Ever since the advent of video games, citizens of the world have devoted billions of hours getting acquainted with it. Starting as a source of recreation, it has gone on to become a habit and then obsession for thousands and thousands of gamers around the globe. In fact, the fatality rate of these games is much higher than you would ever expect them to be. Today, we are going to take a look at some of the virtual games that devoured the lives of its players. So, here’s presenting 10 video games that killed people in real life.
- Legend of Mir 3
An extremely popular game worldwide, especially in east Asian countries, Legend of Mir 3 has its own loyal fan base. These fans know how to just get over the top as proven in 2005 by a Chinese player Qiu Chengwei. In what seems a story from a movie script, Chengwei and his friend Zhu Caoyuan owned an extremely rare Dragon Sabre in-game sword. When Zhu decided to sell the sword online without Qiu’s consent, things got a bit heated up. After disagreeing on the selling price of the sword, Qiu stabbed Zhu to death in his sleep, which put him under life imprisonment.
- Sonic: The Hedgehog
In July 2013, when 16-year-old Jake Gallagher went on a marathon spree of Sonic session on his Xbox, the adrenaline rush became too much for to overcome for the British teenager as he suffered a fatal heart attack. Gallagher, who had Asperger’s syndrome, would often get extremely agitated while playing the game, as per his mother. She further said that he would scream at the screen and would jump up and doubt during playing, which speaks for in itself the stress the game used to cause him.
- Berzerk
In one of the earliest examples of how a video-game dictated the life of a person, we see the game of Berzerk. In April 1982, an 18-year-old boy died after collapsing from a heart attack. The heart attack was triggered by a compromised cardiovascular system which was agitated beyond repair. The reason for this agitation was him scoring a couple of high scores in the game which caused his exciting nerves get the better of him.
- Nintedo Wii
Every now and then, video games and consoles put up exciting offers for luring gamers to buy them. One such incident in 2007 in USA resulted in some havoc. When Sacramento-based radio station KDND started a contest to give away a Nintendo Wii, it was a hard offer to pass by for some. The contest was equally deadly – drink up an inordinate amount of water without urinating! One of the participant – Jennifer Strange – died from water intoxication, after she went home failing to win the prize. She initially collapsed and soon passed away, resulting in the station firing 10 employees and losing a $16 million lawsuit.
- Wii Fit
Wii Fit was an attempt by Nintendo to build a fitness app for their console that would encourage idle gamers to move around, jump up and down with the use of a balance board peripheral to measure motion. But as they say, excess of anything can be detrimental to one’s destruction, as proven by 25-year-old English scout leader Tim Eves. The man, who was believed to be in good health, used the Wii Fit to further improve his cardio. After returning from a trip to Portugal, he was quick to plug in the app to do his jogging. And just like that, he slumped to the floor dead, in front of his best friend and girlfriend. Doctors later ruled out that he was a victim of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, which is basically an error in the electrical system of the heart.
- Counter Strike
Violence, even in a video game, can lead to many psychological disasters than one think it does. Counter Strike, another game, which glorifies violence, is next on this list. In 2009, when a French gamer, Julien Barreaux got eliminated in an embarrassing fashion from the game by another player known as Mikhail, with the help of a knife, he opted for vengeance. Barreaux’s wrath got the best of him as he tracked down Mikhail over a period of six months. He found him in Cambrai, two hours north of Paris and stabbed him in the chest, in a much similar fashion to how his virtual self was killed by him in the game.
- Farmville
Yes, something as naïve as Farmville can be a killer. When a 22-year-old American mother, Alexandra Tobias, who is a die-hard fan of the game, got frustrated from the constant crying of her three-month-old son, while she was playing, she did the unimaginable! She took up her son and bashed his head against the computer screen, killing him. She was later sentenced to 50 years in prison. Well, you know it’s worse when a parent kills his or her child because of their addiction.
- Diablo III
Shortly after the release of the game Diablo III, a Taiwanese man booked a private room in an internet café and embarked on a marathon gaming session which lasted for a non-stop period of 40 hours. When an attendant checked the room two days later, the man was found dead. Medical reports claimed that he developed blood-clot from sitting for such a long period straight up, which had moved to his heart, resulting in his death.
- World of Warcraft
In another disturbing tale, an American mother, Rebecca Colleen Christie, got so much into World of Warcraft that she lost the most valuable person in her life. World of Warcraft, an online multiplayer role-playing game, is known for attracting the attention of people with addiction issues. In this case, Christie forgot to feed her three-year-old daughter and starved her to death, after playing for a non-stop 15 hours. After the game, she found her daughter unresponsive and called the 911.
- Slender: The Arrival
Sometimes, the obsession with a game can make people do stuff which they probably would never have dared to even dream of doing. In May 2014, two 12-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA stabbed their classmate 19 times, believing that doing so would please the mythical villain of the game Slender: The Arrival. In another instance, a 14-year-old American girl set her family’s home in Port Richey, Florida, on fire, with her mother and younger brother still inside it. The girl, who was obsessed with the ‘Slender Man’ lore, thought it would impress the antagonist of the game.
We hope all those video-game lovers can understand that it is you who should play the video-game and not the other way around. Don’t let a video-game take control over your body and mind.
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