Kotaku
Lineage II turned deadly in Russia late last year, where two members of warring clans meeting face-to-face in the city of Ufa resulted in violence and death. A 33 year-old member of the Platanium clan named Albert agreed to me a 22 year-old from the rival Coo-clocks Clan (*sigh*) in persona following a nasty PVP session that left the former dead. During the meeting Albert was brutally beaten, later dying from his injuries on the way to the hospital. Upon his arrest, the young man expressed no remorse - simply explaining calmly why Albert had to die. The alleged killer has now been charged with murder.
What's worse is this isn't the first Lineage II-related death in Russia. Back in January one player stomped another to death while he was trying to break up a fight sparked during a real life meet-up.
What's even more crazy is that members of the Coo-clocks continue to harass the dead man's family, going as far as to threaten the life of his sister. That's some pretty insane clan loyalty right there if you ask me. One isolated crazy I can understand, but once a member of your clan beats a man to death...that's generally when you want to back off on the team spirit. Hit up the link below for the full story. More fuel for the fire.
Online game rivalry ends with real life murder [Russia Today via Game Politics]
Comments
Only in Russia
A Russian e-mail spammer was killed a few years back too, but that one seemed a little more deserving. =P
....sigh.....*Insert Face-Palm pic here*
In Soviet Russia....We PVP in RL.
jesus wtf
I don't see what's so surprising about crazy people.
The reason just wasn't "He looked at me in the eyes so he had to die" and it was merely "He was in a different clan and he had to die" or whatever.
Crazy people are crazy. Internets or otherwise.
I find it hard to imagine how someone can be so deeply rooted with the persona of their fictional character and related associations to go so far as to kill someone and feel no regret.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if later confessions confirm that he attempted to loot the body.
Sick bastard.
That's a hardcore guild right there.
coo-clocks clan. my gawd.
come on people! come on!!!
everytime I think we can't sink lower - I'm always proved wrong. sickening.
Isn't this where you make the transition from "clan" to "gang"? Keep it in the game people, my sympathies go out to the family.
That's some hardcore crazy. I mean.. I thought about curb checking some prick who camped me (in WoW), but I never actually did it.. I guess that separates the weirdos from the crazies.
I obviously I don't know where everyone is from, but I have read of this type of violence happening in the states also(Cali area shootings at online gaming centers)....and on LIVE (Halo/Gears in particular), threats are very common....it's sad because that's not what games are truly about. I do my fair share of trash talking, but I make certain to cut off anything that might be perceived as "realtime" aggression.
Wow... This is a rather interesting case.
*Picture the police report*
"We arrived at the scene. The suspect was rapidly crouching up and down over the victim. It was at that point he began screaming, 'Noob, you like that, huh Noob? Huh? PWNED PWNED PWN PWN PWNED!' We didn't know what to make of it..."
Although the guy who got beat to death was probably a real trash-talking scumbag of a guy, either that or he cheated.
Clans are becoming gangs...? the end is near.
"Coo-clocks Clan"
LOL. What morons.
That whole situation is completely messed up, especially what happened to the victim's family.
Owned?
What's more scary is the "twenty-year-old from Petrosavodsk (who) killed his grandmother after she interrupted his game calling him to eat".
Talk about a terrible way to die... :(
The poll on the right hand side of the website is a gem.
Question:
What causes video game addicts to kill?
a.) Confusion over real and virtual worlds
b.) A lack of emotional maturity
c.) They're crazy like all criminals
This shouldn't come as too much of a shock.
The game *is* life to a serious MMO gamer.
I'm sure hiding from reality and the stress of socializing as a real person for hours at a stretch went a long way towards rationalizing this.
@LittlestLamshi: that's wrong - but so funny!
@TheEternalCowboy: Holy crap. Didn't take them long. And a whopping three choices, none of which include anything even remotely sensical.
The poll results?
Confusion over real and virtual worlds 27%
A lack of emotional maturity 44%
They're crazy like all criminals 29%
Wow... the readers of Russia Today don't think much of gamers...
It soviet russian. Game kill in you!
I've been into some bad pvp hate before. And clans are like digital gangs. You care and love your clan brothers. When you succeed, they succeed. when you lose, they lose. This is an example of what happens when it goes too far.
Rest in peace gamer, rest in peace.
sry, but this is bothering me too much... the former died, not the latter
@LittlestLamshi: yeah, I figured the same. Deceased was most likely just as bad, if it got to this level... still sad that it went so far.
wow... I am so confused.
People like me always defend gaming when people claim it causes violence.
It is people like those in the article that keep proving me wrong. How unfortunate for gaming and fortunate for all the Jack Thompsons of the world.
What has happened to humanity?
Well considering he's part of a clan that takes its name from an organisation deep seated in racial hatred and violence. Why am I not that surprised? Seriously they should just ban the lot.
lol...
a cyber lineage 2 clan that became and RL gang...
really, i'm quite positive this has more to do with mental illness than videogames....
Does Russia have an equivalent of RICO? this clan seems to be quite eligible.
what?
yall never heard of LARPing?
i love the tags on this article...
'game violence, insanity, russia' =)
@Custom Reality: Russia and America have two completely different cultures/mindsets. I don't see this ever happening here. Sure there's been impulse killings over Madden, but nothing this methodical, calculated, and planned. The fact they continued to harass the man's family is disgusting, and should result in jail time.
Wow... these are the types of people that fuel the Jack Thompson fire.
Do they not understand that clans are "IN GAME?"
With a name like that though, I wouldn't expect them to be too intelligent.
And I thought football hooligans were extreme...Russian video game clans could clearly give them a run for their money!
@ARboom: yea, jailtime, or a siberian pleasure jog!
This really makes me interested in the whole "video games" and real life blurring thing. Personally, I play a game and know its a god damned game. What goes on in the minds of these people?
Committing an act of violence on another human being, because of a computer program? And I know the way I'm saying it sounds as if Microsoft Excel could make you a homicidal maniac, but seriously. People got to get a fucking life.
@heliophage: You'd be surprised, there were alot of crazy people when I used to play Lineage II. Hell, I wanted to beat up people so bad over conflicts in Lineage II and I wasn't that involved with the game or clan wars.
@LittlestLamshi: I'm not sure its safe to assume he was some how asking to be killed (by making the assumption that he was a "scumbag"). He could have been expecting an ordinary scuffle. I've handed a few people their asses in my day but never to the point where I would hit someone while they were defenseless (e.i. brutality).
@Danj3ris: Violence is a much-studied subject, and the results are vague at best. I would call this case an anomoly, though. The mere fact that the killer showed no remorse is evidence of something much larger than a video game.
Oh - and I've definately wanted to kill people over Microsoft Excel. Damn 65536 line limit, just makes me see red... ;-)
@brandonf: Sorry, I can't let that one slide...
It's "i.e." not "e.i." It's latin for id est. Or you could use "e.g.", latin for exempli gratia.
Sorry... just... sorry. I really like my spoken language. I don't mean to be the grammar police, it's just that it's the third instance I've seen of that error recently...
dont mess with the clan
@ARboom: You must be very naive and brand new to the internet to think that something of this sort hasn't/won't happen in the US.
"I honestly wouldn't be surprised if later confessions confirmed that he attempted to loot the body"
@heliophage: You just had to take it there (trying not to laugh at the absurdity of that idea).
@Tonx: Yes, yes a typo. Thanks Grammer Cop.
@Danj3ris:
Microsoft Excel...closest I've come to murderous rage yet. If I didn't get the bright idea to simply correct its idiotic mistakes myself instead of figuring out why they happened, by god, someone might not be alive today.
@O-Z: You must not be from the US.
Condolences.
In its heyday, some korean players gave up their life savings, their land, permits to get a piece of of a virtual land. Its sad that it has to take lives. JT will eat this up
This is why Russia lost the Russo-Japanese War.
You read that right. I offer no qualifiers for that statement.
Wow this is unbelievable... In situations like this.. It's time to call the A-Team!
The real question is, did he level up afterwards?