RPG’s – role playing games – have been an Internet mainstay for years, but they seem to have taken on a new dimension in China.

And it has parents – and the authorities – worried.

Among the most popular forms of RPGs are ‘online marriage games’ where the players apparently live very full fantasy lives.

A 14-year-old often stayed all night in an Internet cafe and, "One day, the son came home with joy and told his mother he had ‘earned’ some billion yuan in the game and had got a ‘wife’ and a ’son’," says a Xinhua News Agency report here.

"I was very surprised to see him addicted so much to the grown-up’s activities," it quotes the mother as saying. She also said he skipped classes and spent all his allowance in the Intenet cafe.

In another incident, a male highschool student named Yan ‘married’ a girl in an on-line game called ‘Crazy tanks’.

"In the game, the ‘couple’ took wedding photos, had a sweet honeymoon and adopted a child," says XNA. "The deep affection finally made him decide to find Xiao Fei in real life. ‘I must meet her in reality and will love her. I’m planning it now,’ he said with hope in his eyes."

It adds that according Yan, "Many on-line games allow players to marry and live together."

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2004 at 4:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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