Another One Bites The Dust...After Marathon Gaming Session
CNN reports from a state run Chinese news agency that a 26 year old man from the the town of Jinzhou died after a marathon online gaming session over the course of the Lunar New Year. The young man also weighed 330 pounds (150 kilograms). According to China Daily, he collapsed after spending nearly all of the week-long holiday break playing various online games.
Apparently, during the "dull" period of time that the holiday takes place, "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?" That is according to a local teacher by the name of Xu Yan. I'd freak if that was all I had available to me over a holiday.
State media report that of the 20 million estimated internet users in China, 2.6 million (13%) are under the age of 18 and are classified as internet addicts. That number has climbed even as the Chinese government moves to curb this trend.
What are your opinions on this? I'm glad the government is stepping in to try to stop this, but wow, it's just amazing that so many over there develop an 'addiction' to the internet and online games. I also believe that his weight might, just might, have had something to do with his death. Then again, you have to look at the source.
Report: Man dies after 'marathon' online session [CNN]
Super Timsy
Posted to Video Games on 1 March 2007
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: China, CNN, Internet Addiction, Online Gaming
People usually spend the Spring Festival with their families. I have a lot of fun for New Year's, so I don't know if I would call it dull, like the teacher they quoted. I can't believe he's blaming the fact that the 330 pound guy who played video games to death on a national week off.
I'd still say a culture of internet gaming is a little bit healthier (though not by much) than the culture of high school teenage binge drinking we have in the states, but you have to take what the Chinese state-run news agencies have to say with many many grains of salt. How addicting can the internet really be, when most of the interesting stuff is banned anyways.
Also, not to be mean or anything, but someone please copy edit this post. It was hard to get through. The statistic is also cited imprecisely.
It's always sad when someone dies.
But China's population is 1,300,000,000 and rising at the moment(according to Google). One guy, who sounds like he had a whole host of health problems, OD-ing on gaming doesn't even begin to paint a picture.
With a sample base of 1.3 billion people, you'd pretty much expect anything mad, bad and sad that could happen *will* happen. Humans are still very very broken things.
How does the Chinese government define "internet addiction" anyway?
Goodness knows, José. One just has to consider where this news is coming from.