How much gaming is too much?

[MoogleViper]

I'm sure many of us have occaisionally put of uni work (essay? surely you mean blowing up this T-90?) and other commitments in order to play the latest release. A collegue of my mum's recently took a week off work (on holiday pay) to play BF3. But I don't think any of us have taken it to this extreme.

 

South Korean police have arrested a couple for starving their three-month-old daughter to death while they devoted hours to playing a computer game that involved raising a virtual character of a young girl.

 

The 41-year-old man and 25-year-old woman, who met through a chat website, reportedly left their infant unattended while they went to internet cafes. They only occasionally dropped by to feed her powdered milk.

 

"I am sorry for what I did and hope that my daughter does not suffer any more in heaven," the husband is quoted as saying on the asiaone website.

 

According to the Yonhap news agency, South Korean police said the couple had become obsessed with raising a virtual girl called Anima in the popular role-playing game Prius Online. The game, similar to Second Life, allows players to create another existence for themselves in a virtual world, including getting a job, interacting with other users and earning an extra avatar to nurture once they reach a certain level.

 

"The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby," Chung Jin-Won, a police officer, told Yonhap. "They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby."

 

Last September after a 12-hour gaming-session the couple came home in the morning to find their daughter dead. The baby's malnourished body aroused police suspicions of neglect that were was confirmed after an autopsy.

 

The couple fled to the wife's parents' house in Yangju, Gyeonggi province, but were picked up on Monday. The case has shocked South Korea and once again highlighted obsessive behaviour related to the internet.

 

A 22-year-old Korean man was charged last month with murdering his mother because she nagged him for spending too much time playing games. After killing her the man went to a nearby internet cafe and continued with his game, said officials. In 2005 a young man collapsed in an internet cafe in the city of Taegu after playing the game StarCraft almost continuously for 50 hours. He went into cardiac arrest and died at a local hospital.

 

Lee Joung-sun, an MP from the ruling Grand National party, last month submitted a bill restricting the hours offered to online gamers. Several bills are pending in the national assembly suggesting restrictions on teenagers' use of internet cafes and games.

 

Research published last month in the UK showed evidence of a link between excessive internet use and depression. Leeds University researchers, writing in the Psychopathology journal, said a small proportion of internet users were classed as internet addicts and that people in this group were more likely to be depressed than non-addicted users.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/korean-girl-starved-online-game

 

It's just hard to imagine how somebody (actually, make that two people) can get like this. Such a shame and a disgusting loss of a young life.

 

It doesn't say what their sentence was, but I think it should be treated the same as murder.

 

What are your thoughts?

[The Peeps]

It's always Koreans =\

 

I think taking a day or two off work specifically to get and play a game is as extreme as anyone should go. I really don't understand how people can get so engrossed in a game that they forget or just don't want to eat or sleep, or even go to the toilet in some cases.

 

These people must have some kind of mental deficiency. Not meaning that as an insult, I just genuinely think they must be susceptible to extreme fanaticism over games. Like OCD or something. A normal, healthy person would never go to such extremes.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Well, it's no secret I procrastinate a lot, but I haven't got anyone killed so far.

[Magnus]

Well, it's no secret I procrastinate a lot, but I haven't got anyone killed so far.

Death by procrastination.

 

Hmm.

[Coolness Bears]

I never sleep anyway, I may as well game. :p

 

Though for me work comes first. I can't actually concentrate on doing anything if my work is not complete.

[Oxigen_Waste]

I never sleep anyway, I may as well game. :p

 

Though for me work comes first. I can't actually concentrate on doing anything if my work is not complete.

 

Hmmm, you're just like me if I were the opposite of myself!

[The Bard]

It's say its too much when you're seriously considering cathing yourself and setting up a colostomy bag just to sustain an uninterrupted stretch of gaming, such as I have been doing while playing Skyrim.

[ipaul]

I think you might have answered your own question there Moogle

 

I remember hearing about that story a while ago. A moronic tragedy.

 

Too much though...I have the odd week where I know I've played far too much (of Halo Reach) but it evens out because there'll be some weeks where I play like...maybe 5 hours total. I wonder if this will change when I get my 3DS next week

[Rummy]

Well, here I was thinking this would be an amusing and light hearted thread about how much we game, but now you've made me sad

 

Tbh I think if it's affecting your personal life(missing work beyond reason, ignoring social activities, neglecting care) then it's too much. Some people manage to game excessively whilst also still leading a normal life, I think that's fine.