The Japanese take Maple Story very seriously.

[The Ancient]

Online divorcee jailed after killing virtual hubby - Yahoo! News

A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.

The woman, who is 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 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.

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," another virtual interactive world.

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.

[Burning_Samurai]

So for everyone who doesn't play Maple Story, what do they mean "killed"? She deleted his character, or is there some kinda permadeath in the game?

[column]

Who knew Brazilians were so into MMO's ...

[Hatorade]

You lose 1-3% of XP on death over level 10 only made it to level 13ish so no idea if you can lose levels like in EQ.

[Hachima]

Since he gave her the login most likely, I bet it will be harder to argue that she hacked in. And way to dramatize someone deleting someone else's character.

[Tyen]

Maplestory is one of those games that you don't think is big whatsoever but their fan base is pretty huge.

[Darus Grey]

Originally Posted by Hachima

Since he gave her the login most likely, I bet it will be harder to argue that she hacked in. And way to dramatize someone deleting someone else's character.

In Japan it's against the law to make unauthorized use of a computer regardless whether they gave you info or not, if you weren't authorized *that time* it's against the law.

There's been a lot of other cases tried and won under that.

[Ninen]

Heard this on the BBC world service last night, of all places. Spouting the "murdered his virtual alter ego" and the whole bit.

This is far less interesting when you realize its a simple hacking case.

Always amazing at the weight words like murder can have. Sensationalistic crap.

[voodoochile78]

Who takes Maple Story more seriously, the Japanese or the forum community over at GameFAQs? That's been on the list of top 10 message boards (usually #1 or #2) for at least the past 3 years.

[SalaciousTunare]

The real question is, were tentacles or octopi involved?