While Diablo III might be a devilishly good game, no-one excepts to die from playing it – especially when these types of games regularly let you increase your health points and gain “extra lives” in the virtual world.
Sadly for the 18-year old man in question, no amount of Diablo III expertise was ever going to be enough to sustain him in the real world, with these kinds of shocking episodes clearly demonstrating the absolute need for a solid 8 hours of sleep every night, or at least SOME sleep, as opposed to none, or very little.
It’s not yet known if the teenager had any underlying medical conditions that could have contributed to the accidental death, but a posting over at Blizzard’s Battle Net forum quotes a Gamespot article with details of an AP report.
The report notes the 18-year old booked a private room in an Internet café on a Friday afternoon, and “played for almost two days without stopping to eat” – which sounds extreme in and of itself.
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Whether it was “death by exhaustion” as happened in similar cases, or death by deep vein thrombosis, or death by something else, we don’t yet know.
However, Diablo III’s maker, Blizzard, did release the following statement: "We're saddened to hear this news, and our thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time. We don't feel it would be appropriate for us to comment further without knowing all of the circumstances involved.
"While we recognize that it's ultimately up to each individual or their parent or guardian to determine playing habits, we feel that moderation is clearly important, and that a person's day-to-day life should take precedence over any form of entertainment."
As always, whether gaming, surfing, exercising or anything else… moderation is always the key to the true satisfaction of being able to enjoy that experience on more than one final occasion.
