A 32-year-old Taiwanese man died after a three-day videogame binge that ended in cardiac arrest, the island's second death this year in which gaming was a significant factor.
Jennifer Wu, a police spokesperson from the Hunei district precinct,
told CNN that employees of a gaming cafe in Kaohsiung city found that the man, surnamed Hsieh, was motionless and not breathing around 10 a.m. on Jan. 8. He had been at the cafe, in front of a computer, since Jan. 6.
When emergency responders arrived on the scene, they discovered that he had been dead for several hours, and that rigor mortis had begun to set in. An autopsy later revealed that exhaustion had triggered cardiac arrest, which killed him.
"The CCTV footage from the Internet cafe showed that he had a small struggle before he collapsed motionless," said Wu.
Employees said that Hsieh was a regular customer, and often engaged in multi-day videogame marathons playing "combat-style games."
"He has been unemployed for a long time, and internet cafes were the only place he could go to. His family said he would disappear for two to three days on end," said one employee at the café,
AFP reported via MSN.
"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."
Police reported that other videogame patrons at the café continued to game while Hsieh's body was cordoned off and carted away.