Man Dies From Excessive Online Gaming

(AP)  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 cybercafe in the city of Guangzhou on Saturday afternoon after he ha been playing games online for three days, the Beijing News reported.

Paramedics tried to revive him but failed and he was declared dead at the cafe, it said. The paper said that he may have died from exhaustion brought on by too many hours on the Internet.

The report did not say what the man, whose name was not given, was playing.

The report said that about 100 other Web surfers "left the cafe in fear after witnessing the man's death."

China has 140 million Internet users, second only to the United States. It is one of the world's biggest markets for online games, with tens of millions of players, many of whom hunker down for hours in front of PCs in public Internet cafes.

Several cities have clinics to treat what psychiatrists have dubbed "Internet addiction" in users, many of them children and teenagers, who play online games or surf the Web for days at a time.

[michellem99-2009]

I play the games I have installed on computer. Yes they are fun but I have to take breaks. Plus I am older. Fate is fun. It is harder to play as I am legally blind. Still the gent had to had health issues that caused his death..A game..no sah..

[tail_honcho]

What was his name? What was he playing? Health issues? Any real info or just another BS story from China... my bet is on the later.

[ucellis]

He may have died from drinking too many caffeine drinks. I''ve done the three day game thing but I was allot younger. I agree there should have been signs on this one.

[rushman71]

"I....have.......to......finish............this...............gaaaaammmmmmeeee..................."

[wogerwabbit]

if he was playing solitare like the graphic accompanying this article shows, he probably died of boredom.

[ke6960]

i agree its prolly bull.... even if the place was open 24 hours there would have been signs that something was wrong b4 the guy just died.... sure you can die from exhaustion but its not sudden.... plus there was a story like this a year or 2 ago where the same thing some chineese guy was in a cyber cafe and playing online games for 36hours and he died..... i dont buy it....


btw dont news companies have editors who should catch things that dont seam real????

[toolmangler-2009]

Just think what 72 hours without a potty break could do to a weak bowel, must have been full of it. BOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!

[xrucifer]

This is total Chinese government bologna! They plant stories like this to try to control their people''s involvement in the net. Absolute fabrication. All governments are seeking to clamp down on the net because it belongs to the people and they can''t control what people tell each other...the truth about them. Aren''t you glad OUR government doesn''t send out bogus news stories and our MSM never fabricates things either....I am just so glad.

[matchspring]

AHAHAHAHAH!! OMG THIS GUY NEEDS TO BE MOURNED! HE SHOULD BE MADE FAMOUS FOR BEING THE FIRST PERSON EVER TO DIE FROM EXCESSIVE VIDEO-GAMING....MY GOD! I AM JEALOUS!

[jawindham]

Attractive headline or not, the headline is correct. The exhaustion may be the symptom that ultimately killed him, but the cause is just like the headline stated, 3 days of online gaming. Just as if someone''s stomach blows out from an eating contest, the symptom that kills the person is their stomach exploding, the cause is the eating contest. I fail to see why anyone would feel this is the media manipulating a story, which they do tend to do at times. I too agree with ToolMangler on their comment that it was probably something beside exhaustion that ultimately killed him. I don''t care how good a game is, how can you sit there for 3 days???