Taiwanese Teen Dies Following Diablo III Binge

[Alar]

Wait wait wait... they let him stay in there for that long? They don't bother checking on them? Making sure at the very least they're eating, drinking, etc.?

I would think that the cafe has to have some kind of limits, and policies with people who try to stay there for that damn long.

 

[chadachada123]

I know it's cold to say so, but Darwin wins again.

I know there's an allure to games. I know I've spent some time devoting unhealthy levels of time into a game I really enjoyed. But I also know how to listen to my own body. Diablo will still be there for me tomorrow, if I choose.

Now, I know Gold Farming is an issue (in general) in asia, and I wonder if that has anything to do with matters.

You're using Darwinism wrong.
_____________________

Useless facts 1#: Taiwan is not officially a country.

Actually, I'd say he's right in this case, because the teen probably died of some other condition and not from the gaming itself.

Unless it was related to ventilation or his surroundings, he probably had a heart problem or some other genetic condition that is clearly unfit for survival.

Edit: Or drugs. It could have been drugs. If it was drugs that he wasn't addicted to but still over-dosed on, then I'll give it to you. If he was addicted, we could slip that under genetics again.

Pretty much every member of my family is addicted to something, and have very addiction-prone personalities, and it's especially bad on my mom's side of the family.

 

[Cipherthe3vil]

Taiwanese Teen Dies Following Diablo III Binge

This kinda thing happens way too often...
I know a guy who's wife died because she played either Modern Warfare or Call of Duty 3 or something for 13 hours straight with little moving.
The death seems to be caused by spontaneous blood clotting from remaining in one position. Can usually be averted merely by getting up to go to the bathroom once every few hours, or taking a 10-15 minute walk around.

Fsking sad. To think that he had such an awesome wife only for her to be lost in such a way...

Edit: I'd also note that this can happen to anyone. Anyone. Even me, even you, even that paragon of health next door if she tries to sit for too long in one position.



I sit for long periods of time fairly often, like once a week or so. I never knew I was endangering my health and risking death, but, I wasn't. It turns out my restlessness has probably saved me. As I'm always moving and shuffling and never very still. Probably stopped me from clotting up and biting the dust.

 

[hooksashands]

Why are they almost always Asian? And why almost always an internet cafe?

I guess it makes sense to die gaming in public rather than dying in your home where your neighbors might take days or even months to discover your corpse hunched over an Idle screen.

 

[Nosforontu]

I have to wonder with D3s real money auction house if that might have been why he was playing so intently for so long. The current exchange rate seems to be a bit over 30,000$ Taiwan Dollars per U.S. Dollar and the real money auction house is capped at I believe 250$ U.S.

That is roughly 7.5 million in local currency, don't know what local prices are like at all but that certainly sounds like a potentially large enough amount of money that he might have been chasing real money drops instead of gaming for the enjoyment of it.

 

[irishda]

I'm someone whose done it, more than once, and with a number of things. I mean crap, some of the power sessions (of whatever) I did were flat out insane. Plus as I mentioned, working casino security I've seen many people do gambling binges which are even worse, with them soiling themselves not even taking time for a break

That's definitely not a sign of addiction...

As far as missing out on life goes, having not done it means you never really got thta into anything, or in with a peer group that was, which is kind of sad. I've never had much of a social life, but some of my fondest memories were intense binge gaming sessions.

There's a saying that everything is good in moderation. The only time I've heard of non-stop participation in anything being good was always genius creators obsessively creating a masterwork. And even then it wasn't good for them personally.

There's being so into something you lose track of time while enjoying it, and then there's having the discipline to be able to walk away when you need to.

 

[Therumancer]

I'm someone whose done it, more than once, and with a number of things. I mean crap, some of the power sessions (of whatever) I did were flat out insane. Plus as I mentioned, working casino security I've seen many people do gambling binges which are even worse, with them soiling themselves not even taking time for a break

That's definitely not a sign of addiction...

As far as missing out on life goes, having not done it means you never really got thta into anything, or in with a peer group that was, which is kind of sad. I've never had much of a social life, but some of my fondest memories were intense binge gaming sessions.

There's a saying that everything is good in moderation. The only time I've heard of non-stop participation in anything being good was always genius creators obsessively creating a masterwork. And even then it wasn't good for them personally.

There's being so into something you lose track of time while enjoying it, and then there's having the discipline to be able to walk away when you need to.

It's only an addiction when you can't stop yourself from doing something, and binge all the time. I haven't played PnP RPGs in person in years on any level, and as I did those sessions it was fun largely because it wasn't something we did every day, or weekend.

Binging occasionally is a good thing, and people can handle it (the major point is that it won't kill you like this). It's when you do it constantly and don't know when to, or can't stop, that it becomes a problem.

As I said, it's sort of like how a weekend long bender does not make someone an alcoholic, but when that's every weekend, or every day is a non-stop barrage of one drink after another and always being drunk... then your dealing with alcoholism.

Occasionally getting excessive with whatever you like is a good thing, and isn't going to hurt you.

 

[Firia]

I know it's cold to say so, but Darwin wins again.

I know there's an allure to games. I know I've spent some time devoting unhealthy levels of time into a game I really enjoyed. But I also know how to listen to my own body. Diablo will still be there for me tomorrow, if I choose.

Now, I know Gold Farming is an issue (in general) in asia, and I wonder if that has anything to do with matters.

You're using Darwinism wrong.

Nope. I'm saying the gene pool is better off.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

There has to be other factors put into play here. I just don't see someone die from 2days of gaming.
I've been awake for 2-3 days a couple of times in my life. You lie down, you sleep, everything is fine once again.

Also, shame on the cybercafe for allowing this. There should be time restrictions of some kind.

 

[Easton Dark]

I read somewhere that sitting in the same position for very prolonged periods of time can cause blood clots which eventually lead to heart attacks.

That's right. Not moving from a sitting position does cause blood clots. So what can you do to keep them from forming? This: Move

To everyone here reading this, no matter how good a game is, always take maybe a minute or 30 seconds every couple hours. Move around, refill your drink, something. These things can form after about 9 hours, and they are fatal. Protect yourself.

 

[theultimateend]

Seriously of all the games to died from, Diablo 3 is not one of them. Ok any deaths from gaming too much are bad but Diablo 3 isn't a good games to worth spending that many hours on! In another word he wasted his life over that game.

Also I didn't know Taiwan got the game since I thought that game isn't available in Asia?

I would die of boredom before I died of anything else.

I'm not saying its a bad game, but personally that was the worst investment I've made in a long time :/.

When friends login I feel this weird disconnect where I just wish I could see what they see in it. It's the first time in >ever< that this has happened.

At least as far as games are concerned. I can usually see the merit and just accept that I don't meet the target demographic, this one boggles my mind .

Again, just speaking personally, not saying its objectively bad.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

And you just know that Blizzard is going to punish the rest of us for this kid's lack of self-control.

 

[mysecondlife]

Sad to say but...

About time.

 

[Zetatrain]

I'll also say that I lack much faith in the Taiwanese authorities to figure this out, so I imagine it will remain anti-gaming rhetoric for a long time to come.

Why?

Let me put it to you this way. Do a search for "Taiwan" and "Pirates", you'll notice that along with all the discussions of game piracy there are issues with real pirates, as in the murdering sea faring kind. Something that has even snowballed into the "Pirate Party" (dealing with software piracy) changing it's name due to concerns about connections. Not to mention recent articles about a Taiwanese fishing boat fighting off Somali pirates, and if you do reading you'll also find that Taiwan has a tendency to be a hotbed of piracy itself where it's own pirates rob and murder people on boats themselves, kidnap and ransome tourists, and other assorted things. Taiwan gets decent press because of it's dealings with the US, but it's basically kind of a hellhole.

I'm sorry but can you provide some sources about Taiwanese piracy because whenever I type in Taiwanese piracy or sea piracy all I get is stuff about Taiwan fishing boats in Somalian waters or digital piracy.

Also where do you get your info about Taiwan? Being 50% Taiwnese/Chinese myself (my mom's entire family lives in Taiwan) and having lived in Taiwan myself for a brief time, I have never heard or seen anything to suggest that Taiwan is anything like a hellhole. Taiwan is much more like South Korea and Japan rather than Thailand. You sure you're not confusing Taiwan with some other country?

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

In my youth, I did a 61 hour playthrough of Final Fantasy 3 (Japanese 6) over the course of a three day weekend from school. In this endeavor, I had 4 meals while playing the game (2 breakfasts and 2 dinners), a gallon of milk and 3 boxes of Girl Scout Thin Mints for a light midnight snack, somewhere between 4 and 6 bathroom breaks and then finished with a shower at the end of it all.

It is possible to do...but unless you're prepared and know when your limits are hit, don't try it. Granted, I was a ferocious RPG gamer back in the day, but that stretched me to limits I never knew I could reach. Even my uncle, who got me into gaming, thought I was batshit insane. I might've been, hell I might still be, but at least I got the opportunity, with proof, to say to him, "Yeah...but I beat Final Fantasy 3 in one playthrough. Let's see you do that."

 

[DragonStorm247]

I read somewhere that sitting in the same position for very prolonged periods of time can cause blood clots which eventually lead to heart attacks.

That's right. Not moving from a sitting position does cause blood clots. So what can you do to keep them from forming? This: Move

To everyone here reading this, no matter how good a game is, always take maybe a minute or 30 seconds every couple hours. Move around, refill your drink, something. These things can form after about 9 hours, and they are fatal. Protect yourself.

And what of people who can't get up and move around? There are people with disabilities or are paralyzed, who sit in the same position for years. You don't see them forming blood clots each day.

There has to be more to this.

 

[MetalMagpie]

How often does this happen in the western countries?

i would actually like an answer to this. cause it doesn't seem to happen in the west

and, whats probably worse. i don't feel bad for him, like, at all, but this is why Asian MMOs have in game play limiters, that get yanked out or, made useless with the state side release

Why do these things always happen in Asia?

In this example, we have no idea whether or not this guy had some sort of medical condition that caused his death, and just happened to have been playing a video game for a long time when it happened. I doubt the result of the autopsy will make the news (especially if it does show that there was nothing gaming-related about his death).

I'm not saying this is the case, but it's worth keeping in mind before jumping to conclusions about whether Asian people are somehow inherently fragile.

That thought crossed my mind. And I don't ever recall saying that I'd come to that conclusion.

Sorry, that last line was aimed more at Lunar, who seemed to be leaning a little bit in that direction by commenting that "this is why Asian MMOs have in game play limiters".

 

[MetalMagpie]

I read somewhere that sitting in the same position for very prolonged periods of time can cause blood clots which eventually lead to heart attacks.

That's right. Not moving from a sitting position does cause blood clots. So what can you do to keep them from forming? This: Move

To everyone here reading this, no matter how good a game is, always take maybe a minute or 30 seconds every couple hours. Move around, refill your drink, something. These things can form after about 9 hours, and they are fatal. Protect yourself.

And what of people who can't get up and move around? There are people with disabilities or are paralyzed, who sit in the same position for years. You don't see them forming blood clots each day.

There has to be more to this.

I'm sure I read somewhere that people with disabilities or medical conditions that mean they can't move are more at risk of blood clots. It's just that - even for a person who sits all day - the risk is still not very high.

Best theory? The guy had some sort of underlying health problem that will turn up in the autopsy, and then not be reported in the news. (Because "guy dies of completely normal thing after playing video games for a long time" is not nearly as exciting as "guy killed by playing video games".)

 

[mikeybuthge]

How often does this happen in the western countries? I just find it amazing how much more seriously gaming is taken in Asia.

To be fair, it's usually other ppl that die from a western gamer's binge, children get forgotten or in the way and the gamer rages

 

[Ickorus]

Anyone remember the story of the Korean kid that died and had rigor mortis set in so fast that he remained in the typical gaming posture, nobody noticed he was dead for three days and he wasn't even in a private room.