Father Hires In-Game Assassins To Fight Son’s Gaming Addiction

A father in China has taken a unique approach to curing his son’s gaming addiction: by hiring in-game assassins. Mr. Feng had enough of his 23-year-old son’s obsession with gaming, and the move was his last resort.

Xiao Feng started playing video games when he was in high school, according to his father. The gaming became an addiction at some point, and his grades began to drop. The frustrated father explains that the obsession carried on past the teen years, and now Xiao is having problems securing employment due to his gaming addiction.

Out of desperation, Feng devised a plan to deter his son’s obsessive gaming. He logged onto Xiao’s favorite game and sought to hire in-game assassins to hunt down and kill his son — repeatedly. The idea was to hire players with higher rankings and abilities than Xiao,who would track him down and kill his character every time he logged on to the game. As reported by Kotaku, the father hoped his son would become bored and find more constructive ways to spend his time.

Xiao’s response to his father’s plan was not encouraging. He is quoted as saying:

“I can play or I can not play, it doesn’t bother me. I’m not looking for any job—I want to take some time to find one that suits me.”

Mr. Feng is not the only parent concerned with a child’s internet and gaming addiction. According to video-game-addiction.org, up to 10 percent of internet users could be considered addicted. However, there is caution against using the term “addiction”:

“Some mental health professionals balk at using that term in a clinical sense. They argue that an activity can only be addictive when it causes a certain type of chemical reaction in the brain, and that’s hard to determine.”

Concern about gaming addiction does not have to be dealt with by hiring in-game assassins. The abovementioned organization offers several options for concerned parents.