Another Man Dies After Marathon Gaming Session

loserMcloser writes "Another Chinese man has died after spending three days in an internet cafe for an online gaming marathon session. He apparently fainted and died at the cafe from exhaustion. 'The report did not say what the man, whose name was not given, was playing. The report said that about 100 other Web surfers "left the cafe in fear after witnessing the man's death."'"

Comments

Re:Darwin for the Modern Era

[kevmatic]

Hehe, actually, it isn't that a new concept.

For instance, game console manuals have been reminding you to take breaks for many years. The Game Gear manual, I know, had it.

Earthbound (SNES), too, actively alerted you after like 3 hours that you should really take a break (your dad calls your cell phone). It also had billboards about it (Mothers against Obsession or something).

I remember playing Earthbound till it alerted me several times. It helped; I'd be like "Oh CRAP, I have been playing a long time."

Doesn't happen here?

[king-manic]

I'm an Asian gamer with a mild addiction to warcraft 3. I don't understand how Asia can have a few of these incidents and the west has so none.Is there a distinct cultural difference to explain this? Or is it just statistic's? There i about 2.5 billion people in Asia proper vs 1 billion in all of the west. I don't understand how addiction is going to force you to sleep or drink or eat. I suppose I don't understand because all of my addictions are mild and state endorsed (women, video games, food, and tea).

Re:Doesn't happen here?

[happyemoticon]

In my experience, Asian gamers take it a helluva lot more seriously. I used to play SC2 against my roommate. I just wanted to pick it up and play every once in a while, and learn a few tricks. I could beat almost anybody else on the floor. My roommate, though, his goal was to become a monster. And so we were pretty competitive for a few months, and then I lost interest in improving while he just kept at it. He became nigh-unbeatable. It was pretty much the same deal with respect to CounterStrike and two other Asian guys in the building or Starcraft and another set of people who liked that or whatever else we were playing back then.

As for whether this applies to general work ethic, or sports, or arts, I'm not so sure, but it seems very true of gaming.

How can this happen?

[llZENll]

You hear about people surviving the wild for days or weeks with little or no food and water, and these people are hiking or walking, and in very hot or cold climates. So how is that only after 3 days someone who is just sitting there using almost no muscles can die in such a short time? Are they so malnurished that any day without food and water is death? Is their brain using so much energy gaming it starves their body?

Here's what i don't get

[shdowhawk]

I've been to many a lock-in. Most people can't stay up that long (24 hours)... and it's obvious to see who the ones are who ARE trying to stay up that long (72+ hours). How can the other "100 people" who were in there a) not notice or say anything ... and b) (more importantly) wtf is the cafe doing allowing someone to play for that long? I mean, i know the money might be good... but "another death in booth #6" doesn't make for good advertising.

Somehow, i'm thinking that this "addiction issue" isn't what it seems to be ...

Re:Hoist the Jolly Roger?

[Grishnakh]

Sorry, but I see nothing wrong with copying games owned by entities which no longer even exist, which is the case for most games of the 70s and 80s.

I certainly don't see Atari and Midway suing people for trading Pac-Man and Zaxxon roms on Bittorrent.