no answer. Said "Hello" a little louder, still no answer. Called wife's name, got "Don't. Talk. To. Me." Ooookay then.....
I tend to be self-correcting on games. I may have mentioned before, I was a Warcraft addict for awhile, and when I realized I couldn't stay away, I gave the disc to daughter and told her to hide it. A year and a half later, I still don't know where it is. But I have so much more time at home to actually interact with my family (when wife isn't playing facebook games) and do stuff around the house.
In yet another instance, I had a nephew staying with me, and when he quit college because it's "too hard" and decided he could make a living as a game tester if he just put in enough practice, it was time for him to find some place else to live. I hear he slept in his car for awhile.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Take a look at Slashdot’s demographics. You have people with time on their hands and tend to be good at games. This is obviously a recruitment ad - thinly disguised as a news story.
'nuf said.
I would just start downloading something via torrent. When his ping goes to hell and the rubber-banding makes it worthless playing, tell him that when he can afford his own internet connection he can have his latency back.
How long until moms in Texas hire in game assassins as a means of removing their own children's competition?
This is a fairly common problem in Asia, and possibly more prevalent in Chinese speaking nations. Sons continue to be revered to the point of being spoiled rotten. So they go through school and enter the workforce incapable of handling the responsibilities and stresses of life. They expect everything handed to them and many have trouble being told want to do in the workplace. It's not fundamentally different than the entitlement culture parents are creating in the west, but it's a bit more focused in Asia and manifests itself a little different.
Where American youth expect they should be free to pursue a life of leisure young men in Asia have it in their heads that they're budding entrepreneurs. So they'll refuse to get a job because they don't want to work for the man. They leech off the parents and because of the strong sense of family and obligation parents will support them indefinitely. They'll even go as far as helping them start a business which doesn't improve their work ethic. For the guys with wealthy and connected parents they'll get a cushy, high paying job doing not much of anything. The irony is that the daughters still get the short of the stick, but end up being the responsible ones who in the end support the parents and the slacker brothers.
Of course, there is the subset who have no aspirations whatsoever, like this guy. So his father didn't kick him in the ass when he should have, let the problem persist and grow, and now is trying to do something about it when it's too late.
"His son should get a job working for other fathers to kill their sons in online games"
china not the usa and software job can be some thing on the level of foxcon there.
Just cut his internet access off after 10pm...oh wait, he might try to drug you so he can get his internet on.
...just save the money and cut off his Internet access.
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This may have something to do with the "one child" limit on families, created by the Communist Party to deal with overpopulation. Chinese families tended to "prefer" boys, and there is an imbalance now of marrying age offspring. There may be a lot of 20-something sons spending a lot of time on the computer this decade.
Gently reply
I'd quit and do what they said out of pure geek respect for pulling it off!
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Even in the cyber gaming world, we know where your base are, and get you, we will! Sounds like the plot for a great movie, starts in the gaming world and leaks into real life... Damn! I need to copyright this post.
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Stories like this and yesterday's story about the girl drugging her own parents make me wonder how we're raising our kids. Did the father try something else before resorting to this? It doesn't seem like good parenting (and neither does testing something your daughter brought you before first asking her about it). As a gamer, I completely agree that video games are addicting. But I've had a positive experience with my parents and am now finishing college with a job ahead of me. I think if they hired assassins to kill me in my games, I would just turn against them more so. This whole situation seems to be an 18-year-late consequence to poor parenting.
Give me that motherfucker's in game name, I'll hunt him down like I was paid for it, because you are going to pay me for it don't you?
Serisously that must be one of the sweetest job descriptions ever. Professional Player Killer.
But... the future refused to change.
Custodian, dick!!!
As a parent of an adult gaming poster-child I do understand. It's always a case of hind sight. I learned to regret letting my kids have too much access to video games. My middle child continues to pay the price. Zero ambition while 100% self serving. My wife and I have had a rough 12 years with him. He is now 30 and lives in one of our rental properties. He didn't want independence with responsibilities.like paying for his support. For years, he has thought that his money is for his entertainment only and resents paying for things like rent/food/utilities. He is somewhat responsible in that he keeps his jobs for about a 12 month avg, before moving on to something else. Lately his mom manages his finances, so he is paying some of his essentials. Slow progress, but it's is progress non-the-less. Our solution to finally get him off the couch at age 24 was remove and forbid any video games in our home. I blocked internet asses after 9pm and eventually blocked all internet access for his pc at our firewall. He fussed, cussed and finally blew up after about 4 months. Telling us that his lack of ambition and misuse of us was our fault. My wife and I realized he was right. We had to take a much harder stance with him. He got a job which he has more or less kept and now lives with his girl friend. Needless to say, it has been a long a painful process. He still doesn't have any long term ambition or desire to do anything beyond work hours except entertainment activities. Simple things like cleaning and maintaining his living space are still beyond him, but,....hope springs eternal eh?
The dad should have bought a level umpteen wizard/whatever account and blow the son to smithereens himself in the worst possible fashion a million times instead of letting the hired help do it.
The problem is loosing your child. China's one child policy has left much of the country with families with one child (little emperors) that know that they can just leave there parents which for a Chinese family is a horrible idea, unthinkable, especially a son. So you have children that know they have presure that threat to disown their parents as extreme leverage. So the "Just kick him out" is truly a scary , not to be considered because of the consequences action. No wonder the father took indirect steps to make his son want to stop game playing. The Chinese do things indirectly and communication is an art in a way that we don't fully understand. So assuming the same value system, and behaviours we would take in the West have any resonance in the East.
Despite being sick of getting killed every time, Xiao Feng decided to stick up to his father and tell him how he felt. He was quoted as saying, "I can play or I can not play, it doesn't bother me. I'm not looking for any job—I want to take some time to find one that suits me."
and then a sentence later...
One thing's for sure; Feng's way of deterring his son from playing games might be one of the best ideas to come out of China recently, particularly as reactions to "gaming and internet addiction" have been very extreme.
Yeah, his way of deterring his son really worked. His son fed him a line about looking for the right job and he bought it, hook, line and sinker. I want my 45 seconds back.
If I wanted to read Kotaku articles, I would go to Kotaku, not Slashdot.
Wow, must be a reallllly slow day.
The "Little Emperor Syndrome" and revering boys have both been mentioned.
But, it's also much more common for a kid to live with his/her parents for a lot longer in Asia. Probably more likely than to live outside the parents' home(excluding college). Often until marriage, or even after. This would make it less likely to even consider kicking the son out.
I like to donate for immunizations and medical research into things like alzheimers and autoimmune disease. Alzheimers has a tremendous societal cost because it doesn't just kill, it expensively disables. Autoimmune disease is just a huge source of misery and disability to people who would otherwise be fine.
I don't think I've donated to cancer research recently, because, frankly, there've been great strides made against it and lifestyle changes can reduce your risk a huge amount.
The reason I donate to those causes instead of relief charities is I think there is more misery reduction per buck, especially for childhood immunizations. I wonder what the payoff is vs. the cost for having eradicated smallpox? A million to one?
--PM
- Kick gaming addition
- Kick Slashdot addiction
- Drop fiddling with linux addition
- replace with something that makes money
!
A blog I run for the wealth
This sounds crazy! At 23 years old if he did not like his work, get him back in school for a better job.
Made is son the best in the game as he is killing off all the assassins.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
In America, you get to be an adult when you are 18. In Asia, you get to be an adult, as far as your elder relatives are concerned, when your elder relatives are dead. (Provided they can't figure out a way to haunt you from beyond the grave.. mwahahaha...)
The advantage of the American system, is that your parents can no longer tell you how to live your life or who you can date or any of the other stuff they did when you were a teenager. I mean they can try, but unless you are living off them, they've got no leverage. Honestly, if you've lived within the Asian system for any period of time, this can be quite refreshing and even intoxicating. 'Wait, you mean here in America I don't have to do what my Dad says?"
Asian parents, on the other hand, expect to be able to boss you around for your entire life, due to the Confucian obligation system that almost all Asian countries have in some form or another. However, that same obligation system means that they don't get to just throw you into the street. You owe them obedience, they have parental responsibility, till death do you part.
The correct approach, therefore, for an Asian parent is, "How can I correct my son's improper behavior?" not, "How can I make my son homeless so he will hopefully freeze to death this winter and no longer be a burden to me?" (the Western approach). From a purely selfish approach, a son is also your retirement plan in China and if you only get to have one well, you better make sure he's a success since he's required by law to support you in your old age (daughter's have traditionally not had this role which is why male children are favored.)
Now, we may think that Dad's approach was ineffectual here, but it's obvious that his concern was that his son wasn't seeking employment because of a gaming compulsion (a big phobia for modern Chinese parents) rather then that he was simply being picky. (This story probably isn't over. Dad was convinced by his son, but I'm not so convinced. Expect there to be a round two if Dad decides he's a compulsive gamer again.)
If the story is accurate, Dad is willing to indulge his son being picky and finding a good job (for a while, anyway), but will not tolerate compulsive gaming that interferes with his success. (Hell in some ways it's reflecting badly on Dad here that he didn't have a good enough guanxi to help his son get a good job. He may lose some face because of that. Son working in some garbage job for years might definitely cause a loss of face, and also a pretty bleak prospect for Dad after he retires and son has to support him.)
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Most managers of MW jobs that I informally interviewed while working on a business degree had the same criteria for employees.
They were looking for someone reliable
Their biggest problem was getting people hired that would show up when scheduled, do the job they were assigned and come back in for the next shift.
It was a pretty low bar... but I heard multiple stories about new hires that got a shirt and hat and went down the road where they could get 75 cents an hour more... keeping their souvenir shirt/hat and forgetting to mention they wouldn't be at work...
I suspect that this software developer wouldn't do much better flipping burgers or pumping gas... his attitude just won't cut it.
OTOH, One of my friends looked for a part time job while her kids were in school during the day... got hired... showed up for work and did the job... and was running her own Burger King in three months... Some companies really do reward those who step up and do the work
Gamblers have been shown to be more likely to continue playing after a loss then after a win. I think it is a bad idea to manipulate someone who may be addicted to something by engaging with them through their addiction. If there is a serious problem here, then it should be dealt with outside the gaming realm. Here is an easy to find link on gaming addiction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction. And here is a reason to encourage video game usage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM