Chinese Dad Hires Hitmen to Kill Son’s Video Game Character

Chinese dad tries to teach unemployed son a lesson by hiring virtual Hitmen to assassinate his character to curb his video game obsession. 

Playing video games once in a while is a great hobby since it helps release stress and increases one’s sense of self-satisfaction. But when you’re unemployed and you’ve got your dad hiring virtual assassins to kill your character just so you’d stop playing, that’s when you’d realize that your video game obsession has already gotten way out of hand.

A concerned Chinese father who was sick of watching his unemployed son waste valuable time on video games online did what any other self-respecting parent would do: he talked to his son, gave him life-changing advice and the situation was given a solution.

Oh well, who was I kidding? If that was really what happened, we wouldn’t have much of a story, now, would we?

What he actually did was this: He asked for the assistance of virtual assassins to beat up his son’s video game character with the hope that if this does happen, his son would eventually take a break from playing.

Mr. Feng, the Chinese father as identified here, has explained that the logic for his action is that video games prevented his 23-year old son, Xiao Feng, from landing a decent job. It seems that Mr. Feng  couldn’t believe that Xiao Feng, who used to have good grades in school, would have trouble finding a career path suited to him.

In response, Xiao Feng said that he just simply could not find any work that he particularly liked, so he started playing video games while waiting for the perfect employment opportunity that he will thoroughly enjoy – he just recently resigned from his job at a software company after working there for three months.

This response was the straw that broke Mr. Feng’s back. Annoyed, he then reportedly began his mission to look for qualified “assassins” that would get his son’s life back into order.

Mr. Feng did not disclose exactly how he was able to find other players whose levels were higher than his son’s. Maybe he posted in a forum or maybe he secretly contacted one of his son’s gaming buddies? The fee paid to the virtual hitmen was not disclosed as well.

These virtual assassins were instructed by Mr. Feng to track down his son’s video game character and to brutally kill his son’s avatar every time he logged on. Mr. Feng had a tiny inkling of hope that if the game were to be too challenging, his son would eventually quit playing video games and start looking for a job.

Despite everything, Xiao Feng just shrugged it off and said, “I can play or I can’t play, it doesn’t bother me. I’m not looking for any job – I want to take some time and find one that suits me.”

Mr. Feng has been reported to feel “relieved” regarding his son’s calm attitude about the matter.

Currently, it is unknown if Mr. Feng has stopped the virtual assassins from killing his son online or if Xiao Feng has actually found a job.

Mark Griffiths, a professor of gambling studies at the Nottingham Trent University in England, called Mr. Feng’s intervention to be “extreme”.

Well, this isn’t really the first time that video game addiction has made headlines in China – China already has specialized center’s for treating Internet and video game addiction nowadays.