Online Gaming cause of death for Chinese Boy

An online games addict died after playing for seven days in a row.

The 26-year-old, who weighed 150kg (23st 7lb), collapsed after spending ‘almost all’ of a week-long holiday on his PC.

GoldFarmers_s Online Gaming cause of death for Chinese Boy picture

His neighbours blamed the boredom of the holiday to mark Chinese New Year for turning youngsters into gaming addicts.

Xu Yan, a teacher in the north-eastern town of Jinzhou, said: ‘There are only two options: TV or computer. What else can I do in the holiday as all markets and cafeterias are shut down?’

China has allegedly seen an alarming rise in the number of young Internet addicts despite attempts to restrict minors from cyber cafes and limit online gaming.

chinesegamers1-350 Online Gaming cause of death for Chinese Boy picture

About one in ten of the country’s 20 million Internet users aged under 18 is addicted, officials have claimed.

In 2005, a 28-year-old South Korean man collapsed and died after playing computer game Starcraft non-stop for 49 hours in an Internet cafe.

Three years earlier, an American mother unsuccessfully sued Nintendo, alleging her son suffered a fatal seizure playing a video game.

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2 Comments »

Comment by abby
2008-01-09 19:12:17

nerds, all of them.do some crosswords or something

 
Comment by Conway
2008-01-15 18:59:46

They need to clarify more on the definition of “addict” they used “one in ten users” statistic. Of course, someone who plays 49 hours is definitely an addict, but are they implying that one in ten users also play that amount of time?

 
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