tripleE
10-22-2010, 05:05 PM
Video game battle leads to assault of Hamber secondary student
Teen allegedly beaten with batons
By NEAL HALL, Vancouver Sun October 21, 2010
The world of online video games may seem like fun and games, but it turned ugly for a Vancouver high school student this week.
Police are investigating the beating of an Eric Hamber secondary school student after he was confronted by a group of assailants during lunch hour Monday.
The boy was apparently beaten because he had been playing an online video game with a group of friends who were beating their opponents and lording it over the losers, who were insulted by the “trash talk.”
The players allegedly tracked down the student to Hamber, located at 5025 Willow on the west side of Vancouver, and made him kiss their feet before hitting him with batons, breaking his fingers.
Vancouver police Const. Lindsey Houghton confirmed Thursday the attack stemmed from the student taking part in an online role-playing game called Defence of the Ancients, a “custom scenario” for the real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.
It is part of the Warcraft universe of games, which has 12 million online subscribers.
“It’s very unusual,” Houghton said of an assault arising from an online game. “I guess some people take these things exceptionally seriously.
“It’s something that is exceptionally rare, given the number of people who play video games,” Houghton said. “Most people can separate reality from online fiction.”
No arrests had been made and the Vancouver police youth squad was investigating the assault, he said.
There were four and possibly five assailants, who were described by witnesses as being in their late teens.
Richard Rosenberg, a computer science professor emeritus at the University of B.C., said he wasn’t surprised by the Vancouver assault.
“It’s hard enough being a teenager,” he said, adding that a growing number of serious real-life incidents stem from the online world.
“There are some emotions that seem to be amplified in the online world,” Rosenberg said. “It’s one of the byproducts of the online world.”
Many gamers act out emotions online, which gives them a certain status and online notoriety, he said.
“Things that happen on the Internet that affect your status can be very serious,” Rosenberg said, pointing out there have been suicides of young people whose status has been affected by postings on the Internet.
But there is a trend to teach teens in high school that while you can be insulting online, that behaviour is not acceptable in the real world, Rosenberg said.
In China three years ago, a man was given a suspended death sentence after he killed his friend over a dispute that arose from the popular online game Legend of Mir 3.
Qiu Chengwei had won a virtual sword in the game and had loaned it to his friend, Zhu Caoyuan.
He stabbed his friend to death after finding out the friend had sold the imaginary sword online, where there is a booming market for virtual property in the game-playing world.
There have also been lawsuits about theft of virtual property by gamers. One Chinese man sued a video game company after it allegedly “stole” the arsenal of weapons he had built up over two years.
The company argued the weapons were digital computer data owned by the game maker, but a Chinese court ordered the maker of Red Moon to return the imaginary arms to the gamer.
nhall@vancouversun.com
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Video+game+battle+leads+assault+Hamber+secondary+s tudent/3708613/story.html#ixzz138ifcNzi
:rofl: poor kid got ganked
Teen allegedly beaten with batons
By NEAL HALL, Vancouver Sun October 21, 2010
The world of online video games may seem like fun and games, but it turned ugly for a Vancouver high school student this week.
Police are investigating the beating of an Eric Hamber secondary school student after he was confronted by a group of assailants during lunch hour Monday.
The boy was apparently beaten because he had been playing an online video game with a group of friends who were beating their opponents and lording it over the losers, who were insulted by the “trash talk.”
The players allegedly tracked down the student to Hamber, located at 5025 Willow on the west side of Vancouver, and made him kiss their feet before hitting him with batons, breaking his fingers.
Vancouver police Const. Lindsey Houghton confirmed Thursday the attack stemmed from the student taking part in an online role-playing game called Defence of the Ancients, a “custom scenario” for the real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.
It is part of the Warcraft universe of games, which has 12 million online subscribers.
“It’s very unusual,” Houghton said of an assault arising from an online game. “I guess some people take these things exceptionally seriously.
“It’s something that is exceptionally rare, given the number of people who play video games,” Houghton said. “Most people can separate reality from online fiction.”
No arrests had been made and the Vancouver police youth squad was investigating the assault, he said.
There were four and possibly five assailants, who were described by witnesses as being in their late teens.
Richard Rosenberg, a computer science professor emeritus at the University of B.C., said he wasn’t surprised by the Vancouver assault.
“It’s hard enough being a teenager,” he said, adding that a growing number of serious real-life incidents stem from the online world.
“There are some emotions that seem to be amplified in the online world,” Rosenberg said. “It’s one of the byproducts of the online world.”
Many gamers act out emotions online, which gives them a certain status and online notoriety, he said.
“Things that happen on the Internet that affect your status can be very serious,” Rosenberg said, pointing out there have been suicides of young people whose status has been affected by postings on the Internet.
But there is a trend to teach teens in high school that while you can be insulting online, that behaviour is not acceptable in the real world, Rosenberg said.
In China three years ago, a man was given a suspended death sentence after he killed his friend over a dispute that arose from the popular online game Legend of Mir 3.
Qiu Chengwei had won a virtual sword in the game and had loaned it to his friend, Zhu Caoyuan.
He stabbed his friend to death after finding out the friend had sold the imaginary sword online, where there is a booming market for virtual property in the game-playing world.
There have also been lawsuits about theft of virtual property by gamers. One Chinese man sued a video game company after it allegedly “stole” the arsenal of weapons he had built up over two years.
The company argued the weapons were digital computer data owned by the game maker, but a Chinese court ordered the maker of Red Moon to return the imaginary arms to the gamer.
nhall@vancouversun.com
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Video+game+battle+leads+assault+Hamber+secondary+s tudent/3708613/story.html#ixzz138ifcNzi
:rofl: poor kid got ganked