I used to play The Sims. Loved it. I loved being in the virtual world where I could create characters and control their lives… kinda like writing fiction.

I always treated my Sims fairly and never purposely caused them distress. Once, however, things went terribly wrong. My Sim character had just stepped out of the shower and dressed. Now, I don’t know about you. but I can’t dress after a shower unless I’m completely dry. Completely dry. Apparently that’s not so for The Sims. He left the bathroom and entered the living room where a lightbulb had burned out. And so, assuming he was dry, I had him change that bulb. And he was electrocuted.

Zapped! Fried! Burned and reduced to ashes! This horrible crackling sound came from his virtual living room. I sat stunned, my arms tingling with shock the same as my character tingled and trembled with an electrical current coursing through his tiny computer-generated physique. He turned from a ‘live’ being to a glowing skeleton to a pile of dust to an urn. An URN! In seconds it was over. A life I’d created instantly snuffed out by the apparent incompatibility of virtual water and virtual electricity. It was awful. His Sims wife sobbed by his urn… 

…and I sat there staring at the screen, feeling sick to my stomach and wondering why I’d chosen to play that stupid, addictive game in the first place.

I killed a Sim.

But I was never arrested for murder.

A woman in Japan, however, was not so lucky.

She, apparently, enjoyed virtual games the same as I. Her first mistake, however, was not playing privately but rather joining an online virtual community. Her second mistake was letting her virtual character in that community marry another virtual character.

It seems, at some point, her virtual DH decided he was done with her. Without warning, she went to her happy virtual home only to learn her character was no longer a married woman but a divorcee!

Furious, she used some pillow talk against her V-DH. He’d told her his secrets. Shared private and personal information with her. What did he share? Well… the virtual world’s equivalent of a social security number.

He shared his username and password!

Perfectly bringing ‘life’ to the expression hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, she logged in as him, took control of his character – her ex – and killed him.  Killed. Him.

The gory details were not made public, but suffice it to say, HE was stunned when he logged on and discovered his character was dead.

The woman was arrested and held without bond.

In fairness, I have to say she wasn’t arrested for murder, she was arrested for identity theft. Still, I’m willing to bet neither of them will take another virtual mate any time soon.

What a strange, strange world we live in.

It’s 8AM. Do you know where your virtual identities are?