Thursday, August 18, 2005

Man arrested for virtual theft

In Japan, a Chinese student is arrested for beating up and robbing characters in the online computer game Lineage II. The man robbed valuable virtual objects, including the "Earring of Wisdom" and the "Shield of Nightmare".

The items were then sold for real cash through an auction website. He used a character, controlled by a software bot, rather than a human player, making it unbeatable. Although this sounds funny, it seems that the border between cyberspace and crime is disappearing.

Soon, while playing a game on your PC, you could become victim of a virtual robbery, and some smug runs away with your virtual money... leaving your real bank account empty! A new warning will appear on software: Gaming can cause serious financial problems! Maybe we could pay virtual cops to hunt down those virtual criminals. Don't forget to feed the cop some virtual donuts.

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