Ghost in the shell

Cyberworld invades our daily lives with an ever-increasing hostility. In the past few years, the most eye-catching problems included suicide attempts of teenagers stemming from game addiction, juvenile delinqency and law suits related to virtual properties. Russia, among other post-Communist (or still Comunist like China) countries is no exception.

In March, a student of the Murmansk Economics, Statistics and IT College was expelled after he criti­cized the college authorities in his weblog. Anatoly Yushchen­ko, 18, posted a story about an amateur con­cert, organized by a stu­dent’s council, on his person­al blog at LiveJournal.com, the most popular blogging service among Russians. On the next day he saw the text of his post on leaflets on the col­lege’s walls. The blogger also says “unknown people” distributed the papers among students. A curator for the students’ council warned Yushchenko that if he carried on writing on his blog, he would be removed from the college. He refused to do so and shortly afterwards was forced to leave the educational insti­tution of his own accord.

As local media reported earlier, a second-year stu­dent at the St.-Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions, Valentina Knysh, was expelled for criti­cizing her lecturer in verу unfavourable terms in her LiveJournal blog. Her post was also printed and distributed among students and a special session of the scientific council was held for the purpose of removing the girl from the univer­sity. Its mem­bers concluded that Knysh broke student regula­tions and showed disregard towards the university com­munity.

On a more tragic note, last Tuesday, a 12-year-old schoolboy from Rus­sia’s Urals city of Yekaterinburg died after playing computer games. After spending 12 hours at a local computer club, the boy fainted and was taken to hospital, where he died of a stroke eight days later. And while it’s too early to say what exactly was the reason for the boy’s death, local doc­tors are sure that he was killed by his obsession with virtual reality. After school ended in May he started visiting a local computer club every day, spending 10 to 12 hours there and returned home only to eat and sleep. His parents did not prevent him from play­ing the computer games, thinking that their son should choose how he spent his summer vacation. One of the club’s employees told a Russian daily news­paper on condition of anonymity that the boy did not visit the establishment any more than other youths. Sometimes chil­dren stay there the whole night, he said. At first the boy was diagnosed with an epileptic seizure. He became disconcerted and could not recognize his par­ents. A week later he was only able to breathe with the help of an artificial res­pirator; he died shortly afterwards. A post-mortem examination has shown that he died of a stroke.

Alexei Sulimov, a senior doctor at the local chil­dren’s hospital said he and his colleagues were shocked by the death. They believe that the boy’s addiction to computer games did not let up even when he felt bad. “He was dying but could not tear himself from the game,” he said. The emotional tension resulted in a congestion of blood vessels in the brain, the doctors concluded. The boy was apparently healthy and showed no signs of being at risk of a stroke. A special medical commission will decide if playing computer games could have led to his death. The Yekaterinburg city administration has initiated checks of all local computer clubs, claiming they may be breaking the rules of pro­viding services.

Such intrusions of virtual reality into everyday life are far from being rare. And while Russia is still to get its share of cyberwars lead­ing to real-life crimes, else­where it is already under­way. Recently, a Shanghai online game player who stabbed a competitor to death for selling his cyber-sword has been given a sus­pended death sentence, which in effect means life imprisonment. The case had created a dilemma in China where no law exists for the ownership of virtual weapons. Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his “dragon sabre,” used in the popular online game, “Legend of Mir 3,” the China Daily said. “Legend of Mir 3” features heroes and villains, sorcerers and warriors, many of whom wield enormous swords.

Qiu was sentenced to death “with a two-year reprieve,” which in effect means life behind bars. That, in turn, could be reduced to 15 years if he behaves well, the newspaper said of the sentence which has angered the victim’s family. Qui and a friend jointly won their weapon last February, and lent it to Zhu who then sold it for 7,200 yuan (US$ 870), the newspaper said. Qui went to the police to report the “theft” but was told the weapon was not real property pro­tected by law.

“Zhu promised to hand over the cash but an angry Qui lost patience and attacked Zhu at his home, stabbing him in the left chest with great force and killing him,” the court was told.

More and more online gamers were seeking justice through the courts over stolen weapons and credits, the newspaper said at the time the case went to trial.

One would think that in Russia, where paying real money for virtual stuff is still rare, such bizarre cases would be virtually (pardon the pun) nonexistent. Not so. Just last Wednesday, Russian news agencies reported the start of a trial of a J.R.R. Tolkien fan who killed his opponent during a role-play fight. In fact, Russian fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy books often stage role-play fights in full armour using plastic or metal weapons, but this is the first death reported in the history of Siberian “Tolkienists”. Alexey Zhivaev, 31, broke the rules of the contest when he hit his opponent, 16-year-old Oleg, on the head with his sword. The defendant, head of the Urals Historical Fencing Club, says his opponent was not quick enough and that the teenager hit himself against the plastic sword. Oleg was taken to hospital and soon died of head injuries. The final verdict is expected on June 22.

As this last case shows, infatuation with imaginary worlds doesn’t really need a computer to turn your dreams into nightmares. And while they may still provide convenient means to pursue such escapist obsessions to the point of madness and even death, it’s really all in our heads.

Oleg Liakhovich

The Moscow News 14/04/2008