The South Korean police arrested a couple who became so obsessed with an online game that they starved their infant daughter to death.
Newspaper reports said the unemployed couple from a Seoul suburb indulged themselves in the 3D fantasy game, Prius Online, which allows users to choose a career and friends, and rewards them with a daughter after they pass a certain level.
In the game, billed emotional, users have to bond with their virtual daughter, Anima, to raise her and strengthen her skills. The couple spent hours nurturing Anima at an Internet café, while neglecting their own prematurely born daughter. They fed her powdered milk just once a day in between the 12-hour gaming sessions. Eventually, in September 2009 after a gaming session the couple returned home one morning to find the child dead.
There have been sporadic reports of death related to Internet game addiction in South Korea. In February, a young man was charged with murdering his mother because she nagged him for spending too much time playing games.
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