I don’t like to give credit to the Chinese too often, but from a logic standpoint, I have to say that this father came up with an absolutely brilliant idea: hire ringers to target, harass and deter his deadbeat son from playing an online video game.
I really do believe it’s brilliant. Kids are such retards these days that any attempt to deter them from doing what they like by methods such as lecture, nagging, or straight up restriction would probably lead to a rebellious reaction to where their desire to do these things just to piss you off in addition to doing what they like. But in the case of a game addict, by essentially attempting to make the game no fun for him seems to be more of an effective method to breaking the game’s hold over the player; when a game is so difficult to overcome, eventually it will become un-fun to the point where it’s not worth playing anymore.
I really wish I could see some examples of how the in-game work was done. I can just imagine little Xiao Feng trying to farm some gold, collect some gems, or water some plants in Pandaria or something, and then all of a sudden some level 80 paladins or assassins or something jump him and slaughter him. And then they hang out over his dead corpse or go to where his re-spawn point is and wait for him to reappear before murdering him again. And again. And again. Maliciously and suffocatingly, Xiao Feng is now unable to even move, or try and go play somewhere else, because no matter where he goes, his harassers are doing their job to PK him at every given opportunity. After several days and weeks of this, he gives up on his game, and actually goes out to look for a job because gaming now sucks and he needs a new interest, but a new interest costs money he doesn’t have.
But like most things Chinese, there’s a sign of shoddy workmanship, and in this case it’s seemingly the notion that Dad had let Xiao Feng know what his intentions were the whole time, based on the idea that Xiao Feng stood up to his father upon the launch of his plan. If I were the father, I set all this up discreetly without letting Xiao Feng know, and just let everything happen organically and pretend like I didn’t know when Xiao Feng suddenly began leaving the house to find other things to do than play video games. Instead, there’s no telling that Xiao Feng simply found another game to immerse himself into, or several other games, to the point where the cost of hiring ringers to troll him out of them all would eventually become too much.
Saddest part of this whole story? Xiao Feng is 23 fucking years old. Not only did I have a job at that age, I had my own fucking property.
Regardless, I think this method belongs in the parenting hall of fame of clever parenting tactics. No better way to deter a person from playing video games if the video games just aren’t fun and/or winnable. I think I would’ve made a pretty good Left 4 Dead ringer when I was playing pretty much every day. There were more than a few instances where I alone could shut down another player, and had the capabilities to follow him/her wherever they went as long as they were playing XBOX online.
