'They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby.'
'The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby,' Chung Jin-Won, a police officer, told Yonhap. The game, similar to Second Life, allows players to create another existence for themselves in a virtual world, including getting a job, interacting with other users and earning an extra avatar to nurture once they reach a certain level. 'I am sorry for what I did and hope that my daughter does not suffer any more in heaven,' the husband is quoted as saying on the asiaone website.Īccording to the Yonhap news agency, South Korean police said the couple had become obsessed with raising a virtual girl called Anima in the popular role-playing game Prius Online.
