Chinese father hires virtual hitman to 'kill' son in online games - so he will get a job

The father paid better players to hunt son's avatar

He hoped his unemployed son would then get bored and find work

A Chinese man concerned about his unemployed son's gaming addiction hired online hitmen to 'kill' his avatar.

The man, named as Mr Feng, blames his 23-year-old son's love for online role-playing games for his unemployment and found a radical way to get him into gear.

Mr Feng, who lives with his son in the Shaanxi province in central China, hired high-level players to kill his son's character every time he went online to play in the hopes that this would see him tire of playing.

The gamer's father was so concerned about his son's habit that he hired virtual hitmen to kill off his avatar (file picture)

Mr Feng told Chinese newspaper Sanqing Daily that his son had begun playing online games in high school after which his grades deteriorated and Feng Jr. has struggled with keeping a job since.

He said he was annoyed that when his son finally found a job at a software development company he failed to stick it out for more than three months.

But unfortunately for Mr Feng, it appears his plan failed.

SIGNS OF GAMING ADDICTION Disrupted regular life pattern

Skipping school/work to play



sleeping during the day to be able to game at night

Need to play for increasingly longer periods of time to get the same 'buzz'

Withdrawal symptoms

Becoming irritable and/or anxious when they are unable to play

Constant need to play the game or be online Source: CNN.com

The 23-year-old, named by blog Kotaku East as Xiao Feng, eventually asked his 'murderers' why they kept targeting him, and found out the truth.

Instead of encouraging him to get hired he told his father 'I can play or I can not play, it doesn't bother me.

'I'm not looking for any job—I want to take some time to find one that suits me.'

A gambling and addictions expert was quoted by the BBC saying these types of interventions may do more harm than good to family relations and that in most cases gaming addiction is a symptom of an underlying problem.

Professor Mark Griffiths, gambling and addictions expert at Nottingham Trent University, told the BBC he had not known family members to go to such drastic measures before.

He said: 'It's not going to do much for family relations.



Expert Professor Mark Griffiths said he had not heard of such extreme tactics before but said he knew gamers who regularly played for up to 14 hours a day

'I've never heard of that kind of intervention before, but I don't think these top-down approaches work.

'Most excessive game playing is usually a symptom of an underlying problem.'

He said in his 25 years experience he had come across players who dedicated up to 14 hours a day gaming.

But he said it only has a detrimental affect if it impacts on their work or family life.