Side effects: Deaths caused by video game addiction

Video games have been here since a few decades. Though it started as a main reason for relaxing or pastime, it has now turned into serious a money-making business and a career for many. However, it is also sad to know that the addiction has many of the younger generations hooked to the gaming console. Be it on your smartphone, gaming console or television set, moderate gaming is considered good for your health. Scientists predict that the brain becomes active and there are signs of better development with certain games. However, there are a few games that can be a cause of concern. Personality damage due to violent games is on the rise. There are known physical and mental development issues and side effects caused by violent games. Too much of gaming can cause serious health and brain issues and can also prove fatal in certain cases. Here are 10 such cases that were reported, where the gamer was involved in murder or ended up with his life at stake.

Halo 3: (2007) A 16-year-old boy shot both his parents over a disagreement with regards to his video game being confiscated. He found his video game CD inside his father’s locker, along with his dad’s revolver. After shooting both of them, he placed the gun in his father’s hand to look like a murder-suicide crime scene.

Diablo 3: (2012) An 18-year-old from Taiwan died in an internet café after continuously playing for 40-hours non-stop. The reason for his death was due to a blood clot in his leg because he was seated in the same position over 40 hours. 

Defence of the Ancients: A 17-year-old Philippine teen murdered his 68-year-old grandmother for interrupting his game in a neighbourhood internet café. His grandmother was scolding him and he allegedly blacked-out and beat her to death.

StarCraft: (2005) A South Korean man was totally addicted to the game, and he ended up spending all his time in front of the screen. This cost him his job and log-time girlfriend and spent all his money at the internet café to play the game, where he would spend 14 – 18 hours playing. One day, he went up to 50-hours non-stop, collapsed and died from exhaustion and dehydration.   

Man Hunt: (2004) A 17-year-old from England was sentenced to life for emulating a death scene in a video game, where he stabbed a 14-year-old kid over 50 times until he died.

Grand Theft Auto: (2013) 8-year-old boy from Louisiana shot his 87-year-old grandmother in the back of her head for being stopped from playing his game. Since he was below the age of 10, he was not convicted.    

Grand Theft Auto: An 18-year-old shot three police officers and fled with a police car, stating that ‘life is a video game. You’ve got to die sometime’. He was caught for the real-life sequence similar to the game and was given the death penalty.

Dota 2: (2014) An 11-year-old was stabbed to death in the Philippines by a 16-year-old boy, simply because the former kit allegedly hacked into the latter’s online gaming account. He slammed the victim’s head numerous times on a wall, after which he stabbed him over 40 times.

Ghost Recon: (2006) A 28-year-old from Philadelphia beat his 17-month daughter to death after the latter crawled into his room and accidentally toppled the gaming console and broke it. He battered the child and then placed it in another room to look like an accident. He fled the scene only to turn himself in the next day. He got 22-years in prison.

Slenderman: (2014) A 12-year-old girl was stabbed 19 times and left in the woods to die. Two of her friends, 12 and 13, were playing the video game and hoped that the ghost in the game would not haunt them if they sacrificed their friend and left her in the woods. They planned this for months.

World of Warcraft: (2015) A 23-year-old Chinese gamer died of exhaustion after continuously playing the game for 19-hours non-stop in an internet café at Shanghai. 

Defence of the Ancients: (2015) A 17-year-old Russian teen Rustam dies after playing the game continuously for over 22-day with just enough breaks to snack and nap.  

All images are for representative purposes only.