OT: I guess any addiction can kill

trekgeezer · August 12, 2005, 08:06:05 AM

This is what I would call extreme gaming....losing your job because you're gaming all the time and then.....

Man Dies After Game Marathon

Mr_Vindictive · August 12, 2005, 08:28:42 AM

I read this on various tech blogs a few days ago.

What I don't understand is why the guy was playing Starcraft......f'ing Starcraft! I can't play that game for five minutes without getting bored, much less 50 hours.

The guy was just trying to follow his dream. In Korea, they have televised gaming tournaments and the top players can win over 100k per tournament. The guy wanted to be one of the pros but over did it a bit.

All of the articles say heart failure, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a blood clot, formed from hours of sitting, that killed him.

AndyC · August 12, 2005, 10:21:05 AM

Skaboi wrote:
> What I don't understand is why the guy was playing
> Starcraft......f'ing Starcraft! I can't play that game for
> five minutes without getting bored, much less 50 hours.

Funny, I never found Starcraft to be any fun either, yet I loved Warcraft. Can't really say what made the difference for me. Maybe it was just that the gameplay in Warcraft seemed a lot more straightforward.

dean · August 12, 2005, 10:55:22 AM

Wow, whilst extreme, I'm really not surprised. A friend of mine who lives in Jakarta, Indonesia pretty much plays counter-strike all the time [LAN gaming is really REALLY big there from what he tells me], though I'm sure not to the extent he plays, and I've done a few five or so hour long stretches of LAN gaming with mates pretty easily, though I don't go often.

On top of that, I'm not surprised that gaming addiction can really affect ones life: I know people who are crazy about World of Warcraft, with one person going really badly on an exam at Uni because he didn't study. I could find that game really addictive if I got into it, so I stay right away.

But on the whole, it's all fun [btw I enjoyed Starcraft, though there are many others which are much better.]

Well at least he had a goal, if he was indeed after that 100k. Wish I could win money by playing games, that wouldn't be too bad a living.

Mr_Vindictive · August 12, 2005, 11:49:29 AM

AndyC,

I too loved Warcraft and still do. Starcraft didn't seem to have the Blizzard charm to me that the other Blizzard games do.

ulthar · August 12, 2005, 01:04:56 PM

dean wrote:

>
>
> On top of that, I'm not surprised that gaming addiction can
> really affect ones life: I know people who are crazy about
> World of Warcraft, with one person going really badly on an
> exam at Uni because he didn't study.

I went to grad school with a guy who was really into the original Metroid on Nintendo. He disappeared for days at a time, coming out only to make 'an appearance.' It nearly cost him his job and of course, had that been 'the real world,' rather than academia, it would have.

BeyondTheGrave · August 12, 2005, 03:58:21 PM

I used to play my RPGs like their was no tormmow. I beat FF8 in 3 days. I used to do that in the summer though and it never interefed with school and I still hung out with my friends.

-------------------------------------------------
Most of all I hate dancing then work, exercise, people,stupid people

Master Blaster · August 12, 2005, 06:30:42 PM

Most video games bore the crap out of me. I spent a little time hooked on Diablo II and Starcraft, but got bored and ended up deleting them. Now the occasional game of Trogdor is enough for me.

AndyC · August 13, 2005, 10:25:29 AM

I kind of go in spurts with games. I won't play any for a long time, then I'll pick up some title or other, play it for hours upon hours over a couple of weeks, then not touch any games for months afterward. I went through that with Sim City, Civilization, Command and Conquer, Warcraft, the original Doom games (which held my interest longer because I could play with patches and build my own levels. You can tell by the titles, even that is a few years ago. I barely play video games anymore. Too little time and too many things competing for it, and today's games don't interest me that much.

Even with MAME, I'm finding the fun to be more in the do-it-yourself project, much as I love those old games. The cabinet I can see getting the most use when company comes over. That's pretty much my intent.

Neville · August 14, 2005, 08:29:16 AM

Although I also like new games a lot (GTA San Andreas, Call of Duty), I'll always have a soft spot for the games I played when I was a kid or on my earlier days in front of a PC. I'm an avid user of all kinds of emulators, and recently I've discovered DOSBox, an MS-DOS emulator. It's great to have my copies of "Syndicate" and "Strike Commander" back in business. You need a very powerful system for the more complex games, though.

Zapranoth · August 14, 2005, 11:01:46 AM

Aw, Syndicate. That was the one with the gauss gun, right? The sound that sucker made still gives me the shivers. (It was a horrid shrieking noise, followed by whomever you hit with hit bursting into flames and tottering around screaming, arms waving.)

Starcraft still remains the great masterpiece of RTS, in my mind, above any competitors. Warcraft is beautiful and fun, but not as good as SC. The only game I've played more raw hours than Starcraft is, of course, Nethack. But you'd never be able to kill yourself playing Nethack for 49 hours.

peter johnson · August 14, 2005, 12:40:23 PM

I haven't played a video game since Pong. . .
peter johnson/denny crane

trekgeezer · August 14, 2005, 05:44:17 PM

I only play games where you can shoot and blow things up or run over people. I , also turn on the invincibility cheat code and give myself all the ammo I want. I really don't care about RPG's, I just want mayhem where I win. It's good stress relief and keeps me from going medievel on someone.

dean · August 14, 2005, 11:05:11 PM

trek_geezer wrote:

> I only play games where you can shoot and blow things up or run
> over people. I , also turn on the invincibility cheat code and
> give myself all the ammo I want. I really don't care about
> RPG's, I just want mayhem where I win. It's good stress relief
> and keeps me from going medievel on someone.
>

Oh I hear that! Mass Destruction is a good way to clear somebody's head.

Though I like a good story as well...

Just Plain Horse · August 17, 2005, 01:32:19 PM

dean wrote:

> trek_geezer wrote:
>
> > I only play games where you can shoot and blow things up or
> run
> > over people. I , also turn on the invincibility cheat code
> and
> > give myself all the ammo I want. I really don't care about
> > RPG's, I just want mayhem where I win. It's good stress
> relief
> > and keeps me from going medievel on someone.

Huh, I figured masturbation would make a far better stress relief than blowing up nonexistant things... but I guess anything that keeps you from killing in real life is worth noting. *nervously gets up, moves towards the nearest door*