Sun, 10 Jul 2005
Life is stranger than fiction, part 43
Gacked from the Chonquing Business Post by way of Esther Dyson in
comp.risks:
Game Accounts Take Center Stage In Divorce
Legend of Mir 2, Online Game, SNDA, Shanda
Posted by: Zhou Zhengqian on Jul 01 | 17:07
A divorce in Chongqing has turned ugly when both parties want
their joint
online game accounts, Chongqing Business Post reports. Mr. Wang
from
Chongqing and Ms. Ye from Huibei met last September on Shanda's
(Nasdaq:
SNDA) online game Legend of Mir 2. Wang saved Ye's character from
being
killed by another player. The couple married at the end of
October but
decided to get a divorce in June. During their marriage, the
couple jointly
played over ten Mir 2 accounts, attaining level 40 to 50 status
for all of
them. The characters and virtual items are estimated to be worth
40,000 to
50,000 Yuan. Wang said that he wants to keep the accounts and
virtual items
and is willing to give their joint apartment to Ye. However, Ye
wants to
split the apartment and game items equally.
I've heard of excessive computer gaming being cited as cause for divorce,
but this seems to be a case of the marriage being the result of
gaming in the first place – and divvying up the spoils
afterwards seems particularly bizarre.
(I should note at this point that I avoid MMORPGs like the
plague. I've fallen into standalone Neverwinter Nights and
that is entirely bad enough for my productivity –
if I get into World of Warcraft you won't see me for at least six
months and a wrist operation to repair the mousing overload
damage. On the other hand, I'm fascinated by the way these online
societies develop, and in particular how their economies and social
structures deal with phenomena like farming, and
I have half a novel kicking around my head that really needs to
be set half inside an MMORPG in order to function ...)
For a bit more illumination, see the discussion Nutted
by futurity over on Making Light.
[Discuss
game vs. reality]
posted at: 20:47 | path: /weird | permanent link to this entry
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