South Korean dies after 50 hours of Starcraft

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4137782.stm

How bad are you at doing real life things when you can play computer games? I think my longest session (Civ 3 maybe?) is a fairly mild 5 hours. I say fairly mild, but it is a long while really, just maybe not as long as you?

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 12:23 (twenty years ago)

Jeez!

― I'm playing it cool but it's terribly cruel / Kate (papa november), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 12:27 (twenty years ago)

how many nerds will there be at his funeral?

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 12:30 (twenty years ago)

None, they're just watch it online.

Unless it affects their ping badly.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

More than 15 million people, or 30% of the population, are registered for online gaming in South Korea

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 12:45 (twenty years ago)

Games are televised and professional players are treated, as well as paid, like sports stars.

Professional gamers there attract huge sums in sponsorship and can make more than $100,000 a year.

Um, holy fucking shit man!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 12:48 (twenty years ago)

This is so far beyond my comprehension....

― Matt (Matt), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

Which bit?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

Games are televised and professional players are treated, as well as paid, like sports stars.
Professional gamers there attract huge sums in sponsorship and can make more than $100,000 a year.

Yeah, except they have to wear these hilarious sparkly space suits on TV while they play! I don't know if it's worth it! Also the competition is insane so only the very top players fit the above description.

― sleep (sleep), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:16 (twenty years ago)

Mostly the idea of playing a computer game for that long at a stretch

― Matt (Matt), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

mad skrillz

― g-kit (g-kit), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

It's not really "at a stretch". They say he hadn't slept properly and didn't eat enough. That's not a million miles from at least one weekend I've had a few months ago when I was mainlining World of Warcraft, if "not slept properly" means "two four hour stretches".

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

I imagine it means 15 minute naps though

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:34 (twenty years ago)

hell, they televise the Starcraft matches, with play-by-play & everything.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:49 (twenty years ago)

They actually have one or more channels devoted to starcraft.

I'm not 100% sure this is true, but I wouldn't be surprised.

― sleep (sleep), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:59 (twenty years ago)

Deep vein thrombosis. You know it's true.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 10 August 2005 13:59 (twenty years ago)

I had a deep-dish thrombosis in this little diner in Eau Claire. Deee-lish!

― Truckdrivin' Buddha (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

I am trying to convince my bf we need to move to Korea and make some mad dollars stat!

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 14:03 (twenty years ago)

hell, they televise the Starcraft matches, with play-by-play & everything

See my utopian heart considers these guys acceptable casualties to build the kind of perfect society where this happens.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

How bad are you at doing real life things when you can play computer games?

Substitute "play computer games" for any online activity. Of course 50 hours is a bit daft, I know that, so I assume you meant someone who plays more than 8 hours straight. Or something. I don't think I have played more than 2 hours straight.

― nathalie sans denouement (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

friend of mine played C&C online for 24 hours straight. it's a good game, but not that good.

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

It's hard to fathom 50 hours. I mean I've played the civ games for long stretches a few times -- maybe 5-6 hours, and at that point I feel like I've missed a year of my life or something.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 14:51 (twenty years ago)

why did they do 3+ warcrafts but no starcraft sequel?

(the REAL question here.)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

There was an interesting article at Gamasutra, I think, that discussed how players wrapped up in a game don't usually play according to objective, normal measures of time - they play by subjective measures of #s of 'significant events' which is why people can play Gran Turismo for 30 minutes and be satisfied but people have to play Civ II for 2-3 hours to feel like they've gotten anywhere. The thing is, in the player's head, they're so wrapped up it doesn't matter.

It just makes you wonder what this guy trying to achieve. I suppose he just wanted to keep going until he felt like gold lame jumpsuit material.

xpost because after Brood War was released there was nothing left to improve

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:03 (twenty years ago)

50 hours of anything is too much.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:04 (twenty years ago)

That's not what Sting says

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

Sting can suck it.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

For 50 hours.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

In one detailed survey of 540 gamers, Professor Griffith and his team found that there were four playing more than 80 hours a week, which is considered "excessive".

Whew, at 79.5 hours/week, I'm in the clear!

― The Ghost of You Say Excessive, I Say Completely Fucking Bonkers (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:47 (twenty years ago)

http://www.inra.fr/Internet/Produits/HYP3/images/6035932.jpg

x-post

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

Whatever happened to Starcraft Ghosts?

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

I fucking love Starcraft, best game ever. The longest I've ever played it was like around 9 or so hours.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:53 (twenty years ago)

Starcraft: Ghost is an action RPG, not a strategy game IIRC. As far as I know it's still in development.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:58 (twenty years ago)

why did they do 3+ warcrafts but no starcraft sequel?

still in dev:

http://www.blizzard.com/ghost/faq.shtml

Apaprently, they acquired the team working on it only 3 months ago, which probably means that they junked all the code/design from the earlier group.

actually, it's kinda funny, showing how game trends evolve; you take a Lara Croft hot-chick-adventurer clone from like 1998 or so, then bring in plenty of 2001/2002 stealth elements...

xpost

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

(I realize now that with the advent of WoW the first sentence of my previous post has absolutely no meaning; please disregard.)

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:05 (twenty years ago)

this isn't the first time someone died playing computer games? (i remember some dude playing diablo2 like 3 years ago?)

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:07 (twenty years ago)

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/12/1041990184576.html

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

There was another South Korean guy who died of a blood clot from sitting in an internet cafe/gaming room place a couple months ago. He died as he lived: sitting around playing video games all day.

― Stuh-du-du-du-du-du-du-denka (jingleberries), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:12 (twenty years ago)

this one is all in chinese unforutnately, this one is about the 17 yr old worker of an internet cafe who died playing diablo II (mentioned in that first article i linked), it was may 2002 and I think was the first case reported...

http://appledaily.atnext.com/template/apple/sec_main.cfm?x=y&showdate=20020530&sec_id=4104&showpass=1

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

hell no. this has happened in korea before. THEY'RE HARD CORE.

xpost

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:15 (twenty years ago)

Hong Kong is like so 3 years ahead! Get with it korea!

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:18 (twenty years ago)

the ps2 final fantasy games took a couple of 9 or 10 hour chunks from my life. but i took lots of breaks so i don't know if it counts.

― Slumpman (Slump Man), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

I thought there was a story like 20 years ago about a kid who died of a heart attack while playing asteroids. Come to think of it, it may have been Mikey from the Life cereal commercial.

― Draw Tipsy, ya hack. (dave225.3), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:20 (twenty years ago)

Samsung's Pro Team has a pretty flashy website

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

http://www.samsungkhan.co.kr/khan/images/introduct/khan_mem_tree.gif

OK for reference, this is the organizational chart for SAMSUNG KHAN, and those boxes on the bottom are full of the player's names, and the one on the right is for FIFA, the one in the middle is Warcraft III, and the one on the left there is for Star Fucking Craft. Oh yes. That is how many people are on Samsung's payroll to play StarCraft. Now does any of this make sense?

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

i wonder if that guy was any good.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:31 (twenty years ago)

i took a day off work once in order to play civ III. very sad. i didn't eat much either, which was dumb considering that the game wasn't even real-time.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

but tombot is OTM upthread, it was just about having to finish off the german empire before i go to bed - but it just takes so. fucking. long to do.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

i wonder if that guy was any good.

Well no. He died.

― Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 10 August 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

twelve years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcIACHhslmo

― calstars, Sunday, 15 October 2017 03:26 (eight years ago)

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