It’s fine to let loose and de-stress once in a while by playing video games but do make sure that you are not addicted to it! A young boy in Haimen, Jiangsu in China is believed to have been so obsessed with the popular video game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) that he jumped down from the fourth floor of his building and tragically died.
Source: PU Battlegrounds Tips
According to ET Today, the boy, known as Xu Tianci fell from the fourth floor of the apartment building in the early morning of August 30. His grieving mother blamed the game, saying that it had influenced her son and caused him to jump from the building.
In case you didn’t know, PUBG is an online multiplayer battle royale game where up to one hundred players will parachute onto an island and look for weapons and equipment to kill others while avoiding getting killed themselves. Perhaps one of their most famous taglines is the phrase, “Winner, winner chicken dinner” that will appear if you are the last player standing.
Source: Kotaku
Now, this game requires the character that you are controlling to run around and shoot at others and one of the things that they can do is to jump down from buildings without dying. The character can also jump from building to building easily.
Xu’s mother believes that the game caused her son to think that he could be like the character in the game and jump down from the building without any injury, which is what caused his death. He had been playing PUBG just before he died and had not shown any suicidal tendencies.
Source: ET Today
Source: Daily Mail
His mother also said that Xu was a cheerful, kind boy who had many friends and their family life was fine, so he had no discernible reason to commit suicide. She said that she wants to sue the company who created the game as she believes that the game has influenced many others who want to try the same thing, not only her son. The police said there was no foul play involved but did not rule out the possibility of being influenced by PUBG.
Her statement was met with ridicule by some netizens, who said that the parents may have neglected the son and not given him enough attention. However, she retorted that she would rather have her son than the money she can get from suing the game company and said that she would donate the money if she won.
Source: ET Today
Source: EBC
“I want to raise awareness about this problem so that other impressionable children won’t be influenced by the game. I rather have my child back instead of having the money. I hope no other parent will experience the same thing as I have,” she said.
This is not the first case where video games have influenced people to do crazy things as previously, there was an incident in China where a boy had pushed his father down a flight of stairs because he did not want to play PUBG with him. Luckily, the father only suffered a broken wrist.
Our condolences to Xu’s family and friends. Video games are not real life scenarios, don’t try them at home!
Also read: 9yo Boy Steals Mother’s Car for 7KM Joyride After Picking Up Driving Skills from Video Games
