I saw this story today…
A man in southern China appears to have died of exhaustion after a three-day Internet gaming binge, state media said Monday.
The 30-year-old man fainted at a cyber cafe in the city of Guangzhou Saturday afternoon after he had been playing games online for three days, the Beijing News reported.
…and it sound familiar.
Google, google, google…
Why yes.
Reports from MSNBC say an obese 26 year old man from northeaster China collapsed and died after a seven day holiday video game binge session.
…the man, identified only by his family name, Lee, died after a 50-hour binge in which he played online battle simulation games almost nonstop. Police in the southeastern city of Taegu [South Korea] said the 28-year-old man died of heart failure nearly three days after sitting down for the first time at a cybercafe there.
A computer game addict in western China collapsed and died at his screen after playing the popular online game Saga non-stop for 20 hours, a news report said today.
The 31-year-old began playing the game regularly at an internet cafe in Chengdu, Sichuan province, three months before his death, according to the South China Morning Post.
The 27 year-old Taiwanese man collapsed after playing computer games for 32 hours non-stop.
Police confirmed that Lien Wen-cheng started playing at the cyber cafe in Fengyuan in central Taiwan at 10.30pm on Thursday.
A 24-year-old South Korean man died after playing computer games nonstop for 86 hours, police said yesterday.
The jobless man, identified by police only by his last name Kim, was found dead on Tuesday at an Internet cafe in Kwangju, 260 kilometres southwest of Seoul, they said.
Of course, the only cause of death in thiese situations isn’t just "natural causes". There is this, from 2005:
A Chinese man has been stabbed to death in a row over a sword in online game Legends of Mir 3, say reports.
Shanghai gamer Qiu Chengwei killed player Zhu Caoyuan when he discovered he had sold a "dragon sabre" he had been loaned, said the china Daily.
Mr Chengwei only got the powerful virtual weapon shortly before it was sold for 7,200 yuan (£460).
Before the attack Mr Chengwei told police about the theft who said the weapon was not real property.
I don’t know what this means, but someone needs to look into it.