In another crazy gamers news story, this time we go to Japan where an addicted Maple Story player goes off on parents after his parents try to disable his account.
Here is an excerpt from a column from the Daily Mainichi:
A third-year junior high school student, her son became obsessed with the online role-playing game MapleStory last fall. He had gotten good grades up to that point, and his parents, who had had high hopes for him, panicked when he stopped going to school. When they asked the game’s publisher Nexon Corp. to disable their son’s MapleStory log-in capability this past April, their son turned violent, prompting them to call the police. The boy, frantic, leaned out a second-story window and screamed that he would die if he couldn’t play the game. Worn down, his parents pleaded with Nexon to reinstate the account.
The boy now sits in front of the computer 15 hours a day. Once outgoing and expressive, now “he has a stern gaze and looks like a different person,” his mother laments. “He’s brusque with us, but sometimes, when he’s facing the computer screen, he’ll suddenly let out a chuckle…”