Medical condition: Getalificus

by Lee Hopkins on November 27, 2007 · 4 comments

in miscellaneous

"Luke, come over to the dark side of the teacup"

As reported by the BBC:

A South Korean man has died after reportedly playing an online computer game for 50 hours with few breaks.

The 28-year-old man collapsed after playing the game Starcraft at an internet cafe in the city of Taegu, according to South Korean authorities.

The man had not slept properly, and had eaten very little during his marathon session, said police.

Much as I spend time in Second Life and the virtual world (aka mobile phones, landline phones, computers, text books, novels, theoretical treatises, et al.) and as much as I am an insomniac (this post is being written at 3:32am Tuesday), I can’t see me staying up for 50 hours to play computer games.

Then again, in the mid 1980s I *did* stay up and on-air 48 hours as an announcer/disk jockey at an Armed Forces radio station to raise money for the station.

I was a basket case afterwards (there will be no correspondence entered into about whether I remained a basket case).

Currently listening to: After The Fall – ‘Concrete Boots’

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  • http://silkcharm.blogspot.com/ Laurel Papworth

    I may not have stayed up 50 hours straight, but I’ve definitely, many times, got up at 6am, played world of warcraft til midnight, slept then played again. It’s not sustainable but definitely fun for a while. :)

    I notice a lot of people who die playing games come from Asia – I wonder if it is the social nature of the gaming? (the games take place in something like an internet cafe (PC Bang) as opposed to broadband at home). I can see the temptation, it would be like trying to leave a party. “I really should go home – oh look who just walked in the door!”

  • http://silkcharm.blogspot.com Laurel Papworth

    I may not have stayed up 50 hours straight, but I’ve definitely, many times, got up at 6am, played world of warcraft til midnight, slept then played again. It’s not sustainable but definitely fun for a while. :)

    I notice a lot of people who die playing games come from Asia – I wonder if it is the social nature of the gaming? (the games take place in something like an internet cafe (PC Bang) as opposed to broadband at home). I can see the temptation, it would be like trying to leave a party. “I really should go home – oh look who just walked in the door!”

  • Lee

    Good point, Laurel; I’d made the classic white anglo-saxon male mistake of thinking that everyone would do as I do and stay at home on broadband. Even as I thumb-type this on my hiptop I recall the numbers of gaming shops and cafes in Adelaide and Sydney, chockers with Asian students come 6pm.

    Good call.

  • Lee

    Good point, Laurel; I’d made the classic white anglo-saxon male mistake of thinking that everyone would do as I do and stay at home on broadband. Even as I thumb-type this on my hiptop I recall the numbers of gaming shops and cafes in Adelaide and Sydney, chockers with Asian students come 6pm.

    Good call.

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