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World of Warcraft is Bad for You!

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19 2007 3:00 AM

Submitted by Sid. Edited By erin_broadley.

TAGS: video games, bingeing

I love video games as much as many of you do. Hell, I spent the last six months of my life up until my big move west working in a video game store, and playing video games between classes.

Early on, I vowed not to become one of those World of "Warcrack" addicts after dating a fellow whose idea of a date was me coming over and watching him play said game, along with Halo 2 (he made me stand in a line with him for 3 hours for the midnight release of it, where I had at least seven dudes from the line recognize me from SG), and along with Unreal Tournament, which to this day makes me dizzy watching someone play. Besides being put off by the game because of these boring "dates", I was not willing to pay a monthly fee on top of paying the initial $50 for the game, and after playing a trial version, I decided I'd rather stick to D&D anyway. No offense to WoW players, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

However, this article is not about my game play, but rather of those who over-do it.

A man in southern China appears to have died of exhaustion after a three-day Internet gaming binge, state media said Monday.

The 30-year-old man fainted at a cyber cafe in the city of Guangzhou Saturday afternoon after he had been playing games online for three days, the Beijing News reported.

The report did not say what the man, whose name was not given, was playing.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. Games Digest reports:

This certainly isn�t the first time people have died as a result of obsessive video game binges, although so far all of the incidents have occurred outside Europe and North America. So -- keeping playing safe, kids and always remember to, y�know, eat and stuff.

And you may laugh at the last line of the above quote. I mean, I seriously can't fathom being so wrapped up in a video game where I can't bring my WoW character into a pub, or hit the "pause" button in Halo, or just not continue right away after an untimely death in Unreal, or what-have-you, but one 24-year old South Korean man, died from just that in 2002.

Police said Kim had been virtually glued to the computer since for 86 hours and had not slept or eaten.

And 10 days after Kim's death, 27-year old Lien Wen-cheng died after playing games for 32 hours in Taiwan.

Upon researching the writing of this article, the longest I could find anybody playing video games, in this case, Starcraft, and dying as a result was a whopping 50 hours. Dag, yo!

So be careful game addicts!

And if you're going to "binge" on your video games, make sure you stock up on those energy drinks, I recommend either:

Mountain Dew Game Fuel (in the Halo 3 can)

or, my personal favorite:

Bawls

Sid is glad that Trevor and I are lucky enough to have a cat who warns us if we've played too much by knocking the controllers out of our hands.

76 Comments

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bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

SEP 19, 2007 05:17 PM

Mercie said:
you wouldn't cancel for Kara?? I would. psh.

Me: "Shit guys, Havilah (who is in our guild) is in town and we're getting dinner with her tonight. I won't be able to get back for Kara until 10-ish, but I neeeeeeed loot from Attumen and Moroes. "

Guild: "Well, 10-ish it is. We'll start then."

I ♥ <Magic Camp>.

d20

San Francisco, CA

September 2003

SEP 19, 2007 05:23 PM

bean said:

Mercie said:
you wouldn't cancel for Kara?? I would. psh.

hey, you're an mt. don't think we'd do that for you if you were dps

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

SEP 19, 2007 05:29 PM

d20 said:

bean said:

Mercie said:
you wouldn't cancel for Kara?? I would. psh.

hey, you're an mt. don't think we'd do that for you if you were dps

Point taken.

rosalee

Rio Grande City, TX

November 2006

SEP 19, 2007 06:49 PM

I love playing WOW I have like 5 diff charaters but I'm not an addict; it's all a matter of being able to control yourself, don't let the game control you

Evermansice

Chicago, IL

July 2005

SEP 19, 2007 11:43 PM

You, ma'am, have an awesome cat. Also, Bawls is indeed one of the most perfect caffeinated beverages on this green Earth.

Netherchorus

Kearney, NE

August 2006

SEP 20, 2007 12:24 AM

I think the urge to eat and sleep is what pulls me from playing video games too long . Though I haven't really touched WoW in about a month.

MrCrisp

Charleston, SC

August 2004

SEP 20, 2007 02:38 AM

d20 said:

MrCrisp said:

thefreak said:
Also, I'm surprised no one has made a "CAN NE1 PLZ REZ ME?" joke yet. Shame.

-TM

LF HEALER FOR NON-STOP GAMING BINGE, PST

you only get to stop when Ceallach is 70 and Kara keyed. hop to it!

i slept more than 4 hours last night (9 hours to be exact), and i still feel like shit. conclusion: sleep is overrated and i should just hurry the hell up and get to 70.

Annisa

SUICIDEGIRL

Michigan, USA

SEP 20, 2007 09:31 AM

my son's mother in law had to have her computer taken away by her parents because she stopped going to work, eating, sleeping..etc. to play wow

I have had some Silent Hill binges, but I always ate and you know..planned them on a weekend

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

SEP 20, 2007 12:17 PM

MrCrisp said:

d20 said:

MrCrisp said:

thefreak said:
Also, I'm surprised no one has made a "CAN NE1 PLZ REZ ME?" joke yet. Shame.

-TM

LF HEALER FOR NON-STOP GAMING BINGE, PST

you only get to stop when Ceallach is 70 and Kara keyed. hop to it!

i slept more than 4 hours last night (9 hours to be exact), and i still feel like shit. conclusion: sleep is overrated and i should just hurry the hell up and get to 70.

Truth!

Sid

SUICIDEGIRL

Colorado, USA

SEP 20, 2007 12:21 PM

^ you kids are funny. just wait till the star wars game comes out for the wii... i'll be playing for hours on end. luckily one of the bathrooms is right by the tv, cause i'll only have to pause for 2 seconds.

fountainofdreams

Mokena, IL

January 2005

SEP 20, 2007 12:26 PM

bean said:

MrCrisp said:

d20 said:

MrCrisp said:

thefreak said:
Also, I'm surprised no one has made a "CAN NE1 PLZ REZ ME?" joke yet. Shame.

-TM

LF HEALER FOR NON-STOP GAMING BINGE, PST

you only get to stop when Ceallach is 70 and Kara keyed. hop to it!

i slept more than 4 hours last night (9 hours to be exact), and i still feel like shit. conclusion: sleep is overrated and i should just hurry the hell up and get to 70.

Truth!

I don't know, since I got out of school my sleep patterns have gone all to hell. I can't stay up as late as I want, because I pay for it in the morning.

This could be tied to a lack of caffeine, but...

LaPetiteMonstre

Toronto, ON

December 2005

SEP 20, 2007 01:02 PM

"baby I promise i won't raid anymore while you're here, I'm sorry"

FellOnEarth

Temecula, CA

April 2006

SEP 21, 2007 01:08 AM

My gaming computer died just in time... I'd probably be a total WoW fanatic too, but nowadays my gaming is severely limited (usually just online puzzles), but I'm not complaining. Seriously, some of those "farmer" guys look like strung out junkies! My mom used to call me a "vidiot" when ever I played games for too long (back in the old school Nintendo days). I guess I've retained a bit of that guilt factor, but like the son of an alcoholic, I know there is the potential for addiction if I don't observe and maintain my limits. Sigh. Am I growing up??? Nah.

petsound

Los Angeles, CA

January 2007

SEP 22, 2007 04:53 PM

It's a bit of a misnomer. All the deaths that I've heard about have been from asian countries. Most gamers there go to "PC bangs", basically little shops with a bunch of PCs set up where you pay by the hour. Smoking is allowed, and asians like their cigs, so it's pretty much a thick haze. When you combine lack of oxygen + constant nicotine intake constricting your blood vessels, 50 hours of gaming, dehydration, lack of food, and intake of caffeine, that's what you get. Granted, anything done in increments of *days* is excessive, no matter what it is, but I believe all of these deaths were mostly due to the horrid environmental conditions of the places they went to.