p2pnet - rss feed: Gamer’s death raises fears
p2pnet.net News:- Does the death of a South Korean gamer signal a serious, and growing, Net addiction problem?
“Keyboard and mouse in hand, he battled until nearly his last breath,” says SEO Chat, quoting an Associated Press item. “The death of Lee, a 28-year-old man identified only by his last name who passed away earlier this month after nearly 50 straight hours of playing online computer games, has South Korea concerned about the health of the millions of gamers in the world’s most wired country.”
Lee sat down on August 3 to start playing and for the next three days, left only to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed.
A Taegu provincial police official said Lee’s death was presumed to be down to heart failure “stemming from exhaustion”.
“Many of South Korea’s 17 million gamers regularly stroll into Internet cafes, the $1-per-hour hangout popular among young South Koreans, and camp out in front of monitors to play for hours - and even sometimes days or longer,” says the Associated Press.
“I’ve seen people who play games for months, just briefly going home for a change of clothing, taking care of all their eating and sleeping here,” the story has Jun Mung-gyu, 27, who runs an Internet cafe in southeastern Seoul, saying.
David Tees, p2pnet’s man in South Korea, wrote recently, “Out of 50 million Koreans, 80% of them have a 3G CDMA colour screen cellphone from Samsung, LG or Motorola. 13 million have broadband access from the home and there’s literally a PC cafe on every corner full of Koreans smoking and playing online games, 24/7.”
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See:-
SEO Chat - Gamer’s Death Sparks Concern in S.Korea, August 25, 2005
heart failure - Marathon session kills gamer, August 9, 2005
broadband access - South Korea, where p2p Rulz!, August 10, 2005
