January 18th, 2008

Gamer Killed Because Of Online-Battle

It is not the first time when an on-line game is involved (but not responsible) into a real-life conflict that lead to a serious beating which resulted in the death of a 33 year old gamer. Two rival clans from the Lineage II MMO met in real life after one of the member’s avatars was killed in an online battle. The meeting ended up in a serious conflict and resulted in the fatal beating of a 33 year old man and the arrest of a college student in the Russian town of Ufa. The unsub (suspect) claims that he is part of the Coo-clocks clan, where the members are mostly students. The family of Albert, the dead gamer, is still being threatened by the game-clan. Albert's sister says: "I think they have confused the game and reality. And after we buried him on December 31, they continued to threaten us". The killer member still shows signs of serious problems of understanding where the barrier between reality and fiction lies: "Beat everything that moves, and everything that doesn’t move - move and beat! – this is one of the rules of the Coo-clocks clan." Apparently the unsub has problems in connecting with reality, violent out-bursts being something very common in his behaviour. It is also interesting how the Russian press sees the issue: "Internet experts say these cases shouldn’t be lumped together just because some people can’t handle the situation.(...) Not many talk about the benefits of internet games for disabled people who don’t have a chance to communicate with others like themselves or able-bodied people. Nobody mentions the benefits the internet can offer in education," says Aleksandr Kuzmenko of a computer game magazine. It's a good thing that people realize who is to be blamed here, however, the family of Albert hasn't got the same grasp over the whole situation.