When our most anticipated title is finally released, we tend to go on a gaming marathon.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn’t detract from our personal responsibilities, and we’re able to keep the frequency of the sessions to a minimum.

When players are presented with a challenge that can be achieved with the help of your partner, like raising a virtual child, it can be a rewarding experience.  But the challenge should be put on the backburner when you have an actual child to raise.  Unfortunately, a South Korean couple got the memo too late and learned the consequences of too much too often.

Just last week, the South Korean couple was arrested for the death of their three month old daughter who passed away last September from malnutrition.  In typical gaming addiction behavior, their responsibility to raise their child was neglected when the two were hooked on a game called Prius.  The irony of the story: they neglected their actual child to raising a virtual child.

They admitted to feeding their real daughter powdered milk and leaving her at home while attending “PC Bangs,” a hallmark of South Korean gaming culture.  “They called in last September to report that they found their daughter dead after coming back home in the morning,” a Seoul police detective told ABC. “They had spent 12 hours, all night, at a PC bang.”

If you can’t find South Koreans carving up the ice on short track speed skating, you’ll more than likely find the population playing an online game, as more than 50% play games.  Korean lawmakers are considering enforcing curfews or laws that try and curb the gaming habits of the population, as it’s not the first death attributed to gaming addiction in recent years.

Source: ABC News