Diablo III Player Dies After 40-Hour Session

Written by: Jason Winter (Twitter @winterinformal - Google+) | July 18, 2012 3:26 pm

30 Comments

When you play Diablo III, you go to Hell. But one player might have taken that a little too literally.

The Australian is reporting that an 18-year-old Taiwanese gamer, referred to only as “Chuang,” died after a marathon 40-hour D3 session in an Internet cafe over the weekend.

This isn’t the first time an overseas player has died while playing a video game in an Internet cafe. We earlier reported on a man in Chinese Taipei being found dead after a long League of Legends session, and a U.K. gamer died last year as a result of spending 12 hours a day playing his Xbox 360, according to his father.

As big as Internet cafes are in southeast Asia, nations such as South Korea are considering implementing a curfew to limit time spent playing games to four hours a day for gamers under 16.

Diablo III Player Dies After 40-Hour Session

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http://twitter.com/ItsatrapLOL itsatrapLOL

Life is set to Hardcore; you don’t get a rez. But in all seriousness, sad news. All that’s required is for a gamer to get up every four hours and move around to prevent clotting.
http://twitter.com/DaPhoolz Rp TheFoolz

Live, to play tomorrow! Live!
7BitBrian

I’ll reply with the same thing I put on the forums: This is not the fault of a game, it’s the fault of the moron that has no self control.
- 7BitBrian
  
  Okay yea; I do admit it is a bit harsh. I just have no tolerance for
  people with no self control who try to blame(or others try to blame)
  whatever else they can instead of the actual problem. Just like the
  people who claimed school shooting people trained in video games, and
  the games were one of the reasons they did it. It’s putting the blame on
  the easiest target to ignore the real underlying problem(self control,
  mental health, proper education, etc….). And you cannot honestly tell
  me you don’t think this is going to be ran with and used to bash gaming?
  Every single case like this is used for it, why should this one be any
  different?
  
  It’s sad that someone died yes, but what we really need
  to be taking away from this is how the kid was raise, his mental
  health, psychological make up, social/cultural/behavioral acceptance,
  and what caused him to behave like this. but instead the only thing that
  is mentioned is he died from playing a game.
  - Morturion
    
    Good point. Teaching kids Common Sense should be done more, ’cause they don’t only get themselves killed through games. In the city I live in, two boys jumped of a bridge to show some girl who was the coolest or something :S
    They both died, and unlike computer games, I don’t hear anything about bridges getting banned …
  - jayremy
    
    Relying totally on the self can be a bit narrow too. Though I agree with your point, society has a big impact on people and their lives. It is easy to change ones self, but not society, how society works or how it treats them.
    
    People have to acknowledge some sense of responsibility to help when they can’t, help doesn’t mean coerce. Parents, friends, relatives whoever could’ve done something easily to prevent this, unless his intention was suicide by gaming. Really a simple disruption in the cognitive process that was keeping him attached to the game is all that is needed.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Phil-Thompson/1646123599 Phil Thompson

I’m shocked that he could even play that boring game for longer then 4 hours.
http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

It appears that if you play anything for more then 24 hours solid your mortality might be at risk.
http://profiles.google.com/gl7676 gl 7676

FYI:

“Chinese Taipei” = Taiwan
http://twitter.com/GirlyGamerSite Kristin

I play games all day every day because I’m able to play while I work. I’d say I put in at LEAST 8 hours a day and sometimes up to 16 but I don’t forget to eat, drink and I do sleep sometimes.
- jayremy
  
  But as you said gaming doesn’t compete with your life/lifestyle. Some people lets just say “over-escape” into games. Games are definitely my mental escape but I don’t lose complete touch over it. It may hurt me a bit socially or financially to play as much as I do (non-vitally) but they way the world and society has been for me (crap), it’s one source of joy for me. I could for most of my life only dream of a job/career to coincide with my gaming, I have never had.
http://www.facebook.com/liam.williams.184881 Liam Williams

That’s a nice shirt Mr. B!
Steven Lacaze

i bet he was drinking lots of energy drinks.
Sharuko

That really sucks, hope his family well. At least he died doing what he liked to do. These Internet Cafes really need more surveillance because it seems like it happens often.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Cameron-Nichols/1439876044 Cameron Nichols

Isnt this old? Didnt someone die at release after playing 36 hours or something
http://twitter.com/moosewithaj john nuyen

SO they die there playing Diablo 3, We Americans will prob die from GW2, Guess the Japanese will die from hello kitty adventure isle lol
- http://www.facebook.com/tony.golightly Tony Golightly
  
  it’s far more likely that someone in japan has all ready committed suicide over Pokemon Black/white 2. or been killed because of a duel in game…
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Hard to say if anyone will die over GW2. Maybe if someone spends a year grinding the mats for the rainbow shooting Unicorn Short Bow and his hardcore gamer friends come over and fall over dead laughing. (pun intended.)
Jay Jay

Died from poor circulation from sitting for 40 hours. World first.. Your not really this stupid are you guys? Would take you 5 seconds to google this possibility, and someone with a half brain half a second to realize that people in wheel chairs, or bed ridden would be dropping like fly’s daily.. Sorry I had to get that out. Whew, wow..
You guys should really think before you speak.

Without a doubt a pre existing condition, or very poor lifestyle over a long period of time. Power drinks also a possibility, but someone who takes care of themselves could handle A LOT of that crap. I don’t condone it though, it is CRAP, and you don’t need it. There are much healthier ways to stay awake. Anyway’s, definitely take care of yourself’s no matter what your doing, work out, eat proper, and don’t let poor coverage of shit like this scare you.
- emperor187
  
  Not true Jay Jay. Perhaps you should have spent more than 5 seconds on google. This could very easily be a classic example of severe PE (pulmonary embolism). The worst cases of it can result in sudden death, usually due to periods of blood flow alterations.
  
  There are numerous case studies of people dying from PE due to prolonged sitting or laying. You don’t have to be playing a video game though.
  - Jay Jay
    
    If your read my full comment, and are saying I’m wrong, then you are telling me this guy could have died from a severe PE after 40 hours of gaming with nothing leading up to it. Which means this conversation is over..
  - Kagitaar
    
    Yep, you form a clot from not moving, then as soon as you do it shoots to your heart or brain and bam, dead.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    So, sitting 6+ hours per day makes you up to 40% likelier to die within 15 years than someone who sits less than 3 hours. Even if you exercise.
    
    So raiding 3 hours per day in WoW is healthier than playing LoL for 6 hours.
    
    Love google.
- Vince Ludovico
  
  Deep vein thrombosis into a pulmonary embolism as emperor187 said. Gamers worst enemy (besides sleep and work).
  
  Certainly not a world first.
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

There was an error in the previously reported GamebreakerTV story. The source article from the NY Daily News mention the LoL player was in New Taipei City, the largest city in Taiwan. GamebreakerTV made a mistake and changed it from New Taipei City to Chinese Taipei. Chinese Taipei is usually used when the ROC (Taiwan) and PRC (China) are both present at an international event.

Then GamerbreakerTV replicated the error to this article.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Filip-Buhov/1379207683 Filip Buhov

Lame asians , can’t drink , can’t even play
Revanhavoc

This pretty much proves it

Video Games Kill.
http://twitter.com/DaveyDiablo Davey Diablo

I generally find Jason a funny and intelligent guy, but the “When you play Diablo III, you go to Hell. But one player might have taken that a little too literally” remark is a little distasteful. It is another human being we’re talking about here. Sorry to be the Debbie Downer
http://www.facebook.com/people/Nappie-Chappy/100002672280733 Nappie Chappy

How the hell you sit for 40 hours?
http://twitter.com/Oxz1 Ossi Laine

right, I think the amount of coffee he was drinking?
edit/ being awake isn’t killing anyone but having too much coffein in your body does

Diablo III Player Dies After 40-Hour Session

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