East:
As reported by the Shanghai Daily, 22-year-old Hu Ange, on Death Row for poisoning his parents, is claiming that his online gaming addiction made him criminally insane:
The [appeals] court heard [that] Hu was addicted to the online game Legend. His parents gave him 50,000 yuan (US$7,353) to support his seafood business in March 2007, but he spent it all on the online game. Legend is an online game where players can buy virtual weapons and equipment with real money.
The report said Hu bought 20 packs of tetramine on July 14, 2007, and poisoned his father Hu Ming the next morning. His father was saved after emergency treatment. Hu Ange then bought 45 more packs of tetramine on July 20 and mixed them with beef on July 24. Both his parents were poisoned after eating the beef at lunch. Hu Ange's mother asked him to call for help but he stayed in his room to play Legend, the report said.
See, the easterners are so competitive and hardcore that their MMO features buying items via real cash, which (as is pretty much self evident) may lead to huge problems.
Now, for the west:
Blizzard dropped the ball once again by allowing a huge-ish bug to ruin the game for their sheep. Due to server side changes, several epic items which would normally require people to spend hours upon hours doing the whack-a-mole routine were suddenly available for free.
This quickly led to low level chars having out of this world equipment.
So, you see, that pretty much sums up the difference between the two cultures.
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