Below are just some of the crimes that have been related to online games, MMORPGs in particular, according to Catherine Donaldson-Evans in her feature in foxnews.com

• A 2-year-old girl nicknamed “Baby Grace” by detectives was found dead in October in a locked box in Texas — allegedly the victim of a beating murder at the hands of her stepfather and teenaged mother, who met playing the online fantasy game “World of Warcraft.”
• A 31-year-old Australian woman named Tamara Broome was nabbed in June when she traveled to North Carolina to lure a 16-year-old boy she encountered playing the same popular Internet game.
• Twenty-six-year-old Florida resident Daniel Lenz is also under investigation for allegedly coaxing a 15-year-old girl he played “World of Warcraft” with to run away with him.
• In China, a “Legend of Mir III” player is spending the rest of his life behind bars for fatally stabbing another for the “theft” of a virtual sword.

What is about Online Games and Crime? Are people really going out of their way to exploit innocent newbies? Has the potential for wealth and fame – essentially the elements of greed – convoluted others to turn to the dark side to commit these vile acts? Find out more when you hit jump. To summarize, here are some interesting points on crimes vis-a-vis online games and games.

• Losing your guard - online gamers tend not to have a high wall to guard their identities rather than SNS sites such as Friendster or Multiply because they feel a “connection” to co-players, especially party or guild mates. “”When you’re in a social situation like that — playing a game, having fun — you’re comfortable with the people you’re playing with,” said cyber-stalking victim Jayne Hitchcock, president of Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA). “People are just not very careful. They lose all sense of reality and themselves.” When your defenses are down, unscrupulous netizens will then take advantage of that
• Aggression and Violence – They say that violence is a given in MMORPGs, especially those with PVP components. Experts think that this often translates to real-life tendencies; “You observe people playing these games — it draws out a kind of aggressiveness and competitiveness in their behavior,” he said. “There is a concern for people who become obsessively involved with cyber gaming.” said Robert McCrie, a professor in the law and police science department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
• Hooking Up Online - We’ve all heard stories that end up in a “happily ever after” mode when two people wed after “getting to know each other” in a game. But there ARE horror stories about this.

In the case of toddler “Baby Grace,” whose real name was Riley Ann Sawyers, her mother Kimberly Dawn Trenor met second husband Royce Clyde Zeigler II playing “World of Warcraft.” Trenor, 19, had had a volatile relationship with Riley’s birth father and wound up moving from Ohio to Texas to be with Zeigler, 24. Zeigler and Trenor abused the toddler, according to court documents, and Trenor told police that one July day, they beat, tortured and threw the child across the room, killing her. They allegedly concealed her body in a box in a shed and then tossed it into Galveston Bay.

Personally, it is really sad and sometimes disgusting to hear people doing this. But I feel that we have to do something. Here are some suggestions

• Be Careful – Don’t share your phone numbers or address. No explanation needed. See above.
• Don’t meet someone alone – in EBs or parties iRL, go with a friend. You don’t have “resu” in real life.
• Too much gaming is bad! See my post Gaming is Evil for details
• Don’t be too trusting

Again, stay safe and always be on your guard.

Via FoxNews

Strength and Honor,

GM T