A woman has been non-virtually jailed after virtually killing her virtual husband in an online role-playing game. The 43-year-old became so angry about her sudden divorce from her online husband that she logged on with his password and killed his digital persona, police said.
The woman, who has been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his ID and password to log onto Maple Story, a popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), to carry out the virtual murder in May, a police official in the northern city of Sapporo said on Thursday.
'I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry,' the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.
The woman, a piano teacher, had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.
She has not yet been formally charged. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison or a fine up to US$5,000.
Players in Maple Story create avatars for themselves, while engaging the usual MMORPG pastimes of fighting monsters in dungeons, going on quests, and forming relationships with other players.
The woman killed her ex-husabnd's avatar using login information she had obtained from the 33-year-old office worker during happier times. The man complained to police when he discovered that he was dead.
The woman was arrested Wednesday and taken 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sapporo, where the man lives, the official said.
The police official said he did not know if she was married in the real world.
Bad online behavior is usually handled within the rules set up by online worlds, which can ban miscreants or take away their virtual possessions.
In recent years, misbehavior in the virtual world has in some cases had consequences in reality.
In August, a woman was charged in the U.S. state of Delaware with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through virtual world Second Life.
In Tokyo, a 16-year-old boy was charged with stealing the ID and password from a fellow player of an online game in order to swindle virtual currency worth US$360,000.
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