I'm sorry you had to lose a friend. I understand that you're trying to find meaning and place blame but playing a game for 3 days is not likely to end your life. It's possible he had an underlying medical condition. If he had been sitting for 3 days straight writing code would you blame it instead?
Please don't let gaming consume your life
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Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life
#12Maybe he died doing what he loved...
Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life
#13I always heard of people in other countries dying while playing video games. I never thought it would ever be someone in this country let alone someone I knew. It's one of the hardest things to hit me in my recent life...so sad...please take care of yourselves out there. Stay healthy.
Do you actually think the game was related to his death? If enough people play video games an hour a week it's guaranteed that some of them will die while playing. I understand that he was marathoning this game but that shouldn't cause a heart attack.
I think the subtext was that his sedentary lifestyle is what killed him.
Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life
#14I'm sorry you had to lose a friend. I understand that you're trying to find meaning and place blame but playing a game for 3 days is not likely to end your life. It's possible he had an underlying medical condition. If he had been sitting for 3 days straight writing code would you blame it instead?
I wasn't placing blame on the game but on himself. The game was the final straw that broke the camel's back. Yes, there were other health issues which I addressed later in the post.
Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life
#15[deleted]
Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life
#16I always heard of people in other countries dying while playing video games. I never thought it would ever be someone in this country let alone someone I knew. It's one of the hardest things to hit me in my recent life...so sad...please take care of yourselves out there. Stay healthy.
Do you actually think the game was related to his death? If enough people play video games an hour a week it's guaranteed that some of them will die while playing. I understand that he was marathoning this game but that shouldn't cause a heart attack.
Agreed. Excessive video game playing over many years may have contributed towards decline in health and eventual heart attack, but not a 3-day sprint.
Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life
#17Not knowing anything about this individual I don't want to make too many assumptions but the broader point here is valid. The whole culture of 'hardcore gaming' is pretty creepy to me. There's a fine line between fun and mental illness. It's too easy to look at this as just a harmless eccentric hobby when, past a certain point, it really needs to be treated more like a serious problem with interventions & rehab. I really dislike how the culture around it is so supportive of obviously destructive behaviors. It's eerily similar to hardcore drug culture at times.
Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you actually think the game was related to his death? If enough people play video games an hour a week it's guaranteed that some of them will die while playing. I understand that he was marathoning this game but that shouldn't cause a heart attack.
I think the subtext was that his sedentary lifestyle is what killed him.
But how much of that was actually tied to games? Maybe I'm being needlessly nitpicky but I didn't even notice the comment about lifestyle as I first read the article, tucked away near the end.
Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life
#19First off: I am really sorry you have to lose a friend like that.
But please, don't blame yourself. Asking him to come in or not might well have not changed anything. While gaming certainly can be addictive, he had a heart attack. That has nothing to do with gaming. You can get a heart attack at any moment. Heck, you can have one while sleeping. (You can even have one without any recognizable symptoms)
So, instead I suggest people learn what the symptoms of a heart attack are - so if you or somebody close to you has one, you can actually recognize it and get help in time. Here's one link giving more detail: http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart_disease_heart...
Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life
#20Managing distractions is incredibly important, be it reading useless stuff online, or gaming.