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Just found this at Guru3D:
http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/twitch ... aming.html
Many years ago when I first heard of people dying while playing games for really long sessions, I first thought that was an urban legend or something from the Onion. But no folks are are ending up belly up from gaming too much.

Me? Well I force myself to get up and take a break, every 30 minutes or so. Talk a walk, call a friend, anything but computer gaming for awhile. Anyway this guy was playing World of Tanks for 22 hours.

I'm a piker. Even before marriage and kids my longest stretch without a break was 12 or 13 hours.

Sorry the dude kicked off. 34 seems young for one 24 hour session. In comments, it said he did these often and someone else said he may have smoked a lot.

Hawkwing74 wrote:

I'm a piker. Even before marriage and kids my longest stretch without a break was 12 or 13 hours.

Sorry the dude kicked off. 34 seems young for one 24 hour session. In comments, it said he did these often and someone else said he may have smoked a lot.

Yeah I was thinking he played long sessions before this. And of course smoking highly increases the risk factor as well.

Probably cardiovascular failure of some kind. I blame smoking and constant energy drinking on this one.

Krogoth wrote:

Probably cardiovascular failure of some kind. I blame smoking and constant energy drinking on this one.

Energy drinks can be dangerous when overused. My Dad's roommate died of a heart attack from drinking too many off those. On top of that you can also get Stimulant Psychosis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulant_psychosis

I'm sure as a youngin' I did many a 12+ hour gaming marathons. However, now at the old age of 32 I usually require a nap after five to six hours of game time (or watching movies).

The people who want to make it pro as streamers (and some who have already "arrived", so to speak) seem to feel a lot of pressure to always be streaming. Combine that with unhealthy habits like sitting in front of a PC for many hours on end while consuming copious amounts of caffeine and nicotine and you have a recipe for disaster.

Now I'm wondering just how common this sort of thing is? I fear that in the near future this sort of thing will not be news anymore.

It's fairly rare.

The last time I played a game 12 hours or more was literally over a decade ago. I go 8-10 on occasion, but not often.

Well this hits pretty close to home for me, not because I knew/watched the streamer (I didn't) but because of the long stretches of gaming I've done.

I'm going to admit to something that no one, not even my closest friends know about. For several years I was doing a lot of cocaine...it was top notch quality and price vs quality made it "worth it". I'd just broken up with my fiance if that's any excuse, but really it's not. I'd go on binges playing games and doing blow for insane amounts of time. I'd play two games in particular that were multiplayer, required your team to be good, and had shorter missions (Diablo 3 and GTA V). Both of them have a relatively quick mission of 15-20 minutes followed by a bit of down time where people are sorting loot, watching loading screens *cough* GTA V or waiting for more ppl to join. I think what drew me to these games as opposed to say Civ 4 is that once you got a good team rolling, you didn't want to stop. And hey why not reward yourself after crushing a Greater Rift 95? During the breaks I'd do a bump, and then 20 minutes later it was time for another. Anyone that's done coke knows that every 15-20 minutes is too often, even if you're doing small amounts. Between the game reinforcing my desire to play and the coke reinforcing my desire to...do more coke...it got out of control real quick

Anyway, I'd usually start on a Friday night at like 7pm and easily go to 3pm-4pm Saturday (20-21 hours). Sometimes I'd go further..way further....until sunrise on Sunday. That's anywhere from 35-40 hours straight. Doing cocaine the entire time...btw coke doesn't even do anything after like hour 8, so you're just maintaining the same high (no rush), wasting blow, money, and your life. I'd say I did the 18-24 hour runs at least a dozen or two times. I did the 36 hour runs twice I believe. Once I got into the 24+ area my eyes would start hurting looking at the screen (also probably from increased blood pressure), my body would ache when I went to the bathroom, overall just felt **** but high as a kite.

I'm telling everyone this for a few reasons. One, do not EVER do what I did. It was stupid, a massive waste of money and horribly anti-social. Two, I've wanted to get this off my chest and what better place than the semi-anonymous internets? Three, I'm 33 and just over a year ago I had a "cardiac episode" otherwise known as a heart attack caused by a blood clot. Other than my extensive drug usage over the past 20 years, I'm very healthy - I eat a very healthy diet, walk very fast 5-7 miles a day passing everyone in the Loop except someone running or on a bike. My cholesterol was off the charts at the time due to genetics (I'm on statins now, and have seen my numbers cut in half).

However, despite being a healthy 33 year old, I had a **** heart attack last year. Full blown blood clot in my nether regions that migrated to my chest. Classic picture, shot straight up clutching my chest, couldn't breathe, everything was going black. I was alone at my house (not on any drugs or alcohol) so no one was there to call 911. I collapsed onto my couch/floor so hard that it actually knocked the clot loose. It then moved (I could feel the SOB moving in me like the bug in Neo in the Matrix) to the bottom left side, then shot up to my left armpit. Instantly my entire left arm goes numb....really painfully numb like no pins & needles you're used to. At that point I was able to go to the hospital and they couldn't believe I just had a heart attack. About 3 months later I was on a flight and got really painful/numb feelings in my extremities and thought I was going to pass out. Only really deep steady breathes kept my conscious.

Sorry for the massive derail and possibly inappropriate content. Do not play games for more than 8-12 hours. Do not mix cocaine or other stimulants while playing for extended periods of time. I'm lucky I made it out...now if I get blow it has to be the night before a concert; I simply cannot have it in my house. I've gone through the routine of "it's 7:00, I'll just do 2-3 bumps and be done by 10, in bed by midnight" Doesn't work that way, at least for me. I type this as I just did another mini-bender 6:18 here and have work in less than two hours. But at least it's gone (had it from NYE) and I won't be buying more for a long time. Stay smart guys.

Isn't bad posture and the stress from sitting down for so long the main problem with such long gaming sessions? Circulation to legs reduced and all that.

I mean you can be high on coke or jacked up on energy drinks or whatever but your blood ain't gonna clot for no reason if your body was in a posture where it would get good circulation.

jihadjoe wrote:

Isn't bad posture and the stress from sitting down for so long the main problem with such long gaming sessions? Circulation to legs reduced and all that.

I mean you can be high on coke or jacked up on energy drinks or whatever but your blood ain't gonna clot for no reason if your body was in a posture where it would get good circulation.

I'm sure drug use increases the risk factor by a high margin as getting high will allow you to play much longer then normal.

@ChicagoDave:
Good luck with your recovery. I know you heard this before, but dude you are lucky to be alive, don't waste your second chance.

Krogoth wrote:

Probably cardiovascular failure of some kind. I blame smoking and constant energy drinking on this one.

My hypothesis would be:
a. Cocaine or similar "performance enhancing" drug --> myocardial infarction/rhythm abnormalities
b. Sitting a very long time --> pulmonary embolism.

Simply not sleeping for 22h doesn't kill very often. Even with a lot of coffee. Ask my friends who work 24h+ shifts in the hospital. Smoking does not increase risk for cardiovascular disease until relatively later in life.

This is so sad, and I think that it was foreseeable when the whole gaming thing was becoming what it has become... Sad!

ptsant wrote:

b. Sitting a very long time --> pulmonary embolism.

The mechanism for that is generally Deep Vein Thrombosis. Had a friend who lived in Hong Kong but "commuted" back to North America (and sometimes Europe) on a fairly regular basis who got this on a flight. Not fun, but in her case it stayed in the leg so it was just bad/painful rather than fatal.

Gamers having **** health habits is nothing new. It's not really a surprise to most people when it goes from bad to worse.

Though I'd think people are more aware of the health risks than before just from hearing about these 16+ hr long session peeps dropping off.

LostCat wrote:

Gamers having **** health habits is nothing new. It's not really a surprise to most people when it goes from bad to worse.

Though I'd think people are more aware of the health risks than before just from hearing about these 16+ hr long session peeps dropping off.

Like I said, now days I force myself to get off my ass and move around every so often. Not to mention that I longer do long gaming sessions like I did when I was a kid.

whm1974 wrote:

Like I said, now days I force myself to get off my ass and move around every so often. Not to mention that I longer do long gaming sessions like I did when I was a kid.

I'm old enough the worst I've done is three day LAN parties back in the day.

It's rare I play a game exciting enough to do eight hour sessions anymore, anyway. The only reason I could understand this sort of crap at all is that people make money off it these days.