I think it pretty much goes without saying that China is a country with a horrible track record in terms of human rights. Strangely, in country with a history like the Tiananmen Square Protests and subsequent massacre, people are appearantly free to videogame themselves to death.  Evidently, a 30-year-old man went on a gaming binge that rivals anything I've ever heard of. While this type of behavior could be expected in a country like the US where its not unheard of for parents to be criminally negligent in ignoring their kids to play online, It's almost shocking that this could happen in China, where much of the internet has been filtered or blocked by the goverment for years.

What I think escapes most of the media coverage is that gaming is just the outlet that happened to attract these particular obsessive compulsive personalities. I have an obsessive personality, a lot of gamers do. But being a gamer, and even a gamer with an obsessive personality doesn't mean you're likely to game yourself to death. Heck, the longest I've ever managed was about 26 hours during the launch weekend of Star Wars Galaxies, and even during that run I took some breaks to eat and relax. 

While I am surprised that this happened in China, I'm not surprised by the coverage. If the man had done the same thing with alcohol, drugs, gambling, or even sex, we likely would never have seen a story. But because of the hot button topic that online gaming is, it becomes a top story on news sites all over the web. It's sad that this happened to the guy, and to the others before him who let the internet or gaming become the sole focus of their lives. I would think the owner of the internet cafe would have some liability in this, but with Chinese laws, I sort of doubt it. People who suffer from these issues should obviously seek treatment, and those who witness them in these binges should do whatever they can to encourage them take breaks or stop for the day. No matter how much they want to play, the game will be there in the morning.

You never know, you could be saving someones life.