Okay… that’s a ludicrous sensationalist title from the Associated Press article where the story originated. We guess hacking into someone’s account and deleting their character constitutes murder in a virtual sense. Ugh. This story is best summed up as hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

A 43 year old Japanese woman became angry after finding out her in-game husband had divorced her avatar without any warning. The woman was so furious she accessed the man’s account and deleted his character. Apparently there was no real-life relationship between the two Maple Story players.


The 33 year old man complained to police after finding out his character was deleted and the woman was hauled 600 miles to where the man lives and tossed into the clink on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data. If convicted she could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

Maybe he’ll go visit her in jail and ask for his loots back and drop all the charges. (Or one of the hilarious ideas already devised by our own readers). On a serious note this chump is stupid for not changing his account information. There was no leet hack or shady keylogger involved. He shared his account information with another player, compromising his account. The hacking charge is bunk but I can see how the manipulated electronic data charge would stick. Anyway, I’d cry myself to sleep for a month if my main was deleted which is why I do not share my account information with anyone.


This sad tale of a torn online lovey-dovey relationship isn’t new, and disturbingly more cases regarding virtual-item thefts and real-life violence between in-game enemies is becoming more common as MMOs become more popular.

If you are looking for love in all the wrong places why not try your luck in Maple Story? Download the client, the game is free to play and supported by micro-transactions AKA the item shop.