Man Stabbed in Internet Cafe, Gamer Plays On

[Andy Chalk]

Man Stabbed in Internet Cafe, Gamer Plays On

The stabbing of a man in a Taiwan internet cafe attracted depressingly little response from bystanders.

The April 3 stabbing death of a man at an internet cafe in Kaohsiung, Taiwan is disturbing not just because of the violent nature of the crime but because of the reaction of cafe patrons who witness the attack - or, more specifically, the non-reaction. Video of the killing indicates that none of the witnesses did anything to stop the murder, and worse, one gamer who was so close to the killing that blood splattered onto her clothes ignored the whole thing and continued to play her game.

A brief clip of security camera footage released by Shenzhen Satellite TV [http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTM5MjA5MjY0.html] shows the crowd doing virtually nothing while the victim falls and the perpetrator walks away, although the report apparently doesn't speak to the unmoved gamer or mention what she was playing.

This sort of crowd paralysis isn't an uncommon reaction to such events but even so, I cannot imagine what could possibly be interesting enough to distract a person from a murder being committed just a few feet away - especially when she's literally being sprayed with blood.

Source: Tech In Asia [http://www.techinasia.com/taiwanese-gamer-witnesses-murder-internet-cafe-playing-games-bloodstained-clothes/]


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[Legion]

I don't know... I mean if you were really close to the high score...

Seriously though, this is pretty disturbing. I mean, I can understand being paralysed with fear, but to not even notice/react when it is happening right next to you is just wrong.

I wonder how the people who know them will react after seeing the footage/news.

 

[Roxas1359]

That is highly depressing. While I'm an avid gamer who gets immersed in his games if I saw someone get stabbed I'd at least stop what I was playing in order to either help or at least call the cops...>.>

 

[FFP2]

It kinda makes me sad that I would most likely do the same thing... I tend to get a bit too immersed

 

[Parakeettheprawn]

Faith in humanity is getting lower every day...

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Now I could be absolutely wrong on this, but I think this is a problem more with Chinese society and not gaming. But there have been a few cases in both Chinese societies IIRC with no videogames being present.

China has a weird view on samaritan-ism (ie. you involving yourself means you are guilty) which is ironic cause Buddhism actively opposes this attitude,

If this happened in Korea or Japan, I wouldn't be as surprised, but still surprised.

 

[hazydawn]

Well maybe she has a reason? What if things like that aren't uncommon in this area(because of the mafia!) and it is common that you shouldn't react or you might get stabbed as well! Maybe she was so scared that she thought it would be best to ignore the situation.

Houseman reasons are even better ^^

 

[Waaghpowa]

China has a weird view on samaritan-ism (ie. you involving yourself means you are guilty) which is ironic cause Buddhism actively opposes this attitude

Not just China, India as well, according to Indian friends of mine. Seems to be an attitude of Asia in general.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

Now I could be absolutely wrong on this, but I think this is a problem more with Chinese society and not gaming. But there have been a few cases in both Chinese societies IIRC with no videogames being present.

China has a weird view on samaritan-ism (ie. you involving yourself means you are guilty) which is ironic cause Buddhism actively opposes this attitude,

If this happened in Korea or Japan, I wouldn't be as surprised, but still surprised.

look up ?Peng Yu case? some time. Old woman fell off a bus, broke several bones, good samaritan Peng Yu helped her, got her to the hospital, paid her medical bill... & she sued him... and the judge ruled in her favor

It's my understanding that this case is pretty fresh in the minds of the Chinese public

 

[IllumInaTIma]

How about conducting an experiment with the same premise, but in USA or Europe? How much people reaction would differ?
But yeah, that's kinda fucked up. Thinking about it, some people won't even notice their own death while playing.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

She got blood sprayed all over her and didn't react?

That must have been quite an immersive game.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

The "doing nothing" response isn't too uncommon depending on the scenario. In cases where someone is in trouble and there are multiple people around them, it's actually not unlikely that no one does something about it, because everyone else thinks the person beside them will do something. However, in those cases the people around a victim are at least still likely to react that, indeed, something is going on. This is just disturbing on some level. I'm not sure though if this is a sub-culture thing (gaming/internet cafe) or a culture thing (it happening in Taiwan)

Either way, it seems all I've heard about internet cafes are these stories of people not giving a fuck about the well-being of themselves or others, and this story certainly doesn't help.

 

[04whim]

If she was at the ending of Bioshock Infinite then yeah, can't really say that I blame her.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Probably a bad time to make a funny, but...
IC Patron: "Wow, what awesome immersion, I can see the blood on my shirt, feels warm and... sticky... Wow, I can even hear the screams as if they were right next to me..."
I can see this happen, don't know how I feel about it tho.

 

[kaizen2468]

Not surprising really. My generation have been brought up to heavily avoid confrontation, to leave anything illegal to law enforcement or to some other form of authority. Combined with a very individual centric society where your own individual rights and desires are valued greater than your peers and just how socially dysfunctional internet addiction can make some people, it's entirely believable that something like that could happen.

This is an extreme example of course but I really don't find it too unbelievable. Creepy stories always come out of those internet Cafes.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I came here to state that perhaps the girl was just so damn terrified that she would be stabbed next if she did anything. I didn't see the video, but with all the shootings and stabbings lately, I would understand people being a little gunshy to the vigilante justice. I was more saying this to keep my faith in humanity.

But then... this.

Now I could be absolutely wrong on this, but I think this is a problem more with Chinese society and not gaming. But there have been a few cases in both Chinese societies IIRC with no videogames being present.

China has a weird view on samaritan-ism (ie. you involving yourself means you are guilty) which is ironic cause Buddhism actively opposes this attitude,

If this happened in Korea or Japan, I wouldn't be as surprised, but still surprised.

look up ?Peng Yu case? some time. Old woman fell off a bus, broke several bones, good samaritan Peng Yu helped her, got her to the hospital, paid her medical bill... & she sued him... and the judge ruled in her favor

It's my understanding that this case is pretty fresh in the minds of the Chinese public

So, I googled it. And found interesting things.

First, the case in question (Source [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-17/china-s-infamous-good-samaritan-case-gets-a-new-ending-adam-minter.html])

Spoiler

This curious but important tale begins on the morning of Nov. 20, 2006, when Xu Shuolan, a 65-year-old grandmother stepped off a bus in Nanjing, and fell to the ground. Just behind her was Peng Yu, a 26-year-old student. While others passed her by, Peng ?- a self-described Good Samaritan -- rushed to her aid, accompanied her to the hospital and even paid her modest bill.

In thanks, Xu Shuolin -? a woman of modest means ?- sued Peng for roughly $7,000 in medical expenses she claimed were due to the fall, including broken bones. The judge, in turn, invented a new ?everyday experience? standard in the law, suggesting that nobody pays a stranger?s medical expenses without a guilty conscience. And on that basis, he ruled against Peng Yu, turning the case into shorthand for the decline of Chinese morality.

The National Response to it

Spoiler

The ?Peng Yu case? has become a talisman of modern China's failings, the easiest and most accessible example available to the social commentator looking to make a point about Chinese flaws and moral inferiority. And, to be truthful, since that famous verdict there have been several other high-profile ?Peng Yu cases,? in which pedestrians failed to help injured strangers for fear of being sued. The most notorious occurred in October, when a national outcry ensued over a video of pedestrians passing by a fatally-injured 2-year-old who was struck by delivery trucks in a south China recycling market.

In the aftermath of that grisly incident, a real discussion about the need for a so-called ?Good Samaritan law? began to take place in China, while one academic in southern China went so far as to form a foundation to provide legal and financial assistance to good Samaritans who specifically help the elderly. Of course, all of the Peng Yu-type incidents can't be blamed on Xu Shuolin?s decision to sue him, but the important point is that the national discussion about China?s so-called Good Samaritan problem was dominated by the injustice done to poor Peng Yu.

And the Actual Truth of the Matter

Spoiler

Or rather, it was until Jan. 16 -- when, in what seems to be one of the great scoops in recent Chinese journalism, the state-owned news magazine Oriental Weekly revealed the content of some newly discovered and disclosed documents. According to the trove, Peng Yu not only confessed to knocking over that supposedly greedy granny in 2006, but he actively solicited the local news media and online forum moderators to promote him as a martyred Good Samaritan.
On top of that, reports Oriental Weekly, he and Xu Shuolin secretly agreed on a modest financial settlement and had the decision sealed. So far as the two major players in China?s most notorious court decision were concerned, nobody ever had to know the truth of the matter.

The revelation that Peng collided with Xu, alone, would have been enough to send China?s microbloggers into paroxysms of recriminations. But what made the Oriental Weekly's discovery so much more potent, and so much more infuriating, was the revelation that law enforcement officials in Nanjing had received testimony and other evidence to the effect that Peng had knocked over Xu. Why was this testimony and documentation only released this week?

This Article is Dated Jan 17, 2012.

Now I'm just perplexed if people still believe in it, if she was scared out of their mind, or everyone just didn't want to get involved. The more I think about it, it has to be the Latter. I mean, if you were scared for your life... you'd probably just run like every other country does.

captcha: Until tomorrow... DAMN, Captcha, I didn't even get why you said that until my last sentence, you creepy clairvoyant piece of programming!

 

[songnar]

Maybe she was reading The Escapist?