Globally, there have been deaths caused directly by exhaustion from playing games for excessive periods of time.[57] [58] There have also been deaths of gamers and/or others related to playing of video games.
[edit] China
In 2007, it was reported that Xu Yan died in Jinzhou after playing online games persistently for over 15 days during the Lunar New Year holiday.[59] Later 2007 reports indicated that a 30-year-old male died in Guangzhou after playing video games continuously for three days.[60][61]
In June 2005, one news agency reported, "Xiao Yi was thirteen when he threw himself from the top of a twenty-four story tower block in his home town, leaving notes that spoke of his addiction and his hope of being reunited with fellow cyber-players in heaven. The suicide notes were written through the eyes of a gaming character ..."[44]
In March 2005, the BBC reported a murder in Shanghai, when Qiu Chengwei fatally stabbed fellow player Zhu Caoyuan, who had sold on eBay a dragon sabre sword he had been lent in a Legend of Mir 3 game,[62] and was given a suspended death sentence.[63]
[edit] South Korea
In 2005, Seungseob Lee (Hangul: 이승섭 visited an Internet cafe in the city of Taegu and played StarCraft almost continuously for fifty hours. He went into cardiac arrest, and died at a local hospital. A friend reported: "...he was a game addict. We all knew about it. He couldn't stop himself." About six weeks before his death, his girlfriend, also an avid gamer, broke up with him, and he had been fired from his job for repeated tardiness.[64][65][66]
[edit] Vietnam
An Earthtimes.org article reported in 2007 that police arrested a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering and robbing an 81-year-old woman. A local policeman was quoted as saying that the boy "...confessed that he needed money to play online games and decided to kill and rob..." the victim. The article further related a police report that the murder by strangling netted the thief 100,000 Vietnamese dong (US$6.20).[67][68]
[edit] United States
Press reports in November 2005 state that Gregg J. Kleinmark, 24, plead "guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter". He "left fraternal twins Drew and Bryn Kleinmark unattended in a bathtub for 30 minutes, in order to go three rooms away and play on his Game Boy Advance" while "in the mean time, the two ten-months old kids drowned".[69][70]
Tyrone Spellman, 27, of Philadelphia, was convicted of third-degree murder for killing his 17-month old daughter in a rage over a broken Xbox.[71]
Ohio teen Daniel Petric shot his parents, killing his mother, after they took away his copy of Halo 3 in October 2007. In a sentencing hearing after the teen was found guilty of aggravated murder, the judge said, "I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever."[72][73] On 16 June 2009, Petric was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison.[74][75]
[edit] Canada
Brandon Crisp, an Ontario 15-year-old, ran away from home on Thanksgiving Monday in 2008 after his parents took away his Xbox 360 due to falling grades and excessive play of Call of Duty 4.[76] He was last seen alive on a bicycle trail. His body was found weeks later, about three miles away, by a party of hunters.[77] An autopsy determined that he died when he fell from a tree.[78] /endquote
that aside, tons of people have lost their jobs, been fivorced or left by their partners, have gone into deep depressions, etc, over video games. i know a dude in japan legally married a video game character.
so id say sure. whether people like it or not, anything that can take your mind out reality whether it be virtual or not, is potentially addictive, even to the point of mortality.
VG addiction does not approach the level of infamy of Alcohol/drug addiction, but that does not mean that it is non-existent.
Those deeply addicted to video games definitely need some form of help. OGA seems to be one of those.
__________________
"To all visitors from Transylvania looking for the head of Voivode Dracula: Yes, we have it. Yes, he's dead. No, you cannot see it. No, he will not return and invade you again. It has been over thirty years, please stop pestering us."
I had an easier time quitting weed and cigarettes then I did quitting video games.
__________________
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
This might be the saddest story GamePolitics has ever covered.
Toledo's Channel 13 News reports that a 24-year-old man has plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the drowning deaths of his 10-month-old twins. Gregg Kleinmark of Fostoria, Ohio left the babies in a bathtub for at least a half-hour while played an unspecified video game and caught a smoke.
The man's wife, Rachael Kleinmark, has since filed for divorce and obtained a protection order against her husband. Gregg Kleinmark, wracked by guilt and remorse, has tried to commit suicide twice since the deaths of the twins. He told Channel 13 he visits their graves every day.
"I messed up and it's going to haunt me for the rest of my life," he said.
It's not a chemical addiction, like a drug, or nicotine for example, im not even sure you would call these deaths a result of an addiction. Playing a game for 3 days straite and then dying? Killing you child over a broken xbox?
Addiction - Just plain Crazy?
Gaming is a choice, plain and simple, we do it because it's fun, some people read for 8 hours a day, some people sit infront of the idiot box for 8 hours a day, some game. I game for 7-10 hours a day, rais my son for 20-30 minutes, go to work and love my wife. Im not an addict, it's just fun as hell. And if i killed my son because my PS3 stopped woking, the first thing out of everyones mouth would be "you sick crazy ****er"
These deaths were just the result of a crzy person putting themselves through a possbile health threatening regime, because they're brains lacked a certain something that triggers in most of us non-crazy people. Self - preservation of health and life.
I agree with Peach that, to some people, almost anything can be addictive, besides the obvious nicotine, alcohol, sex, drugs, caffeine, sugar, etc.
I would definitely not label myself as a video game addict. I am, however, a video game enthusiast. I play VG every day, whether it be on my PS3 or Wii. I would not call myself a hardcore gamer, though. People say that hardcore gamers spend 40 to 50+ hours a week playing VG. Sorry, but that's too much time for me, especially with the time I spend working and spending time with my family. The only real quality time I have for VG is on my weekends when I am all alone at the house, since my wife works weekends and my daughter is almost always at my parents' house.
i was addicted to wow for awhile but i finally got over it and left.
that game is an online drug. so many kids drop out of school every day just to stay home and play wow. people lose their jobs to over wow
addictions where your body isnt feeling the effects - unlike a heroin addict for example - are not addictions at all. These guys wernt addicted, the made a choice, which turned out to be wrong BECAUSE there ws somthing wrong in there heads.
thats a choice, not an addiction, theres a thin line between the two, but they are distinctive when examined. Somone losing their job to play games? well then gratz on not having to work to provide for yourself, take your trust fund ass back t daddys house and play all day long
drop out of school to game? well..learning is also a coice, dropping out is a choice, albeit one made by idiots, but then , thats not addiction, the guy's just a moron. I mean really..could he be anything else? Like the 30stone guys who eat themselves to death..food addiction? no!, They justlack the 'self-preservation instinct' and are stupid.
This will kill you..don't do it.
hmm, can't get any simpler than that, these people ignored their own health, they must have been at leasty a little savvy being PC heads and all, food good, rest good, ignore these and youre not addicted..your just slow in the head.
__________________
Last edited by Juk3n on Jun 13th, 2010 at 01:50 AM