As much as I have been kind of bagging on how Diablo 3 is boring now because nobody is playing it I will readily admist that I have been popping in for a game or two at least a couple times a day still. There is just something about how simple it is that keeps me coming back for more. I'm not going to get super dedicated and grind for specific gear or try for builds and what not but for mindless gameplay it is one of those things that for a casual gamer like me I can jump in and out and it is still I suppose, a little exciting for me.
I need to move on to another game, I am aware of this and will do so soon :)
There are a couple of people that need to move on from a particular game or perhaps gaming in general a lot more than I do though and I don't remember how I even encou(ntered it but ,someone actually DIED in real life from playing Diablo 3 too much.
This happened many years ago back when the game first launched and I am sure there were a lot of people that were really excited about Diablo 3 back in 2012 but one teen in Taiwan apparently likes it considerably more than your average person.
He went to an internet gaming cafe, which is something that is very popular in Asia but as far as I know completely non-existent in the States and rented a private room in order to play the then, almost brand-new Diablo 3. He then stayed in the room and didn't move from his spot for nearly 40 hours.
When staff went to the room to check on him, which I think is warranted after someone has been in the private room for nearly 2 full days, they found him passed out on the table, when he stood up to leave or maybe go to the bathroom, he collapsed and then later died at the hospital. During an autopsy it was determined that after long hours in a sedentary position his body experienced cardiovascular problems and the standing up too fast caused something to go wrong in his blood circulation.
I suppose it doesn't really matter, the dude is dead.
I've gone on some gaming benders and when I was a teen I would routinely sit with a few close friends and we would game for 6 hours straight sometimes. Once, when Resident Evil 1 was released I sat up with my roommate and we played the game all night long - this seemed minorly insane to my other roommate but nowhere near the 40 hours that this Taiwanese fella went through.
There is another story that comes out of Taipei where a guy in his 20's came in and prepaid for 23 hours of gameplay but would only manage to get about 10 hours of his money's worth. Apparently he collapsed on the keyboard in a stretched out position and then stayed that way for many hours simply being ignored by the other gamers in the cafe. It wasn't until staff came by to let him know his 23 hours were up that they saw he was non-responsive. When they pulled his chair back they noticed his face had turned black and his arms had solidified in a "gamers position" as rigor mortis had already set in.
You can see this gory scene in the image above. That is the guy.
So sometimes I feel as though I play too many video games but I am not even close to the level of absurdity that the Taiwanese have accomplished. I would imagine we have plenty of people that are in poor health in part because of video game addiction, but as far as I know no one has died from it in my country. I have spent waaaay too much time on MMO's in the past sometimes staying up all night grinding for xp, but I think that ignoring your body shutting down takes a level of devotion that I hope I never achieve!