Xbox addict 'dies from blood clot'

[Foxy Brown]

The family of a budding computer programmer have on Saturday launched a campaign to raise awareness about the health risks of playing online computer games after their son died following a marathon session on his Xbox.

A post-mortem revealed that 20-year-old Chris Staniforth -- who was offered a place to study Game Design at Leicester University -- was killed by a pulmonary embolism, which can occur if someone sits in the same position for several hours.

[frblckstr1]

12 hours continues of HALO?? Man I already loose interest after about half an hour: that is maybe two rounds in firefight matchmaking.
I just loose concentration and 'start to fire left and right' so I stop. But then again I am just doing this for 'recreation' to many other things todo...

[Tuffty]

I love video games, it's my favourite hobby but I don't think I've ever done a proper marathon session. To me, a marathon is like 4 hours, but even then I have to get up and stretch the legs a bit for the bathroom or food or whatever. I just don't have the patience or even the attention span to stick with a game(s) for that long. And all without bathing, sleeping or even eating? What's the point? The game will still be there if you switch it off. Hell,  leave it running and give yourself some time to sort yourself out before getting back to it.

"Kids all over the country are playing these games for long periods - they don't realise it could kill them,"

How much of a fear mongering statement is this? Whilst undoubtedly tragic this man passed away, this does seem to be a rare occurrence otherwise this would be reported on a lot more and have happened to a lot more people cause rest assured there have been hundreds if not thousands of people who have done the same as guy, for longer gaming sessions and over a wider period of time yet this is the first time I've heard of such a thing occuring. Anytime I hear of a death because of a gaming marathon it's usually down to being so engrossed they completely forego eating, sleeping or drinking.

I think we can all agree 12 hours is a tad excessive. Not pinning the blame on that guy, how was he to know this would happen after all, but it ain't natural to stay in one position for so long.

[RoyMoy]

I was told this story before. Except it was with long flights rather than video games. Holding a physical position for a long period of time is never a good idea.