If you or someone you know may be suffering from and Internet or Gaming Addiction, please seek professional help. People can become addicted to anything and gaming is just one thing on the endless list. This video should not serve as a message of how evil video games are – but rather it should serve as a message for helping others overcome their addictions.
Number 1. The WOW Prostitute
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| Source: youtube.com |
Prostitution is the act of someone offering sexual favors in exchange for currency. However, that currency usually comes in the form of cash or even drugs and food. In this case, things were pushed to an unnecessary extreme when a female World of Warcraft player posted a Craigslist ad offering sexual favors in exchange for 5,000 units of WOW game gold. These units can be used to buy weaponry, outfits, and special abilities for a player’s character. Local authorities found her ad while sweeping for prostitution offers on the website. The worst part of this display of addiction is that even despite her ad being removed from the site, she succeeded in her quest for game gold, although the dirty details were never shared. This is a prime example of how video games can affect people in the same way we imagine crack or heroin affecting people. A young woman was willing to sell her body for the sake of her virtual character.
Number 2. The Drop-Out
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| Ilustration (youtube.com) |
Many gamers have skipped school while their parents were away, to stay home and do nothing all day besides play video games, eat junk food and fill up on energy drinks. There’s really no harm in wasting a few days in front of a screen. However, this 15-year-old Australian student took things to a new level when he skipped school every day for over 3 weeks to play video games. As if skipping 15 days of school in a row wasn’t extreme enough, leach day that he was home he played for a minimum 16-hours. He managed to get away with this for so long by changing into his school clothes and waiting for his mother to leave for work. Her work day would end after he was due to be home from school, so it never sparked concern for her. He also lied to the attendance office at his school by saying he was out recovering from surgery. He was finally caught up with when the school managed to contact his mother directly. He was probably grounded from video games for at least a month.
Number 3. The 330-pound gamer
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| Ilustration (youtube.com) |
Though you may not think of gaming as a physically strenuous activity, spending hours in one position while gaming can take a serious toll on your body. The 26-year-old Chinese gamer Zhang was not physically prepared for the 15-day gaming streak that he took. During the Chinese New Year Holiday, which lasts roughly fifteen days, Zhang played a multitude of PC games and rarely left his computer. Sitting in one spot for approximately 360 hours, only moving to eat and use the restroom cause Zhang's heart to have trouble pumping blood to his overweight 330-pound body. A man of this size likely already had heart trouble and a lack 1of physical movement probably caused his heart to exhaust itself. Zhang went into cardiac arrest and died in front of his computer screen. While gaming is a fun and harmless hobby for most, it’s important to do everything in moderation. Know your limits and know what your body is capable of handling.
Number 4. Man Dies in an Internet Café
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| Ilustration (youtube.com) |
In January 2015 a man named Hsieh became the second person in the year to die in relation to video gaming. Hsieh was participating in a 3-day gaming event at an internet café in Kaohsiung, Taiwan when he suffered heart failure and died while sitting in front of a monitor. Hsieh remained dead slouched over the computer for several hours before an employee noticed and bothered to check on him. He was unresponsive and when emergency respondents arrived they deemed him dead on the scene. The fellow gamers at the café not only went several hours without noticing the dead man right beside them but even once medical response teams showed up, they seemed unaffected and just continued their session. This case was a huge argument for those that believe gaming has desensitized youth to violence and even death.
Number 5. StarCraft Death
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| Ilustration (youtube.com) |
This story is actually so well known – it is featured on the Starcraft Wikia page, which is odd considering most game producers and enthusiasts often choose to keep gaming related deaths kept secret because it gives gaming a bad name and only fuels the ambitions of those looking to make games less addictive and more child-friendly. Lee Seop was a 28-year-old hardcore gamer that committed most of his free time to gaming and participating in gaming contests and conventions. Though his day job was to repair industrial boilers – he still managed to find 50 hours to dedicate to a StarCraft online session. Just before he began his session, he was fired from his job for arriving late, broke up with his girlfriend to have more time for gaming and was deemed a gaming addict by his family. They had concerns over his obsession taking over his personal life, as well as interfering with his work and his health. He would apparently barely eat, shower, or get out of the house as he was always playing online. He lost weight and became weaker as he dedicated more time to pressing buttons than to nourishing himself. He started his 50-hour gaming frenzy on August 3rd, 2005. According to reports the internet café where he played was filled with cigarette smoke and was barely lit aside from the eerie glow of the computer and tv screens. Employees and witnesses also claimed that Lee ate very little and only left the computer for short restroom breaks, which were also very rare to occur. His friends showed up to the café in hopes of getting him to leave, but he argued and assured that he’d be done soon. An only moment after his friends left Lee fell from his chair and went unconscious. He was rushed to a local hospital where he died. His cause of death was heart failure brought on by exhaustion and dehydration. His death had a huge impact on the gaming community and led to many game developers labeling their games as addictive and urging families and friends to seek professional help if they feel a loved one has an addiction.
Number 6. Shawn Woolley
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| Source: youtube.com |
Just like any other addiction, many gaming addictions are developed with the aid of underlying emotional or mental issues. Many people turn to focusing on games for hours on end because they feel something else missing in their life, or they see the virtual worlds as an escape from regular life. In other cases, people suffer from things like ADD, autism, or other more severe psychological disorders, and they have problems separating what’s in the game from what is happening in real life. In Shawn Woolley’s case, he suffered from a learning disability as well as severe emotional problems that may have been linked to either an anxiety or temper disorder. Shawn was 21 at the time and had just got his own apartment and a well-paying job. His mother came to his apartment after not hearing from him for a few days, and she found him slouched over his computer screen with Everquest – the online game – still playing in the back ground. The 21-year-old had shot himself. His mother, Liz, claims that he had emotional issues and became addicted to the game to the point that it was “his whole life.” Liz also blamed the game for his suicide as she speculated that something happened to his character “I Luv you” that triggered him and pushed him over the edge. The developers of Everquest do not believe that their game had anything to do with this death. This man was clearly suffering from severe psychological issues that were deep inset before he became addicted to the game.
Number 7. Gaming Parents
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Although gaming should be fun, a light-hearted hobby that you can share with friends and even family – some people seem to take things to the extreme, and it can sometimes lead to loved ones being hurt rather than being welcomed into the fun. In this case, a 3-year-old girl in South Korea died because her parents were too busy raising a virtual daughter, instead of raising her. Prius Online is a game similar to Second Life or the Sims where players live virtual lives through a custom character. This girls parents left her home alone to go to a local internet café where they lived their virtual lives for 12 hours straight. The toddlers malnourished body sparked interest in officials, and a deeper investigation was what led police to discover this couple's addiction. Interestingly enough there was an HBO documentary that followed this case by the title “Love Child.” This was the first court case to use the term “internet addiction” and really brought light to gaming addictions being issues centered around the addict and not the game.
Number 8. Gamer Stabbing
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In June 2005, things between two gamer friends took a very dark turn when one stabbed the other. Qiu Chengwei stabbed Zhu Caoyuan in the chest when he discovered that he had sold his virtual sword from the game Legend of Mir 3 for about 660 U.S dollars. Allegedly, Qiu had attempted to take the case of the sword to court. He won the sword in a previous battle in the game and knew it could not be bought back. However, there are no laws protecting virtual property, so Qiu decided to take things into his own hands and sought revenge via murder. Though Zhu offered to pay Qiu, he was already too frustrated and stabbed him in a fit of anger. He now faces 15 years to life in prison. This is yet another example of how gaming is not at fault for the extreme ways that people react to gaming and game property. It’s not the fault of the game developers get carried away or can’t control their temper. In fact, in this case, the death wasn’t even a direct consequence of gaming addiction. But rather someone was hurt by the hands of the addict.
Number 9. Teen Burns Classmate
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| Ilustration (youtube.com) |
In the world of Warcraft, there are several magical characters that players can use while battling in the whimsical online world. One of those characters is the fire mage which is basically just a wizard that specializes in fire. Well, a 17-year-old in Beijing became too attached to his fire mage character and seemed to think he had the same power. He covered a classmate in gasoline and set him on fire, claiming that he had become too consume in W.O.W and had the delusion that he was a fire mage. The victim was lucky enough to survive the attack despite severe 3rd-degree burns. The “fire mage” was sentenced to 8 years in prison and had to pay the victim and the family over 100,000 dollars in damages, medical bills, and emotional distress. Of course, it’s unlikely that this teen actually believed he was a fire mage, seeing that they use magic while he literally used a can of gasoline. More importantly his ability to perfectly explain his delusion was very unlike those suffering from serious psychological detachments. Its’ likely that this teen had a psychological issue with his temper, not with his ability to determine reality. This was possibly an act of anger that he tried to cover as a gaming addiction. However, 1it does go to show how video games can catch the blame for things they aren’t even at fault for. In this case very few questioned the boys’ delusions because it seems likely that someone submerged in gaming would eventually blur the lines between reality and fantasy.
Number 10. Teen Suicide
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| Source: youtube.com |
This is another case of a person already suffering from emotional, or social issues. Xiao Yi was a 13-year-old gamer who had an unhealthy addiction to online games such as World of Warcraft, Prius Online, and others. According to his parents, he had very few friends, and mostly only talked to people in online chat. His parents once found him in an internet café where he had been for 2 days without eating. They knew he had a problem as he acted like he was on drugs and did not care for himself properly, but they claim they did not know how to seek help and thought things would resolve themselves. The result was much more tragic than these parents could’ve ever imagined. Xiao left a note saying that he hoped to meet his online friends and continue their game in paradise, he then jumped from a 24 story building and died on impact. Though gaming did take certain control over his life, this young teen had trouble in social settings and suffered from an emotional disorder that likely aided in his development of the addiction.
Number 11. Daniel Petric
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| Source: youtube.com |
Daniel was housebound with strep throat when he first played Halo 3 at a friend’s house. This led to him wanting to purchase the game for himself. His father was a pastor and both his parents were strongly against him playing a violent video game with adult ratings. This didn’t stop Daniel, though. He eventually bought the game on his own, without his parent’s consent. He would allegedly go on to play the game for up to 18 hours a day. One night his mother caught him playing the game, so Daniel’s father locked the game up in a safe. The then 16-year-old Daniel, stole his father’s key to unlock the safe. He took out his video game as well as his father’s 9-millimeter handgun. According to reports, Daniel approached his parents as they were sitting in the living room and told them “Please close your eyes, I have a surprise for you” He then shot them both. He shot his father in the chest, and his mother in the head chest and arms. She died almost instantly, but his father managed to survive. Daniel tried to make it look like a murder-suicide by handing the gun to his dad and saying “Here’s your gun dad, take it.” Daniels sister came over for plans to watch a baseball game, but Daniel tried to force her away by saying that their parents were fighting badly. She walked in to find her parents lying in pools of blood and immediately called the cops. Daniel made an attempt to escape in the family van, with the Halo 3 game riding in the passenger seat. He didn’t make it very far, though, before officers caught up with him and arrested him. As he was being handcuffed, he still tried to play off the idea that his dad had shot his mom. Daniels attorney claimed that he had been under stress from his staph infection and was too susceptible to the violence in the game. His attorney also claimed that Daniel did not understand how permanent shooting his parents would be, because he had been so involved in the game. He was given life in prison with a chance at parole after 23 years.
Number 12. Berserk
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| Source: youtube.com |
The arcade maze-style shooter game was popular in the early 1980’s. Berserk was the first record of deaths in relation to video gaming. Jeff Dailey was 19 years old when he reached the top ten high score of over 16,000 points in Berserk. Only seconds after posting his high score Jeff died from heart failure. It was never confirmed it was directly due to the game, but it seems likely he got too worked up while playing. A year later in October 1982 another player died under the same circumstances. Though his high score is unknown, 18-year-old Peter Bukowski made the top ten high score list twice in under 15 minutes, and immediately collapsed and died of a heart attack. It’s likely that since video games weren’t as common as they know that people weren’t used to this kind of high energy unrelated to physical activity and these two young boys were just unable to handle that kind of excitement. This, of course, did not discourage players, the game remained popular for several years following the incidents, and it was a common goal to try and beat Jeff Dailey’s high score. Almost like a morbid competition with death himself.
Number 13. Grand Theft Auto
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| Source: youtube.com |
In the world of violent video games, GTA takes the award. The game of shooting, drugs, hookers, and of course grand theft auto is always the center of a debate about violence in video games. Parents are concerned their children will pick up behaviors of their characters, or think that because of hours of gameplay they can escape real cops. Of course, this isn’t always the case, many players around the world can easily put the controller down and act like civilized people. In the case of Devin Moore, though, after he put the controller down he picked up a real gun. The then 18-year-old was arrested for stealing a car and was being booked in the Fayette, Alabama police station. He got into a physical tussle with an officer and managed to take his gun. He then shot two other officers and a dispatcher. He fled in a police car and was later apprehended. His only statement was “Life is a video game. Everyone’s going to die sometimes” This was another case of someone mentally unstable, who probably suffered from some type of emotional damage or mental disabilities before committing such a heinous crime. He was sentenced to lethal injection. The case was appealed once already and is due for another appeal, but it’s unlikely he will be set free. A 60 minutes special took a look at this case, as well as the gameplay behind Grand Theft Auto.
Number 14. Neglectful Father
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| Ilustration: youtube.com |
A 24-year-old father was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter when his 10-month-old twins died. The young dad, Gregg, left his infant twins in the bathtub while he played a portable game boy in the other room. He was allegedly away from the tub for only 30-minutes, but that was plenty of the time for these two babies to drown. Many of controversy sparked over the fact that he was playing a game boy because he could’ve easily taken it to the bathroom with him while he supervised the twins. There was no foul play found to be involved in the drowning.
Number 15. Garden Burial
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| Source: youtube.com |
Much like other parents on this list, this father's addiction got in the way of his parenting. The 22-year-old father by the name of Chung apparently left his toddler home alive for at least 12 hours a day to play video games in local internet cafes. The child was badly malnourished as he apparently only fed him every 3 days. The 2-year-old starved to death one day when the father was away playing online. It’s also claimed that he allowed the body to rot for about a month inside the apartment before he wrapped it in a plastic bag, which he then stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a local community garden. When the decomposed body was discovered, Chung was arrested and claimed he needed help for his addiction. The infant's mother had begun working at a factory far away since Chung was unemployed. She apparently did not live with them for the time she was working and had no idea of the neglect that was happening to her child.
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