Gaming, not just for the sane.

[Herschel]

Report: Taiwanese teen dies after 40-hour Diablo III marathon | Games Blog - Yahoo! Games

Playing 40 hours without a break? Is that natural selection? Did he have a catheter? That's just stupid and there's no cure for it. I've played marathon weekend gaming sessions where we went for hours, napped for a few a couple of times, then started playing again but that's just insane. Heck, I'm not sure I can go four hours without needing the bathroom any more. The kid must have been severely dehydrated or his kidneys shut down.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Like the article said, it was most likely clots in the legs that broke free and caused an embolism. This is why when someone is bed ridden due to weight they start with hand/arm exercises first, less likely to free debilitating clots, and by the time they get to leg exercises, the body is already pumping fresh blood to the atrophied areas.

Also, if you plan on taking a long flight (i.e. cross ocean), don't forget to get up once in a while.

 

[Hand of Evil]

People die, they die doing things (sports, exercise, sex, etc) all the time. Sure 40 hours is crazy but no different that other stuff, tragic yes.

I think I may have been in a game with him

I know, I am going to hell...but I got two hand crossbows and some hate to resolve!
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[Janx]

People die, they die doing things (sports, exercise, sex, etc) all the time. Sure 40 hours is crazy but no different that other stuff, tragic yes.

I think I may have been in a game with him

I know, I am going to hell...but I got two hand crossbows and some hate to resolve!
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I think the difference is that unlike those other activities, people don't do them for 40 hours without any kind of break. Sports has natural breaks built-in, including end-of-game, time to regroup and start next game.

We don't hear of people dying from reading a book ("man, this book is so good, I just don't feel like peeing right now").

I imagine the situation setup is:
player sets up in comfy chair and goes potty first
player plays, gets tired, dozes off, wakes up and resumes play
player isn't moving, doesn't really need to go to bathroom again.
Not consuming many calories, doesn't need to eat or drink/ignores it and is mostly fine
If player does die, other players assume he went AFK and resume their business. If party is large, he is lost among the shuffle of players.

The player is likely suffering from sleep deprivation effects more than hunger or thirst (40 hours is only 2 days), which may make them decide to keep skipping getting up to do anything else. Since the game is mostly mental, physical weariness doesn't really set in or impact participation. Unlike football, where at some point you'd say screw it and lay down on the 40 yard line for a nap.

And as Thunderfoot pointed out, the sitting forever causes blood clots in legs that causes embolisms is your key risk factor.

I'm puzzled as to why the gamers themselves didn't have some breaks built-in. Was EVERYBODY sitting for 40 hours? Was this guy feeling compelled to keep playing, even when everybody else was chiming in "I gotta pee, BRB!" Most people hear that, and think "good idea, me too!"

I suppose game makers could put in a "get up and move" warning when it senses you've been playing the game non-stop for 10 hours. Not entirely their responsibility, but something nice they could do.

I've probably played a game for a 5 hours without a break (as in not getting up from the chair). After that, nature's call does the trick.

Which reminds me of an ancient native american alarm clock. Drink a bunch of water before you go to bed, wake up at 5am with an urgent need to water a tree. The same mechanism should work on gamers. Drink a 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew. Have to unload it in about 2 hours. Don't cheat like those Vegas Grannies.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I got two hand crossbows and some hate to resolve!

That, my fiend, is a fine lyric.

(appropos of nothing)

 

[Jhaelen]

I suppose game makers could put in a "get up and move" warning when it senses you've been playing the game non-stop for 10 hours. Not entirely their responsibility, but something nice they could do.

I know Guild Wars has such a warning message built in, and I think WoW even disconnects you after you've played for 'too long' (might be configurable or even disablable (is that a word?!), though).

I've actually been playing computer games 12+ hours 'non-stop' in the past, but I always have plenty of drink and some food in reach. 'Non-stop' is therefore relative since I had to make toilet-breaks every couple of hours.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

I have some days when I do nothing but sit around computer never mind if I play or not. When I was younger I stayd up week and then had trouble falling asleep and finally did, my family couldn't wake me up for two days and were really worried and then I just waked up with really dry mounth and desperate for something to drink and I coudn't drink much. I was normal in 4 days or so. I had so fun and exiting time back then (no alcohol/or even coffeine included). But best after that was just some rpg weekend of missing one night's sleep.

However I was busy walking and talking and playing rpgs and rooling for demos of my frineds. and (it was time when 3 interesting cons piled up during same week one after another). I think if I had just sitten on computer that time I'd be dead.

When I play some mmo I don't usually log off but let my character hang there without writing afk, since I am not big on guilds. I take my preaks while logged on. So it would be very hard for me to know someone isn't doing anything but intense playing without breaks. Game disconnecting has to do with that, huh, well in that case it just makes me to log on again with bit more pissed. Most mmo disconnect is your netproblem, their server issue, or lag finally caused DE: Rifts warning is much better since it actually says something.

But remember that intense stress of gaming even pauses can give you seizure, or blood vessel pop in your head, or your lives' first epilectic break.

So there might have been other issues that actually caused it than serious self neglect. And some brain related seizures send to make act strangely (like if someone is listening person suddenly starts speaking weird). But if you are playing game and being unsocial in RL nobody can really see warning signs. Or they do and ignore them for usual messing up.

And 40 hours in bad chair getting cramps ingoring them not drinking so you don't have to go to toilet and getting lot of game related stress about survival and loot might just kill you, yes. And if not, it might revail the hidden issue you had until, and it kills you.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Correlation is not causation. No, it isn't good for you to go without food, water, sleep for 40 hours while staring at a computer screen the whole time - but that's hardly in and of itself going to kill you. Just because he died while he was occupied playing the game doesn't mean it was the playing of the game that killed him. Again, the disregard for bodily needs for that long is undoubtedly a contributing factor, but you can lie in bed reading a book for 40 hours and have blood clots break free and kill you too.

If you play Sgt. Pepper backwards it will explain it all in detail much better than I can.