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Co-operative online gaming is defined by the sense of mutual indispensability it brings; regardless of the age, nationality or sex of the player you are teaming up with, taking on a particular role as a team is what makes it so fascinating — and addicting. If you suddenly pull out, your allied team mate is left to settle the dilemma first hand. Vise versa, if you’re left to tackle the enemy yourself, you feel equally betrayed. It is this unspoken agreement of “I’ll watch your back if you watch mine” that compounds the feeling of seeing the game through to the end.

On this is note, let me introduce an episode involving a twenty-three year old social recluse’s online gaming antics that has recently been making the news in China. The father of this twenty-three year old gamer grew concerned that his son was becoming too obsessed with the gaming world; not having any interest in finding a job or placing his efforts into anything but gaming, the son’s father resorted to a rather unique measure in attempt to stop his son in his tracks.

Most fathers, when confronted with a similar problem, would tell their son to get his act together or even go so far as to confiscate his gaming equipment. What this father did however was hire an ‘online hunter’ or, in other words, a ‘gaming pro’, to shoot down his son inside the game itself and thus destroys his son’s ‘online gaming morale’.

Some will undoubtedly be exclaiming “that’s pure ingenuity” others, “isn’t that going a little bit too far?!”

According to Chinese media reports, the jobless 23-year-old man, spent his days immersing himself in online war games and showed little interest in anything but the four walls around him. As is naturally the case, when one devotes oneself day after day to something, they become considerably skillful. This young man was no exception and, according to reports, anyone who thought about trying their skills against him would surely have met a sudden death.

What raised suspicion in the man that someone was deliberately honing in on him was that every time he respawned, he was greeted with instant death. Even pros has their off-period, but after investing so many hours into perfecting one’s game play, the likelihood of being killed in such succession is something that has surely got to make one think “there’s something a little odd here”.

At this point, the addict contacted his gunman in-game and asked who they were. The reply that came back was an bigger surprise than his losing streak: they were virtual headhunters hired by his very own father.

This revelation left the gamer completely dumbfounded, and a little irritated. He lectured his father, “when I find a job that suits me, I’ll start working. Until then, there’s nothing wrong with online-gaming. I’m by no means addicted so I don’t see what the problem is!”

After this, the father and son reconciled and it was agreed that there would be no more hiring of hunters. It seems that going to such extremes didn’t achieve the result that the father was looking for, but for the time being, the son was left in peace to perfect his game.

Source: livedoor
Header image: Seanpaune.com, Inset Images: BBC