Cleaning out the Gene Pool - Gaming to Death

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 8:38 am on Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Heaven done called another PC gamer back home.

From Reuters:
S.Korean man dies after 50 hours of computer games
Tue Aug 9, 2005 11:44 AM BST

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing on-line battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said.

Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play on-line games on August 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed, they said.

“We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion,” a Taegu provincial police official said by telephone.

Lee had recently quit his job to spend more time playing games, the daily JoongAng Ilbo reported after interviewing former work colleagues and staff at the Internet cafe.

After he failed to return home, Lee’s mother asked his former colleagues to find him. When they reached the cafe, Lee said he would finish the game and then go home, the paper reported.

He died a few minutes later, it said.

South Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world, has a large and highly developed game industry.

6 Comments »

Comment by Leelee

12 August 2005 @ 9:18 am

That man definitely deserves a Darwin Award.

Comment by Brad Spit

13 August 2005 @ 9:42 am

“South Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world” No, one of the most WEIRD countries in the world.

Trackback by The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

13 August 2005 @ 2:11 pm

Game Over

I knew gaming was enjoyable, but I didn’t know it could become as obsessive as this. A 28 year old South Korean man died of a heart attack after playing computer games non-stop for 49 hours in an Internet cafe….

Comment by Sam

13 August 2005 @ 2:14 pm

This was an interesting post and I have written similarly. You may be interested in my article at www.samanthaburns.com. Ya, he deserves a Darwin, lol.

Comment by Curiousity Killed the Cat

16 August 2005 @ 7:23 pm

I actually remember reading about something similar to this about a guy in Hong Kong who died from playing computer games for too long.

http://www.rense.com/general33/anothercomputergamer.htm

Comment by Jason

19 August 2005 @ 12:45 am

Crap, my uncle is totally addicted to World of Warcraft and that’s all he plays all day and night. Makes me worried now…

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