Game of death

A 4-month-old girl suffocated alone at home while her parents were away at a Korean Cyber Caf? playing World of Warcraft, according to the Digital Chosunilbo.

The online paper is reporting that the 29-year-old dad and his wife left their daughter in their bedroom about 4 p.m. on May 24 to go play WOW at a caf?. When the couple returned five hours later their daughter was lying on her stomach, dead. Police believe she suffocated.

Great. Can’t wait until The Mirror gets hold of THAT one.

As a fairly dedicated gamer, although one with no real interest in MMORPGs, I have to respect Blizzard and their product. It’s certainly done well for them (a little too well by the sounds of some irate gamers who can’t get on the game’s servers) and it’s clearly a compelling game to play.

I’ve never been so involved in a game that I’ve entirely forgotten the world around me. If there’s something in the oven the I’ll remember it’s there. If the front door to the flat is left open, I’ll know about it. I always used to think I understood the mentality of gamers to some degree. What the hell kind of people LEAVE their home to go to an internet cafe for five hours and forget about the child they’ve only had for four months? I just can’t understand that one.
Please explain it to me.

Likewise, anyone who puts more blame on the game than the parents are free to be sent my way also.

Dirk would know..

Holistically speaking, what would you assume from these events:

  • Last week I was in tug of war as the anchorman
  • After a small operation on Friday I now have a hole in the flesh under my tongue
  • Instead of fixing my glasses, the optician made them worse. I’m without them for a week and wearing my perscription shades in the office all week as a result.
  • I’ll be getting a ?300 bonus in this month’s pay-packet
  • The fire-alarm test that runs every Monday at 10:30am at my place of work has now been mysteriously scheduled to run at 10:45am from now on.
  • My primary hard disk died on me on my home PC.

These events must all add up to SOMETHING.. ..but what?