A 13 year old Vietnamese boy was arrested yesterday for allegedly strangling an 81 year old woman to death. According to the local police, Dinh The Dan "confessed that he needed money to play online games and decided to kill and rob the woman".

The woman, Mai Thi Mau lost her life for 100,000 dong (around Rs. 244). After strangling her with a rope, Dan buried her in a pile of sand in front of his house. The saddest part is that is that he won’t even go to prison! Here’s what a local policeman had to say –

"He is too young to be put in prison for the crime he committed, but we will send him to a reeducation camp, which may release him after he shows enough good behavior."

I think it’s about time people look at MMO addiction as a real concern across the globe. Now there are rehabilitation centers for MMO addicts scattered around the globe, but they’re too few in number and to scarce. The real problem lies in admitting or identifying that you’re addicted.

I was addicted to World of Warcraft for two years too, and I lost out on a huge chunk of my social life and it was more detrimental to me than fun in the long run. So the next time you think about picking up an MMO, consider whether you can control how many hours you choose to spend with it; if you can’t, just skip it and stick to something that takes up fewer hours of your day.