10 People who died while playing video games
Everyone can enjoy playing video games to pass some time by and keep themselves entertained. However, taking things to an extreme can lead to some serious problems and addictions. These are examples of some of the most outrageous video game sessions—which later led to people dying. There are warning signs to look out for. Taking things like this to such an extreme, can even affect peoples relationships with one another as well.
While it is certainly impressive on some level, a man named Joseph Kelly from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom currently holds the official record of playing the longest single gaming session. It lasted for 35 hours, 35 minutes and 35 seconds while he played the game Minecraft, between October 10th until the 13th back in 2015. He was lucky however, as he didn’t drop dead like the following folks who took things a step further:
Virginia Beach Father Dies after 24-Hour Video Game Marathon for Charity
1.) His intentions were noble, however gamer Brian Vigneault from Virginia Beach died after playing the online game War of Tanks for nearly 24 hours. The money raised from this session was for the Make-A-Wish foundation, a charity that helps make the wishes of children—who are dealing with life-threatening illnesses. When Brian stopped to take a smoking break, he suffered from a massive heart attack dying afterwards. A friend of Brian’s mentioned he had not slept for 22 hours. Brian consumed Five-Hour Energy and Red Bull drinks to stay awake.
Three-Day Gaming Binge Kills two Taiwanese Men
2.) In Taiwan back in 2015, several men decided to go on a binge playing video games at an internet café located in Taipei. The first unknown man age 38, suffered a stroke of sorts and later died. He had been playing for five days straight. After this, another man age 32 died from cardiac arrest after playing for three days without ever stopping.
40 Hours of Diablo III becomes Fatal
3.) During July of 2012, an 18 year old gamer named Chuang reportedly died after a 40 hour Diablo III session. Chuang was at an internet café the entire time. Chauang later was awoken by an employee at the internet café. Not long after this, Chuang took a few steps before falling to the ground. No update yet to how he died, more than likely extreme exhaustion.
Jeff Dailey and Peter Burkowski
4.) Back during the year of 1981, several deaths occurred when both Jeff Dailey and Peter Burkowski “expired” after having achieved incredibly high scores on the then popular arcade title Berzerk, made by Atari. The arcade machine was fed a single quarter by Jeff Dailey, where he allegedly racked up 16,660 points on his final score.
Jeff was only 19 years old, before he then collapsed and was pronounced dead from a heart attack. Peter Burkowski would later suffer the same fate—as he then died a year later from playing “Friar Tuck’s” in Calumet City, Illinois for months, he would enviably push himself too far after entering his two high scores with his initials. His death was determined to be from cardiac arrest.
20-Year-old young man dies while playing XBox
5.) A young man named Chris Staniforth age 20 from the United Kingdom, suffered a pulmonary embolism from a video game related death. Chris was an avid gamer, who would participate in long 12 hour gaming sessions without any breaks before completing a campaign in the game Halo on his XBox.
He technically died from a blood clot—which traveled from his leg eventually making its way into his lungs killing him instantly. It is odd, as there is a lot of downtime waiting for player match ups and multiplayer maps before connecting with one another. Many of those hours are spent waiting for the matchmaking mode to find an actual game. Chris’s father doesn’t hold grudge about his sons death, but fatefully warns those who wish to plays long sessions to get up and stretch between blowing away your friends in a video game environment online.
Chinese Man Plays non-stop for 27 days (650 Hours)
6.) While this seems somewhat far fetched, a man from China age 33, unfortunately died after an insane gaming binge which lasted an astounding 27 continuous days long. He was from Chaoyang, China and spent 10,000 Chinese Yuan ($1452.35 US Dollars) doing it. It doesn’t seem possible, yet he played for 650 consecutive hours. Living solely off ramen noodles, he only stopped to use the bathroom as needed.
He barely would sleep or drink much either. Inevitably, he would die from heart failure and malnutrition. What game or games he played isn’t known. Everyone still wonders what his highest level was or the amount of points he achieved before his death.
7.) In China, back in 2007 a man died from heart failure after a week-long marathon playing during the holidays. Known as Zhang, he was an overweight man (330 pounds) who played World of Warcraft online by Blizzard Entertainment. Later, this incident became a South Park episode and parody of sorts known as “Make Love, Not Warcraft”. His addiction, led to massive power-leveling sessions which led to blood-circulation problems and stress. He also like many people, suffered from social awkwardness not having friends or relationships.
Radio Station Contest turns deadly after woman holds her Urine
8.) A lady died named Jennifer Strange from playing on her console gaming system. She was 28 years old and a mother of three children from Sacramento, California. She decided to enter a bizarre contest held by a local radio station entitled “Hold Your Wee for a Wii”. This promotional giveaway would reward someone for holding their urine the longest. The reward would be a brand new Nintendo Wii gaming system. She then suffered by damaging herself internally after drinking two gallons of water for the contest. Later, she died from this ridiculous contest and irrational thinking.
Man dies after working out with Nintendo system Wii Fit
9.) While Tim Eves was trying to physically better himself, he took things way too far, with the use of a video game. Tim was a “healthy and fit” individual who had no prior health problems previously and worked in the labor industry. The game he played was on the Wii Nintendo system is titled Wii Fit. This game consists of physically moving around while trying to score on screen doing different moves with the gaming system. While he played the game he ignored any signs that something might be wrong. Apparently, he beat a record held previously and then collapsed to the floor dead after having suffered a stroke of sorts.
13 year old Gamer Girl dies from playing her XBox
10.) A thirteen-year-old girl named Anna-Lee Kehoe enjoyed her day hanging out with friends, talking and playing on her Xbox 360 game system when she told her mother one day “I can’t breathe.” She would then suffer a fatal heart attack. After this, she was pronounced brain dead and later placed on life-support. Anna-Lee’s parents decided to pull the plug on the machine, making her one of the youngest video game deaths in history. From what is known, Anna-Lee was asthmatic and doctors have speculated that the attack from the day before, attributed to her heart attack.
Perhaps people should create automatic stopping points, for folks who simply cannot control themselves any longer and more built in game sessions to limit their time played. Some of these internet café places, need to help keep these people from losing themselves within whatever world they mentally trap themselves into.
It has become an epidemic to the masses in recent times, especially with mobile technology on the rise. Stay entertained, however don’t take things too far! There are some video games which have paid tribute to some fallen gamers and creators by creating in game NPC (Non Playing Character) in their likeness or by naming items, locations and more in their honor—inevitably immortalizing them in some fashion.
(Source: Ranker)
