If you or someone you know may be suffering
from and Internet or Gaming Addiction please seek professional help. People can become
addicted to anything and gaming is just one thing on the endless list. This video should
not serve as a message of how evil video games are – but rather it should serve as a message
for helping others overcome their addictions. Number 15. The WOW Prostitute Prostitution is the act of someone offering
sexual favors in exchange of currency. However, that currency usually comes in the form of
cash or even drugs and food. In this case, things were pushed to an unnecessary extreme
when a female World of Warcraft player posted a Craigslist ad offering sexual favors in
exchange for 5,000 units of WOW game gold. These units can be used to buy weaponry, outfits,
and special abilities for a player’s character. Local authorities found her ad while sweeping
for prostitution offers on the website. The worst part of this display of addiction is
that even despite her ad being removed from the site, she succeeded in her quest for game
gold, although the dirty details were never shared. This is a prime example of how video
games can affect people in the same way we imagine crack or heroin affecting people.
A young woman was willing to sell her body for the sake of her virtual character. Number 14. The Drop-Out Many gamers have skipped school while their
parents were away, to stay home and do nothing all day besides play video games, eat junk
food, and fill up on energy drinks. There’s really no harm in wasting a few days in front
of a screen. However, this 15-year-old Australian student took things to a new level when he
skipped school every day for over 3 weeks to play video games. As if skipping 15 days
of school in a row wasn’t extreme enough, each day that he was home he played for a
minimum 16-hours. He managed to get away with this for so long by changing into his school
clothes and waiting for his mother to leave for work. Her work day would end after he
was due to be home from school so it never sparked concern for her. He also lied to the
attendance office at his school by saying he was out recovering from surgery. He was
finally caught up with when the school managed to contact his mother directly. He was probably
grounded from video games for at least a month. Number 13. The 330-pound gamer Though you may not think of gaming as a physically
strenuous activity, spending hours in one position while gaming can take a serious toll
on your body. The 26-year-old Chinese gamer Zhang, was not physically prepared for the
15-day gaming streak that he took. During the Chinese New Year Holiday which lasts roughly
fifteen days, Zhang played a multitude of PC games and rarely left his computer. Sitting
in one spot for approximately 360 hours, only moving to eat and use the restroom cause Zhangs
heart to have trouble pumping blood to his overweight 330-pound body. A man of this size
likely already had heart trouble and a lack of physical movement probably caused his heart
to exhaust itself. Zhang went into cardiac arrest and died in front of his computer screen.
While gaming is a fun and harmless hobby for most, it’s important to do everything in
moderation. Know your limits and know what your body is capable of handling. Number 12. Man Dies in an Internet Café In January 2015 a man named Hsieh became the
second person in the year to die in relation to video gaming. Hsieh was participating in
a 3-day gaming event at an internet café in Kaohsiung, Taiwan when he suffered heart
failure and died while sitting in front of a monitor. Hsieh remained dead slouched over
the computer for several hours before an employee noticed and bothered to check on him. He was
unresponsive and when emergency respondents arrived they deemed him dead on the scene.
The fellow gamers at the café not only went several hours without noticing the dead man
right beside them, but even once medical response teams showed up, they seemed unaffected and
just continued their session. This case was a huge argument for those that believe gaming
has desensitized youth to violence and even death. Number 11. StarCraft Death This story is actually so well known – it
is featured on the Starcraft Wikia page, which is odd considering most game producers and
enthusiasts often choose to keep gaming related deaths kept secret because it gives gaming
a bad name and only fuels the ambitions of those looking to make games less addictive
and more child friendly. Lee Seop was a 28-year-old hardcore gamer that committed most of his
free time to gaming and participating in gaming contests and conventions. Though his day job
was to repair industrial boilers – he still managed to find 50 hours to dedicate to a
StarCraft online session. Just before he began his session, he was fired from his job for
arriving late, broke up with his girlfriend to have more time for gaming and was deemed
a gaming addict by his family. They had concerns over his obsession taking over his personal
life, as well as interfering with his work and his health. He would apparently barely
eat, shower, or get out of the house as he was always playing online. He lost weight
and became weaker as he dedicated more time to pressing buttons than to nourishing himself.
He started his 50 hour gaming frenzy on August 3rd 2005. According to reports the internet
café where he played was filled with cigarette smoke and was barely lit aside from the eerie
glow of the computer and tv screens. Employees and witnesses also claimed that Lee ate very
little and only left the computer for short restroom breaks, which were also very rare
to occur. His friends showed up to the café in hopes of getting him to leave but he argued
and assured that he’d be done soon. A only moments after his friends left Lee fell from
his chair and went unconscious. He was rushed to a local hospital where he died. His cause
of death was heart failure brought on by exhaustion and dehydration. His death had a huge impact
on the gaming community and led to many game developers labeling their games as addictive
and urging families and friends to seek professional help if they feel a loved one has an addiction. Number 10. Shawn Woolley Just as any other addiction, many gaming addictions
are developed with aid of underlying emotional or mental issues. Many people turn to focusing
on games for hours on end because they feel something else missing in their life, or they
see the virtual worlds as an escape from regular life. In other cases people suffer from things
like ADD, autism, or other more severe psychological disorders and they have problems separating
what’s in the game from what is happening in real life. In Shawn Woolley’s case, he
suffered from a learning disability as well as severe emotional problems that may have
been linked to either an anxiety or temper disorder. Shawn was 21 at the time and had
just got his own apartment and a well-paying job. His mother came to his apartment after
not hearing from him for a few days and she found him slouched over his computer screen
with Everquest – the online game – still playing in the back ground. The 21-year-old
had shot himself. His mother, Liz, claims that he had emotional issues and became addicted
to the game to the point that it was “his whole life”. Liz also blamed the game for
his suicide as she speculated that something happened to his character “I luv you”
that triggered him and pushed him over the edge. The developers of Everquest do not believe
that their game had anything to do with this death. This man was clearly suffering from
severe psychological issues that were deep inset before he became addicted to the game. Number 9. Gaming Parents Although gaming should be a fun, light hearted
hobby that you can share with friends and even family – some people seem to take things
to the extreme and it can sometimes lead to loved ones being hurt rather than being welcomed
into the fun. In this case a 3-year-old girl in South Korea died because her parents were
too busy raising a virtual daughter, instead of raising her. Prius Online is a game similar
to Second Life or the Sims where players live virtual lives through a custom character.
This girls parents left her home alone to go to a local internet café where they lived
their virtual lives for 12 hours straight. The toddlers malnourished body sparked interest
in officials and a deeper investigation was what led police to discovering this couples
addiction. Interestingly enough there was an HBO documentary that followed this case
by the title “Love Child”. This was the first court case to use the term “internet
addiction” and really brought light to gaming addictions being issues centered around the
addict and not the game. Number 8. Gamer Stabbing In June 2005, things between two gamer friends
took a very dark turn when one stabbed the other. Qiu Chengwei stabbed Zhu Caoyuan in
the chest when he discovered that he had sold his virtual sword from the game Legend of
Mir 3 for about 660 U.S dollars. Allegedly, Qiu had attempted to take the case of the
sword to court. He won the sword in a previous battle in the game and knew it could not be
bought back. However, there are no laws protecting virtual property so Qiu decided to take things
into his own hands and sought revenge via murder. Though Zhu offered to pay Qiu, he
was already too frustrated and stabbed him in a fit of anger. He now faces 15 years to
life in prison. This is yet another example of how gaming is not at fault for the extreme
ways that people react to gaming and game property. It’s not the fault of the game
developers get carried away or can’t control their temper. In fact, in this case the death
wasn’t even a direct consequence of gaming addiction. But rather someone was hurt by
the hands of the addict. Number 7. Teen Burns Classmate In the world of Warcraft there are several
magical characters that players can use while battling in the whimsical online world. One
of those characters is the fire mage which is basically just a wizard that specializes
in fire. Well a 17-year-old in Beijing became too attached to his fire mage character and
seemed to think he had the same power. He covered a classmate in gasoline and set him
on fire, claiming that he had become too consume in W.O.W and had the delusion that he was
a fire mage. The victim was lucky enough to survive the attack despite severe 3rd degree
burns. The “fire mage” was sentenced to 8 years in prison and had to pay the victim
and is family over 100,000 dollars in damages, medical bills, and emotional distress. Of
course, it’s unlikely that this teen actually believed he was a fire mage, seeing that they
use magic while he literally used a can of gasoline. More importantly his ability to
perfectly explain his delusion was very unlike those suffering from serious psychological
detachments. Its’ likely that this teen had a psychological issue with his temper,
not with his ability to determine reality. This was possibly an act of anger that he
tried to cover as a gaming addiction. However, it does go to show how video games can catch
the blame for things they aren’t even at fault for. In this case very few questioned
the boys’ delusions because it seems likely that someone submerged in gaming would eventually
blur the lines of reality and fantasy. Number 6. Teen Suicide This is another case of a person already suffering
from emotional, or social issues. Xiao Yi was a 13-year-old gamer who had an unhealthy
addiction to online games such as World of Warcraft, Prius Online and others. According
to his parents he had very few friends, and mostly only talked to people in online chat.
His parents once found him in an internet café where he had been for 2 days without
eating. They knew he had a problem as he acted like he was on drugs and did not care for
himself properly, but they claim they did not know how to seek help and thought things
would resolve themselves. The end result was much more tragic than these parents could’ve
ever imagined. Xiao left a note saying that he hoped to meet his online friends and continue
their game in paradise, he then jumped from a 24 story building and died on impact. Though
gaming did take certain control over his life, this young teen had trouble in social settings
and suffered from an emotional disorder that likely aided in his development of the addiction. Number 5. Daniel Petric Daniel was housebound with strep throat when
he first played Halo 3 at a friend’s house. This led to him wanting to purchase the game
for himself. His father was a pastor and both his parents were strongly against him playing
a violent video game with adult ratings. This didn’t stop Daniel, though. He eventually
bought the game on his own, without his parent’s consent. He would allegedly go on to play
the game for up to 18 hours a day. One night his mother caught him playing the game so
Daniel’s father locked the game up in a safe. The then 16-year-old Daniel, stole his
father’s key to unlock the safe. He took out his video game as well as his father’s
9 millimeter handgun. According to reports Daniel approached his parents as they were
sitting in the living room and told them “Please close your eyes, I have surprise for you”
He then shot them both. He shot his father in the chest, and his mother in the head chest
and arms. She died almost instantly but his father managed to survive. Daniel tried to
make it look like a murder-suicide by handing the gun to his dad and saying “Here’s
your gun dad, take it.” Daniels sister came over for plans to watch a baseball game, but
Daniel tried to force her away by saying that their parents were fighting badly. She walked
in to find her parents lying in pools of blood and immediately called the cops. Daniel made
an attempt to escape in the family van, with the Halo 3 game riding in the passenger seat.
He didn’t make it very far, though, before officers caught up with him and arrested him.
As he was being handcuffed he still tried to play off the idea that his dad had shot
his mom. Daniels attorney claimed that he had been under stress from his staph infection
and was too susceptible to the violence in the game. His attorney also claimed that Daniel
did not understand how permanent shooting his parents would be, because he had been
so involved in the game. He was given life in prison with a chance at parole after 23
years. Number 4. Berserk The arcade maze-style shooter game was popular
in the early 1980’s. Berserk was the first record of deaths in relation to video gaming.
Jeff Dailey was 19 years old when he reached the top ten high score of over 16,000 points
in Berserk. Only seconds after posting his high score Jeff died from heart failure. It
was never confirmed it was directly due to the game but it seems likely he got too worked
up while playing. A year later in October 1982 another player died under the same circumstances.
Though his high score is unknown, 18-year-old Peter Bukowski made the top ten high score
list twice in under 15 minutes, and immediately collapsed and died of a heart attack. It’s
likely that since video games weren’t as common as they are know that people weren’t
used to this kind of high energy unrelated to physical activity and these two young boys
were just unable to handle that kind of excitement. This of course did not discourage players,
the game remained popular for several years following the incidents and it was a common
goal to try and beat Jeff Dailey’s high score. Almost like a morbid competition with
death himself. Number 3. Grand Theft Auto In the world of violent video games GTA takes
the award. The game of shooting, drugs, hookers, and of course grand theft auto is always the
center of debate about violence in video games. Parents are concerned their children will
pick up behaviors of their characters, or think that because of hours of game play they
can escape real cops. Of course this isn’t always the case, many players around the world
can easily put the controller down and act like civilized people. In the case of Devin
Moore, though, after he put the controller down he picked up a real gun. The then 18-year-old
was arrested for stealing a car and was being booked in the Fayette, Alabama police station.
He got into a physical tussle with an officer and managed to take his gun. He then shot
two other officers, and a dispatcher. He fled in a police car and was later apprehended.
His only statement was “Life is a video game. Everyone’s going to die sometime”
This was another case of someone mentally unstable, who probably suffered from some
type of emotional damage or mental disabilities before committing such a heinous crime. He
was sentenced to lethal injection. The case was appealed once already and is due for another
appeal but it’s unlikely he will be set free. A 60 minutes special took a look at
this case, as well as the game play behind Grand Theft Auto. Number 2. Neglectful Father A 24-year-old father was found guilty of involuntary
manslaughter when his 10-month-old twins died. The young dad, Gregg, left his infant twins
in the bathtub while he played a portable game boy in the other room. He was allegedly
away from the tub for only 30-minutes but that was plenty of the time for these two
babies to drown. Many of controversy sparked over the fact that he was playing a game boy
because he could’ve easily taken it to the bathroom with him while he supervised the
twins. There was no foul play found to be involved in the drowning. Number 1. Garden Burial Much like other parents on this list, this
fathers addiction got in the way of his parenting. The 22-year-old father by the name of Chung
apparently left his toddler home alive for at least 12 hours a day to play video games
in local internet cafes. The child was badly malnourished as he apparently only fed him
every 3 days. The 2-year-old starved to death one day when the father was away playing online.
It’s also claimed that he allowed the body to rot for about a month inside the apartment
before he wrapped it in a plastic bag, which he then stuffed into a suitcase and buried
in a local community garden. When the decomposed body was discovered, Chung was arrested and
claimed he needed help for his addiction. The infants mother had begun working at a
factory far away, since Chung was unemployed. She apparently did not live with them for
the time she was working and had no idea of the neglect that was happening to her child.
