Gaming Madness in China: "Games Made Me Do It"

Gaming madness in China is our roundup of the latest crazy (and sometimes horrifying) stories from China’s gaming community. You can read about more gaming madness in China here.

Brutal Hammer Murderer Says Games Made Him Do It

On the morning of July 13, an Anhui woman named Wang was found in a wooded grove in Xuqiao township, unconscious and bleeding profusely from the head. Attempts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful, and by the evening she was dead.

Police immediately focused their attentions on a man named Sun, whose red motorbike had been connected to the scene. The 21-year-old Sun was quickly arrested, and in his confession he blamed videogames for his violent crime. It turned out that he had elicited help from his victim by pretending that his motorcycle was broken, and when she offered to assist he smashed her in the head with an iron hammer before escaping on the bike. He claims that this impulse was caused by his love of violent video games, and his desire to seek out the same kind of violence in real life.

At the risk of editorializing, that’s total bullshit. Only a true psychopath can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality, and what we do in video games does not magically create real-life impulses that override our self-control. Sonic the Hedgehog fans do not sprint around at top speed trying to eat gold rings, and fans of Madden American football games do not tackle strangers in real life. Sun’s claim that his violence was caused by video games is nothing more than cheap trick to evade responsibility for his actions.

(Anhui News via QQ Games)

Gamer Bribes Programmer to Upgrade His In-Game Character

Game programmers already make a pretty decent wage, generally speaking. But if you work on a game and are unhappy with your compensation, here’s one unorthodox (and foolish) way to handle it: start taking bribes. That’s what one engineer working on the game Silk Road Legend did when approached by a player surnamed Ge, who was looking to replace equipment he had lost an upgrade his in game character.

Ge, who already had a criminal record as a result of his participation in a violent brawl, approached the engineer five separate times, turning over a total of more than 30,000 RMB in cash bribes. This worked for a short time, and it did make Ge’s in-game character quite powerful, but the game’s operator quickly caught on. Both men were caught, tried, and convicted. Never mind the 30,000 RMB; jail time seems like a heavy price to pay just to upgrade to a virtual character in a game.

(Fazhi Evening News via QQ Games)

Web Surfer Stabbed to Death for Breaking Glass in Internet Cafe

Generally speaking, if it’s 3 A.M. and you’re drunk, that probably means it’s time to head home and sleep it off. But on Saturday, one Xianyang man (we’ll call him Zhang 1 because he has the same surname as the story’s other major player) in that situation decided to visit an internet café instead, and it proved to be a fatal mistake. At the café, 30-year-old Zhang 1 accidentally broke a pane of glass. The owner of the establishment, Zhang 2, was quite unhappy about this and an argument quickly arose. After a contentious shouting match that also included Zhang 2’s father, Zhang 1 left the internet café and headed home.

But Zhang 2 apparently wasn’t satisfied with the way the argument resolved, because he called in two friends, and then together with his father they armed themselves with a knife and climbed into a vehicle to drive to Zhang 1’s home. They arrived just as he did, hopped out of the car, stabbed him in the head, and then proceeded with a brutal beating. Zhang 1’s mother witnessed the whole thing, and when the assailants left she tried to stem the bleeding, but it was too late. He was dead by the time paramedics arrived on the scene.

Police are still looking for the stabbing suspects.

(HSW via QQ Games)

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