4. Someone Played Themselves to Death
In 2005 a young Chinese girl known in game as Snowly literally played herself to death. She played for several continuous days during Warcrafts National Day holiday. According to her in-game friends, she was connected to the game 24/7 and was rarely absent; she had become a pillar of the online-community she was allied with. She was supposedly gearing up to tackle a particularly difficult part of the game, but had been indicating to her friends that she was feeling run down and exhausted. Days later, the poor girl was dead. Obviously, Im not looking at her autopsy report right now, and its unclear whether or not WoW addiction was the primary factor in her death or whether there were underlying health issues involved. Suffice to say, the death of Snowly caused online uproar at the time, even prompting the Chinese government to seek the passing of a gaming curfew bill, which would limit online gaming sessions for Chinese players to three hours at a time. Of course, Blizzard cant be blamed totally for her death. After all, cigarettes are addictive and still some people choose to smoke. Essentially, theyre our bodies and we can do what we want with them. Still, Snowlys death is an obvious sore spot for Blizzard, and practically acts as an unlimited ammo code for the leagues of WoW boycotters out there.