While parents and teachers have been using online games
that are educational in nature to make learning fun for kids, the world has
also witnessed negative incidents stemming from extreme addiction to many
different kinds of video games. Here are a few weird incidents of addiction to
online games that will leave you baffled.
Skipping school
In Perth, Australia, a 15-year old was known to suffer from
extreme gaming addiction. The little teenager would put on his uniform every
morning and leave it on till his mom left for office. As soon as she left, he
would change and start playing online games and he would continue to play for
16 hours till his mother came back. To cover himself up, he had informed his
school that he was having a surgery. He was caught only when the school called
up his home to check on him!
School scuffle
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| Photo by:IvanWalsh.com |
Schoolyard scuffles are normal – we’ve all gotten into at
least one in our lives. In Beijing, a boy who had lost a World of Warcraft tournament thought
himself to be a Fire Mage and lit his classmate on fire. He was given a
sentence of 8 years in prison and was ordered to pay the victim’s family a
restitution of a little more than a hundred thousand dollars.
Death from all-nighter
There have been quite a few reports of all-night gaming
sessions but this one takes the cake. A South Korean man almost pulled off
three continuous nights of gaming without enough sleep, washroom breaks, and
obviously food. Eventually in the middle of the third night, he collapsed and
expired from a heart failure. Preliminary reports suggested his death was
caused by undue exhaustion.
Death of children
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| Photo by: TamahikariTammas |
In two separate incidents in South Korea and an unrevealed
location, a three year old girl and twins died due to their parents’ negligence
toward them. A couple was busy playing Prius Online where the
players lived a virtual life with virtual jobs and virtual kids. Unfortunately
in this case, the parents in South Korea took their virtual world a little too
seriously and left their 3-year old in a real world unattended for twelve hours
following which the little child died.
In the other incident, Gregg J. Kleinmark is serving up to
10 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter when his twins were left
unattended in the bathtub for several hours while he was busy playing Gameboy
Advance.
Parents murdered
Seventeen-year-old Daniel Petric walked into his parents’
bedroom and told his mother “Would you close your eyes? I have a surprise for
you,” and shot her before shooting his father between the eyes. This was an
incident of violence that resulted from addiction to an Xbox first person
shooter game, one of the few reported fallouts of addiction to single player
games.
Online games and the way forward
Because of such gory incidents, cynics and critics fail to
look at the benefits of online games. There are many carefully developed online
games that develop the technical ability of kids, help them to absorb
information with a scientific approach, enhance their hand-eye coordination,
and sharpen analytical and logical skills. It is important to engage kids with
the right kinds of online games and strike a healthy balance between online
time and outdoor play time.
