Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Overdoing it

From msnbc.com

A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing online battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said.

Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play online games on Aug. 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed, they said.

"We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion," a Taegu provincial police official said by telephone.

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.

He died a few minutes later, it said.

South Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world, has a large and highly developed game industry.

6 comments:

slyboots2 said...

Thanks! It's one of the most disturbing and wonderful movies that I've ever seen. Did you know that it's out on DVD finally? I tracked down a copy on Amazon a couple of months back. Happy day.

I do have another non-sleep story to share later.

cb said...

at least he died doing something he loved.

(S)wine said...

i read that this morning. i had to laugh. feckin' nerds...

slyboots2 said...

Love or obsession...

(S)wine said...

i'm willing to bet people like that cannot tell the difference.

slyboots2 said...

Precisely. I wonder what it was before he found gaming...and what finally made him go beyond the edge.