A 43 year old woman from Japan has been taken into custody by the authorities after her virtual husband reported that she “massacred” his MapleStory character. Now killing a virtual character in a MMO (massively multiplayer online) game will not land you in jail, but illegally accessing another user's account will. If found guilty, she may spend the next five years behind bars, not to mention paying a rather hefty fine of up to $5,000.

The woman in question earns a living by working as a piano teacher; in her spare time she enjoys playing MapleStory online and has been doing so long enough to get married in that virtual world. Her virtual husband is a 33 year old office worker from Sapporo who apparently got fed up with the relationship and divorced the piano teacher. This drove the woman into a mad frenzy and the only way she could deal with it was by accessing the ex-husband's account and deleting the virtual character.

That did not go down well with her husband, who reported her to the appropriate authorities. She was consequently taken into custody and transported from her home town in Miyazaki to Sapporo, some 620 miles away. The reasoning behind this is rather simple: the plaintiff is from Sapporo and since that is where he reported the virtual crime, that is where the authorities will investigate it. The charges she faces are quite serious: one count of illegal computer access and one other count of illegal data manipulation.

And in related news, it seems that MapleStory is following the recent trend set by multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto IV and is making its virtual world a bit spookier in expectation of Halloween. The special Halloween quest which can be played up until the 13th of November tells the story of an old, presumed to be dead toymaker by the name of Jonas Prendergast. It is up to you to enter the Prendergast mansion, fight the spooky enemies and discover the truth about Jonas Prendergast.