9 People Who Died Playing Video Games
Autumn Spragg Any video game player worth their salt knows the feeling. Just ONE more level, ONE more achievement, ONE last item before meal time, sleep, or (shudder) some actual human interaction. Four hours later, and you’re still staring blankly at the screen, mouth ajar, hands balled up into an arthritic mass of digits, and any thoughts you once had about tending to your basic human needs are long since forgotten or pushed off indefinitely as you plug along for that never ending quest for virtual fulfillment. It’s easy to forget that our own bodies need as much tending to as our farms or guilds, heck, maybe even more so. Here’s a list of people who died neglecting their real-life health bars for their video game equivalents.
Be sure to check out Ranker's other lists or circulatory system diseases, brain disorders and biopharmaceutical companies.
Be sure to check out Ranker's other lists or circulatory system diseases, brain disorders and biopharmaceutical companies.
- 1
40 Hours of Diablo III Proves Fatal
An 18 year old Taiwanese gamer named Chuang reportedly died in July of 2012 after a marathon 40 hour "Diablo III" session. And get this, he was at AN INTERNET CAFE at the time. Maybe these places should take a tip from bars and start "cutting off" people who've had enough. "OK, folks, closing time, you don't have to buy a home in 'Animal Crossing' but you can't stay here!"
Anyway, Chuang was crashed out by a terminal in an Internet cafe when he was awoken by an employee. He then managed to stand up, took a few steps around, and then collapsed. No cause of death was identified at the time, and police were investigating what mind have led to Chuang's untimely demise. - 2
Jeff Dailey and Peter Burkowski - The First
The game above is Berzerk.
The earliest known deaths to have occurred while playing video games are attributed to Jeff Dailey and Peter Burkowski who both expired (they didn't die, they expired ) while achieving fantastically high scores on the popular arcade title "Berzerk", by Atari.
In 1981, Dailey popped a quarter into the robot-killing machine to score an alleged 16,660 points, his personal best. Moments later, he collapsed and was pronounced dead of a heart attack at the tender young age of 19.
Burkowski died under similar circumstances less than a year later when, after frequenting his local game room "Friar Tuck's" in Calumet City, Illinois for months, he finally pushed himself too far. Shortly after entering his initials on the Berzerk score board for not one but two record high scores, he also fell victim to cardiac arrest.
Both of these men died in a blaze of glory, and with their literal last ounce of life, they entered scores into machines, dying legends and forever being known as the guys who died not only doing what they love, but perfecting it.
I'm going to make fun of some of the poor examples of humanity on this list, but these two, these guys started it all. They set the example. And they died right after entering their names into a Top Score list. And that is badass. - 3
20 Year Old Man Dies While Playing XBox
The most recent video game related death to date comes in the form of a pulmonary embolism experienced by 20-year old Chris Staniforth from the United Kingdom.
Chris frequently participated in 12-hour long Halo sessions without breaks and during one fated campaign, a blood clot traveled from his legs into his lungs, killing him instantly, which is weird because there's plenty of downtime while waiting for the multiplayer maps to connect you to players and load. Especially on Halo. Seriously. 5 of those hours were probably spent waiting for Matchmaking to actually find a f*cking game.
Thankfully, Chris’ father is one of the few parental units that does not blame the games his son loved to indulge in for his unfortunate demise, but wishes to warn others who participate in the sedentary lifestyle to get up and stretch between blowing away your friends online.
Source - 4
South Korean 33-year Old Man Plays for 650 Hours
Not to be outdone by the likes of his South Korean counterpart, a 33-year-old man from China kicked the proverbial bucket after a staggering 27 days of continuous online game play. No actual buckets were harmed in the making of this news story.
Holed up in an even shadier establishment without a business license or any natural lighting, the Chaoyang man (whose name is still unreleased) had reportedly shelled out over 10,000 Chinese Yuan ($1,519.30) during the time before his, let’s be honest, timely death. 650 hours of consecutive gaming.
Over this period he barely drank or slept and what little he ingested was in the form of instant ramen noodles. In other words, he lived through what most of us would call a normal college experience.
You have to hand it to this guy for his level of endurance, if nothing else. Lesser men wouldn’t last a week under similar circumstances. I know I couldn't eat Ramen for more than a few days straight.
He died of heart failure, malnutrition, etc. Pretty much exactly what you would expect.
The most important part that they never release in these stories: What level was his character at?! - 5
26-year Old Man Spends Holiday Gaming to Death, Teachers Sympathize
In 2007, a 26-year-old man, surnamed Zhang, from Northeast China, died of heart failure after a week-long marathon of online gaming during a national holiday. Which really, whenever there actually is a national holiday anywhere in the world, before we make our "oustide" plans, we, as a society, make our gaming plans. This guy planned his weekend right. He just wasn't really "in the right shape" to do it. Yes, you do need to be "in shape" to marathon game like this. And by "in shape" I mean "have the basic tools to stay alive".
The binge itself could hardly be blamed for the gamer's death, however, as Zhang had evidently led a full-fledged MMO lifestyle that parodies the "Make Love, Not Warcraft" South Park episode. Weighing over 330 pounds, the internet addict apparently devoted most of his effort to power-leveling instead of, you know, blood-circulation-friendly activities (going outside, playing a Wii game -- c'mon, this was recent enough that he could have done that -- or, I don't know, talking to women ).
While not advocating Zhang’s decision-making abilities, a local female middle school teacher did sympathize with his plight, saying "There are only two options: TV or computer. What else can I do in the holiday as all markets, KTV and cafeterias are shut down?"
Because clearly, if the cafeteria is closed, kids have no choice but to game themselves to death (???). I knew China was usurping America’s role in the global economy, but they’re taking our laziness, too? God help us all.
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9 People Who Died Playing Video Games at 2/06/2013 8:30 AM
9 People Who Died Playing Video Games at 1/27/2013 2:30 PM
9 People Who Died Playing Video Games at 8/15/2011 1:38 AM
f**king nerd.
Stop trying so hard on the internet, you can only achieve so much :(
9 People Who Died Playing Video Games at 8/08/2011 5:10 AM
9 People Who Died Playing Video Games at 8/08/2011 2:28 AM
entry #1 - So, since it was 2 people, the whole article was misnamed, right? That would be 9 people total.
entry #2 - You totally took the wrong route with this entry. The guy was a FPS player and should be dead anyway, for destroying the industry. For that reason alone, MS deserves a medal for making Halo. And as a follow-up, I put forth a challenge to all FPS players to please try to break the 12-hour session it took before dying. So, FPS'ers, please start playing now and let's see how long you can go before you also die.
Please?
entry #3 - You referenced something from entry 4. So, sure if someone started reading backwards at 8, it made sense, but since the list is presented in the reverse order than that, sounds silly referencing #4 before people would read it.
entry #5 - I know you said that there were no prizes given that you know of, but man, what a crappy radio station to not give one to them, in light of what happened On the other hand, her kids are probably thankful as hell they didn't get one, now. The pain of remembering how they got the system along with how bad the system and it's games are, that is a double-combination that would suck to deal with.
I guess the preference would be to have their mom around, but what would you prefer? "She might be dead, but at least we got something good out of it!" or "She might be dead and we're stuck with this piece of crap system?!".
Shoot. Thought there were more in the list I wanted to comment on. Oh well. Some other comments:
""As Sega did with the Dreamcast, Anna-Lee’s parents decided to pull the plug on the machine"
That's f**king tasteless."
I agree totally, Duck. pulling the plug on the Dreamcast was insanely tasteless of Sega to do.
And since I know you actually meant the comment about the girl was tasteless, I'll say to both Duck and El Jefe, that no, it wasn't. Grow up. Can't stand when people think there is any joke that is too "tasteless" to tell, or if it's "too soon." The ONLY time a comment is "too soon" is if you cut them off before they finish the statement. Everything is fair game from the first second an event happens and you find out about it.
Grow Up.
9 People Who Died Playing Video Games at 8/07/2011 11:36 PM
That's f**king tasteless.
9 People Who Died Playing Video Games at 8/07/2011 3:50 PM
Really? You made that joke?
9 People Who Died Playing Video Games at 8/04/2011 9:03 PM
Slam dunk my bean lubed-up butt with a giraffe dong fellas.