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NY Daily News: "Xbox Addict" dies of sitting-induced blood clot

13

Posts

  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    Korlash wrote:
    This whole thing smacks of Everquest/World of Warcraft sensationalism all over again

    When somebody obsesses over watching TV and has a heart attack or jogs until their heart explodes or is addicted to heroin and ODs we might see a tiny little article somewhere (if that somebody was important or a celebrity), and we'll say to ourselves, "How sad, too much of anything is bad for you"

    But when it's video games we all have to have this conversation over and over about how video games are so much more interactive and hypnotizing and good god people just can't help but grind for a little more XP, those evil, evil game designers

    When in reality, people who will destroy themselves over something as silly as a video game have other, much deeper problems that would have manifested themselves in similarly destructive ways if video games were not around

    How are you so sure of that?

    I will say this in the nicest way possible:

    Do you have any idea what causes addiction? Like, any clue whatsoever? Because the thing someone is addicted to is not what causes the addiction. Saying a person got addicted to video games because video games are addictive is incorrect.

  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    And just for a little example here, some people get addicted to heroin. Is it because they have never heard that heroin will fuck your shit up and you might get addicted to it? No. It is because they don't fucking care about themselves enough to not engage in self-destructive behavior. They want the escape from sobriety that heroin provides. Are games as addictive as heroin? I posit fucking no. Somebody who gets addicted to video games probably desperately wants to escape their reality, and video games are just the way they choose to do it.

    Now it doesn't happen in stupid ways like on Law and Order SVU. But it happens, and it's not because the video game extended its claws and sucked you kicking and screaming into it.

  • AvynteAvynte Registered User regular
    Xbox live kills.

    If he was playing offline he could've paused to take a break.

    ECOED.jpg
  • DyvionDyvion Back in Sunny Florida!!Registered User regular
    Korlash wrote:
    You are judging them without the proper information. You have no idea what the parents may have done to get their kids to do other things. Kids are not slaves, they have minds of their own. And it's not like 20 years olds are the one most responsive to parental authority. It's like blaming parents when their kids fuck up in life: sometimes, no matter what a parent does, the child decides to do things his way. There's little you can do in this case.

    Yes, kids are not slaves, but parents do have this responsibility. Example from my life:

    I was... 16, summer 1995. I woke up one morning and turned on my computer to MUD. I logged off that night and went to bed. Forgot to eat. Forgot to drink anything. The next day my dad found out and was furious. He stormed into my room and grabbed the computer and ripped it off my desk/out of the wall, and threw it into the back yard. I watched in horror as it tumbled end over end. I recovered it and tried to baby it back to life, but the hard drive, all 20 megs of it, was toast. I was devastated, but he did me a huge favor, and I will always be grateful for what he did.

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  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    Dyvion wrote:
    Korlash wrote:
    You are judging them without the proper information. You have no idea what the parents may have done to get their kids to do other things. Kids are not slaves, they have minds of their own. And it's not like 20 years olds are the one most responsive to parental authority. It's like blaming parents when their kids fuck up in life: sometimes, no matter what a parent does, the child decides to do things his way. There's little you can do in this case.

    Yes, kids are not slaves, but parents do have this responsibility. Example from my life:

    I was... 16, summer 1995. I woke up one morning and turned on my computer to MUD. I logged off that night and went to bed. Forgot to eat. Forgot to drink anything. The next day my dad found out and was furious. He stormed into my room and grabbed the computer and ripped it off my desk/out of the wall, and threw it into the back yard. I watched in horror as it tumbled end over end. I recovered it and tried to baby it back to life, but the hard drive, all 20 megs of it, was toast. I was devastated, but he did me a huge favor, and I will always be grateful for what he did.

    My dad did the same thing, except replace "turned on my computer to MUD" with "played with my dog"

  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    edited July 2011
    Korlash wrote:
    In the end though, he didn't die because of a book. People are way more likely to go on marathon gaming sessions than marathon reading sessions. And that is precisely why video games are being singled out. If a behavior (sitting for ridiculously long periods of time) is dangerous, and this behavior is encouraged by a certain activity, it makes sense to encourage people to restrain from engaging in that activity too much to help curb that behavior.
    Lots of folks get DVTs from sitting and reading books, too, in marathon reading sessions. I remember one patient that was called "The George R R Martin guy", because he got a clot from sitting and reading one of the Game of Thrones books (it wasn't a saddle embolus, but it hurt him like the dickens in his leg). It's not from video gaming. It's being non-ambulatory. Also, most cases of DVT are in the elderly, doing things that aren't video games. Typically, it's either lying in bed, watching TV, reading, or some other sit-down activity.

    Everyone knows about breast cancer. Everyone knows about heart attacks. Not everyone knows about DVTs, as this thread pretty much shows. Just get up and stretch every hour, and you'll be fine. Unless you have a genetic disorder like an anti-phospholipid disease or you're on some sort of hormonal therapy, of course.

    The kid was terribly unlucky. We all have bad habits, from smoking to eating too much, and most of us don't fall victim to those habits. This is no different from someone who doesn't watch their weight or eating habits having a heart attack. While we may acknowledge the bad habits contributing to the disease, we also acknowledge that there's a fair amount of (bad) luck involved. Correlation, not causation, and all that.

    EDIT: I'd also posit that his bad habit wasn't video gaming, although that probably would have done something negative toward his lifestyle eventually. His bad habit was not standing up moving around every so often. A lot of us have this "bad" habit.

    Hahnsoo1 on
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  • SzechuanSzechuan Registered User regular
    edited July 2011
    Korlash wrote:
    This whole thing smacks of Everquest/World of Warcraft sensationalism all over again

    When somebody obsesses over watching TV and has a heart attack or jogs until their heart explodes or is addicted to heroin and ODs we might see a tiny little article somewhere (if that somebody was important or a celebrity), and we'll say to ourselves, "How sad, too much of anything is bad for you"

    But when it's video games we all have to have this conversation over and over about how video games are so much more interactive and hypnotizing and good god people just can't help but grind for a little more XP, those evil, evil game designers

    When in reality, people who will destroy themselves over something as silly as a video game have other, much deeper problems that would have manifested themselves in similarly destructive ways if video games were not around

    How are you so sure of that?

    I did a thesis on this. The results (and the other studies available at the time) suggest joat is right.

    Szechuan on
  • MulletudeMulletude Registered User regular

    I will say this in the nicest way possible:

    Do you have any idea what causes addiction? Like, any clue whatsoever? Because the thing someone is addicted to is not what causes the addiction. Saying a person got addicted to video games because video games are addictive is incorrect.

    Yes...This...I have very intimate knowledge of this very thing watching someone I love moving from one addiction to another. And it wasn't all chemical addiction. And even further it's something they fight for their entire lives. That's why most addiction programs operate on a lot of the same basic principals regardless of what they are addicted to.

    XBL-Dug Danger WiiU-DugDanger Steam-http://steamcommunity.com/id/DugDanger/
  • KorlashKorlash Québécois TorontoRegistered User regular
    Korlash wrote:
    This whole thing smacks of Everquest/World of Warcraft sensationalism all over again

    When somebody obsesses over watching TV and has a heart attack or jogs until their heart explodes or is addicted to heroin and ODs we might see a tiny little article somewhere (if that somebody was important or a celebrity), and we'll say to ourselves, "How sad, too much of anything is bad for you"

    But when it's video games we all have to have this conversation over and over about how video games are so much more interactive and hypnotizing and good god people just can't help but grind for a little more XP, those evil, evil game designers

    When in reality, people who will destroy themselves over something as silly as a video game have other, much deeper problems that would have manifested themselves in similarly destructive ways if video games were not around

    How are you so sure of that?

    I will say this in the nicest way possible:

    Do you have any idea what causes addiction? Like, any clue whatsoever? Because the thing someone is addicted to is not what causes the addiction. Saying a person got addicted to video games because video games are addictive is incorrect.

    You're not really being as nice as you can.

    Considering the amount of marriages that have been soured by video games, a phenomenon which did not exist before, obviously, it's hard for me to agree with you. Clearly, you need to have a certain kind of personality to be affected in this manner. But what I disagree with is your assessment that they would have engaged in similarly destructive behavior. Not everything leads to addiction, and some things are more dangerous to be addicted to than others. I was asking for proof of that last statement, and you reply by passively attacking me. Why don't you just explain to me why I am wrong, if I am so ignorant?

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  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Korlash wrote:
    Korlash wrote:
    This whole thing smacks of Everquest/World of Warcraft sensationalism all over again

    When somebody obsesses over watching TV and has a heart attack or jogs until their heart explodes or is addicted to heroin and ODs we might see a tiny little article somewhere (if that somebody was important or a celebrity), and we'll say to ourselves, "How sad, too much of anything is bad for you"

    But when it's video games we all have to have this conversation over and over about how video games are so much more interactive and hypnotizing and good god people just can't help but grind for a little more XP, those evil, evil game designers

    When in reality, people who will destroy themselves over something as silly as a video game have other, much deeper problems that would have manifested themselves in similarly destructive ways if video games were not around

    How are you so sure of that?

    I will say this in the nicest way possible:

    Do you have any idea what causes addiction? Like, any clue whatsoever? Because the thing someone is addicted to is not what causes the addiction. Saying a person got addicted to video games because video games are addictive is incorrect.

    You're not really being as nice as you can.

    Considering the amount of marriages that have been soured by video games, a phenomenon which did not exist before, obviously, it's hard for me to agree with you. Clearly, you need to have a certain kind of personality to be affected in this manner. But what I disagree with is your assessment that they would have engaged in similarly destructive behavior. Not everything leads to addiction, and some things are more dangerous to be addicted to than others. I was asking for proof of that last statement, and you reply by passively attacking me. Why don't you just explain to me why I am wrong, if I am so ignorant?

    I did explain to you why you were wrong, in more than one post. But yes, I was being as nice as possible. It's clear to me that you have no experience whatsoever with somebody close to you who is an addict. That's fine, but please don't talk out your ass or make wild assumptions based on anecdotal patterns that you see with regard to "marriages ending because of video games", which is a vague non sequitur with regard to your original questioning of my statement.

    If you need clarification, please read any sort of psychology journal regarding addiction. Or do a little basic research, please. Addiction isn't as simple as person partakes in addictive activity, person becomes addicted to activity, it is activity's fault person got addicted. I really don't know why that's hard for you to believe.

    joshofalltrades on
  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    And by the way, addiction has soured plenty of marriages before it was possible to be addicted to video games. Addiction to gambling. Addiction to drugs, like morphine. Addiction to alcohol. Etc. etc. etc. You're assuming video game addiction is somehow unique among all addictions, and that's wrong. Your statement of "no marriages ended because of addiction to video games before there were video games"...

    Well! No shit!

    There were other things to be addicted to, and they certainly caused problems too!

  • Dox the PIDox the PI Registered User regular
    I'm pretty sure divorce due to videos games didn't exist before video games

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    New things leading up to already existing problems just as much as previously-existing things leading up to those same problems? I'm shocked you guys.

  • manwiththemachinegunmanwiththemachinegun METAL GEAR?! Registered User regular
    I used to think this thing called responsibility for your own fucking life existed in Western society.

    Nope, now we can blame vija games and politicians!

  • VeganVegan Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Hey man, I used to work at a collections agency where I sat attached to a headset attached to a computer for 12-16 hours sometimes

    Tons and tons and tons of people watch more than 12 hours of TV a day, especially if they are unemployed, look at how many obese people there are who just sit there and eat potato chips

    Truck drivers can work for up to 14 hours before they are required to go on break for 10 hours, guess how many of them fudge the rules to make a little better time? Guess how many of them do stop at 14 hours but they have been sitting in their truck for 14 hours at a time anyway

    Congressmen sometimes sit for that long for their jobs too!

    Where is the outrage against collections, or television, or truck driving, or congress, or fucking data entry jobs

    There ARE awareness campaigns that are starting advocacy against our culture of sitting all day at work and then coming home and sitting. There are movements cropping up about standing desks in the workplace, etc., because research is showing that sitting literally reduces our lifespan.

    Vegan on
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  • ArchonexArchonex No hard feelings, right? Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    anoffday wrote:
    Suing chairs? That's just silly.

    I say we ban chairs.

    Well, if it works for Norway!...

    :D

    Seconding that getting worked up over this is kind of stupid. Deep vein thrombosis is not the Red Death of geeks. It's a shame this kid died, though.

    Archonex on
  • SagrothSagroth Registered User regular
    I'll admit to once playing a game for 15 hours in a day. However:

    1. I was having a nervous breakdown at the time.

    2. I got up for food, bathroom, etc.

    In any event, the media sensationalism is unwarranted here as it usually is. If I were Microsoft, I'd use the Kinect as a defense here.

    3DS Code: 5155-3087-0800
  • The Dude With HerpesThe Dude With Herpes Lehi, UTRegistered User regular
    edited August 2011
    There's nothing here really to get up in arms about. Typical media is being typical. The kids dad is being reasonable. EDIT: Not even a kid really, TBH.

    Blood clots and the like are scary and serious things that people need to understand, particularly in certain vocations and hobbies. There's nothing wrong with educating and warning folks about this. We have epilepsy warnings in most video games these days it seems. What would be the harm of putting in another line warning against extended periods of sitting on your ass? Hell, some games already warn you every hour or so to get up and do something else. You're welcome to ignore it if you want but there's not reason to get up in arms about it. Just because we know how to prevent AIDS doesn't mean that we no longer have to educate people about it. Education is a major component of prevention.

    The Dude With Herpes on
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  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    I have a feeling that this will turn into another story where video games can be a scapegoat.

    I think it's his parents trying to cope with grief and regret. It'll blow over.

  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    Vegan wrote:
    Hey man, I used to work at a collections agency where I sat attached to a headset attached to a computer for 12-16 hours sometimes

    Tons and tons and tons of people watch more than 12 hours of TV a day, especially if they are unemployed, look at how many obese people there are who just sit there and eat potato chips

    Truck drivers can work for up to 14 hours before they are required to go on break for 10 hours, guess how many of them fudge the rules to make a little better time? Guess how many of them do stop at 14 hours but they have been sitting in their truck for 14 hours at a time anyway

    Congressmen sometimes sit for that long for their jobs too!

    Where is the outrage against collections, or television, or truck driving, or congress, or fucking data entry jobs

    There ARE awareness campaigns that are starting advocacy against our culture of sitting all day at work and then coming home and sitting. There are movements cropping up about standing desks in the workplace, etc., because research is showing that sitting literally reduces our lifespan.

    I didn't mean in general, I meant why is Korlash singling out video games instead of all of that

  • TheOrangeTheOrange Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Dyvion wrote:
    I was... 16, summer 1995. I woke up one morning and turned on my computer to MUD. I logged off that night and went to bed. Forgot to eat. Forgot to drink anything. The next day my dad found out and was furious. He stormed into my room and grabbed the computer and ripped it off my desk/out of the wall, and threw it into the back yard. I watched in horror as it tumbled end over end. I recovered it and tried to baby it back to life, but the hard drive, all 20 megs of it, was toast. I was devastated, but he did me a huge favor, and I will always be grateful for what he did.

    My dad did the same thing, except replace "turned on my computer to MUD" with "played with my dog"

    Dude, thats just dark D:

    TheOrange on
  • AxenAxen My avatar is Excalibur. Yes, the sword.Registered User regular
    A lot of chair hate going on here. Time to represent!

    chairsig.jpg

    A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    Typical scapegoat sensationalism. We're all used to this by now... it just sucks that these headlines keep popping up. I'm just waiting for the next big thing to steal headlines away and we'll all look by on this time in the same way people from the 50's look back on rock 'n roll.

    Xbox didn't strap this kid into his seat and coerce him into playing for 12 hours straight without taking breaks. He chose to do this. The headline should read "SITTING KILLS" but that would freak out way too many people, so they chose the headline that gets the most attention.

    steam_sig.png
  • LilnoobsLilnoobs Alpha Queue Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Korlash wrote:
    Dourin wrote:
    Korlash wrote:
    As much as this vitriolic reaction is expected, it's still a bit sad. I think gamers are so used to being unfairly attacked that they now react aggressively to any attacks on video games, even when warranted.

    There is no doubt that frequently playing video games for 12 hours at a time is very bad. People in this thread are skeptical that this was the cause of death, but since none of you examined the body, none of you have any experience in medicine (most likely) and since this is not the first time someone dies like this, I'm going to go ahead and say I trust the assessments of experts that sitting for a prolonged period of time caused the death. Maybe the guy wasn't the healthiest, but it's not like overweight people just drop like stones for no reason...

    You could say "but sitting for 12 hours is bad regardless of what you're doing is bad!", but other than in a plane, in what other circumstances will one person be sitting in the exact same spot for 12 hours? Ever heard of someone knitting for 12 hours and dying of a blood clot? Come on. The addictive quality of video games makes this kind of death possible.

    So yes, I know we're conditioned to rage whenever someone criticizes video games, but for once, we should take this criticism in stride. Maybe if the kid's parents had known that it was possible to die in this manner, they would have acted to prevent this. Getting the word across may save future lives. It's not like people are really demonizing games, or asking for them to be banned. They're just asking people to be wary that this sort of thing can happen. This is totally a noble cause and we really have no reason to be up in arms about this.

    i should also mention that playing video games for extended periods of time, even if you're not quite playing 12 hours at a time, is still unhealthy. So again, it is not so bad to get the message out that kids need to get up and exercise from time to time.

    When I was in middle school and high school, there were many time I would spend a solid 8 hours reading a book. Just sitting there, not moving, reading a book. So no, video games are not the only risky activity aside from flying that could cause this.

    Look, video games were not the cause. His health was not the cause. His parents are not at fault. His ONE decision to sit there and marathon for 12 hours without taking breaks was the most likely cause for this. Sure, as others have pointed out, there are other risk factors that maybe could increase this risk of this occurring, but honestly, the biggest risk factor was this single act of prolonged sitting. So you guys can argue back and forth as to whether or not it was the fault of the video games, or that his parents neglected him and killed their son, but when it comes down to it, it was really nobody's fault but his own.

    That said, I don't think it's terrible of them to want to spread the word that sitting for extended periods of time is a health risk. I do, however, think its terrible the news outlets are immediately jumping to headlines like "DEATH BY XBOX" and such. But then again, these are news outlets, so it's kind of what they do. Just wait until Fox News gets a hold of this story.

    I don't see how anyone here argued that this was not his fault. Of course, no one forced him to play games for 12 hours, I doubt anyone was claiming this. I guess we could adopt your viewpoint and simply say that the cause of your death is always you, since you're the one in control of your body. Except this is sort of obvious already. When we say someone died of overdose, no one is claiming that drugs killed a person in cold blood, as if they were some kind of living entity. Obviously, it was the person's choice to put their life in danger. I don't think that needs to even be mentioned. Same here.

    In the end though, he didn't die because of a book. People are way more likely to go on marathon gaming sessions than marathon reading sessions. And that is precisely why video games are being singled out. If a behavior (sitting for ridiculously long periods of time) is dangerous, and this behavior is encouraged by a certain activity, it makes sense to encourage people to restrain from engaging in that activity too much to help curb that behavior.

    Hey man, I used to work at a collections agency where I sat attached to a headset attached to a computer for 12-16 hours sometimes

    Tons and tons and tons of people watch more than 12 hours of TV a day, especially if they are unemployed, look at how many obese people there are who just sit there and eat potato chips

    Truck drivers can work for up to 14 hours before they are required to go on break for 10 hours, guess how many of them fudge the rules to make a little better time? Guess how many of them do stop at 14 hours but they have been sitting in their truck for 14 hours at a time anyway

    Congressmen sometimes sit for that long for their jobs too!

    Where is the outrage against collections, or television, or truck driving, or congress, or fucking data entry jobs


    I'm going to use you an example so don't take it too personally. But people keep referring to these magic truck drivers or unemployed lowlifes or nursing home welfare queens or what have you that sit for these magically obssessive amount of hours. Prove it. Not a single person here has provided evidence for that argument. It's all "common sense".

    Videogames promote this unhealthy activity. I understand I'm on a videogame board so anything against the "artistic" medium is blasphemy, but videogames have been linked to people dying for sitting extended periods of time. This has happened.

    Where has the truck driver spilled over onto the side of the road because he was sitting too long?
    The old lady who just watched TV for 23432 hours in a row?
    The telemarketer who died at his job because he sat in place for too long?

    I know it seems plausible for these things to happen, but not a single person has provided any sort of evidence, yet it's just assumed and people continue to waley against any sort of laws and videogames (don't touch my guns!), building whatever strawman they can come up with and resorting to "his choice" rhetoric.

    Lilnoobs on
  • GrundlestiltskinGrundlestiltskin Behind you!Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Lilnoobs wrote:
    Videogames promote this unhealthy activity. I understand I'm on a videogame board so anything against the "artistic" medium is blasphemy, but videogames have been linked to people dying for sitting extended periods of time. This has happened.

    Where has the truck driver spilled over onto the side of the road because he was sitting too long?
    The old lady who just watched TV for 23432 hours in a row?
    The telemarketer who died at his job because he sat in place for too long?

    I know it seems plausible for these things to happen, but not a single person has provided any sort of evidence, yet it's just assumed and people continue to waley against any sort of laws and videogames (don't touch my guns!), building whatever strawman they can come up with and resorting to "his choice" rhetoric.

    http://www.webmd.com/dvt/features/deep-vein-thrombosis
    Web MD wrote:
    David Bloom -- an NBC news correspondent -- called his wife from a few miles outside Baghdad, resting on the fender of a tank. It was April 2003, and Bloom had spent several weeks traveling in military vehicles across the deserts of Iraq.

    He casually mentioned that he was having leg cramps, but neither he nor his wife, Melanie Bloom, thought much about it. "Cramps didn't seem unusual, since he was sleeping most nights inside a tank with his knees up to his chin. Everyone was having aches and pains," she tells WebMD. Besides, Bloom -- who was 39 -- had always been in excellent health.

    What they didn't know is that Bloom had developed deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot in the leg -- partly the result of dehydration and traveling in cramped conditions. A few days later, as troops prepared a final push across the Baghdad border, David Bloom collapsed and died. The clot had traveled through his bloodstream to his lungs and killed him.

    Not sure if this is specifically the sort of anecdote you're looking for, but it does happen to other people.

    Other related articles
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/7906154/DVT-death-highlights-threat-to-travellers.html
    http://articles.cnn.com/2001-12-24/world/singapore.dvt_1_economy-class-syndrome-long-flights-deep-vein-thrombosis?_s=PM:asiapcf

    Realistically, I don't think anyone would argue that videogames encourage (with a few exceptions) healthy behavior. At the very least, they do not actively discourage unhealthy behavior, particularly games that simply do not end. That said, the DVT was 100% the responsibility of the individual who sat in one place for 12 hours, regardless of why.

    Grundlestiltskin on
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  • P10P10 An Idiot With Low IQ Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    @Lilnoobs
    Do you just refuse to google Deep Vein Thrombosis, or what?
    It happens to travelers.

    P10 on
    Shameful pursuits and utterly stupid opinions
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    Yea, it's weird how people are freaking out about this.

    Also, this isn't the first time someone's died from sitting in front of a game for too long and then suddenly moving. It even made 1000 Ways To Die. The horrible punch line?: Game Stopped.

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    While there were definitely more factors in this person's death than just "excessive gaming" by itself, and even if "excessive gaming" had zero impact on his death, and even if this is nothing but media sensationalism and fearmongeting, I don't actually see anything wrong with cautioning people not to sit on their asses for too long just playing video games. It's an unhealthy habit. And when I was a kid, my father told me that if you play games for more than four hours at a time, the gnomes will come and steal your controller that night and you won't get it back for a month. Do you know how many times the gnomes stole my controller when I was a kid?

    Fucking gnomes.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    Lilnoobs, it happens to truck drivers. Fuck, a desk job doubles your risk!

    Just like people posting without evidence is your pet peeve, mine is people refusing to ascribe responsibility where it belongs. In this case, it's the individual. I understand that he likely had Addictive Personality Disorder or something similar which made this particular activity so tough for him to stop for 5 minutes and stand up, and so it's sad that he couldn't overcome his addiction. But putting the blame exclusively on video games is misleading, dumb, and just fucking false. There are millions of gamers out there. How many of them experience deep vein thrombosis? Ridiculously few, because most of us stand up sometimes.

  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    Drez wrote:
    While there were definitely more factors in this person's death than just "excessive gaming" by itself, and even if "excessive gaming" had zero impact on his death, and even if this is nothing but media sensationalism and fearmongeting, I don't actually see anything wrong with cautioning people not to sit on their asses for too long just playing video games. It's an unhealthy habit. And when I was a kid, my father told me that if you play games for more than four hours at a time, the gnomes will come and steal your controller that night and you won't get it back for a month. Do you know how many times the gnomes stole my controller when I was a kid?

    Fucking gnomes.

    Exactly. This is at least partially a parenting failure. Too many parents are content to let their kid go off and do whatever for god knows how long.

  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
    Dyvion wrote:
    Korlash wrote:
    You are judging them without the proper information. You have no idea what the parents may have done to get their kids to do other things. Kids are not slaves, they have minds of their own. And it's not like 20 years olds are the one most responsive to parental authority. It's like blaming parents when their kids fuck up in life: sometimes, no matter what a parent does, the child decides to do things his way. There's little you can do in this case.

    Yes, kids are not slaves, but parents do have this responsibility. Example from my life:

    I was... 16, summer 1995. I woke up one morning and turned on my computer to MUD. I logged off that night and went to bed. Forgot to eat. Forgot to drink anything. The next day my dad found out and was furious. He stormed into my room and grabbed the computer and ripped it off my desk/out of the wall, and threw it into the back yard. I watched in horror as it tumbled end over end. I recovered it and tried to baby it back to life, but the hard drive, all 20 megs of it, was toast. I was devastated, but he did me a huge favor, and I will always be grateful for what he did.

    My dad did the same thing, except replace "turned on my computer to MUD" with "played with my dog"
    He didn't actually throw the dog into the backyard did he?

  • joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    No

  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    Why does no one listen to those packets in old game boy games? 15 minutes of rest for every hour, right?

    I wish my job (nay, any computer/desk job) would let me take 1/4 of my day as a break.

  • JepheryJephery Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    I just twitch my leg constantly. Its an unconcious thing that uses up calories and keeps the blood flowing.

    Jephery on
    }
    "Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!".
  • VeganVegan Registered User regular
    Delzhand wrote:
    Why does no one listen to those packets in old game boy games? 15 minutes of rest for every hour, right?

    I wish my job (nay, any computer/desk job) would let me take 1/4 of my day as a break.

    This. My Indian overlords have a cow is we so much as look away from our computer screens. 15 minute breaks? We don't get those, PERIOD. 10 minutes every 2 hours. Sorry, but I'm gonna use those 10 minutes to check my email, text messages, and tweets, EVEN IF IT KILLS ME.

    PS - There is literally a timer running on our desktops, tracking our efficiency for a nice big ole spreadsheet. It's tons of fun!

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  • VeganVegan Registered User regular
    Vegan wrote:
    Delzhand wrote:
    Why does no one listen to those packets in old game boy games? 15 minutes of rest for every hour, right?

    I wish my job (nay, any computer/desk job) would let me take 1/4 of my day as a break.

    This. My Indian overlords have a cow if we so much as look away from our computer screens. 15 minute breaks? We don't get those, PERIOD. 10 minutes every 2 hours. Sorry, but I'm gonna use those 10 minutes to check my email, text messages, and tweets, EVEN IF IT KILLS ME.

    PS - There is literally a timer running on our desktops, tracking our efficiency for a nice big ole spreadsheet. It's tons of fun!

    steam_sig.png
  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Lilnoobs wrote:
    I know it seems plausible for these things to happen, but not a single person has provided any sort of evidence, yet it's just assumed and people continue to waley against any sort of laws and videogames (don't touch my guns!), building whatever strawman they can come up with and resorting to "his choice" rhetoric.
    Lilnoobs, you fail at both reading and clicking links. I even posted the first Google link that comes up when you type "preventing DVT" (preventdvt.org, huh). Any emergency room nurse or doctor will tell you not only the risk factors for DVT, but also the cases of DVT they've treated in the past year (including the ones that end up with a pulmonary embolism). This includes truck drivers, elderly people in nursing homes watching TV, and people immobile sick in bed.

    Also, the father (David Staniforth) of the dead kid had this to say:
    "Don't stop your child from playing the games," he said. "They love doing it. It's great fun. It's not to bug them about it or spoil their fun. But just be aware. Enjoy it, but take a break."

    David is now in the process of setting up a website with Chris's friends to warn people of the dangers of spending lengthy spells immobile.

    "This is not normal in such a young person," he commented. "It's [usually] immobile people in hospital, and those that have been brought to hospital with DVTs after long-haul flights."
    Even the kid's father recognizes that it's about education and awareness, not about "take their video games away!". He also talked about social media and Facebook, saying that his son probably was sitting all night updating his social networks.

    Looks like the tabloids sensationalized it. Sheesh.

    Hahnsoo1 on
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  • VeganVegan Registered User regular
    Well, that was weird. Editing a post made a double-post.

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  • B:LB:L I've done worse. Registered User regular
    There was a similar death that was featured on the tv show 1,000 Ways to Die.

    Except that one seemed hella fake because the guy was playing a FPS online against a hot chick for hours on end.

    10mvrci.png click for Anime chat
  • DarisDaris Registered User regular
    This makes me worried about my elderly grandparents sitting around too much. Darwinism is welcome to have this moron and the sensationalism surrounding the death.

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