After losing a schoolyard fight, a 17-year-old boy in Beijing recently covered a classmate with gasoline and lit him on fire, claiming he "had lost himself in World of Warcraft and when he committed the crime he had transformed into a Fire Mage."
The boy has been sentenced to 8 years in prison and ordered to pay the victim and his family a restitution of 760,000 RMB (approximately $103,140 USD).
In light of the recent "Mortal Kombat killings," we're hesitant to believe the claims of any youth who says they have been influenced by a video game into violence. In this case, though, we believe him simply because China lacks our American legal system that allows people to claim "games made me do it," and subsequently shift all blame to the game's creators.
While this crime is both shocking and bizarre, we have to applaud the Chinese officials for offering a sane punishment as response. Had this occurred here in the United States, the blame would have landed squarely on Blizzard, and a multi-million dollar lawsuit followed by a governmental inquiry into the evils of World of Warcraft (possibly helmed by Tipper Gore) wouldn't be at all surprising.
i heard the victim dropped some bear skin, a couple of copper, and a dingy old sword. the chinese boy tried to get into "farming" mode by sitting in the corner, and wait for his victim to respawn so he can collect more bear skin, but to no avail. :(
