Lowell mom lured teen, 16, for sex using World of Warcraft video game

Federal prosecutors say a Lowell woman, a 35-year-old mother of five, lured a minor for sex after meeting him while playing an online video game.



Angie Jenkins was sentenced Thursday to more than seven years in prison and ordered to pay $4,480 in restitution to the Buffalo, N.Y. victim, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Buffalo said. She pleaded guilty in April to receiving child pornography.



Jenkins met the 15-year-old boy through the game World of Warcraft and traveled to Buffalo in 2010 to have sex with him when he was 16,WIBV.com in Buffalo, N.Y. reported (see video, below).

The boy's parents alerted authorities after noticing numerous out-of-state calls on his cell phone. Investigators later found graphic images they say he'd sent to Jenkins at her request.



"Investigators say Jenkins, rented a car and drove from her home in Lowell to have sex with the now 16-year-old boy in the back seat of her car in a department store parking lot in Amherst, N.Y," WIBV reported. The trip is more than 370 miles.



"Eventually, the parents contacted authorities and Jenkins was arrested last month. Federal Judge Hugh Scott ordered a mental health evaluation," the station reported.



Jenkins allegedly made contact with the 15-year-old boy with the World of Warcraft video game, where players can talk with each other, according to the U.S. attorney.



When the boy's parents took away his cell phone, she bought him a new phone, and drove to New York to have sex with the boy, then 16, in a parking lot, WIBV said, quoting federal sources.



She also called the boy a coward and threatened to kill herself if he broke off the relationship, according to the report.

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The Official World Of Warcraft Magazine Is No More

Future Publishing has decided to cease publication of World Of Warcraft: The Official Magazine. Only five issues were released of the magazine, which was an officially-licensed periodical devoted solely to the popular MMORPG.



WoW: The Official Magazine was quarterly magazine with previews, interviews, art, and guides to WoW. It was a subscriber-only publication so you wouldn't have seen it in stores. There were no advertisements in the magazine so subscriptions were probably its only source of revenue. Guess they just didn't get the amount of readers needed to stay afloat.



If you were going to base a magazine around one game, it seems like WoW would be a smart bet considering the size of the player base. The popularity of the game cuts both ways, though. There are so many impressive sites devoted solely to covering WoW that can be accessed for free, so it's a bit tough for a premium mag to compete. Those websites had a big head-start, too; WoW was about five years old when the magazine first launched.



I made a similar point in my interview with Julian Rignall, the editorial director of the magazine, last year. Rignall's position was that the high production value of the magazine and its exclusive behind-the-scenes access would allow it to stand out, though.



Most WoW: The Magazine subscribers will get a choice between a full refund of their remaining subscription balance or a collection of six in-game WoW pets. A few subscribers with lengthy subscriptions were also offered additional premiums, such as a PC Gamer subscription. Full details on the refund process can be found at the magazine's website.

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