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GameToo Much...... And Die!
A 24-year-old South Korean man died after playing computer games nonstop for 86 hours, police said yesterday. The jobless man, identified by police only by his last name Kim, was found dead at an Internet cafe in Kwangju, 260 kilometres southwest of Seoul, they said.
Quoting witnesses, police detective Oh Myong-sik in Kwangju said the man had been virtually glued to the computer since late last Friday and had no decent sleep and meals. The man collapsed in front of the counter early yesterday but soon regained consciousness. He then went to the toilet where he later was found dead, the police officer said. Initial investigation ruled out the possibility of murder, police said. An autopsy was planned.
Source Article can be found in The Sydney Morning Herald
In related gaming news: sam_handelman writes "In an article on the front page of the online edition, (free reg required) the new york times takes a rather negative look at the rise of broadband gaming in South Korea. The author, Howard W French, is a Times staff writer, with a background in staggering human tragedy, which may help to explain why he thinks my hobby is an epidemic. There was a wired article about Korean broadband (summary: they have lots), which we already discussed."
I just want to know what game he was playing... Maybe another EverQuest victim?
IANA Doctor, but although it's primarily an air travel thing, isn't it the case that sitting anywhere for too long can cause blood clots to form in the legs?
Said clots may detach and make their way to the lungs (causing pulmonary embolus) or brain (causing a stroke).
Sounds to me that this dude just suffered an extreme attack of stupidity. If you're gonna LAN for a week (or take a long flight) then at least get off your arse and walk around every few hours.
gadgetophile.com
I only knew one person who had the talent to crouch and jump in the side of the pipe to slide through the bricks to the warp pipes. (it was a chick even!) I had to use the game genie to get to them.
I could never beat those goddamn negative worlds. I went through that water one I ton of times. I even used the game genie to stop time so I wouldn't have to worry about it running out. I must've spent at least an hour. I know it seems sad, but 86, goddamn!
THERE IS NO DATA. THERE IS O
Wasn't this a hoax? I've seen this many times before and it's usually involving people that are Asian. I do believe it's a hoax.
I know from my MUDding experiences that it's not uncommon for folks into games to stay up for more than a few days at a time with nothing but caffiene. In college I use to regularly stay awake for 48 hours straight MUDding.
I also know quite a few people who are heavily into methamphetamines that stay up for over a week at a time. I know quite a few folks who brag about having stayed awak for 9 days straight and lived to tell about it.
The best part about having been awake for more than 3 days isn't necesarily the game you're playing, it's the delusious and hallucinations you get. >3 days awake is better than most hits of LSD you get these days.
Duris MUD - The best pkill MUD. Ever.
That many of the internet cafe's there are known for spikeing the water and whatnot. Amphetamine spikeing is common to keep customers in the stores longer and whatnot. There have been several deaths related to this over the last few years.
Also a goverment crackdown has been done once, as you can see...it hasn't made much of a diffrence.
Om, nomnomnom...
Nope, it was not intentional. A real bug. Here's a ton of info on it.E2 has the scoop.
Last year someone died after playing too much Counter-Strike.
Here's the article.
Depressed and alone on Christmas break during college, I went on a Counter-Strike spree some day in the age of Beta5 that lasted 97 hours straight, only taking breaks to quit drinking coffee and urinate.
Tiredness did not matter -- everything was a copy of a copy, and I was some sort of killing machine, though I went from top of the list to somewhere in the middle after the first day. After two days, I was screwed up beyond recognition and was hallucinating, thinking that flowers were growing in de_nuke and that Beavis and Butthead were saying "Go Go Go!."
After the third day, my head and eyes hurt terribly, I had pissed myself and didn't notice for an hour as my legs were totally numb, and everything was a nightmare. I was so wacked out I couldn't do anything but shoot at things that weren't there...... but my obsession could not end as I sat alone in my dorm room.
I passed out, collapsed on the floor, and slept for two days (well, about 28 hours) afterwards and was drowsy with a TERRIBLE, GODAWFUL headache for the entire next week, which I pretty much spent in bed.
Well, maybe he can at least say he died happy. :)
The capacity for human ignorance never fails to amuse me.
/., turn off the computer, and get some sun, will ya? ;-)
It's just not worth dying on the crapper in some internet cafe.
Kids, this is what happens when you have a society that lets people become so self-centered that the thought of actually being a responsible productive resident is considered a joke. And here I thought only the US was so encumbered. Apparently we're contagious.
I don't know what the legal system is like in South Korea, but if it's anything like here, the dude's family will probably bring a lawsuit against the gaming room, the game manufacturer, the government, and anyone else they can bilk money out of because they raised a kid with no self control who grew into a man with no self control. After all, it's already happened here.
This whole thing reminds me of the classic experiment by Olds and Milner in which they wired tiny electrodes into the limbic system of rats. The rats could give themselves a jolt of electricity by pressing a little lever. The stimulation of the limbic system was so pleasurable that some rats would press the bar thousands of times an hour for up to 20 hours at a time until they collapsed from exhaustion. When the rats recovered, they'd go right back to pressing the bar. I have a feeling that if we could do that for people, we'd find that some (like this mental midget in South Korea) would push the bar until their heads exploded.
Really people, take a break from
Crocuta
I think I saw a similar story with a Korean here some months ago. Are you sure this is not an urban legend?
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
I knew a guy once that played EQ or some-such online game for 2 weeks without getting up to so much as take a crap. He ate mostly fruits and breads, stuff that backs you up real good. After hearing his story, I think he wished he was dead when the doctor had to manually extract the feces from his colon.
/me awaits the snide comments about my lack of dedication to gaming...
I love games like every one else, but I definitely place defication above advancement to the next level in a game.
...this is horrible. Why the hell didn't someone stop him?
...that's probably it. Your heart can just stop during manic episodes due to extreme physical/mental stress.
l d=-1&commentsort=0&tid=127&mode=thread&cid=4421106
I'm bipolar myself, and wasn't medicated at the time, so that's probably why I played cstrike for 97 hours, which is posted below:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=41928&thresho
Best of all, "86" is slang in lots of places for "dead".
Yes, kids, that's why they gave Maxwell Smart that number, too.
They only play one game over here that seriously....'Lineage', and then ofcourse the old favorite, StarQuest.
Lineage is MMPORPG (Massive-Multiplayer On-line Role-Playing Game) where the players from different countries can enjoy the game through the Internet
This is just being sensationalized due to the video game hook. We've lost at least one engineer due to overwork, and that was kept out of the papers.
Could it be he was trying to impose some Guinnes record?
Anyone knows if there is such record out there?
errera hunamum ets
site says otherwise.
Also mentions how to get to -2. I read about the minus world back in 1987 or so in Nintendo Power (or was it the Nintendo Fan Club at that time?) at a friend's house, and was only able to make it to Minus world once. All subsequent attempts failed. Maybe I'll try again with tuxnes or nestra.
On a side note, what's people's favorite linux NES emulator?
make world, not war
You're addressing the same crowd that celebrates the darwin awards every year, what do you expect?
How could any establishment allow someone to do this to themselves? Shouldn't someone have reported what his person was doing so they could get him help? I just don't understand how anyone could watch as someone deteriorates over a period of several days until they die.
China regularly releases news reports like this to try to scare their population into getting off the internet, where they have better access to speech-related items
This article is probably another one of those B.S. articles.
Critics say the burgeoning industry is creating millions of zombified addicts who are turning on and tuning into computer games, and dropping out of school and traditional group activities, becoming uncommunicative and even violent because of the electronic games they play.
Tsk tsk. Unlike TV, of course, which promotes intimacy, critical thinking, and feelings of peace and contentedness.
It's not hard to see what has the cultural police so alarmed: at last, a form of electronic engagement even more powerful in its spell than TV has arrived to offer young people a reality of their own shaping. And while it's hardly arguable that playing Counterstrike all day is better for you than sitting in front of a TV, there is a key difference.
Counterstrike -- or almost any online game -- can't really be used to indoctrinate. Not yet, anyway (although you might argue that running around with guns killing others for round after round is a type of indoctrination, the fact is that it's largely devoid of political context, and experientially it's all for self-aggrandizement, anyway; however, cf. the US Army's recent slippery entry into this market as the progenitor of the politicization of the FPS game).
The main problem is that you can't use Dan Blather or Brit Spume to convey the wishes of the oligarchy just when the kids have been left perfectly mollified by hours of braindead sitcoms. Cocooned digitally with only pixels and urges to guide them, they're neither being told how to think or what to buy. Online gaming is too much beyond the control of our masters.
That's intolerable to a nation that regards workaholism as the ideal state of being. It also offends our puritan traditions; next to serving your boss, only God is supposed to suck up so much of your devotion. Watch for more efforts at social control coming from such kissing cousins as Joe Lieberman and Jerry Falwell in the near future. The first step will be to apply the social definitions of addiction, whereafter, as long as the present administration is in office, you may see a faith-based solution offered for your Quake jones...
(I'm not really 32 or living with my parents though. I made that part up. I'm actually 19 and I share a 10 room mansion with 20 really cute women.)
I don't think exercise is a cure-all for serious mental disorders, but for a lot of us who have experienced common, moderate neuroses, a solid exercise regime will greatly reduce your symptoms. Then you won't need to curse people out all the time and smack them around (well, sometimes people deserve a little bit, and that's okay). I lead a much happier life this way, and I've lost weight and look better, leading me to get more dates with the ladies, and thus get laid more. Which makes me even more mellow. Life is great. And I still play half hour to an hour of games a day.
"The guy was unemployed, and likely depressed, and he spent the last 86 hours of his life playing a pointless game, that he coudn't escape from."
That he consciously chose not to escape from. When people don't leave their homes, 99+ times out of 100 the reason is that they didn't feel like leaving, not because they were physically locked in.
"Think about what his friends and family must feel like right now."
Obviously not a whole heck of a lot if they allowed this to happen to begin with.
"I'll probably be modded down as a troll or something, but I don't think death is a joking matter."
There are schools of thought that suggest that perhaps you don't have a sufficiently developed sense of humor.
I'm probably shooting myself in the foot for bringing this up but I think Heinlein had a point in Stranger in a Strange Land: All humor revolves around the misfortunes of others. If anything laughing at something can be described as a human coping mechanism. In a world increasingly hostile to those of us who partake in electronic gaming, everybody here now has an example they can point to and say "At least I'm not this guy!"
"If someone you knew died, even in a pathetic manner like that, you would not be joking about it. "
If one of my friends died in such a manner I'd be laughing if for no other reason than I know my friend would be laughing at themselves for dying that way.
"I think all the jokes here are completly tasteless."
But jokes about hypothetical deaths are alright? Or what about jokes about people getting genuinely angry at each other? What about a particular person's sexual tastes? Or how about the way you mock something hundreds of people have been working on for dozens of years? Where do you get the moral high ground to decide for everybody else what is "tasteless" and what isn't?
"And I do think the games are _partly_ to blame. (Note that I said partly, not completly.)"
No, not even. Nobody can say that until there is solid scientific proof demonstrating a link. But in several decades of research on the subject, nobody has yet to publish "games=death" without somebody else soundly refuting it. These aren't cigarettes we're talking about here.
If there's anybody else beside the gamer that bears any of the responsiblity for this, it is the people directly around him and ignored the way he collapsed unconscious several hours before. Especially the owners of the property.
"Some games are very addictive,"
Some people are more susceptible to addictions to just about anything than other people. And until someone can solidly publish "games=addicting," I cannot and will not hold the games responsible for flaws in the gamer's personality and psyche.
"I've had my school mark drop because I've wasted my time on pointless games."
Thanks for demonstrating my "increasingly hostile" comment above. We're supposed to believe that you'd have done much better if it weren't for the games? Do you know for a fact (or can you at least say with a straight face) that you'd have done better in school if there were no games in your life? Why are we to believe that you wouldn't have found some other external vent? You're one of those people that wants to sue gun companies over murder rates, aren't you?
I've tried it both ways: School with and without games. Guess what: Without games, I just ended up finding another vent anyway (and they're called "internet chat rooms"). The problem wasn't Nintendo's, it was mine and my inability to cope with the world around me without a crutch.
And on the other hand games have actually helped me find better ways to cope. I wouldn't have all the friends I have now if it weren't for those C&C Red Alert and StarCraft LAN parties.
Hate to break it to you, bud, but when you're 60+ and kick the bucket, no one's going to know who the hell you were either. And aside from a pathetically few (when you consider the population of the world) souls, no one will care to find out who you were, either.
You should be modded down as a troll. Here's a newsflash - life kills. Better get used to it, considering how little time you have.
Shit, when I go, there'll be more Guinness floating around than in a book of world records. I want people to laugh. I want them to get piss fscking drunk and then have a few good laughs at my expense, recalling various stupid things I've done.
I'll be dead, it's not like I'll care. And it's better than wishing friends and relatives sit around sobbing pathetically.
You know, it just struck me that this sounds a bit like the feared 'economy class syndrome' that we've heard about on the news. From the press I've heard, it can happen when a person sits in a chair for a long time without being able to move around much, and a blood clot gets the chance to form in the legs or buttocks. IIRC, the trial lawyers are trying to soak the airlines with lawsuits about this.
In the airplane cases, these people are in their seats for 5-10 hours, in the cases I've heard of. And this guy was sitting in that chair for 86 hours. Granted, he might have gotten up to go to the restroom a few times, but that could still cause problems. From what I know, your body needs to lay down every once in a while, if only to redistribute bodily fluids to where they ought to be.
You're assuming that she is getting special treatment. She is not. Do your homework next time.
You go do some homework yourself, dittohead.
She was even busted smoked crack in the rehab facility and the Bushies leaned on the staff not to make a thing out of it.
Just today, it was reported that they're trying to seal the whole case away from the media and we all know how the Bushies love those sealed documents.
Who else gets these doors kicked open for them?
It seems to be getting worse, too. My Ph.D. not infrequently generates an attitude of "Oh, so you're not a real doctor, then?" I blame it all on medical TV dramas.
Yes... It is... And I eventually couldn't help her anymore because she wouldn't understand that she had problems. It'd always get chalked up to something else. There's a reason she's an ex. I couldn't deal with the irresponsibility anymore. (With this and other things...)
I'm a Canadian guy who lives and works in Seoul, Korea. I don't have a computer at home so I go to these Internet Cafes called "PC Bangs" here to do the bulk of my gaming.
Gaming culture here is quite bizarre really, because there is no reason why these PC Bangs should be in business, but they are EVERYWHERE and they flourish.. despite the fact that home DSL is inexpensive (about $25 US/month) and computers relatively affordable. Yet, everynight people of all ages pack these PC Bangs. It has to do with collective Korean culture but... PC bangs are cheaper than their North American cousins.. where 6 hours will only cost you about $3 US.
But still, this "unemployed" guy spent 86 hours in a PC Bang? That ain't cheap for someone with no-income...
The most popular game in Korean PC Bangs? Starcraft: Broodwar. Still. Its semi-religious. A close second is Diablo II and a number of Diablo-esque clones.. there are alot of Korean-made diablo clones.
There is a large number of female gamers in PC Bangs too, they range from high-school girls to middle-aged women. The younger girls come to these places to use IM Software the most popular being "Buddy-Buddy" in Korea.. the older women enjoy playing korean cards "Go-Stop" or a junvenile game called "Crazy Arcade", its a kids game but older women like to play it for some reason.
Anyhow, back on topic, my guess is this guy was playing one of the many Everquest-esque games here.. none of them are anywhere near as good.. but they follow the same addictive pattern.. kill shit, gain levels, I see alot of guys mindlessly plugging away at such games.. they have a variety of names.. "Ragnarok", "Priston Tale", you may have heard of "Lineage: The Bloodpledge" which once boasted better numbers than Everquest... I've seen it in action and it sucks bigtime and its nowhere near as popular as reported in the medium, I hardly ever see anyone playing it anymore.
I read Slashdot at work then go to the PC bangs to play Warcraft III.
Let's see if I understand how the world works lately... If a man cuts his finger off while slicing salami at work, he blames the restaurant. If you smoke three packs a day for 40 years and die of lung cancer, your family blames the tobacco company. If your neighbor crashes into a tree while driving home drunk, he blames the bartender. If your grandchildren are brats without manners, you blame television. If your friend is shot by a deranged madman, you blame the gun manufacturer. And if a crazed person breaks into the cockpit and tries to kill the pilot at 35,000 feet, and the passengers kill him instead, the mother of the deceased blames the airline. I must have lived too long to understand the world as it is anymore. So, if I die while my old, wrinkled butt is parked in front of this computer, I want you to blame Bill Gates...okay? 'Nuff said
-- (Score:i, Imaginary)