Weekly Fail Whale: Is this just a cultural difference?

The weekly fail whale is something pretty new to Geary Fresh.  We will be posting a poor use of social media/marketing/general existence/did they really once a week.  A company or person will receive the honor of being the “Fail Whale” of the week.  We will also give some suggestions to ways that the winner could have handled the situation in a better manner

“Fail Whale” honoree(s): Anyone involved in the “Maple Story” Murder.

What they Did wrong (or just weird in this case):

A Japanese woman was recently arrested for killing her virtual ex-husband’s avatar in Maple Story.  The two meet in Maple Story which is a popular online community in Japan that is similar to SecondLife.  Their Maple Story characters fell in love and got married online.  When the avatar relationship went south, the virtual characters got a virtual divorce.  The woman was so distraught about the event that she hacked into the virtual husband’s account and killed his avatar.   Virtual husband then contacted the police about the killing due to his extreme sadness over the loss  of his beloved avatar.

So the list of things they did wrong includes but is not limited to:

• Falling in love online in character form not actual form in a site not intended for that
• Having online avatars become ‘legally’ bound by the laws of Maple Story
• Changing the characters to the point that they no longer enjoyed one another
• Having online avatars become ‘legally’ divorced by the laws of Maple Story
• Having way to much time on their hands
• Hacking
• Contacting the real policy over the ‘Murder”
• Clogging CNN with a very random bit of new

On the bright side a few things they did correct:

• Not having virtual children to involve in the messy matter
• Never actually “meeting”

What they should have known:
Social media sites like SecondLife and Maple Story are an innovative way to communicate.  They offer more of a game like experience than say Facebook or Twitter.  The site is not necessarily intended for dating, even if it is in character form and not in real life.

What they could have done better:

There are a lot of things that could have made this situation better, however lets start at the beginning.  When you start thinking about joining an online community ask yourself what you are hoping to get out of the experience.  Once this question is answered it will be much easier to find the site that fits with your goals.  Hopefully this will leave you with a great experience, some new friends, a non-suicidal avatar and a out of jail (real jail that is).