Asia man dies from 50 hours of gameplay
The 28 year-old collapsed from exhaustion after playing 50 hours straight playing 'Starcraft'. At an Internet Cafe in South Korean. Police reporting he had not slept correctly and eaten hardly any food during this intense gaming session. It was reported he starting play Starcraft just a week earlier before his death, only stopping for toilet breaks and very little sleeping time. He was taken to the local hospital after he had collapsed; sadly he died not too long after. The presumed cause of death was heart failure from extreme amounts of exhaustion. It was also said he had recently been fired from his job, missing work just to play video games. Amazingly, Psychologist Professor Mark Griffiths gave this shocking comment, "More than 15 million people, or a staggering 30% of the population, are registered for online gaming in South Korea."
Source: BBC News

Two Teens murder high-way motorist, Grand Theft Auto one of the 'causes'
It was June 25th, 2003, Aaron Hamel and his cousin Denise Deneau, were driving along the highway in Aaron's truck. They were driving back to town, after some mountain hiking. They were both enjoying the hillside view; when all of a sudden, bullets sprayed through the window, reaching Aaron's head, killing him instantly. With no driver, the truck sped out of control, smashing right into a barrier. Following behind Aaron's truck, was 19 year old Kim Bede, with her boyfriend Marc Hickman. Assuming that the truck in front had had a blown tire and smashed into the barrier, their theory quickly proven wrong, when more bullets penetrated their passenger door, painfully hitting Kim's hip. Once the cops had arrived, Aaron was dead, and Bede was in pretty bad shape, with bullet fragments in her spine. Investigators expected the shootings came from the woods, right next to the highway. With heat-seeking equipment and spotlights, they quickly came across the shooter, or shooters as it seemed. Quietly hiding in the bushes, was 15-year-old William Buckner, and 13-year-old Josh, his stepbrother. Growing up in unstable families, they had become good friends, with no other criminal offences and a clean slate at school; they had absolutely no reason for the shootings. But later breaking down in tears and confessing their crimes, with the reason a video game made them do it. They used to go on the side of the road, and shoot at the side of trucks passing by. With both Buckner boys under the age of 16, they could not be consisted adults. Only getting sentenced to a nearby juvenile detention centre. "Will and Josh wouldn't have done this if they hadn't been playing that game," Donna said, the boy's mother.
Source: Salon.com

Man takes his own life after playing excessive hours of EverQuest
Shawn Woolley loved an online computer game so much that he played it just minutes before his suicide. The 21-year-old Hudson man was addicted to EverQuest, says his mother, Elizabeth Woolley. He sacrificed everything so he could play for hours, ignoring his family, quitting his job and losing himself in a 3D virtual world where more than 400,000 people worldwide adventure in a never-ending fantasy. On Thanksgiving morning last year, Shawn Woolley shot himself to death at his apartment in Hudson. His mother blames the game for her son's suicide. She is angry that Sony Online Entertainment, which owns EverQuest, won't give her the answers she desires. "It's like any other addiction," Elizabeth Woolley said last week. "Either you die, go insane or you quit. My son died."
Source: JSOnline

Couple's Online Gaming Habit kills infant
In South Korea, a couple were arrested last week when their 4-month-old daughter died after being left alone in their home for a couple of hours. The mother and father reportedly had gone to a nearby Internet cafe, lost themselves in playing Blizzard's massively multiplayer online PC game World of Warcraft, and returned to their home only to find the infant dead from suffocation. The couple reportedly told police, "We were thinking of playing for just an hour or two and returning home like usual, but the game took longer that day." The infant was the couple's only child.
Source: Gamespot

Mother arrested after death of daughter
A mother was arrested after her 3-year-old daughter died from heat stroke in a closed car while her mother played EverQuest. Mary Christina Cordell, 36, faces charges of manslaughter in the death of her daughter, Brianna Cordell. If convicted, she faces three to ten years in prison and a fine up of to $10,000. Authorities said Cordell and her boyfriend, Eric Long, 21, may have been so fixated with the online role-playing game EverQuest that she neglected to pay adequate attention to Brianna's whereabouts on Aug. 8, the day the child died, the newspaper reported. Brianna was found dead in the front seat of her mother's car at about 3:30 p.m. in the parking lot of their apartment complex.
Source: SF Signal

Father guilty in death of son
A 24-year-old, Tony Bragg Bragg had been playing the online fantasy role-playing EverQuest computer game for hours on end, as his 9-month-old son Tony Jr. cried. Authorities believe Bragg squeezed Tony Jr. to keep him quiet, amd then left him unattended in a utility closet in their apartment for more than 24 hours. Bragg inflicted a sharp blow to his son's chest, breaking a rib which in turn punctured his heart, causing him to bleed to death. The child also had a freshly broken collar bone. Bragg, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Sources: SPTimes, Articles: One and Two

Boy 'studies' but really is gaming, 16 hours a day
Toby Johnson (who asked that we not reveal his real name) was an avid video-game fan starting at age 3. When he turned 14, his parents bought him a laptop computer with wireless Internet access as his private school required. Every day after school, Toby would head to his room, where he presumably did his homework until bedtime. Even with all that “studying,” Toby’s grades began to plummet and he soon grew depressed. Toby was playing online video games for up to 16 hours a day. He played at school, after school and sometimes all night. “He told us much later that he would play with kids in Japan in the middle of the night instead of sleeping,”
Source: ParentHood

Boy jumps off 24-level building due to World of Warcraft Addiction
A thirteen year-old Chinese boy jumped to his death last year from a 24 story building, allegedly after playing too much World of Warcraft. The parents of the boy are now suing game maker Blizzard with the help of lawyer and others.
Source: JoyStiq

Boy spending 5 hours at video game arcade
A 12 year-old boy that had a habit of spending 4-5 hours daily at the video game arcade. Since the arcade charges a set fee for each round of game, a daily session would cost the boy 30 to 50 US dollars; too much money for him to afford. Consequently, the boy had to steal to sustain this lifestyle. Other gamers will give up food, clothes, and other social activities in order to gather money to play video games.
Source: ThinkQuest

Teen played video game 6 hours a day, and kept wanting to go back
Jaysen Perkins used to spend up to six hours a day running missions with the U.S. Navy Seals. Until it started hurting his social life, and his grades. The 16-year-old has spent the last year coping with a video game addiction, in this case to the military role-playing game Socom II. "I probably noticed a problem about a month into playing Socom," Perkins says. "There's something about it -- I kept wanting to go back." "Jaysen would get up to play in the middle of the night," she says. "I guess the behavior was addictive -- he was trying to play it any way he could."
Source: Washingtonpost

Teen addicted to video games, takes over his life
Griffin Benger, 16-year-old Toronto teen shows all of the telltale signs of addiction and dependency: He spends hours per day feeding his insatiable habit and in the process has become rebellious, short-tempered, emotionally closed off and militant toward his family. "We tried to control it but it took over his life, crowding out school and family," says Robin Benger, Griffin's frustrated father. "I went from concerned to panicked in about two months," says Robin, who at first brushed off the game as harmless fun."I'm tired of people saying that it's just a phase or teenage hood," says Nicky Griffin's mother. "This is a very, very serious thing."
Source: CTV.ca

Father, husband, hooked on video games, eight hour gaming sessions
Jason Palmer, 30, spends his days as the store manager at Dartmouth's GameStop. Surrounded by shelves stocked with hundreds of discs, each containing a different virtual world. The games follow him home, too. He estimates that on weekdays, he spends an average of six hours with a controller in his hands, fitting play time in when no one else is home, or his wife and 6-year-old son have gone to bed. On his days off, he teams up with a buddy for sessions that can last up to eight hours. "It's an addiction," he said. "You get locked into it."
Source: South Coast Today

Teen addicted to World of Warcraft, 4 hour sessions, tries to play all day
For years Kristen Blosser, 19, has loved video games & she plays every single day. "Four hours a day. Um you know if I don't have anything to do that day I will try and play all day long" says Blosser. "World of Warcraft. It's been a game that I've recently gotten addicted to."
Source: ABC7Chicago

Man addicted to role-playing games, gaming time: 8am to over midnight
20-year-old Kim Myung, unable to pass tough university entrance exams and under intense pressure from his parents to study harder, retreated to the one place where he could still feel invincible -- the virtual world of electronic games. Kim played hours upon hours of interactive role-playing games with other anonymous online gamers. Kim played from 8 a.m. until well after midnight -- and in the process, over four months, gained 10 pounds while surviving largely on one meal a day of instant noodles. "I guess I knew I was becoming addicted, but I couldn't stop myself," Kim recalled from a clinic where he was undergoing counselling. "I stopped changing my clothes. I didn't go out. And I began to see myself as the character in my games."
Source: Washington Post

The stories seem endless. Truly, video game addiction is a VERY serious problem.