Gaming in the Media Blog

Switched.com posted an interesting story about a kidnapping in Brazil.

The twist? The victim was a gamer, kidnapped for his password.

Brazilian authorities have arrested four men in Sao Paulo after the gang kidnapped a man and held him at gunpoint for his password to a video game account.

The victim is reportedly one of the world’s top players of ‘GunBound,’ an appropriately named role-playing game, which is incredibly popular in Brazil. In the game, the better you perform in battle, the more skills and experience you earn, as well as money to buy in-game items such as armor and weapons. Apparently, the victim’s character is so built up with skills, experience and extra weapons that the kidnappers believed they’d be able to sell the character on the black market for as much as $8,000.

The kidnapping began when the victim was approached by the girlfriend of one of the criminals on Oukrut, Google’s social networking site, which is also very popular in Brazil. The two made plans to meet offline at a shopping mall. But, instead of meeting a date, the victim met the business end of a gun barrel. He was taken away and held hostage at gunpoint for five hours as the gang tried to pry the account password out of him. Amazingly (and perhaps, idiotically), the man didn’t squeal and the criminals eventually gave up and released him. They were apprehended shortly after.

[Hat tip to Geeksugar.]

This will be a semi-regular feature post considering that gaming seems to be a convenient scapegoat for the many ills of society.

Here are the two most recent gems in the gaming gallery of the absurd.

Raging Gamers Addicted to MMORPGS!

In late June, Geeksugar posted a quick blurb about a push from some doctors to categorize video game behavior as a psychiatric disorder.

Geeksugar writes:

The group prepared a report for the American Medical Association’s annual policy meeting which is being held this week in Chicago and hopes to lobby for the disorder to be included in a widely used mental illness manual created and published by the American Psychiatric Association. The report says that 90 percent of American youth play video games and as many as 15 percent of them, which is more than 5 million kids, may be addicted.

According to the AP, that addiction translates into gamers yelling, ignoring their friends and family, not showering, not eating properly and letting their responsibilities and school work slide. The story also references a kid who went from being an “outgoing, academically gifted teen” to a “reclusive manipulator who flunked two 10th grade classes and spent several hours day and night playing World of Warcraft.”

The writers for Geeksugar called bullshit, and I totally agree - I mean, come on. Yes, video games can be addictive - but so is anything pleasurable. Food, sex, drugs (for some), cell phone texting, shuffling through your Ipod…are we going to label all those psychiatric disorders?

It seems to me that this is another way to push more medication.

No Taxation Without Virtual Representation!

I work in DC. I fork out almost a fourth of my take-home pay (not to mention 51% of my freelance money) in taxes, as well as paying 10% DC sales tax on everything I purchase. So when Slashdot posted about congress revisiting the virtual goods tax, I felt a little part of me die inside.

I’m hoping that Congress does not come to an agreement on any kind of virtual taxation. It’s bad enough they are allowing the RIAA to kill internet radio…now they want to tax my SecondLife purchases?

The brave new net world is starting to look a bit grim…