Man Dies in 3-Day Gaming Binge as Others Play On

Just a few weeks into the new year and a second death blamed on binge video-gaming is being reported in Taiwan. A 32-year-old identified only by his family name Hsieh was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead after workers at an Internet cafe in Kaohsiung City went to check on the regular they thought was just sleeping; instead, they found him slumped in his chair, not breathing. Doctors are calling his sudden death "cardiac failure" resulting from prolonged gaming, the Taipei Times reports. "Hsieh always played for consecutive days," an employee says. "When tired, he would sleep face-down on the table or doze off slumped in his chair. That is why we were not aware of his condition in the beginning."

On the first day of 2015, a 38-year-old man died after five consecutive days of online gaming at an Internet cafe in New Taipei City, reports AFP via Yahoo. Both times, police noted that fellow gamers seemed blasé about the death, continuing to play even as investigators gathered evidence. Only with the arrival of investigators "did the other patrons realize that someone had died, but they still showed no concern and kept playing their games. We were amazed at their nonchalant attitude," police told the Times. It's unclear what game Hsieh was playing at the time of his death, though investigators called it a "combat" computer game. (One dad in China tried to end his son's gaming obsession by putting a hit out on the 23-year-old's avatars.)