A man was found dead on Tuesday at an Internet cafe in Taipei after playing computer games for 24 hours.
Preliminary investigations indicate cardiac arrest was the likely cause of death.
An employee at the Internet cafe said the 58-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), entered the cafe late on Monday night and was still there, playing computer combat games, late on Tuesday night.
The employee said Chen was a regular customer and he usually paid NT$500 for a seat for 24 hours.
Chen did not pay for additional time and was still sitting in his seat on Wednesday morning, staff said.
“We thought he was tired from playing and was just sleeping, so we did not disturb him,” an employee said.
However, when he checked on Chen at about midday on Wednesday, he found that Chen was not breathing and his body was stiff.
“There were other customers there and everyone thought he was just sleeping. We had no idea he had died,” the employee said.
A spokesman for Taipei City Police Department’s Zhongzheng First Precinct said preliminary investigations showed there was no sign of foul play, and it was likely a simple case of accidental death, due to cardiac arrest or cardiovascular conditions.
It was the second case of alleged death from prolonged game playing at an Internet cafe in six months.
A 37-year-old woman surnamed Chu (朱) died while sitting in front of a cafe computer in Hsinchu City premise on Aug. 23 last year.
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