South Korean Teen Dies After Twelve Hour Gaming Binge

[Xanadu84]

Okay, seriously...people don't die for staying still for 12 hours. In millions of years of evolution, we have at least evolved that far. This kid died because of something completely unrelated, because dying of something so trivial is not normal for a boy that age. Ive gone for about that long gaming, on very, very rare occasions, with absolutely 0 ill effects. I am about as certain as I can be that we are going to find that the kid had a hidden aneurysm, just did drugs, a heart condition, or something. Sometimes, people die of freak occurrences. Odds are occasionally, that person is a gamer. And if a gamer randomly dies, then there's a pretty decent chance that he is going to die part way through a gaming session.

 

[Faladorian]

He should have had more Pylons

 

[ReaperzXIII]

12 hours? Doesn't that get boring, after 4-8 hours I get bored unless I'm near the end of a campaign, also agreeing with the whole something else is what killed the guy, I doubt it was exhaustion because some people do more exhausting things with less to eat and survive. Unless this is his daily schedule (which if it is he is retarded), I'm guessing he was sick or had other biological factors to his death.

 

[SaetonChapelle]

Press B to put down the controller. Are you sure you want to put down the controller? oo

This article states nothing about previous habits, so to place a headline making us assume he died BECAUSE of gaming... Ah well. Hope he enjoyed it. :3

 

[Therumancer]

Speaking for myself it seems like the connection is very weak, and it's being spun for political reasons. Anti-gaming politics are also obviously why this is getting international exposure, when while sad, it's hardly noteworthy beyond a local level.

If the guy died at a bar or nightclub they hung out at or whatever, the incident wouldn't have gotten this amount of attention. Millions of people will spend 12 hours or more a day at a bar chatting and drinking, and many will die on barroom floors, yet you don't see any serious movements right now based around it.

I've done many 12 hour gaming sessions, and even not eaten for a day or so at the most extreme, and the behavior has hardly been lethal. This is to say nothing of some weekend long paper and pencil RPG sessions when I was younger.

To be entirely honest, the article even mentions that the guy got up to go home and get a meal at home. That isn't "problem addict" behavior since he was apparently looking after his own needs. What's more consider that people sit in front of computers for 8-12 hours a day professionally without gaming, cubical jockies and code monkeys in paticular.

I think reasons unrelated to gaming will be discovered here, however I doubt those reasons will be given the press circulation that the incident itself is being given, leaving things as they are here helps make the point of the people who circulated the article on this level to begin with.

-

One thing I will point out is that I *HAVE* seen people addicted to activities like this having medical problems because of it. I used to work at the casinos down here (as Security) and I have seen people collapse while playing slot machines for crazy amounts of time. I could say come in for a shift 2-3 days in a row at times and see the same guy at a machine like a piece of the furniture. I've also seen people literally go to the bathroom in their pants so as not to leave a machine, or because they didn't want to leave a gaming table.

This kind of addiction DOES exist, and that's why it can be scary to make the connection to something like video gaming which is viewed as being far more 'casual' and 'safer' than gambling. The thing is though that in these cases the person wouldn't have taken the break mentioned, and it's likely that the person would run into problems from dehydration first rather than exhaustion because forgetting to drink (or not wanting to take the time) seems to be the biggest culprit when it comes to such collapses. A real addict like that is going to be turning away offers of drink from waitresses and such, and probably also going to have soiled themselves, probably multiple times, before such an incident. The description here doesn't really jibe with what I've personally witnessed. Regular 12 hour binges can cause all kinds of problems on their own, but won't have this kind of effect. 12 hours just isn't enough, especially when the guy apparently DID take at least one break.

 

[Alon Shechter]

What a pussy. Ive played for like 14 hours straight and I didnt pass out or anything. I was tired as shit though. Did eat proper meals now and then too.

Ah well, no reason to feel bad about this people! The world has lost a moron! Lets celebrate!

Very tactful of you. Morons are better than jerks.

OT: Tragic. My condolences to the family.

Can people pull their heads out of their asses, please! THIS IS NOT TRAGIC! Its tragic that thousands of children starve to death. This is not tragic, its laughable in that context as this was clearly self-inflicted stupidity.

Do you really think that it's the gaming that KILLED him?
Dude, YOU are the moron here!

 

[Wes1180]

I've played mass effect 2 for 24 hours straight and thats the longest I have played a game straight, I really liked it

But yeah there must be something more to this

 

[Kris015]

And everyone goes "That's weak" hahahahaha, seriously people I doubt Gaming was the cause of death. Also, stop calling him weak, you sound like a douche.

 

[Kelethor]

He should have been able to do that without eating or drinking for at least two days before collapsing, on average.

Assuming he was well nourished, fed, watered, rested etc. before his binge, sure. There's far too little information about his habits beforehand (information that is unlikely to ever come to light) to draw any realy conclusions.

Nice to see people mocking the dead kid and bragging about how they could go for longer. How many of you guys were screaming for blood over the "Guy steals consoles from sick kids" and "Guy steals Gameboy from dead kid" stories, hmm?

Exactly. a man is dead. you calling him a pussy or claiming that hes a lightweight because you can apparently play for 3 days is both insensitive to his no doubt mourning friends and family, but also incredibly immature.

 

[crepesack]

Only 12 hours? That's insane...Now I'm scared.

 

[theriddlen]

That had to be something else - even biggest puss would survive 12 hours.

Also, is this the Moon, Starcraft progamer?

 

[AssassinJoe]

Aw crap.

Poor guy.

And you know people will use this in their arguement saying that gaming is addicting.

 

[Romidude]

I can't wait untill the Evangelical groups hear about this.

 

[Nouw]

Wow, is it bad that because seeing "South Korean" in the title of an article before fully reading the title I automatically thought "Well, someone's dead."?

No one blames you , there's a difference from thinking that all South Koreans are addicts and will die this way and not being surprised at all.

Monkeysphere, why care? We didn't know him!
The point of this thread is now to boast about how long you've played. Well done guys! We can all discuss it on the way to his funeral in front of his family while drinking the champagne. /s

Hey guys, give him a fucking break. He died, leaving behind grieving relatives and a metric fuck-ton of more people on the wrong side of video games. Last time I checked that was a sad thing to mourn, not celebrate! Jesus that's low...

He couldn't have died from staying awake for 12 hours, it's undoubtedly another factor.

 

[TrogzTheTroll]

What a pussy. Ive played for like 14 hours straight and I didnt pass out or anything. I was tired as shit though. Did eat proper meals now and then too.

Ah well, no reason to feel bad about this people! The world has lost a moron! Lets celebrate!

Except, you know... the exact cause of death isn't known yet so the long gaming session could have only been a small part of the reason he died. So feel free to keep making stupid assumptions and calling someone a moron for a reason they might not have actually died from. +1

 

[Alphavillain]

Mr. Moon, I salute you (although it necessitated putting my controller down to do so). At least you died doing something you loved.

 

[CoverYourHead]

What? I've done more than that and been fine! Must've been a pre-existing condition or something.

 

[Spirultima]

...It wasn't 12 hours straight, it was 8 and a half. But by the sounds of it, he did eat and do his toilet business, so probably medical over not stop playing.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

On the one hand we have people who are the victims of theft who have forum users screaming for the thief's blood, and here we have a person who died and has people expressing joy at it.

Seems more like I'm comparing tangerines and clementines to me.

You'll drive yourself mad trying to stamp out the double standards. I tried for a bit but just gave up.

Sort of like when certain folks say stuff like "Modding my console is my right, I should get to do what I want with my property" and then in the inevitable political thread a few days later say "Socialism is a good thing"? (Not saying you said that, but just that it's the kind of thing I see on here all the time)