S. Korea's Stress-Driven Online Gaming Addiction

techsoldaten writes "The Washington Post is running an article about the ever-increasing problem of videogame addiction in South Korea. From the article: 'The situation has grown so acute that 10 South Koreans -- mostly teenagers and people in their twenties -- died in 2005 from game addiction-related causes, up from only two known deaths from 2001 to 2004, according to government officials.'"

Comments

Is it the games?

[t0qer]

Or is it the constant smoke inhalation?

Re:Is it the games?

[aussie_a]

I'm paralyzed from the waist down you insensitive clod!

In a poll of 100 gamers, Survey Says...

[IAstudent]

We require more LAN parties.

Someone's been slacking

[0racle]

Is Jack Thompson not doing enough recently to demonize games?

hmmm

[dghcasp]

Is it wrong that I'm reading this topic while waiting to be respawned in Counter Strike?

Survey

[porkThreeWays]

When American gamers were asked to comment about their South Korean counterparts, 86% responded "gogo = boot"

The last 14% just said "no gooks ffa snipers r0xor teh n00bs kekeke k thx~~"

Re:Survey

[IAstudent]

In my own survey, 75% of American gamers responded with a Zerg rush.

The other 25% were too busy hax0ring Korean MMOs to respond.

Re:Survey

[Blakey Rat]

Well, there's not much you can say in response to that, except, "1 more googgo googgo ggggoogoogooogogoooggoogoogogog kekekeke"

Damnit South Korea

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to get a job and a girlfriend and move out of my basement!!

Signed,
Mrs. Korea

Hm.

[Khaed]

I'd hate for my last words to be:

"kekekeke zerg rush ^___^"

Re:Acceptable Addiction vs. Unacceptable Addiction

[drsquare]

"'I can understand my son's suffering,' she said. ' He could never satisfy his father

Maybe he could try not using his teeth?

Re:Pretty Safe Addiction;

[Propaganda13]

Manufacturers would love to put that sticker on some games. Come on, wouldn't you buy a game that said "Warning: This game is so addictive that you may die from it" and meant it?

Just put some weights by the computer and lift when you're waiting for respawn. You'll either get buff or you'll get better at CS.

Re:Hmm

[KDR_11k]

If regenerating health takes so long a Gameboy may be a worthwile investment. Only problem I had with it was that the Gameboy game tends to become more interesting than the MMORPG and I forget to stand up and fight the next mob.