NEWS #1 Warcraft Seizure

Some swedish dude played Lich King for 27 hours in a row and then ended up having a seizure.

“Doctors told the father that his son’s bodily systems had been disrupted by a combination of sleep deprivation, lack of food, and the prolonged period of concentration playing the game.”

Now, the big question is… who is to blame? The game? Or the father for letting the son play for 27 hours in a row? Or the son for not feeding himself during a 27 hour click-fest?

I blame myself. I had never really tested my proton accelerator before using it…

Bah. The human  being is an addictive animal - 27 hours in a row of anything apart sleeping will probably kill you… or make you feel like crap… let’s think about it:

1. 27 hours of studying… not good. Then you have teen students falling asleep behind the wheel as they go home…
2. 27 hours of reading - say hello to your new glasses.
3. 27 hours of exercising. I think you died around hour 8 but your body just kept on going.
4. 27 hours of food & wine. No comment.
5. 27 hours of cricket. If you didnt die, your soul probably did.

Still, from the Telegraph:

Dr Richard Graham, a child psychiatrist at the Tavistock Centre, warned last week that some young people were damaging their social and mental development by playing the game for up to 16 hours at a time.

“The problem with World of Warcraft is the degree it can impact and create a socially withdrawn figure who may be connecting with people in the game and is largely dropping out of education, social opportunities,” he said.

More news about this: here, here, here and here.

NEWS #2 GTA 5 Subscription Based

From 1Up:

At the same BMO Capital Markets’ conference last week in New York where he gave an update on upcoming GTAIV DLC and Chinatown Wars, Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick offered a glimpse further down the road. In his “Negative Approach” blog for cnet, Dave Rosenberg related these remarks from Zelnick:

The Holy Grail is taking a business, already a very large and successful business that’s focused on packaged goods…and turning that into a subscription business or a semi subscription business where we have an ongoing relationship with consumers, giving them products that they want. Who’s better positioned to do that than the company that has the top franchises?

Comments anybody?

News #3 NEW Xbox Live Look

Just a few hours to go…