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| 2005/8/25-26 [Recreation/Computer/Games] UID:39280 Activity:nil |
8/25 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050825/ap_on_hi_te/skorea_computer_game_addiction Play games too long, you'll die. \_ Maybe it's a hoax. http://csua.org/u/d5p In other news, China has a new regulation for limiting people's playtime in MMOs: http://www.interfax.cn/showfeature.asp?aid=4913 But maybe it's just to prevent Chinese from playing in foreign servers and becoming impure. \_ Koreans are weak.. played more than 5 days straight and lived.. House Of Doom.. \_ Breathe too long, you'll die too, 100% guaranteed. |
| news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050825/ap_on_hi_te/skorea_computer_game_addiction Click Here Many of South Korea's 17 million gamers regularly stroll into Internet ca fes, 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. "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, " said Jun Mung-gyu, 27, who runs an Internet cafe in southeastern Seoul . More than 70 percent of South Korea's population of 48 million uses the I nternet, and the country has the highest per-capita rate of broadband co nnections in the world. With all that access has come the rising problem of Internet addiction. The informati on contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewr itten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associ ated Press. |
| csua.org/u/d5p -> caseylartigue.blogspot.com/2005/08/south-korea-video-game-death-story-is.html But here's another example of a non--journalist having to do the work of reporters, fact-checkers, and others in journalism. Back when I was a cub reporter on the Harvard Crimson, I was taught the j ournalist creed: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." Unfortunately, it is readers who must "check out" so much of what is repo rted. There's a story in the news about a South Korean man who alleged died whi le he was playing video games. The story looks a lot like a story from 2 002 also about a South Korean man passing away while playing video games . The man collapsed in front of the counter d esk but soon regained his consciousness. He then went to the toilet wher e he was found dead, said the police officer. Here's a version of the 2005 story: South Korean Man Dies Playing Video Games SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- For some people, playing video games can be ad dictive and police in South Korea say that may have cost a man his life. Police say a 28-year-old man collapsed at an Internet cafe and died after playing the battle simulation game Starcraft non-stop for 49 hours. The y say he'd barely eaten anything while he was glued to the keyboard. Police say he was fired from his job last month because he kept missing w ork to play computer games. An unemployed South Korean man dies whi le playing video games for an extended period of time. There are very fe w details, just that he passed away while playing. I guess that I shouldn't laugh at media for falling for the story. After all, the epidemic of dying from video games has already spread, like the Asian Flu, from South Korea to Taiwan. Man dies after playing video game for 32 hours October 20 2002 A 27-year-old Taiwanese man died yesterday after playing video games in a cyber cafe for 32 hours continuously. At 7am on Saturday, a staff member found Lien foaming at the mouth and bl eeding from the nose on the floor of the cafe's toilet. "They rushed him to hospital but he was already dead," local police said. Police suspect Lien died from exhaustion, having sat in the same position for too long. Less than 10 days ago, a 24-year-old South Korean man died at an Internet cafe in Kwangju, 260km outside Seoul, after playing computer games nons top for 86 hours. N ot only has the BBC fallen for the story, but it then went on to write a full article, discussing the amount of gaming going on in South Korea a nd quoting some quack psychologist about addictions. I guess that it is just a coincidence that I have lived in both South Kor ea and Taiwan. And, to add to the concern for my health, I also play vid eo games a lot. As I recall, you can spend anywhere between 5 to 10 doll ars an hour while playing video games. Let's say that the guy who played for 86 consecutive hours used one hour to go to the bathroom, purchase new tokens, talk to other players, etc. That means that if he played for the other 85 hours that he had already spent anywhere between $425 to $ 850! He could have bought PlayStation and many games for that amount of money. Anyway, long-time readers of my blog know that I play video games a lot. Like a lot of other addicts, I bought the Madden NFL 2006 game on Tuesda y, August 9 I had circled the date months in advance and told my wife t hat I was not to be disturbed. If I go at least a month without blogging here, you shouldn't be sur prised to learn that I've moved back to South Korea or Taiwan and died t here while playing video games. If it turns out that this story is really bogus, then Doctor Lee Ho of the National Institute of Scientific Investigation should have whatever scientific licenses he has shredded. If I'm wrong, then I won't play Madden Football for a week. |
| www.interfax.cn/showfeature.asp?aid=4913 China blocks online gamers from playing for more than 3 consecutive hours By Faye Wang Shanghai. INTERFAX-CHINA - The Chinese Government unveiled a new system Tuesday to prevent individuals from playing online games for more than three consecutive hours, which must be installed for every on line game in the country. "This timing mechanism can prevent young people from becoming addicted to online games," Kou Xiaowei, Deputy Director of the Audiovisual and Inte rnet Publication Department of the General Administration of Press and P ublication (GAPP), said during a press conference. The new system, developed under the guidance of the GAPP, stops individua ls from playing online games for more than three hours by cutting the ab ilities of game characters. The new system cuts the ability level of a p layer's online game character by half after he or she has played for mor e than three consecutive hours. Once a player has played for more than f ive consecutive hours, the system cuts the ability level of that player' s character to the lowest level allowed by the game. The system also lowers the ability of players to find treasures or prizes available in an online game after they have played for more than three consecutive hours. Individuals who imm ediately log back onto a game after three hours of consecutive play will continue to have the ability of their game character lowered by the sys tem. Players must be logged off for a minimum of five hours before the s ystem resets. The GAPP has defined the playing of online games for less than three cons ecutive hours as "healthy," playing three to five consecutive hours as " tiring," and playing for more than five consecutive hours as "unhealthy. " In addition, seven of China's largest online gaming firms pledged Tuesday to "sacrifice short-term revenues" to create a "healthy" environment fo r young internet users. Companies signing onto the "Beijing Accord" were Shanda, NetEase, The9, Optisp, Kingsoft, SINA, and Sohu. These seven co mpanies also pledged to deploy the system when development is completed. Development of the system is scheduled for completion at the end of Septe mber 2005. Internal testing is scheduled to begin in October of 2005. Af ter internal testing, trial operations of the system will be held using the games "The Legend of Mir II" and "The World of Legend" operated by S handa, "Westward Journey Online" and "Fantasy Westward Journey Online" o perated by NetEase, "World of Warcraft" and "MU" operated by The9, "JX O nline" and "First Myth Online" operated by Kingsoft, "The Legend of Mir 3G" operated by Optisp, "Lineage II" operated by SINA, and "Blade Online " operated by Sohu. Compulsory deployment of the new system is expected to begin for all mass ive multiplayer online role-playing games and casual games in China in l ate 2005 or early 2006. News and other data on this site are provided for information purposes on ly, and are not intended for republication or redistribution. Republicat ion or redistribution of Interfax content, including by framing or simil ar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of I nterfax. |