A Gamer in China dies after a seven day binge.
Carpal tunnel, poor eye sight, diminished social skills, they're all the by-products of gaming. Unfortunately, death would also seem to be one of them as well.
Reports out of China claim that a 26 year old man collapsed and perished after a seven day gaming binge during the Lunar festival. Though there is no reporting on what game(s) the man was was playing (EverCrack, pardon me, EverQuest possibly) but that he did weigh only 150 pounds after his digital binge (but no word on how much he weighed before).
For some odd reason, the Lunar festival opening hours were blamed for the young mans passing. "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?" teacher Xu Yan had said. He also stated that many people "turned to computer games for entertainment" during the seven day festival as a result of nation's extended holiday period.
Despite gaming being big in China, unfortunate occurrences like these are quite rare. But video games have ignited previously unforeseen social issues. The Chinese government has started to impose strict laws regulating the amount of time that gamers can spend in on-line worlds. Kinda like how mom would say "Only an hour of television, you don't want to rot your brain." There are even treatment facilities available to help ween gamers of their digital addictions.
There have even been reports of feuds and fights breaking out between gamers over game-related issues (as ridiculous as that may sound). Law suits have even been cast when certain video games have disrupted or destroyed the lives of gamers.
It's unfortunate for this young man to have lost his life as the hands of digital addiction, but there are a couple things that have me curious. Humans can live almost 30 days with out food or water or sleep. So shouldn't this gamer have simply suffered from malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of sleep rather than death. Just wondering. And why can't people just go outside? It seems foolish that some would have blamed the Chinese Lunar festival for the passing of this young fellow. There were plenty of activities to partake in way before computers ever existed. Social interaction being one of them.
forums
As far as gaming to death goes, CT and poor eyesight, alongside (more than likely) lack of eating could have caused some serious stress on the brain. Let alone it may have been totally unrelated to gaming, this is probably the easiest answer they were willi... er... ALLOWED/ENFORCED to "release" to their public to enforce restrictions on gaming.
"Keep your ass off the internet! We don't want you discussing Govt. Policy with all the young impressionables, 'less your home meet the treads of stray tanks."
Some years ago, a high school student in the United States preformed a science experiment for his science fair. He went a little over three weeks without sleep. Every so often, he would enter periods of micro-sleep for 10-20 seconds.
Mahatma Gandhi went on his hunger strike for 21 days with only sips of water to sustain him. Some scientific studies has seen humans go up to 40 days plus without food. An example; political prisoners protesting against the British presence in Northern Ireland showed that 10 individuals died after periods of between 46 and 73 days without food.
Water seems to be different though. A person can go without water for 3-4 days before succumbing to the effects. But there have been reports of Australian Aboriginals going a couple of weeks or longer without water. And there is apparently a young Buddhist boy who had meditated under a tree for six months with no food or water. But it is also dependent upon your environment. Going without water in a desert would be bad, but going without water in a rain forest wouldn't be so bad as your lungs could absorbs some moisture from the surrounding air. The increased temperature/humidity of a rain forest would also make water loss through perspiration more difficult as the surrounding air would already be saturated with moisture and could not absorb anymore.
Your activity would also dictate how long you could survive. If one were walking and moving about, your body is using more energy and there for you need more food and water. If you're just sitting in front of a computer, clicking a mouse and tapping keys with no other body movement, you could survive longer.
But there is the 3/3/3 rule. A person can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food/sleep.
But any reasonable individual should know when to put down the mouse and grab a bite to eat or take a nap. Honestly, is there any computer game out there that is so captivating that it will own you for days on end?