Man Dies From Playing World Of Warcraft - Gaming? Harmful?

HAHA well, i used to play WoW and it is a VERY addictive game. The most i spent on there was onlyy like 12 hours tho, it is true tho you forget to eat and drink

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I always knew that video games could be addicting, but I had no idea that anyone had actually *died* from playing one too much. I've heard stories of people who completely withdraw themselves from the real world, preferring the life of a "Fantasy game". In fact, I know people who have actually QUIT their jobs in order to have more time on their games - they often do forget to eat, drink, and even cut down on sleep. Luckily, most of my acquaintances have all had counseling, and have now all but quit their respective games.

Anyways, as has been said, I believe that this man died from Exhaustion, or possibly a seizure or some other sort of attack, and not starvation or dehydration, as both of those take several days to occur. Unless he hadn't been eating for several days before that for some reason?

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I love my games and want to go into a career developing them, but games ARE becoming an addiction, and also at my school some people get superiority complex because they're "5 levels higher than you so that makes you a nooooob, haha I own you" (I used to get this every time I saw this one kid, made me want to beat the hell out of him), but anyway, MMOs are the worst, because it's so repetative yet engrossing at the same time, and especially games like WoW, to be honest I find it a ripoff, and it's recently been uncovered by some that they use subliminal messages, and I can sure tell you that besides the little warining they have in the instruction manual they don't really try to dissuade you from excessive playing, one game that HAS got the right idea is last chaos, (imagine runescape on steroids, a lot of steroids, better graph. Story and controls...And community), and every 4hours I think it is (its been a while since ive played) it says in noticable letters something along the lines of "you have now been playing this game for 4 hours, please turn off the game and rest for 2 hours". This made me look at the clock realise id been playing ages, come back to reality, and reduce heavily my risk of going blind, or, as mentioned, dying.

Blizzard is rich...If subliminal is happening, which from what ive seen it is (everyone I know whos not played who ive asked who's not played too much aggrees, and everyone who plays a lot argues) it needs to be investigated. NOW. And also they need to take steps to STOP...THIS...HAPPENING. Its really important. The companies putting us, young people, and the older generation too, need to spend some of thier millions (possible billions) of profit investigating how to help us play in moderation. Anyone aggree?

-reply by privateD.Lister

 

 

 

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I don't see how you could be that addicted I thought I was addicted to rs (runescape) becuase I play quit a bit but not that muchive played all day a few times like from an hour after I get up till like 5:00am I got up at 8:00 am but I that bathroom breaks food and I took some good 30 min. Breaks and went outside.

-reply by josh

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Honestly, the game may be "addicting" and all, but to play for 50 hours straight is just taking it too far. I've played the World of Warcraft for about three years and, although I have played for large amounts of time now and again, I've never come close to playing for that long. It's really the guy's fault for thinking it was a good idea to play for so long.

Personally, I think the game's not addicting at all as long as you realize that it's just a game. It's not a big deal. I guess some people don't think the same way.

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50 hours straight Thats insane. I have never played World of Warcraft so I don't know how addicting it can be but seriously it can not be so addicting that you forget to eat and drink. I can hardly play a game for an hour straight without getting bored let alone fifty.

I think they should have some sort of built in game feature that after the game is one for 12 hours it saves and shuts off. If any of you have the Wii if you play for 30 minutes or something like that a box pops up telling you to go outside or something like that. World of Warcraft should follow the Wii and do something like this as well.

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Perhaps he had enough money in his bank acount and thought he could take an early retirenment and quit his job. As for him dieing from heartfailure i doubt the game could have caused that O.o. Well maybe not completely, maybe he had a weak heart or something + lack fo rest/food/water made his body weaker. Then the game's explosions,graphics and perhaps he was about to loose a rare item lol. I think thats what killed him. Poor guy.
*Gets DSL connection and downloads WOW*

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Well yes, but that's obviously because you realize it was just a game, and so you don't really gravitate towards playing with the same amount of time a regular person might spend on work. Some people though, literally become engrossed and stop thinking of it as a game. To them, it's a way of life, and they're probably going to need some outsiders (friends, family, a psychologist) to interfere and get them help.

I did have a small bout of mmorpg addiction, and I have to say I did quite a bit of merchanting in Runescape. It was quite fun while I did it, and I remember banking a lot of cash off those newly released rune berserkers (and other awards in the new cave). I guess the "buy low, sell high" principle was working pretty well for me. However, after a certain time, I realized that I was spending far too much time merchanting, and began contemplating quitting. I also noticed that the profit gained from merchanting was lowering day by day (expected, since the price of a new commodity starts high but will always drop over time). Eventually, I told myself it was a huge timesink and just stopped playing mmorpgs altogether.

I used to also play a text mmorpg, and I must say that one wasn't nearly as addictive (not because it was a text mmorpg, but because death was a really serious matter in the game). Once you died, none of your stuff could be retrieved, meaning that not only would you have to begin making money again, you'd have to regain all your levels. This led to tedium, as every new area of the game I discovered would lead to a death, meaning that I had to repeat the process multiple times before I got anywhere. In the end, my concentration gave in and I just quit.


Obviously this is not going to happen. WoW profits off the fact that people become addicted to their game and come back month after month to lengthen their subscription. If they do what you say, they wouldn't make nearly as much money. That defeats the point of commercializing their product. Also, I've never seen that on the Wii (I've played multiple times at several friends' houses); perhaps this is a newer version of the Wii or something else special you had to install first? Now, if this exists for the Wii, it still matters less because they're not exactly forcing you to go outside, they're merely suggesting it. Such a suggestion on WoW might be nice, but everyone knows their developers won't do something to harm their business. The fact that the man got himself killed can't really be attributed to the company; there are plenty of others who are doing fine. It's the way he managed his time that resulted in his death.


Hmmm, I think I might be of the personal responsibility camp. For instance, by now most people know and understand that WoW is addictive. Therefore, anyone who chooses to play WoW now knows that they are taking a risk, especially if they've had problems with addiction in the past. They know they might become hooked and yet choose to mess with it anyway. I believe this means that they should be responsible for their own actions. Moreover, whether or not WoW is really addictive the same way heroin or morphine is addictive is debatable. I highly doubt the endorphin high for WoW is anywhere near as high as that of the aforementioned drugs. WoW isn't a drug; it obviously gives addicted gamers a certain amount of endorphin release, but it doesn't do so by forcing the release. There are incentives in WoW, and accomplishing those incentives gives you a award, which causes the endorphin release. That incentive could easily be replaced by something else. Cue the workaholics, or the shopaholics, or whatever.

Now, I'm not a psychologist, and I'm not trying to say that gamers should be left on their own. People around them (friends and family) should definitely try to help them get help. I think, however, that gamers, like those who eat McDonalds and then get fat should stop blaming the companies and instead think about why they made the decisions they made. Blizzard isn't holding a gun at their throat telling them to play, just like McDonalds isn't doing it to its customers. (Although, the last point can be debated due to the poor's tendency to eat unhealthy fast food).

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that sounds pretty bad, I would play MMORPG games all the time a few months ago, I would play for about 20 hours a day.. but I would get up to eat and sleep and drink though. But I wouldn't see not drinking or eating for 50 hours playing video games...

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I have heard so many people who are addicted to this game and are trying to get me into it but I just don't like these sorts of games. Sure it may be extremely fun, I might never know but c'mon playing for 50 hours straight. Well that's just stupid really. Some of my games I will play for 2 hours if that but for 50 hours. I can't even pull off an all nighter.

It is still sad though but it was a bit immature really. And i seriously doubt that they will get sued as it wasn't there fault they made an addictive game. They didn't want you to play for 1 whole day let alone 2 days. Some people may blame them but seriously.



Exactly I am always up and about looking for something to eat and drink when I've been playing a game for a while. I also take a rest from it a lot.

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