For hardcore video gamers, life is a never-ending series of battles as they try to overcome the next boss, unlock achievements, or climb up the online leader boards. And for some of their parents, life is a never-ending series of battles as they try to get their kids to stop doing all that and study.

While more honorable gamers limit themselves to utilizing the best in-game equipment, some give in to the temptation to use hacks to gain an advantage over their adversaries. Recently, one education-minded mother in China adopted the same tactic by hacking her son’s online gaming accounts, then deleting them.

The mother, a resident of Wuhan City, had become increasingly concerned about all the time and money her teenage son was spending playing games online. Her verbal suggestions that he cut back were falling on deaf ears, and a year and a half ago the frustrated parent decided it was finally time to take more direct action.

Her first plan was to uninstall the games on his computer, but this proved to be nothing more than a minor setback. All the teen needed to do was reinstall the software, and since his in-game progress was saved on the publishers’ servers, he could easily pick back up right where he’d left off. After 18 months of repeating this pattern, the mom realized she wasn’t going to win this war of attrition, but with her son now starting his final year of high school, she was more determined than ever to eliminate the distraction to her son’s studies.

So the mother decided to step up her anti-gaming game by getting her hands on a hacking tool, which she used to obtain her son’s on-line gaming passwords. With the keys to his virtual world in hand, she logged into his accounts and promptly deleted them, erasing all trace of her son’s existence in the game and turning his achievements naught to digital dust.

When the son discovered what she’d done, he was furious, and refused to go to school the next morning. Eventually, his teacher had to intervene, encouraging the youth to come to class, where he still appeared visibly upset. “I put more than a year of effort and allowance into those games, and now it’s all been wasted!” he lamented.

It’s still too early to tell if the mother’s ploy will pan out and lead to better grades for her son. We imagine that having to start over from scratch has dampened his interest in the games he was playing before, but on the other hand, it can’t be that long until the release of the next A-list online game in the booming Chinese market. Once that happens, we imagine the son will be feeling pretty tempted to jump right back into gaming, especially now that he has a hacker in the family who could probably help him cheat his way to some pretty sweet loot.

▼ “Finish your calculus homework first, Sweetie. Then Mommy will help you get that +5 great sword.”

Source: CN Han
Insert image: Pakutaso
[ Read in Japanese ]