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Man Dies After 50-hour Gaming Marathon
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:17 AM
from the quit-making-us-look-bad dept.
from the quit-making-us-look-bad dept.
Orbital writes "CNN is reporting that a South Korean man has collapsed and died of heart failure just minutes after wrapping up a 50-hour gaming marathon during which he only took short breaks to go to the bathroom or a quick nap on a makeshift bed." From the article: "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."
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What game? (Score:2)
Vaguely surprised to see it wasn't WoW or some other MMORPG...
FTA:
"online battle simulation games "
So does that mean BF1942 or something along those lines?
Re:What game? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Most important details missing - (Score:4, Interesting)
And where can I get it?
Ok, joking. Seriously, he had other health problems for this to have happened and pushed him over the edge. He could have been at the office doing a 50 hour shift or even competing in military training. Somehow there is an unspoken link in the article suggesting that the game killed him.
My guess is it was either Lineage, or a map-hacked version of StarCraft.
Starcraft... (Score:5, Informative)
Yup, Starcraft.8 /200508080012.html [chosun.com]
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/20050
Parent
Re:Starcraft... (Score:3, Insightful)
Coffee? (Score:3, Funny)
Too much Hot Coffee.
In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:...and its opposite (Score:3, Funny)
No.
*goes back to abusing the mod system..*
*Overrated*
*Overrated*
*Overrated*
OOh, something anti-linux.. *Offtopic*
Hmm.. *sticks tongue out*... *Redundant*
muahahahhahhaha!
push push push (Score:5, Interesting)
Apparently, all it took in this case was a game, and the game didn't even involve sex. I wonder what that says about humans.
Re:push push push (Score:4, Funny)
Now I understand why the rampant violence and cursing in San Andreas wasn't a problem but unlockable low-rez simulated dry-humping was such a huge deal!
Before I just thought it was uninformed rank lunacy on the part of anti-game zealots and uninformed hypocritcal pandering on the part of politicians but now I see they were just trying to protect us from dying like drug-addicted rats in a cage...
Parent
Re:push push push (Score:5, Funny)
That we really kick ass at designing games.
Parent
again? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:again? (Score:3, Funny)
Heart condition? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's sad that he did not find out about his heart condition until it was too late. What does the fact that he was playing computer games have to do with ANYTHING?
jfs
Gamer's Legacy (Score:5, Insightful)
This man actually QUIT HIS JOB so that he could spend more time gaming. Perhaps some better health management could be desired, but the man was the epitome of a GAMER.
Rest in Peace buddy.
Well at least he didn't die working (Score:5, Insightful)
This story is much less sad. I'd much rather game myself to death than work to death. Who knows what would have happened to this guy if he hadn't quit his job?
Re:Well at least he didn't die working (Score:3, Informative)
--AC
After He Quit (Score:5, Funny)
Respawn (Score:5, Funny)
Has he respawned yet?
MC
I just did worse to myself (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, by the end of it I may have wished I was dead, but it didn't kill me - soo I'm guessing this guy had other problems.
Devil's Advocate... (Score:5, Interesting)
The technology to hit the pleasure centers that motivate humans is only in its infancy, but already having effects in addiction. People are already expanding our research beyond simple pavlovian reward stimuli. At GDC 2004, a psychology consultant for Microsoft games gave a talk focused around motivation curves and how to design games that maximized long term engagement (motivation type x will generally degrade at this rate, so after y minutes of gameplay offer new task types, and here are the motivation profiles for those tasks). In the education domain, we are beginning to look at the different effects of various intrinsic and extrinsic motivations on different personailties.
At what point is it the responsability of the software developer to build shutdown timers into the system? Maybe thresholds of gameplay (actual user input/interaction, not just sitting at a pause screen) over the last 8 hours, 24 hours, and 72 hours will trigger enforced breaks of progressively longer duration or just "have you eaten?" reminders.
What happens when the same technology is put into marketing? Can adware be designed to engage the user to the point practically gauranteeing a purchase?
What about the merger of the two domains? Pizza Hut already has code inside Everquest 2. This is from a application that already requires a credit card, and thus could easily look up your address and offer you a timely list of local delivery food every 4 hours. ("You've just played through your local dinner time. I bet you're hungry for one of these fine establishments still open in your area!!") As games become more adaptive, it will be easier for applications to insert more subtle hints. (Two hours into a quest with your party, you come across a ranger's camp with the smell of a fresh roast wafting through the air.)
Some would say we are beginning to allow machines to dominate human culture. The extreme view is something along the line's of Marshall Brain's Manna [marshallbrain.com] story (fast food workers as the arms an legs of a persuasive computer manager in a headset) and associated Robot Nation [marshallbrain.com] essays.
Anm
old people (Score:3, Funny)
His last words (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How about common sense? (Score:3, Interesting)
My god. I wish you people would stop saying these things about staying up. Staying, like anything else, will generally only cause health problems in people who already have them.
My Grandfather once had to stay up for over a week straight in the 50's when he was in the Army going into Military Intelligence, to see what exactly he would do if sleep deprived. All that happened to him was he temporarally lost his colour vision.
I myself have stayed up for 97 hours straight without sleep, and suffered no il
Re:Shouldn't someone have sent him home? (Score:5, Funny)
"Hmm...I don't know...we all look alike to me."
Parent