“An online gamer in Taiwan was found slumped, lifeless and stiffening in his chair at an Internet cafe after a three-day marathon session — the second gaming death in the country this year,” Yaron Steinbuch reports for The New York Post.
“The 32-year-old, surnamed Hsieh, played combat games in an Internet cafe in Kaohsiung on Jan. 6, police spokeswoman Jennifer Wu told CNN,” Steinbuch reports. “He was pronounced dead from cardiac failure on Jan. 8 after being rushed to a hospital when an employee found him motionless.”
“A café attendant said Hsieh always played for consecutive days,” Steinbuch reports. “‘When tired, he would sleep face-down on the table or doze off slumped in his chair,’ the attendant said, according to the Taipei Times. ‘That is why we were not aware of his condition in the beginning.’ The incident was ruled a ‘sudden death’ from prolonged gaming, the newspaper reported.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: These gaming addicts need to get a life.
Come on, black humor.
Seriously, condolences to the family, friends, and the apparent heart attack victim whom nobody noticed for hours or days, even. At least he died doing something he loved.
How about some sort of time limit for Internet cafe use? 24-hours straight for the absolute maximum (and even that is obviously unhealthy) or some limit that’s even healthier?
Perhaps gamers should be outfitted with some sort of a wireless monitor that alerts when breathing or heart rhythms become abnormal? How hard would that be in this day and age?
Oh I am certain Apple had this in mind as they developed the HealthKit APP for perpetual health monitoring. “Even an occasional reminder to hydrate may save untold lives in the gaming community,” an associate of design guru Jony Ive, architect of the Apple Watch, told a hastily assembled press conference today. “And our new API Extensions allow developers to pause gameplay when lifesign biometrics show a marked decline in affect.” When asked about battery life, he remined silent.
This looks like a job for… Watch!
The report is Chinese (Taiwan, this time), 3 days, Internet gaming and found dead.
This wasn’t the first time, and seemingly not the last.
Does this happen anywhere else?
People have died playing World of Warcraft in the US before, as well as China.
People have died from heart attacks, coincidentally playing computer games.
True, and I don’t mean to imply it’s World of Warcraft’s fault. Gaming can be like any other addiction. I’m fond of saying, “The only way to win WOW is to quit WOW.”
I’ve been working on an OS X server problem since 4:00PM yesterday. Could easily happen to me.
Let me help you out with that server problem.
1. There is no solution.
2. Quit now with knowledge that no one has ever gotten OS X Server to run without something not working.
You just reminded me to be pissed off again that Apple doesn’t make XServes anymore.
We hear about the Chinese reports, but not elsewhere. Thanks for pointing out that it’s not focused just in the East.
The cause in this case is NOT the “gaming” itself. It’s probably just sitting for a long time. The same thing can happen, for example, when confined to an airplane seat for a 10-hour flight.
Your blood needs to have good circulation, and your legs are an important consideration; need to keep good circulation in your legs. A blood clot can cause heart attack. So, be sure to go for long walk (or run) a few times a week…
Also, after watching a marathon of Naked and Afraid, 3 days is the limit for not drinking any liquids.
The blood thickens then you could experience several conditions, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, brain hemorrhage and cardiac arrest.
Where’s the waitress, to come around and check on all the customers?
These guys, playing League of Legends, World of Warcraft or some other like game that goes on and on – come on, get up, walk around, take in some nourishment, go to the bathroom, 5 mins, every hour.
Given a healthy body, you can conceivably go 7 days without sleep, before going into psychosis. However 3 days seems like worst case scenario. Where are the gamers stripping off their cloths and speaking gibberish to no one?
Waitress? This wasn’t in a bar; it was an Internet cafe. Don’t let the word cafe confuse you; in most parts of the world, Internet “cafes” only serve Internet and nothing else. There’s no bar, no drinks, no waitresses, just desks with rows of Windows PCs and one guy near the door selling access time.
I have done some traveling but never stepped into an Internet cafe, even in the US. So no, I don’t know what it’s like. Even gaming establishments, bowling alleys, pool halls etc, has some kind of refreshments, etc. You put people in a place for long enough, and several things go along with it, for increased revenue, food and toilets. Also, my point, is someone needs to walk the establishment, to make sure at least, everyone is satisfied and nothing is going on that shouldn’t be.
Your have a valid point, of course.
I expect to be found dead one day, hunkered over my iPad. playing my billionth game of WordsWithFriends. Not a bad way to go.
…and somewhere in the darkness, the gambler he broke even..
Digital Darwinism in play here.
I bet the writer wasn’t happy when he couldn’t find a way to put the word “Apple” in the headline.
I’ll bet David Cronenberg is all over this scenario for a new film. Then again, I think I might just have watched this already in some Korean horror film.
@ MDN Take: How about we let some poor soul get hurt or die accidentally once in awhile without thinking we have to make a new set of rules or laws that limit the actions and choices of everyone else. I would hardly call this an epidemic.
It was probably the energy drinks that did him in, anyway. But don’t ban them.
You want limits on use of Internet cafes? I thought MDN was opposed to the “nanny state.”
Yeah, and then the MDN hypocrisy pops up. This appears to be a case of an adult who made a poor choice. What next? Pass similar rules for people doing the same thing in their own homes?
Personal responsibility…nothing more need be said.
There needs to be laws put in place for internet cafes.
The fact he was there 3 days solid says that he had problems.
Hasn’t he got any family, friends or relations that he should have spoken to?
As I said, there should be a law in internet cafes regarding max play time.
This can be solved with technology…
Anyone who games for three days straight either does it because they have no friends or family, or has no friends or family because they game for three days straight.
This cannot be solved with technology.
Some safety measures are possible using technology. But it is also likely that hard core gamers would find a way to bypass such rules, or would frequent places in which those rules were not enforced.
The question is, should we attempt to legislate such rules? Personally, I think it would be a waste of time.
Agree. And you can’t legislate common sense and logic into anyone. This is one of those freak things and that’s it.
A little common sense would go a long way in solving this. Unfortunately, it’s so rare these days it could almost be called a ‘super power’.
Yes it can – it’s called an ‘OFF’ button.
Also the people working in the cafe have a duty of care to ensure their customers are all right.
There should be a daily limit on how Long they can be online in these cafes or at the very least a notify ion should come up on screen saying “take a break – you’ve been playing for Xhrs”