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Anyone who’s played video games online probably knows things can get pretty toxic, but is pretty rare for virtual beef to spill over into real life. However, there’s at least one very notable exception in the form of a wild story about a guy who flew from New Jersey to Florida to attack a rival with a hammer.
The largely anonymous nature of the internet makes it a breeding ground for keyboard warriors who are more than happy to post wildly vitriolic comments online even though there’s a very slim chance they’d share the same sentiments in a face-to-face conversation.
That reality is also frequently reflected in online gaming communities that tend to be overflowing with people who exercise approximately zero restraint while barking into the microphones capable of broadcasting their verbal abuse to the masses; if you’ve never had your mother insulted by a prepubescent Call of Duty player, I’d argue you’ve never truly played Call of Duty.
Now, I can’t tell you exactly what led to the crazy situation unfolding in Fernandina Beach, Florida last week courtesy of Edward Kang, a 20-year-old New Jersey resident who was allegedly driven into a rage over his interactions with a fellow ArcheAge player (a fantasy sandbox MMORPG that recently shut down its servers after a decade-plus run).
According to WBRC, Kang found himself feuding with his ArcheAge foe and decided to book a flight from Newark to Jacksonville on June 20th after managing to find out where the rival gamer lived.
Police say he Ubered to a hotel in Fernandina Beach and purchased a hammer from a hardware store before making his way into the home of his unnamed target around 2 A.M. on Sunday morning. Kang allegedly used the hammer to repeatedly bludgeon the man in the head until the victim’s stepfather intervened and restrained him until police arrived.
The guy at the receiving end of the attack needed staples to close the wounds he suffered, but the injuries were thankfully not life-threatening. Kang—who told law enforcement he attacked the gamer for being a “bad person online”—was subsequently charged with second-degree murder and armed burglary with a mask and is being held without bond.