Another Internet Cafe Death

[Renegade]

Every so often it hits the news:

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/taiwan-man-dies-playing-video-games-at-internet-cafe-police-20120206-1r0ck.html

A Taiwanese man died while playing video games at an internet cafe as dozens of other patrons carried on for hours afterwards apparently unaware that they were sitting near a corpse, according to police.

The 23-year-old checked in at the cafe in New Taipei city on Tuesday night last week and was found dead but still sitting rigidly on a chair with his hands stretched out the following night by a waitress, police said.

The waitress last saw him talking on the phone around noon on Wednesday and his body had apparently been sitting there for up to nine hours without any of the 30 other people in the cafe noticing.

And every time, it's stunning.

[4wd]

Every so often it hits the news:

Do you mean this is such a common occurrence in Taiwan that it's too mundane to report?

Personally, I'd like to know what game he was playing.....I know a few people I'd like to send it to 

[Renegade]

Every so often it hits the news:

Do you mean this is such a common occurrence in Taiwan that it's too mundane to report?

Personally, I'd like to know what game he was playing.....I know a few people I'd like to send it to 

I remember I used to read about these incidents at least once a year, but I was living in Korea then. IIRC, they were always in Taiwan and Korea.

Very little news hits the MSM in English. It's usually the same 3 stories hyped for several months until a new hypeable story rears its head.

[lanux128]

Personally, I'd like to know what game he was playing.....I know a few people I'd like to send it to 

according to the reports here, the poison is WoW..

• http://www.taipeitimes.com.tw/News/front/archives/2012/02/04/2003524636

[Stoic Joker]

What kind of cafe leaves a patron unattended for 9 hours?? ...Somebody's not getting a tip.

[Eóin]

Asia is not big on tipping. After all you're supposed to do your job and be nice to customers, that's not something which deserves a tip.

[nosh]

^ relevant (NSFW for language)

My favorite line at 00:48.

[Edvard]

From what I've been able to gather, it's a combination of susceptibility (pre-disposition to heart attack, stroke, etc.), dehydration, and sedentation (I just made that up; means sitting for long periods of time), and one more element...
What wraps it up in this case is the perceived danger that you get regularly when playing FPS's, MUD's, MORPG's causes stresses that you internalize because even though your eyes tell your brain that you're being shot at, chased, and lit on fire, you know it's not real... but your subconscious doesn't know that.

So take somebody prone to kick early, distract him so forget he needs water to survive, let him sit in a chair for hours on end, and then terrify him subliminally and *snap*... dead customer.

It's a theory, anyways... 

[IainB]

Maybe we all have a predisposed susceptibility to death...

[kyrathaba]

Maybe we all have a predisposed susceptibility to death...

There's one certain death preventative: common black pepper. My sons just roll their eyes when I make this claim, but I've been ingesting small amounts of black pepper a couple times a week for several years, and so far have had no close calls with Death, which obviously proves my point.