This just doesnt make any goddamn sense

TOKYO – A 43-year-old Japanese piano teacher\'s sudden divorce from her online husband in a virtual game world made her so angry that she logged on and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday.

The woman, who has been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo City said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

"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 had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

As in "Second Life" in the U.S., players in "Maple Story" raise and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.

The woman was arrested Wednesday and was taken across the country, traveling 620 miles from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sappporo, where the man lives, the official said.

The police official said he did not know if she was married in the real world.

In recent years, virtual lives have had consequences in the real world. In August, a woman was charged in Delaware with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through "Second Life."

In Tokyo, police arrested a 16-year-old boy on charges of swindling virtual currency worth $360,000 in an interactive role playing game by manipulating another player\'s portfolio using a stolen ID and password.

Virtual games are popular in Japan, and "Second Life" has drawn a fair number of Japanese participants. They rank third by nationality among users, after Americans and Brazilians.

W....t....f?

[clips]

This story has to be a hoax....i just cannot see these people actually getting arrested for something being done in a virtual reality game...

Well, I thought the same at first, but I guess it can hold water considering she illegally accessed another account.

Japanese internet laws vs US internet laws.

[Titan]

That hurt my head to read.

[Cerberus]

if it\'s true, it\'s another example of just how many crackpots are online.

there was a similar story doing the rounds a few months ago about some german guy coming to the uk who murdered someone he played call of duty 4 with, the reason being was because he couldn\'t beat him in the game.

Apparently, Japanese prisons aren\'t yet as full as ours. Max 5 years? Heh.
 
Basically, she stole his game by using his password and then messed with it (killing his character) before essentially giving the game back. I guess.
 
In the first of what officials fear could be a rash of copycat cases, a Kentucky man was given life without parole after partaking on a virtual killing spree through the online environments of the "Gears of War" video game. The man\'s name is being witheld by police, but he is accused of simulating the vicious chainsaw murders of more than 500 other virtual video game characters owned by real-life players based around the tri-state area and nationally.
 
"I thought we were just playing a game," the man told police, "but now I wish I\'d at least slept with a hooker or something."

ok how is knowing the password been considered hacking....

if you ever play mmos you know people always get "hacked" and its always nothing more then so and so had their password and took their stuff

always makes me rage when people write that off as hacking lol


and yea still 5 years is crazy for that

yea, definitely not hacking, but is someone\'s maliciously going into your account without permission and altering things that\'s against the law.