In 2004, a boy became obsessed with WoW. He wrote an 80,000 word “in-character” journal from the perspective of his character. He soon became overwhelmed with grief that he couldn’t be with the characters in the game, then committed suicide to “be with them”. Do you think he was fictionkin? Or that if the fictionkin community had existed back then, he might’ve had an outlet for his feelings and avoided suicide?
Hi there anon. First of all, the boy in question,
Zhang Xiaoyi was a 13 year old Chinese native, and the game he was addicted to was Warcraft 3, not World of Warcraft. He killed himself after playing for 36 hours straight at a Chinese internet lounge.
I don’t think that we have enough details of his life to determine why exactly this child committed suicide, and if it truly had anything to do with the game or not. At least in the western media there is no comment on the boy’s parents economic status, marital troubles,or his own troubles at home, or at school.
The otherkin and fictionkin communities did exist in 2004, but at 13 he was barely old enough to participate, and as far as I am aware, it is mainly a western phenomenon. I don’t know that this boy would have had any inroads into the kin community, and if he had, I don’t know that it would have helped him.
13 years old is still a child, and realistically, barely capable of making complex judgement about reality and fantasy, the worth of your life, and the possibilities you have for your future. Additionally, China has a very different culture to the west with different societal pressures and pushes that may cause suicide at a very young age.
Would
Zhang Xiaoy have considered himself otherkin, if he had learned about the concept? I don’t know. What I do know from the articles I could find is that he would rather have continued to play the game than face any of the other things in his life, so much so that he committed suicide.
The suicide of a 13 year old is not the responsibility of the child who killed himself. It is a responsibility of their parents and the community who did not intervene to find out what was making him so unhappy and withdrawn that all he wanted to do was play a video game.
Otherkin feelings, all on their own, don’t make you want to commit suicide, no matter what age or culture you are from. Depression, oppression, hopelessness, and strife are what cause that. Wherever
Zhang Xiaoy is now, I hope that he is at peace, and that the factors that caused him to depart from this world have finally left him.
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http://listverse.com/2010/11/07/top-10-cases-of-extreme-game-addiction/
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-05/12/content_588456.htm
