A 32-year-old Taiwanese man has died after three days of "binge gaming".
"Binge gaming" refers to the habit of continuously playing computer games, possibly without taking breaks.
The man, identified by various media outlets as "Hsieh", was found slumped in his chair at an internet café in the city of Kaohsiung. His friends and fellow players in the room initially thought he had dozed off, but later an employee discovered he wasn't breathing. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the local Taipei Times reported.
The doctors said that he had suffered a cardiac arrest and it was a "sudden death" due to a prolonged period of computer gaming, the report stated, AFP notes.
"Hsieh was a regular customer here and always played for consecutive days. When tired, he would sleep face-down on the table or doze off slumped in his chair. That is why we were not aware of his condition in the beginning," the report quoted the employee as saying.
Hsieh was reportedly playing one of the "combat computer games", although it is not clear as to which specific game he was playing when he suffered the cardiac arrest.
AFP states that this is not the first time that binge gaming has resulted in death. A 38-year-old man was also found dead on 1 January in New Taipei City after he played games continuously for 5 days.
It has been learnt that in both the cases, other people present in the cafes remained so engrossed in playing their respective games that they did not stop even when police cordoned off the area to take the bodies.
