Wired to Death

"We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion."

A 28-year-old man know only as Lee, quit or was fired from his job last month because he was obsessed with an on-line battle simulation game called Starcraft. On August 3rd, at a cyber cafe in Taegu, Korea, he sat down in front of a computer to play.

Every now and then he would go to the bathroom or take five minute naps on a makeshift bed. The rest of the time, fifty hours worth, he sat staring at the screen battling cyber foes.

Lee's mother, frantic when he didn't return home, asked his former colleagues to find him. They reached the cafe where Lee said he would finish the game and then go home. Then he collapsed. Moved to a hospital, Lee died hours later of heart failure.