Thu, Mar 12, 2015 page4

• FEATURE: Computer gaming addiction could cost lives

  • By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
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  For young Taiwanese, a popular hobby is going to Internet cafes and spending long hours fighting enemy warriors, monsters and demons.

  Many engage in the genre of Internet gaming entertainment known as “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game” (MMORPG). This type of gaming allows people to play with friends, strangers, or other online gamer groups, and can involve up to hundreds of people.

  It has become a veritable subculture, with the popularity of such entertainment seeing an upward trend among people in their 30s and 40s, and more females are now engaging in a pastime that was once dominated by male teenagers.

  This type of fantasy gaming has been driven by new digital technology and is seen by many as stimulating and very addictive. However, not knowing when to stop can result in death as two recent cases showed.

  A 32-year-old man surnamed Hsieh (謝) was found dead in a cybercafe in Kaohsiung on Jan. 8. He played for three days straight and was found slumped in his chair — others thought he was sleeping, but he had suffered cardiac arrest. This fatal incident caused by back-to-back days of video game binging received worldwide media attention.

  In another incident, a 33-year-old man surnamed Wu (吳) was found dead in his car in January in Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南). He died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but local media attributed the suicide to Wu’s computer gaming addiction.

  “My husband had a steady job, but when he came home from work, he would just sit in front of the computer and play games,” his wife told the police. “He also went to Internet cafes to play there. We often had quarrels because he became addicted and began to run up debts, so I wanted him to stop playing computer games.”

  A man surnamed Liu (劉), who operates a cybercafe in Taipei’s Shihlin District (士林), said: “On weekends and holidays, we have lots of teenagers. They also pile in here after school. At other times, we have the middle-aged crowd.”

  Liu said many people who go to cybercafes are MMORPG gamers because cybercafes can offer computers, and video and graphic cards that run faster than notebooks and PC computers at home.

  “Young people sometimes come in a party of three or four and log on to play a game together. It is clear that group gaming in a cybercafes enhances friendships,” Liu said.

  The manager of a cybercafe in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), surnamed Shih (施), said: “During the daytime, we have the mature crowd, and they are more into games that simulate gambling, like online mahjong, poker and slot machine games, but they bet on value points, so no real money is involved.”

  “Some people come in often, for eight hours or longer at a time. They come here because it is not expensive, and they can stay the whole day. For some people, it is an escape from reality,” Shih said.

  Many cybercafes are located on the outskirts of cities, so they have lower rental and overhead costs.

  At a cybercafe in Beitou, it costs NT$15 per hour, or NT$10 per hour for a seat booking of five hours or more. Average fees at other cybercafes are between NT$20 and NT$30 per hour, with some offering discount rates, such as NT$100 for 11pm to 8am bookings.

  Some cybercafes have special 24-hour rates, as low as NT$150. The cheap fees encourage people to stay for longer, and thus purchase food and drinks, which are delivered to the customers’ table.

  At an average of NT$30 for a 700cc cup of milk tea, and NT$40 for a bowl of instant noodles, customers have even less reason to leave their seats.

  However, such snacks are far from nutritious and when gamers remain in their seats for long periods of time they risk thrombosis — blood clotting in the leg, which can lead to cardiac arrest if the clot travels to veins around the heart, blocking circulation.

  Shih knew about the cases of gamers dying in their chairs in recent years, and said he hoped it would not happen at his cybercafe.
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