Question:
The recent deaths of several people directly or indirectly related to excessive playing of computer games have raised fresh concerns about Korea’s flourishing gaming industry. On Dec. 8, a 38-year-old man died suddenly after playing Internet games for 20 straight days at an Internet café, sustaining himself solely on instant noodles. On Nov. 20, a high school student died while playing online games for nine hours at home, adding his name to a bleak statistic that also includes the death on June 14 of a four-month-old infant who suffocated while her parents were out playing computer games.
Apparently rare overseas, such cases make frequent headlines in Korea. Why? Experts point to the poor environment of the “PC bang” or Internet cafes that have mushroomed nationwide. Generally dark and poorly ventilated, they cater to gamers who tend to smoke heavily. The bad air and light can increase the danger of sudden death, experts warn.
“People who haven’t slept for a long time usually don’t realize how exhausted or stressed they are,” says Dr. Song Hyeong-gon of Samsung Seoul Hospital’s Emergency Department. “Because they are stressed by the obsession with winning the game, they consume a considerable amount of energy. In such a physically exhausted condition, exposure to bright colors or stimulating images on the screen is likely to irritate the cerebral cortex and can cause sudden death.”
Eoh Gi-jun, the head of the Korea Computer Life Institute, points out that deep vein thrombosis (DVT), the so-called economy class syndrome, can also cause computer-game related death. According to research by the National Institute of Scientific Investigation, the main cause of death during computer games is pulmonary thrombo-embolism. “The games we played in the 1980s were winnable once you found out the programmed rules of the game, but when playing network games you have to compete with millions of players all around the world,” Eoh says. “You may be one of the top ranking players one moment but drop way down the next second. Because of the massive competition, people can’t stop playing.”
While death due to game addiction is still rare, many PC game players suffer from disorders of the musculoskeletal system related to repetitive strain such as pain in the wrist, shoulders and lower back.
Meanwhile, for children there is an additional danger associated with violence. “Parents should pay attention to how much time their children spend playing games because young children and teenagers are more vulnerable and may grow into adults lacking social skills or in the worst case lose their lives,” Song warns.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/new...0512160007.html
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u_u oii... what is with people and computer games?
they're not THAT fun... not to me, at least
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its addictive.. true.. but sit in a cybercafe for 20 days and only rely on instant noodles.. thats just wayyy too much..
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oh dear..
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dang..and my parents say that I play too much computer games! 20days straight! he was one hardcore player!!
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does anyone know if these cafes are regulated at all? If not they should start to be and be made to take responsibility for their customers well being.
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cs is addicting =]
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9 hours doesn't seem that long....
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A baby died. =O
What parents go out all day and play internet games?!
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omg......don't people think about the consequences at all when they play pc games? don't they think their life is more important than playing some game??
they realli need to stop!!!
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i guess its really addicting (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)
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waaaiiit, wait, so we're supposed to make better environments for them to play their games in? How about having an after school/after work program to get the kids and men off the clicker? Better yet, let's make a cartoon bear and have HIM tell the kids not to get addicted to games. i mean seriously, why should we encourage gamers to keep on playing? We shouldn't be worried about making a healtheir atmosphere, but we should get these people out of those friggen pc bangs and into a ballys.
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i use to be a game addict. people die from the weirdest things, but it happens.
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wow... i played a lot of video games but... i guess the longest i went gaming was proabably 8 hrs or so.... 20 days?!?!?! that's crazy..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)
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heard a lot of these stories...
but gosh...who would've thought that a couple of dayz on the computer takes your life....
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Now i'm scared for my brother. He litertally plays games like every single day.
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take the comptuer from your brother. thats what my mammy did to me. now i dont play.
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A baby died. =O
What parents go out all day and play internet games?!
Yeah, there was a news thread on it here recently, before soompi crashed I think, the baby's parents were out all day playing World of Warcraft and the poor baby died (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
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Irresponsible gamers.
They will ALWAYS remain n00bs, no matter how good they are, because they failed at life and cannot reload
I don't see why people continue to ponder over this. It's simple: You don't control your addictions/habits, bad things happen. Gaming resulting in casualties, do, and most of them have, involve lack of proper nutrition or the simplest of essentials for living.
Who the hell eats ramyun for meals repetitively? Haven't they heard of pause game?
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those people choose to play games for days like that.
