Boy collapses after playing WoW for 24 hours

The boy, along with six of his friends, had just purchased the newest WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King and began playing the game Saturday afternoon. According to the Times Online, the boy eventually collapsed because of the lack of sleep and food.

The parents told the newspaper that the kids ate very little while playing and added that their son only slept two hours the previous night. So it’s no wonder that 15 hours later or approximately 2PM on Sunday, the boy began having epileptic seizures and his parents rushed him to the hospital. Fortunately, the kid will apparently make a full recovery.

Logging in long hours after a game’s release is a badge of honor for many hard-core gamers. Yesterday we wrote about “Nymh” who leveled his character to level 80 in 27 hours after the WoW Wrath of the Lich King expansion release. And to be fair, thousands of people manage to put in hours of gaming with no adverse effects.

But there have been a few instances in the past of people dying after long gaming sessions. Back in 2005, a 28-year-old South Korean man died after playing Starcraft for 50 hours straight. In 2004, a 13-year-old Chinese boy jumped to his death after a 36-hour World of Warcraft stint.

Humphrey Cheung is a consulting systems engineer for Cisco Meraki who has also worked as a freelance videographer and reporter. He was previously a senior editor for Tom's Hardware and his work has also been featured on Tom's Guide, CNN, The New York Times, NBC, FOX, plus many other publications.