South Korean Teen Dies After Twelve Hour Gaming Binge

[PeePantz]

The title of this article is sort of misleading, and it's leading to some annoying comments here.

As the article points out, it's unclear (even unlikely?) if the gaming binge directly caused his death.

How is the title misleading at all? Kid died after twelve hour gaming binge. Says that in title. Kid collapsed while playing (insert Star Craft) for twelve hours straight. No one is saying the zerg is what did him in.

It's misleading because it suggests that gaming killed him, instead of gaming just being almost the last thing he did before he died.

And also because it's generating all of these "Well I've played for X hours straight and felt fine" comments. Which sort of miss the point.

Yeah, but he died while gaming. In a video game parlor of sorts. I'm sure the twelve hours of gaming may have played a role in this somehow. It seems like (as someone mentioned before) an aneurysm which directly correlates to his gaming.
If for some reason the game had zero effect on the kid, the fact that he dropped dead while gaming in such a public place while playing for a long time, will create some sort of attention. However, the title, nor the story, suggest games killed him.

 

[PeePantz]

Well the celebration of his death is just moronic, but it would be on par if someone inflicted harm on him such as poisoning him during his "snack" or did something to negatively affect him. There are probably no outside factors which doesn't make it less tragic, just different. The boy was not taken advantage of like those in the other articles you mentioned.

The dead kid whose Gameboy was stolen from his coffin was "taken advantage of"? I can't see how. Please elaborate.

Ummm, he was dead.

It really wasn't about the kid at that point anyways. It was about the family. It's a lot easier to nick a gameboy off a dead kid than to pry a gun out of an alive Charlton Heston.

 

[quantumsoul]

It's a culling of the weak. Only the strongest Korean gamers survive.

Seriously that's really unfortunate for the guy but I wonder why this sort of thing is so prevalent in Korea. Is it the culture? Genetics? Secret plot to make an army of super gamers?

 

[Dana22]

For some reason...I don't really care. Plus the 12 hour session seems casual for South Korea.

 

[ayvee]

The title of this article is sort of misleading, and it's leading to some annoying comments here.

As the article points out, it's unclear (even unlikely?) if the gaming binge directly caused his death.

How is the title misleading at all? Kid died after twelve hour gaming binge. Says that in title. Kid collapsed while playing (insert Star Craft) for twelve hours straight. No one is saying the zerg is what did him in.

It's misleading because it suggests that gaming killed him, instead of gaming just being almost the last thing he did before he died.

And also because it's generating all of these "Well I've played for X hours straight and felt fine" comments. Which sort of miss the point.

Yeah, but he died while gaming. In a video game parlor of sorts. I'm sure the twelve hours of gaming may have played a role in this somehow. It seems like (as someone mentioned before) an aneurysm which directly correlates to his gaming.
If for some reason the game had zero effect on the kid, the fact that he dropped dead while gaming in such a public place while playing for a long time, will create some sort of attention. However, the title, nor the story, suggest games killed him.

I said above that the story doesn't suggest that, but I still have to disagree with you about the title. There could be any number of causes for this, and that session might not have helped, but it's reasonable to assume that his cause of death had little to do with gaming directly.

 

[snave]

wait, moon? I'm pritty sure thats the name of one of the best Warcraft 3 players in thw world...

I'm pretty sure that ranks in the top 10 Korean names. Like Jones or Smith or Brown. Koreans don't tend to have many family names. Heck, over one quarter of the population are all Kim (half of which are all the SAME Kim family, the rest being others).

 

[Weslebear]

He must have really not been prepared for a good ol' binge, just takes a good meal and a supply of drinks that aren't going to caffeine overdose you. I do these sort of things whenever I get a break from college as the workload means I have no time for my own enjoyment, have to squeeze like 3 days gaming into one D; .

 

[Amnestic]

Well the celebration of his death is just moronic, but it would be on par if someone inflicted harm on him such as poisoning him during his "snack" or did something to negatively affect him. There are probably no outside factors which doesn't make it less tragic, just different. The boy was not taken advantage of like those in the other articles you mentioned.

The dead kid whose Gameboy was stolen from his coffin was "taken advantage of"? I can't see how. Please elaborate.

Ummm, he was dead.

How do you take advantage of the dead? Though I'm stating the obvious: They're dead. Sad, yes, but I'm still not sure how you can take advantage of them once they're gone. Not in this situation anyway.

 

[zombie711]

its a sad story, and I feel for his family, but 12 hours really?
Ive heard people in the states play farmvile for almost 24, and in south korea (were video gameing, exspecialy coputer games are played by more people more frequently) 12 hours (with a break) should be tiering not deadly. Ofcoure this depends how long he was awake prior to playing.

 

[DanielBrown]

Laughing at other people's death is cruel, but honestly... 12 hours and he died? It must have been some blood clog in his brain or something and not the gaming session that got the better of him.

 

[Spygon]

To be honest he proberly dropped dead due to a unknown at the time medical condition but just because he was in a internet cafe at the time it will be that gamers are so addicted to games that they will play to death.

If this had happened in a libary or theater no one would even bat an eyelid.Just the anti-games trying to use anything they can get there hands on to scare the public.

 

[Eleima]

Healthy 19 year-olds don't just keel over after a single all-nighter, so there must have been some other element to it that we don't know about.

Any doctor will tell you that this death couldn't have been caused solely by a twelve hour gaming session. Maybe it was the feather that broke the camel's back, but there has to have been something else. A congenital heart defect, perhaps? It is the leading cause of sudden death in young people, after all.

Sad that video games are going to be blamed once more....
And that this young man passed away...

 

[PeePantz]

The title of this article is sort of misleading, and it's leading to some annoying comments here.

As the article points out, it's unclear (even unlikely?) if the gaming binge directly caused his death.

How is the title misleading at all? Kid died after twelve hour gaming binge. Says that in title. Kid collapsed while playing (insert Star Craft) for twelve hours straight. No one is saying the zerg is what did him in.

It's misleading because it suggests that gaming killed him, instead of gaming just being almost the last thing he did before he died.

And also because it's generating all of these "Well I've played for X hours straight and felt fine" comments. Which sort of miss the point.

Yeah, but he died while gaming. In a video game parlor of sorts. I'm sure the twelve hours of gaming may have played a role in this somehow. It seems like (as someone mentioned before) an aneurysm which directly correlates to his gaming.
If for some reason the game had zero effect on the kid, the fact that he dropped dead while gaming in such a public place while playing for a long time, will create some sort of attention. However, the title, nor the story, suggest games killed him.

I said above that the story doesn't suggest that, but I still have to disagree with you about the title. There could be any number of causes for this, and that session might not have helped, but it's reasonable to assume that his cause of death had little to do with gaming directly.

After and From are light years away in this case. What do you want on a video game website? Korean Boy Dies? Cool. Thanks Logan.

 

[Bill_Stanbrook]

Well, I've had a few 12 hour plus gaming sessions and have yet to suffer a fatal case of death as a result.

So basically this is a case where some guy died while he was playing a game. Given the number of people playing games in the world at any given time, this is going to happen.

I'm tempted to question why the Escapist would consider this a newsworthy story, but then John Funk would probably jump down my throat again.

You know I love all you mob at the Escapist, but you're all a bit silly at times. ;-)

 

[DSK-]

Rest in peace fellow gamer, rest in peace <3

 

[Stu the Pirate]

Yep, here comes FOX News again, no doubt. I wonder when videogames will stop taking all the flak for everything.

 

[Stoogie]

12 hours? is that all? ive done lots of 40+ hour sits. so yes it has to be another contributing factor. but it is sad news about his death.

 

[PeePantz]

Well the celebration of his death is just moronic, but it would be on par if someone inflicted harm on him such as poisoning him during his "snack" or did something to negatively affect him. There are probably no outside factors which doesn't make it less tragic, just different. The boy was not taken advantage of like those in the other articles you mentioned.

The dead kid whose Gameboy was stolen from his coffin was "taken advantage of"? I can't see how. Please elaborate.

Ummm, he was dead.

How do you take advantage of the dead? Though I'm stating the obvious: They're dead. Sad, yes, but I'm still not sure how you can take advantage of them once they're gone. Not in this situation anyway.

It's actually very easy to take advantage of the dead. The dead should be treated with respect and it is very easy to do the opposite because of, well, their death. That is why it is crucial to treat them with respect. Otherwise his friends twenty years from now won't be like, "Hey, remember Bob? Boy that kid loved his Pokemon games." Now, it'll be, "Hey, remember Bob? That was crazy how some crack whore pried his last possession from his hands at his funeral. Remember how his mother was howling. That was so fucked up." That's all Bob is now. A crack whore's victim.

 

[Whateveralot]

Always the south-koreans.