Video games can be a fun way to pass the time, especially when playing with other friends. But what happens when one's competitive spirit goes too far? What happens when the urge the play becomes anything but a game? These are 10 video games that caused real life death.
1. Halo 3
On October 20th, 2007, 16 year old Daniel Petric of Wellington, Ohio, shot his mother and father in the head with a handgun that he stole from the family safe. Daniel had been playing a lot of the sci-fi first-person shooter, Halo 3, which he had secretly purchased without his father's consent and had been playing almost non-stop up until his mother caught him. Daniel's father punished him by taking the game disc away and placing it in the safe next to his handgun. Daniel stole the key, used it to retrieve the game, and decided to also take the handgun, and told his parents to close their eyes because he had a surprise for them. His mother, Susan, died of a gun shot to the head, but Mark, his father, survived only to learn that his son tried to frame him with the murder/suicide. Daniel was caught and given 25 years to life for the crime.
2. Diablo 3
An 18 year old boy from Taiwan named Chuang, died on July 15, 2012, after he used a private room in an internet cafe to play the popular PC RPG game Diablo 3 for 40 hours straight, without eating or resting. He was an avid gamer, and upon release of the third installment of his favorite game, he couldn't get enough. After the marathon, an employee came to check on him, and found him asleep in a room. Upon waking up, he stood and walked a few steps, before collapsing to the floor from a blood clot that had formed in his leg, and then traveled to his heart, killing him where he stood. He was pronounced dead following his arrival at the hospital, all because he couldn't take a break from his favorite game.
3. World of Warcraft
Xao Ye, a 13 year old from China, was an avid player of the online massively multi-player game World of Warcraft. He played Warcraft so often that he found he couldn't bear not to play it for too long. When asked by his parents about his gaming addiction, he claimed to be hopeless, and that he could no longer control himself, or curb his need to keep playing. His addiction was taking a major toll on his life, with the vast majority of his time being spent staying in internet cafes for days, sometimes without eating. Xao finally decided that he had enough, and one day jumped off a 24 floor building to his death. He left a suicide note, disturbingly written as it if were from an actual video game character, stating that he wished to be reunited with three of his friends who played the game online in the afterlife.
4. Starcraft
Lee Seung Seop walked into an internet cafe on August 3rd, 2005 in South Korea, and started playing Starcraft, a popular real-time strategy game. His gaming session lasted 50 hours, in which time he barely ate or drank anything, and would only pause the game to go to the washroom. On August 5th, Lee's friends discovered him in the cafe and made him promise to return home, which he did, but died of heart failure shortly after they left. His death was brought on by extreme exhaustion and dehydration that his body was experiencing. Lee had cared so much about playing Starcraft, that he forgot to care about himself or anything in his life, for that matter. Previously, Lee had played the game so often, that he ruined social relationships and was even let go from his job, because he would always arrive late. Lee's story gained worldwide attention and after that, gaming addiction has become a more serious issue in South Korea ever since.
5. Xbox games
In 2008, in the city of Philadelphia, Tyrone Spellman brutally beat his 17 month old daughter, Alayiah Spellman after she accidentally pulled on the cords to his Xbox console and caused it to fall. He would spend 6-7 hours a day playing games on his Xbox, and when Alayiah caused it to fall and crash, it sent Tyrone into a violent rage. He cracked his daughters skull multiple times, and even threw her across the room. She died from the physical trauma he inflicted, while her oblivious mother slept soundly in the room next to them. Tyrone confessed to the crime the next day, but changed his mind and tried to explain that he was confessing to save his wife, and that Alayiah had just fallen off the bed and gotten all of her wounds. He was found guilty of third degree murder and child endangerment and was sentenced to 47 years behind bars.
6. Legend of Mir 3
In March of 2005, 41 year old Qiu Chengwei won a powerful and rare sword called the Dragon Saber online in a game called Legend of Mir 3. He lent the sword to his friend, 26 year old Zhu Caoyuan, and Zhu unexpectedly sold the sword to another player for $871 in real money, all without Qiu's knowledge. He was so outraged when he found out, that he went to the police station in Shanghai, only to learn that they could not take any action against Zhu because of the lack of laws protecting the theft of property acquired in online games. When he did not receive his weapon back, or any money from the transaction, he went to Zhu's home and broke in while he slept. There, he confronted Zhu, who offered to give him the money, but Qiu was focused on revenge instead, and stabbed him to death. After two hours, he turned himself in and was later given a suspended death sentence, which could amount to him spending the rest of his life in prison.
7. Internet cafe games
On January 8, 2015, a 32 year old man from Taiwan died in an internet cafe of heart failure caused by extreme exhaustion. The unidentified man was unemployed and had been playing online video games at the cafe for three full days, only stopping to sleep with his head on his desk. Of course, marathons are not that rare when it comes to things like charity, where people play for 42 hours straight to raise money, but playing for 72 hours with no break is incredibly dangerous. The cafe staff noticed that he was slumped over on the desk and believed that he was simply sleeping. But they soon realized that he wasn't moving and found he had died earlier that morning. Apparently the man was well-known at the cafe, and his family said that he often wouldn't come home for two or even three days, because he was there playing computer games. It would seem that video game addiction and internet cafes can become a deadly mixture.
8. Lineage 2 Battle Clan
Lineage 2 is an online massively multiplayer fantasy game, where players battle each other for valuable items and glory. The rivalry between two Russian player clans, the Platinum clan and the Coo-Clocks clan, had been taken to a boiling point when one player was killed unfairly. This led to the dispute spilling out of the world of Lineage and onto the real one. One player from each clan agreed to meet in the city of Ufa, and while there, a real-life brawl broke out and Albert, a 23 year old Platinum clan player died from his injuries while he was being taken to the hospital. The other player in the fight, a 22 year old Russian man, was charged with murder soon after the incident. Following the fight and Albert's death, the members of the Coo-Clocks Clan began to harass his family while they grieved over his loss, and even threatened his sister with harm.
9. Berzerk
On April 3, 1982, 18 year old Peter Burkowski and his friend walked into a local arcade in Calumet City, Illinois. Peter, a straight A student in high school, put a quarter into the machine for a game called Berzerk. The 1980 Atari arcade game involves controlling a character that runs around a level and shoots enemies while the player tries to avoid their shots. Within less than 30 minutes, Peter had received the top score, entering his initials into the game's leaderboard. However, moving on to the next game, Peter was about to start playing when he instantly dropped dead of a heart attack. The coroner's examination determined that Peter had scar tissue around his heart, and the excitement and stress of playing had caused his weak heart to simply stop. This of course was back in the days when games with simplistic two-dimensional characters and early graphical effects were considered to be exhilarating. Unfortunately for Peter, who seemed to have his whole life ahead of him, video games were the unlikely trigger of his early demise.
10. Grand Theft Auto
On June 7, 2003, 18 year old Devin Darnell Thompson, also known as Devin Moore, was apprehended on suspicion of having stolen a car in Fayette, Alabama, and was taken to a local police station to be processed. Devin was an avid Grand Theft Auto player, and decided one day, to act out his in-game fantasy. While at the station, he managed to steal a .45 caliber handgun from an officer, and then used it to shoot Officer Arnold Strickland and Officer James Crump, and police dispatcher, Leslie Mealer, all of whom died. Immediately after the shooting, Devin stole the keys to a police cruiser and fled the scene. He was arrested again the same day, where he confessed, saying that he shot the officers and ran to avoid going to jail. Although Devin pleaded not guilty, he was charged with the three murders, and on October 9, 2005, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. It was later discovered that before Devin had shot the officers at the station, he was quoted as saying, life is a video game. You've got to die sometime. So, those were ten video games that caused real life deaths. Do you still think it's a game?
UPDATE NEW TOPIC
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น