7 ms·

Please don't let gaming consume your life

197 points by Buildstarted 14y ago

Server died...here's a repost: Over this past weekend a good friend and coworker passed away. He always had a good heart and would do anything he could to help you out. It was certainly a shock. Monday morning he didn't show up to work. He always calls or sends an email if he won't be in but nobody could get a hold of him. I got a bit worried since I knew he was playing Diablo 3 since it came out on Tuesday and I've heard of people dying from exhaustion and what not from playing video games so much. I didn't want to think that but it had occurred to me. Especially since nobody has heard from him since late Saturday. I had called his landlord and asked about him. (The landlord, Russ and I are all good friends and we've known each other for a while) I was heading over and she was going to let me in but apparently she got too worried and went in anyway. She found him at his computer. He apparently had a heart attack. Poor gal shouldn't have had to do that. I kick myself for not going there immediately. I had gone in anyway at the request of the Fire Department to find his identification and cellphone. Not a minute goes by that I wish my memory of him had not been sullied in that manner. I sincerely hope that he went quickly and didn't suffer, unable to contact anyone for help. He was only 32 years old. Please, if only for yourselves, take time out of your day to get some exercise. Go outside and enjoy the sun. Ride a bike. Do something active. Video games are great fun when played in moderation. This may be an extreme example but take it as advice to not go overboard. Or at least don't do it alone. He took 3 days off and played Diablo 3 pretty much the whole time. He called in and asked to take Friday off as well. We are placing the blame on ourselves at work wondering if we made him come in on Friday would he still be with us today? It saddens me that we tried to get him to be healthy. Work offered to pay for a gym membership. Friends coaxed him to exercise and eat better. He took us up on our offers, if only for a short while. We should have tried harder. He will be missed greatly by all who knew him. <img src='http://aws.buildstarted.com/russell.png' Title='Russell Shirley' /><h1>Russell Shirley 1979-2012</h1>

Buildstarted 14y ago
I always heard of people in other countries dying while playing video games. I never thought it would ever be someone in this country let alone someone I knew. It's one of the hardest things to hit me in my recent life...so sad...please take care of yourselves out there. Stay healthy.
- eridius 14y ago
  You may already be aware, but your site seems to be completely non-responsive at this point.
  - diesel_travis 14y ago
    Is there a mirror anywhere?
    - Buildstarted 14y ago
      Posted in full here.
      - mkr-hn 14y ago
        Install this when it comes back to life: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/ WordPress (going by your URL structure) is bad at coping with traffic without help.
      - mcrawrf 14y ago
        and by 'here' he means http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4005275 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4005275
- Dylan16807 14y ago
  Do you actually think the game was related to his death? If enough people play video games an hour a week it's guaranteed that some of them will die while playing. I understand that he was marathoning this game but that shouldn't cause a heart attack.
  - omgsean 14y ago
    I think the subtext was that his sedentary lifestyle is what killed him.
    - 14y ago
Buildstarted 14y ago
Server died...here's a repost: Over this past weekend a good friend and coworker passed away. He always had a good heart and would do anything he could to help you out. It was certainly a shock. Monday morning he didn't show up to work. He always calls or sends an email if he won't be in but nobody could get a hold of him. I got a bit worried since I knew he was playing Diablo 3 since it came out on Tuesday and I've heard of people dying from exhaustion and what not from playing video games so much. I didn't want to think that but it had occurred to me. Especially since nobody has heard from him since late Saturday. I had called his landlord and asked about him. (The landlord, Russ and I are all good friends and we've known each other for a while) I was heading over and she was going to let me in but apparently she got too worried and went in anyway. She found him at his computer. He apparently had a heart attack. Poor gal shouldn't have had to do that. I kick myself for not going there immediately. I had gone in anyway at the request of the Fire Department to find his identification and cellphone. Not a minute goes by that I wish my memory of him had not been sullied in that manner. I sincerely hope that he went quickly and didn't suffer, unable to contact anyone for help. He was only 32 years old. Please, if only for yourselves, take time out of your day to get some exercise. Go outside and enjoy the sun. Ride a bike. Do something active. Video games are great fun when played in moderation. This may be an extreme example but take it as advice to not go overboard. Or at least don't do it alone. He took 3 days off and played Diablo 3 pretty much the whole time. He called in and asked to take Friday off as well. We are placing the blame on ourselves at work wondering if we made him come in on Friday would he still be with us today? It saddens me that we tried to get him to be healthy. Work offered to pay for a gym membership. Friends coaxed him to exercise and eat better. He took us up on our offers, if only for a short while. We should have tried harder. He will be missed greatly by all who knew him.
- picklefish 14y ago
  It's silly to associate this with gaming only. You can say the same thing about getting sucked into anything. I'm sure quite a few people here have coded non-stop for a few days, or pulled some all nighters to meet a deadline. Everything should be done in moderation, not just video games.
- neutronicus 14y ago
boredguy8 14y ago
There are more subtle ways of gaming ruining your life, as well: slowly losing the drive to do anything more than what's necessary to pay the cable bill, rent, and the gaming subscription. Slowly the only friends you have are people you know from your guild. When the only source & output of creativity and energy are all wrapped up in playing a video game. I've also seen people similarly consumed by pornography, alcohol, gambling, day trading, and I'm sure other things I can't think of now. Pot. I think any of those things can have their place, but please maintain connection to people who can and will say something if you start going overboard. For instance, I'm in a pretty good place right now and still gave parental control to a friend for the D3 release, just in case. Six hours a week is arguably still too much, but seems reasonable to me, and they won't budge because A) I asked them not to; B) they care. That I've hit that limit is a good sign that I may not be as well off as I thought I was ;) Take care of each other, and yourself.
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  ... day trading ... Well, if you're a successful day trader I'd say rather that the normal rules for not letting work consume you, rather than play. If you are unsuccessful, then it probably does fall more in line with a gambling problem.
  - ajross 14y ago
    I think the point was more that the psychology of the disorder is independent of what society chooses to call the activity.
- daenz 14y ago
  > When the only source & output of creativity and energy are all wrapped up in playing a video game. One day I imagine we'll be able to map real world problems to video games, in a way that doesn't require knowledge of the solution to create the mapping. Programming itself is very similar to a game. If someone could make it into a virtual world, where I "write" code simply by putting together various machines in 3D space...well, that would be fun :)
zobzu 14y ago
It's about a game but it can be about anything. Specially, work kills many more people than video games, for exactly the same reasons. (that even include non-computer work)
driverdan 14y ago
I'm sorry you had to lose a friend. I understand that you're trying to find meaning and place blame but playing a game for 3 days is not likely to end your life. It's possible he had an underlying medical condition. If he had been sitting for 3 days straight writing code would you blame it instead?
- Buildstarted 14y ago
  I wasn't placing blame on the game but on himself. The game was the final straw that broke the camel's back. Yes, there were other health issues which I addressed later in the post.
  - ajross 14y ago
    People who are 32 years old don't die of sudden heart failure for lack of a gym membership or a poor diet. He almost certainly had a serious health issue, possibly one he wasn't aware of. That kind of progressive heart disease comes slowly, with lots of warning. Gaming certainly didn't help him, but it certainly didn't kill him.
  - jsprinkles 14y ago
    The title of your post blames gaming pretty directly.
nemik 14y ago
Maybe he died doing what he loved...
- staunch 14y ago
  I think this is actually a perfectly reasonable idea. When I look back on past 15 years one of my absolute favorite memories is playing FPS games with my friends, brothers, and father. Those times were more real and more meaningful to me than many other more socially acceptable activities. But...you shouldn't die at 32 because you're eating burgers and playing games too much. That's a terrible way to go, and it ultimately means you get far less time gaming!
- teeray 14y ago
  My uncle was killed 6 years ago in a plane crash. In the following days and at the services held, many people said that he "died doing what he loved." My aunt said that this was the worst consolation she received.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
jsz0 14y ago
Not knowing anything about this individual I don't want to make too many assumptions but the broader point here is valid. The whole culture of 'hardcore gaming' is pretty creepy to me. There's a fine line between fun and mental illness. It's too easy to look at this as just a harmless eccentric hobby when, past a certain point, it really needs to be treated more like a serious problem with interventions & rehab. I really dislike how the culture around it is so supportive of obviously destructive behaviors. It's eerily similar to hardcore drug culture at times.
- sukuriant 14y ago
  s/hardcore gaming/competitive horseback riding/d s/hardcore gaming/competitive Go playing/d s/hardcore gaming/dedicated Iron Man competition training/d s/hardcore gaming/frequent weekend get-away-ing/d s/hardcore gaming/dedicated volunteering/d Perhaps I'm not familiar with the hardcore gaming you've seen, with exception, perhaps, of WoW addiction, but you need to be careful of looking at a particular use of a person's pass-time, or even an entire culture's use of their pass time
  - giblfiz 14y ago
    Well two differences... one only applies to some of those things. In the case of all of the physically active ones they to some extent self-regulate. There is really only so much power-lifting you can do in a week, and very few ways around that max (even assuming steroid use) But I think the more relevant issue is far fewer people seem to be prone to obsession in any of those other spheres. It's not that hardcore gaming is any worse than an obsession with chess, it's that far fewer are obsessed with chess. I found this article (which came off of hacker news in the first place) to be super relevant. http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html
groby_b 14y ago
First off: I am really sorry you have to lose a friend like that. But please, don't blame yourself. Asking him to come in or not might well have not changed anything. While gaming certainly can be addictive, he had a heart attack. That has nothing to do with gaming. You can get a heart attack at any moment. Heck, you can have one while sleeping. (You can even have one without any recognizable symptoms) So, instead I suggest people learn what the symptoms of a heart attack are - so if you or somebody close to you has one, you can actually recognize it and get help in time. Here's one link giving more detail: http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart_disease_heart_attacks http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart_disease_heart...
j45 14y ago
Managing distractions is incredibly important, be it reading useless stuff online, or gaming.
bcrescimanno 14y ago
I'm sorry for the loss of a friend; I don't pretend to know how you currently feel. That said, I think there's a pretty big leap you're taking from "playing a lot of games" and "had a heart attack at 32." Obviously, I don't know this person; but I do know a lot of folks who have gone on binge gaming sessions who have never had heart attacks. I'm not saying there isn't any connection or that it didn't contribute in any way; however, let's be honest with ourselves and admit that a binge gaming session, while not in any way healthy and certainly a likely contributor to this person's poor health, most likely did not cause a heart attack.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  I don't think the connection the OP is making is that binge gaming session == heart attack. I think it's that the person spent a lot of their time playing games. They spent too much time sedentary and this was the unfortunate result. It's something that can happen easily with games - some people find them very addictive (I don't have the attention span for gaming but I know people who have days where they wake up, play games, and go to sleep). The same result could happen if you sat and watched several movies every day and didn't exercise or eat well.
  - UK-AL 14y ago
    Considering most desk jobs are roughy equivalent to watching a few movies on end. What do you do then? It's not so bad at small companies where socialising with freinds is not frowned upon. However at many large companies, spending 30 mins socialising would be frowned upon.
    - k-mcgrady 14y ago
      I think the difference is that at most desk jobs you get up every so often to use the bathroom, have lunch, get something from the printer, go to a meeting etc. And at the beginning and end of the day you have to move to go home. The problem is sitting in a chair playing a game (or another activity) and not getting off that chair for to do anything for a very long time (the gamers I know often sit for 12 hours only getting up to use the bathroom for a few minutes). I honestly don't know very much about this but I think those minor distinctions are very important.
asdkl234890 14y ago
Gaming? So fast food with no exercise would not have killed him if he had just not played games? I had a friend with diabetes, he was way over weight. One day we talked about his new apartment, WOW and girls. He mentioned he had a good view of the joggers from his window. I mentioned I am frequently one of those joggers, and you see a lot more of the cute girls that way. The topic of conversation moved to WOW, and I mentioned how I hate to touch a computer after spending all day at work sitting in front of one. Despite subtle and not so subtle hints he did not start to exercise and died alone in his mid 30s. And you know what, a lot of people die exactly the same way, with no gaming what so ever involved. This whole heart attacks are a top killer, so eat well and exercise deal pre-dates computers by decades.
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  I hate to touch a computer after spending all day at work sitting in front of one The funny thing I have discovered is that while I don't like it on a high level of thinking, it actually can be relaxing. As a consequence, I am trying to slowly add physical activities instead of going cold-turkey- it isn't a leap I can make in one day, and finding myself with no stress relief is murderous.
staunch 14y ago
Does it really have anything to do with gaming? It's not like he was a physically healthy guy who sat down for a 30 hour Diablo 3 bender and died, right? Regardless, I'm sad for anyone who dies so young.
vectorpush 14y ago
I'm not really sure what this has to do with gaming. Spending days at a time hunched in front of a computer with little sleep is like the quintessential image of working the start-up life. He could have spent those three days working in vim rather than playing Diablo and he'd probably still be gone. More importantly, don't blame yourself for letting him take that time off, a heart attack at thirty isn't something that a day in the office could prevent.
- potatolicious 14y ago
  I dunno, I've had some pretty epic hack sessions in my life, but none of them even compare to when I get sucked into a video game. Diablo 3 came out last week, and I literally had stretches where I didn't even go to the bathroom for 12+ hours. I got severely dehydrated when Mass Effect 3 came out to the point that the effects lingered for a couple of days. That sort of complete absorption has never come to me while hacking. I might forego sleep, but I've never forgone basic bodily functions while programming, whereas I find it dangerously easy to get into that mode with games.
  - Dylanlacey 14y ago
    Out of curiosity, have you been to a gambling environment? Did you find it hard to eat and drink there? Do you play board games with a similar intensity? What about marathon TV shows, do you wait until the end of an episode (or story arc) before ablutions?
    - potatolicious 14y ago
      Nope, nope, and nope, but yes on the TV shows. To elaborate: I've been gambling many times, but have never felt the same compulsion as I get when I drawn into a good video game. Heck, I have trouble sitting at a blackjack table for more than half an hour. Ditto board games. I've done some all-night Risk games with friends in the past, but those were out of sheer machismo, and no food/bathroom breaks were missed. On the other hand, for really strongly arced TV shows I do find it hard to tear away. When I discovered the West Wing last week (how did it take me this long to find this show?!) I ended up marathoning the first season over two days, entirely unintentionally. I might have an addictive personality...
n8ji 14y ago
So hard to decide if I should read this article or play Skyrim.
chao- 14y ago
Echoing others' sentiments in this thread: I don't see the link between video games and the man's death being all that strong here. I can understand if sharing details of his health isn't something meant for the internet, though, and I am sorry for your loss. As someone who spent the majority of their teenage years "gaming" (6 hours per day average in an MMO), and despite benefiting socially and financially (you read that right) from it all, I have since quit and become a bitter ex-gamer. I speak with that hat on when I say that this is not an article about gaming and its personal costs. I could write such an article, but it's been done before, and you just end up preaching to the choir. Instead, this is an article about the loss of a friend. We always wish we could have spent more time with friends who have passed, regardless of what their hobbies were. To close, I will share the reason behind my own transition. It boils down to one simple notion: Do you want to spend your days living in a world someone else created? Or do you want to build your own?
ChuckMcM 14y ago
Having spent way more time than is healthy playing WoW I realized one day, after I had spent 12 hours collecting virtual materials to make virtual armor so that I could go with folks into a simulated environment without dying so that I could get other armor that would replace the armor I had made, that there were much better ways to spend a Saturday. The challenge of course is that it is so damn easy. And by that I mean that one of the things video games have over programming (what I had previously spent 12 hrs on a Saturday doing for fun) was that in the game everything is set up so that you can get right toward making progress against your goal, and you can stop, and then come back later and get right back into it. From power up to 'engaged' was like 3 minutes, vs programming which seemed to have an hour just to get to the point where everything was in shape to work on it. Since that time, I've been trying to make programming as easy as gaming in that regard. Things like 'screen' can help since you can pop right back into a session, everything is setup your cd path is current, as is your history etc) and stuff like picking one editor and using it everywhere helps too. A USB keyboard is essential because switching between Macbook keyboard to desktop keyboard can generate a lot of mistyped keys. Finally there is the 'questing' system, where in the game you log in and the quests you have to complete are sitting there in a list with a short note about what needs to be done. I use a notebook for that but it has the same effect. Open up the notebook to the book mark and the things that need doing are highlighted and circled, stuff that is done is lined out. I'm still not there yet, work to do. But I am long past being 'hardcore' in WoW.
- swah 14y ago
  How a procrastinator faces a todo list: you read the first item, realize that its a hard one and you should game for a little while so your subconscious can work on the problem and generate creativity. (But I always end up realizing that conscious effort/thinking about the damn task gives better results).
mattiask 14y ago
I used to be a gamer but then I realized something. While gaming is fun, sometimes fulfilling and a source of "flow" it's ultimately without higher meaning. Imagine spending hundreds of hours playing WoW, DI:3 or whatever, now imagine what you could have done with that time. It's better to game your life than spending your life gaming. I Enjoy gaming in certain amounts,prefer gaming over TV, but prefer creating, socializing and learning over gaming.
vm 14y ago
At what point is it wrong to engineer a product to be addictive? Tobacco companies are evil for doing this. But when it comes to things like fast food, gambling and games, I hear things like "everyone knows those are bad for you" so you should "be responsible" Like all things, not everyone submits to urges. But I bet most gamers don't know there are sophisticated teams fine-tuning the gaming experience to maximize time played (or whichever metric). Some people are outmatched by those teams. I had been thinking about this earlier today when I saw this quote from Bing Gordon: "World of Warcraft has 0% churn from levels 35-40" [1]. Those guys at Blizzard are good. [1] https://twitter.com/ericries/statuses/204601761560932352 https://twitter.com/ericries/statuses/204601761560932352 - I put faith in Eric Ries for the accuracy of this statement
- Dylanlacey 14y ago
  Evil comes when the user is expected to lose significant amounts of something for no return. Tobacco companies expect you to lose years of your life, tens of thousands of dollars and return you yellowing teeth and nails, smelling bad and lessened taste and smell. Evil. WoW expects your monthly subscription fee and you'll probably put some time into it as well. They don't actually care how MUCH time you put into it, just that you're engaged enough to keep playing. In return they give you fun, a sense of achievement, a vibrant community and new content. Not Evil Zynga games are boring. In fact they're worse, they're work. They guilt you into playing, they try to manipulate you into harassing your friends, they're designed to nickle-and-dime and get you playing as much as possible. In return you might get a sense of achievement, but you irritate your friends and waste a bunch of time on a game that isn't any fun. Evil. I think it's always evil to engineer a product to be addictive. Compelling yes, addictive no. If you don't return a positive benefit to the user then even compelling is evil.
  - pemulis 14y ago
    There are people who enjoy smoking and playing Zynga games, though. Positive benefit is relative. Just because you don't like cigarettes or Farmville doesn't mean that no one does. The argument that Blizzard doesn't care how much time you put into World of Warcraft doesn't hold up, either. The lower levels have a lot of grinding and the higher levels have multi-hour raids. World of Warcraft has addictive properties baked in to keep you playing, just like Zynga games. You could make the argument that Zynga is "evil" for milking addicted players for thousands of dollars, but Diablo III's auction house creates a similar dynamic. Isn't it enough to say that you think Zynga's games suck, but Blizzard's are good?
spqr 14y ago
Bunch of first class assholes in here. Guy loses his friend at an unnatural age from a disease that is fantastically mitigated through eating well and regular exercise. Then he posts a warning to people saying don't be consumed with something that lends itself to eating poorly and being sedentary. So everyone gets up in his grill that he dared imply that an overweight unhealthy 32 year old probably should be doing something else with his time than sitting 18 hours per day at a computer. Look, when you're young, exercise is optional. Sedentary lifestyle will not kill you when you're 25. At 30 though, the worst offenders will start dropping off. More at 40 and then downhill from there. God forbid this guy try to make something positive from his friend's death by reminding people of this simple fact.
kreek 14y ago
Some have questioned whether it was gaming that killed him, obviously playing video games won't give you a heart attack. However sitting in one place for hours on end could give you one (or a stroke). Playing games, coding, flying, in all those cases you should be getting up every now and then.
aeturnum 14y ago
I think this does the dead man a disservice. He was unhealthy, had unhealthy habits, and he played video games because it was easier to do that than other leisure activities. If he were still alive to be offended, would you have said he played too many games, or perhaps that he didn't exercise enough? There are people who have real, legitimate behavioral addictions to things. There are sex addicts, video game addicts, gambling addicts, even fitness addicts. However, the great majority of people are unhealthy for a large number of subtle and difficult to address reasons. If you've ever known someone who's struggled with their weight, or their general health, you shouldn't be as ignorantly reductionist as the person who posted this. Video games (almost certainly) didn't kill, or even harm, your friend. His poor health killed him, and playing video games gave him a way to enjoy his free time. I understand the idea that endemic boredom would have saved him, but I think that is the result of a fundamental misunderstanding about motivation. Also - if he didn't play video games, but was a voracious reader, would you have posted, "Please don't let reading consume your life?" "Writing?" "Programming?" Etc.
cletus 14y ago
I've had conversations on similar aspects to this many times. There are many psychological issues involved but the highlights are: 1. People eat for many reasons, sustenance being only one. People eat for enjoyment, because they're happy, because they're sad, to deal with stress, as a substitute for something else arguably more destructive and so on. The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as nothing more than fuel, the better off you'll be; 2. American cities with their car addictions make it incredibly easy to lead a sedentary existence. Biking is a somewhat hazardous option that's not always realistic. The ideal exercise (in times of reward-for-effort) is probably walking. I live 7 minutes from work and the absolute minimum steps I could take in a day is probably 5000, maybe 6000 (I have a pedometer). 8000 is more common, which is still a bit low (10,000 is recommended). Live 10-15 minutes from work and walk to and from work every day and you massively better off; 3. People treat diets and, to a lesser extent, exercise regimes as a transitory effort to get back to some goal weight or fitness level, at which point they seek to return to the previous behaviour. This is a mistake. You're getting older. Your metabolism is, all other things being equal, slowing down (it requires more effort to keep it up at any rate). You should view a dietary change (in particular) as a lifestyle change, not a temporary adjustment; 4. Psychological addiction may not be as "obvious" as physiological addiction but its effects can be very real. I'm sorry for your loss. It may sound callous but ultimately we are each responsible for our own well-being. If someone chose to die that way, it's sad but there's not much you could do. You have to choose to be helped.
- scrub 14y ago
  Concerning 1, I personally believe that on the flip side, having an intimate knowledge about food is beneficial to health. Being able to have at least some awareness of what you put into your body allow you to be aware of what constitutes a sensible portion, and being able to appreciate various nuances of food beyond fat, salt, and sugar will generally result in healthier eating. Extended destructive binges are usually a symptom of some other emotional stress, and I presume that regular eating habits aren't going to be followed, anyway.
- surement 14y ago
  "The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as nothing more than fuel, the better off you'll be" Better off how? Eating for enjoyment is one of the best pleasures in life. To quote someone else, if you spend your life eating no butter, no lard, no salt; you're gonna feel like a damn fool lying on your hospital bed, dying from nothing.
omgsean 14y ago
I think it's really interesting to see so many people here jumping up to defend gaming. Nobody is blaming games or gaming, the original post simply states that like everything else, you should make sure that you moderate the amount of gaming you do and also try to do things that are good for your body. I think it's a good message for Hacker News given the number of gamers we have here (I can easily log 20-30 hours a week when I have a new game and some free time). If you game a lot but you don't let it get in the way of your health then this message wasn't intended for you (except perhaps as a cautionary tale).
gavanwoolery 14y ago
These days I won't get near an addictive game - I tend to favor games that I can easily pick up and put down, like collectible card games or board games. Also, as a "game designer" I often question whether I should intentionally make my game non-addictive.
dhughes 14y ago
Sorry to hear about your friend Ben. I actually had to kick the video game habit I have to get my electronics cert by August (or I am jobless, will be the first time in 30 years) and I haven't played any game at all since early December last year. Console (an apt word) or PC games certainly are addicting, some people say it can't be since it isn't an opioid drug (some say the same thing about weed) but it's your world when you're alone. It will be nice if, maybe, someday technology will be so seamless that you won't sit and browse the web or play video games maybe it will be a part of our lives all the time but more subtle. Like the telephone was so futuristic when it came out people had no idea it would become so ubiquitous and easy to use. Maybe information won't have to be sifted through on Google or Duckduckgo it will just be there when desired. I remember reading about stimulus response reward training given to US Army soldiers so they would instinctively fire at the enemy it pretty much removed the thinking part of the procedure. That's what it seems like for me anyway when I played, really I had trained myself to play without thinking and kills in the game were my reward.
daeken 14y ago
First things first, I'm very sorry for your loss; it's never easy to lose a friend, let alone one so young. With that said... This hit so close to home that it's scary. I'm 24, and my weight hovers between 350 and 385lbs. I've always been fat and otherwise unhealthy. While I don't eat a lot (I definitely eat more than I should, but I don't think that I eat to excess by any means), what I do eat is terrible; that's gotten worse since I moved to NYC and had money to get delivery effectively every night, meaning I eat at my computer and pay no attention to what I'm eating. In my case, it's not gaming but programming that's killing me; I don't get away from the computer and exercise effectively at all, and even if I ate perfectly I'd still be screwed for that reason. But with that said, blaming programming/gaming/whatever for my health problems is like blaming the manufacturer of my chair for making it so damn comfortable. At the end of the day, it's an excuse to take the attention away from the real issue: sedentary lifestyles are unhealthy and will kill you. I don't want to get too far off-topic here because this is about your friend, not me or anyone else here, but the focus really needs to be put on a healthy lifestyle, not on isolating one specific component as the failure point. A serious change in my life (and I imagine Russell's) wouldn't involve removing the object of obsession, but changing a million factors, and it's definitely easier said than done; that said, it's something I'm working hard on myself if only because... I want to live. Edit: Something that I missed while writing this initially, as I got caught up in it. > We should have tried harder. I know you say that with the best of intentions, and I know that you're beating yourself up over this, but you shouldn't be. Speaking as someone who's been on the receiving end of that many times, I can't describe how deeply embarrassing it is to be in this position and how much shame is involved. I know you can't exactly hide being this fat, but you damn sure try to put it out of mind and keep it from being a topic of conversation. That absolutely makes it harder to get help. Think of it like someone being a closet alcoholic, but they always reek of beer regardless.
- Hytosys 14y ago
  >While I don't eat a lot (I definitely eat more than I should, but I don't think that I eat to excess by any means), what I do eat is terrible I would argue that you do excessively eat. Contrary to popular ignorance, the reason people get fat is simply due to a caloric excess. The idea is that if your maintenance intake is 2500kcal/day, and you eat exactly that much, you will not gain (store) or lose (use) any fat (energy). So even if you eat three meals a day consisting solely of chow mein and orange chicken from delivery, and all meals add up to be 2500kcal, you will not fluctuate in body fat percentage. Of course, you will otherwise have terrible health due to the high consumption of saturated fats and sodium, but that's another story. In this vein, I think everyone should tally caloric intake for a week and compare it to their daily caloric needs which can be calculated using all sorts of tools (e.g. http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html). Hopefully this discussion is not completely irrelevant, but I thought it was all worth noting. I'm certainly not trying to pick on you either, just thought this was a good outlet.
UK-AL 14y ago
Remember most jobs are like gaming. Sitting at a desk for hours on end, maybe a few breaks. I don't think it is gaming alone, it is bad life styles in general. The worst part is most people HAVE to adopt that lifestyle for a desk job.
Peteris 14y ago
Regular exercise really is the solution. I know exercise makes me more hungry to the point where everything tastes good. And if you've put in enough effort, you will not want to waste that by eating junk. Solid exercise involves a lot of physical pain and once you learn to deal with that your willpower will be off the charts and sticking to the right food will be a breeze. I was out of shape until I did P90X last summer and now I'm a different person altogether. You would be surprised how much can be done in three months of proper hard work. But it does not have to be a full blown fitness program. People aren't always aware of the options. When thinking of weight loss, jogging is the first thing that pops to mind. I have always found it extremely challenging mentally and I was never even overweight. Commit yourself to a few basketball games a week, or a cycle, a climb, a hike, skiing, whatever you enjoy. If you push that little bit harder every time and get some sweat going, get your heart racing, you will be surprised what it will do to your body. Also a tip for motivation is to focus on performance. If you can run faster and farther, jump higher or feel better, just keep progressing and the weight will come down naturally.
EricDeb 14y ago
How sedentary does one have to be to be at risk of a heart attack at age 32? This story seemed a bit odd to me, like it could have been entirely contrived. I certainly hope it wasn't. Exercise (really just walking and getting up on a daily basis) is vitally important, and for those of us OCD enough to program or game 12 to 18 hours straight, it is important to remember such facts.
readme 14y ago
> We are placing the blame on ourselves at work wondering if we made him come in on Friday would he still be with us today? I'm sorry for your loss. It is not your fault. Please don't beat yourself up over it. I know how this feels, I've experienced survivors guilt over my direct family before.
nodata 14y ago
One of the problems is right here on this thread: lots of conflicting advice, everyone claiming their advice to be true.
muraiki 14y ago
If you're a gamer and are looking for a way to get some physical activity, I suggest trying out fencing. I recently started taking lessons and I'm having a blast! Fencing is a sport that appeals to many aspects of a gamer personality: it requires the use of the mind as much as the body; it is competitive; it has clear feedback as to whether you are improving or not. It will get your blood pumping and also stretch you out -- something that most of us need since we probably are sitting at computers all day! When I first thought about trying fencing I watched some videos online and had no clue what was going on. Things happened so quickly that it seemed like people were just moving at random to get a touch. But now that I've fenced, I see why fencing isn't so popular as a spectator sport: in order to appreciate what is going on, you have to understand the techniques. It is only then that you can appreciate the brilliance and athleticism of a high level fencing match. It's much like watching chess or go: largely indecipherable to a layman. I know that I don't have the patience or discipline to run on a treadmill, but fencing is a different story... and it's even motivating me to the point where I might hop on a treadmill or jump rope to improve my fencing. Give it a try!
Pedrom 14y ago
Sorry in advance for this but... Is there chance that this could be a hoax? It's not that it couldn't happen but I couldn't find the obituary or any other reference to this other than the same text reposted on another blog. Also Buildstarted's account was just created to post this entry, which it is not helping me to sorting this out in my mind. I don't want to be skeptical but I take very serious these kind of news and it would be really sad that somebody would be joking with these matters.
astrodust 14y ago
Kickstarter idea: A USB connected exercise bike with a keyboard and mouse tray on it and a VESA display mount. If you don't pedal fast enough the screen dims. If you stop the screen blanks and the network connection drops. You'd need a "break" button that you can recharge every so often so you can coast or grab a drink, but otherwise it'd be the ultimate "hard core" mode for gamers.
swagdaddy 14y ago
Gaming is a serious problem in the country. I have known young teenagers devote their lives to "raiding" or getting "frags". Where did they end up now? Working at a McDonalds barely making minimum wage sharing a 2 bedroom apartment and saving up money for the next new hit. I should know, I am one of them. When I am not gaming, I am either posting on video game message boards or masturbating. We need to treat this like a serious problem in America. Kids these days are addicted to video games just like how they are addicted to marijuana. We need to stop this.

197 points by Buildstarted 14y ago

Buildstarted 14y ago

I always heard of people in other countries dying while playing video games. I never thought it would ever be someone in this country let alone someone I knew. It's one of the hardest things to hit me in my recent life...so sad...please take care of yourselves out there. Stay healthy.

eridius 14y ago
You may already be aware, but your site seems to be completely non-responsive at this point.
- diesel_travis 14y ago
  Is there a mirror anywhere?
  - Buildstarted 14y ago
    Posted in full here.
    - mkr-hn 14y ago
      Install this when it comes back to life: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/ WordPress (going by your URL structure) is bad at coping with traffic without help.
    - mcrawrf 14y ago
      and by 'here' he means http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4005275 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4005275
Dylan16807 14y ago
Do you actually think the game was related to his death? If enough people play video games an hour a week it's guaranteed that some of them will die while playing. I understand that he was marathoning this game but that shouldn't cause a heart attack.
- omgsean 14y ago
  I think the subtext was that his sedentary lifestyle is what killed him.
  - 14y ago

Buildstarted 14y ago

picklefish 14y ago
It's silly to associate this with gaming only. You can say the same thing about getting sucked into anything. I'm sure quite a few people here have coded non-stop for a few days, or pulled some all nighters to meet a deadline. Everything should be done in moderation, not just video games.
neutronicus 14y ago

boredguy8 14y ago

There are more subtle ways of gaming ruining your life, as well: slowly losing the drive to do anything more than what's necessary to pay the cable bill, rent, and the gaming subscription. Slowly the only friends you have are people you know from your guild. When the only source & output of creativity and energy are all wrapped up in playing a video game. I've also seen people similarly consumed by pornography, alcohol, gambling, day trading, and I'm sure other things I can't think of now. Pot. I think any of those things can have their place, but please maintain connection to people who can and will say something if you start going overboard. For instance, I'm in a pretty good place right now and still gave parental control to a friend for the D3 release, just in case. Six hours a week is arguably still too much, but seems reasonable to me, and they won't budge because A) I asked them not to; B) they care. That I've hit that limit is a good sign that I may not be as well off as I thought I was ;) Take care of each other, and yourself.

sliverstorm 14y ago
... day trading ... Well, if you're a successful day trader I'd say rather that the normal rules for not letting work consume you, rather than play. If you are unsuccessful, then it probably does fall more in line with a gambling problem.
- ajross 14y ago
  I think the point was more that the psychology of the disorder is independent of what society chooses to call the activity.
daenz 14y ago
> When the only source & output of creativity and energy are all wrapped up in playing a video game. One day I imagine we'll be able to map real world problems to video games, in a way that doesn't require knowledge of the solution to create the mapping. Programming itself is very similar to a game. If someone could make it into a virtual world, where I "write" code simply by putting together various machines in 3D space...well, that would be fun :)

zobzu 14y ago

It's about a game but it can be about anything. Specially, work kills many more people than video games, for exactly the same reasons. (that even include non-computer work)

driverdan 14y ago

I'm sorry you had to lose a friend. I understand that you're trying to find meaning and place blame but playing a game for 3 days is not likely to end your life. It's possible he had an underlying medical condition. If he had been sitting for 3 days straight writing code would you blame it instead?

Buildstarted 14y ago
I wasn't placing blame on the game but on himself. The game was the final straw that broke the camel's back. Yes, there were other health issues which I addressed later in the post.
- ajross 14y ago
  People who are 32 years old don't die of sudden heart failure for lack of a gym membership or a poor diet. He almost certainly had a serious health issue, possibly one he wasn't aware of. That kind of progressive heart disease comes slowly, with lots of warning. Gaming certainly didn't help him, but it certainly didn't kill him.
- jsprinkles 14y ago
  The title of your post blames gaming pretty directly.

nemik 14y ago

Maybe he died doing what he loved...

staunch 14y ago
I think this is actually a perfectly reasonable idea. When I look back on past 15 years one of my absolute favorite memories is playing FPS games with my friends, brothers, and father. Those times were more real and more meaningful to me than many other more socially acceptable activities. But...you shouldn't die at 32 because you're eating burgers and playing games too much. That's a terrible way to go, and it ultimately means you get far less time gaming!
teeray 14y ago
My uncle was killed 6 years ago in a plane crash. In the following days and at the services held, many people said that he "died doing what he loved." My aunt said that this was the worst consolation she received.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

jsz0 14y ago

Not knowing anything about this individual I don't want to make too many assumptions but the broader point here is valid. The whole culture of 'hardcore gaming' is pretty creepy to me. There's a fine line between fun and mental illness. It's too easy to look at this as just a harmless eccentric hobby when, past a certain point, it really needs to be treated more like a serious problem with interventions & rehab. I really dislike how the culture around it is so supportive of obviously destructive behaviors. It's eerily similar to hardcore drug culture at times.

sukuriant 14y ago
s/hardcore gaming/competitive horseback riding/d s/hardcore gaming/competitive Go playing/d s/hardcore gaming/dedicated Iron Man competition training/d s/hardcore gaming/frequent weekend get-away-ing/d s/hardcore gaming/dedicated volunteering/d Perhaps I'm not familiar with the hardcore gaming you've seen, with exception, perhaps, of WoW addiction, but you need to be careful of looking at a particular use of a person's pass-time, or even an entire culture's use of their pass time
- giblfiz 14y ago
  Well two differences... one only applies to some of those things. In the case of all of the physically active ones they to some extent self-regulate. There is really only so much power-lifting you can do in a week, and very few ways around that max (even assuming steroid use) But I think the more relevant issue is far fewer people seem to be prone to obsession in any of those other spheres. It's not that hardcore gaming is any worse than an obsession with chess, it's that far fewer are obsessed with chess. I found this article (which came off of hacker news in the first place) to be super relevant. http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html

groby_b 14y ago

First off: I am really sorry you have to lose a friend like that. But please, don't blame yourself. Asking him to come in or not might well have not changed anything. While gaming certainly can be addictive, he had a heart attack. That has nothing to do with gaming. You can get a heart attack at any moment. Heck, you can have one while sleeping. (You can even have one without any recognizable symptoms) So, instead I suggest people learn what the symptoms of a heart attack are - so if you or somebody close to you has one, you can actually recognize it and get help in time. Here's one link giving more detail: http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart_disease_heart_attacks http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart_disease_heart...

j45 14y ago

Managing distractions is incredibly important, be it reading useless stuff online, or gaming.

bcrescimanno 14y ago

I'm sorry for the loss of a friend; I don't pretend to know how you currently feel. That said, I think there's a pretty big leap you're taking from "playing a lot of games" and "had a heart attack at 32." Obviously, I don't know this person; but I do know a lot of folks who have gone on binge gaming sessions who have never had heart attacks. I'm not saying there isn't any connection or that it didn't contribute in any way; however, let's be honest with ourselves and admit that a binge gaming session, while not in any way healthy and certainly a likely contributor to this person's poor health, most likely did not cause a heart attack.

k-mcgrady 14y ago
I don't think the connection the OP is making is that binge gaming session == heart attack. I think it's that the person spent a lot of their time playing games. They spent too much time sedentary and this was the unfortunate result. It's something that can happen easily with games - some people find them very addictive (I don't have the attention span for gaming but I know people who have days where they wake up, play games, and go to sleep). The same result could happen if you sat and watched several movies every day and didn't exercise or eat well.
- UK-AL 14y ago
  Considering most desk jobs are roughy equivalent to watching a few movies on end. What do you do then? It's not so bad at small companies where socialising with freinds is not frowned upon. However at many large companies, spending 30 mins socialising would be frowned upon.
  - k-mcgrady 14y ago
    I think the difference is that at most desk jobs you get up every so often to use the bathroom, have lunch, get something from the printer, go to a meeting etc. And at the beginning and end of the day you have to move to go home. The problem is sitting in a chair playing a game (or another activity) and not getting off that chair for to do anything for a very long time (the gamers I know often sit for 12 hours only getting up to use the bathroom for a few minutes). I honestly don't know very much about this but I think those minor distinctions are very important.

asdkl234890 14y ago

Gaming? So fast food with no exercise would not have killed him if he had just not played games? I had a friend with diabetes, he was way over weight. One day we talked about his new apartment, WOW and girls. He mentioned he had a good view of the joggers from his window. I mentioned I am frequently one of those joggers, and you see a lot more of the cute girls that way. The topic of conversation moved to WOW, and I mentioned how I hate to touch a computer after spending all day at work sitting in front of one. Despite subtle and not so subtle hints he did not start to exercise and died alone in his mid 30s. And you know what, a lot of people die exactly the same way, with no gaming what so ever involved. This whole heart attacks are a top killer, so eat well and exercise deal pre-dates computers by decades.

sliverstorm 14y ago
I hate to touch a computer after spending all day at work sitting in front of one The funny thing I have discovered is that while I don't like it on a high level of thinking, it actually can be relaxing. As a consequence, I am trying to slowly add physical activities instead of going cold-turkey- it isn't a leap I can make in one day, and finding myself with no stress relief is murderous.

staunch 14y ago

Does it really have anything to do with gaming? It's not like he was a physically healthy guy who sat down for a 30 hour Diablo 3 bender and died, right? Regardless, I'm sad for anyone who dies so young.

vectorpush 14y ago

I'm not really sure what this has to do with gaming. Spending days at a time hunched in front of a computer with little sleep is like the quintessential image of working the start-up life. He could have spent those three days working in vim rather than playing Diablo and he'd probably still be gone. More importantly, don't blame yourself for letting him take that time off, a heart attack at thirty isn't something that a day in the office could prevent.

potatolicious 14y ago
I dunno, I've had some pretty epic hack sessions in my life, but none of them even compare to when I get sucked into a video game. Diablo 3 came out last week, and I literally had stretches where I didn't even go to the bathroom for 12+ hours. I got severely dehydrated when Mass Effect 3 came out to the point that the effects lingered for a couple of days. That sort of complete absorption has never come to me while hacking. I might forego sleep, but I've never forgone basic bodily functions while programming, whereas I find it dangerously easy to get into that mode with games.
- Dylanlacey 14y ago
  Out of curiosity, have you been to a gambling environment? Did you find it hard to eat and drink there? Do you play board games with a similar intensity? What about marathon TV shows, do you wait until the end of an episode (or story arc) before ablutions?
  - potatolicious 14y ago
    Nope, nope, and nope, but yes on the TV shows. To elaborate: I've been gambling many times, but have never felt the same compulsion as I get when I drawn into a good video game. Heck, I have trouble sitting at a blackjack table for more than half an hour. Ditto board games. I've done some all-night Risk games with friends in the past, but those were out of sheer machismo, and no food/bathroom breaks were missed. On the other hand, for really strongly arced TV shows I do find it hard to tear away. When I discovered the West Wing last week (how did it take me this long to find this show?!) I ended up marathoning the first season over two days, entirely unintentionally. I might have an addictive personality...

n8ji 14y ago

So hard to decide if I should read this article or play Skyrim.

chao- 14y ago

Echoing others' sentiments in this thread: I don't see the link between video games and the man's death being all that strong here. I can understand if sharing details of his health isn't something meant for the internet, though, and I am sorry for your loss. As someone who spent the majority of their teenage years "gaming" (6 hours per day average in an MMO), and despite benefiting socially and financially (you read that right) from it all, I have since quit and become a bitter ex-gamer. I speak with that hat on when I say that this is not an article about gaming and its personal costs. I could write such an article, but it's been done before, and you just end up preaching to the choir. Instead, this is an article about the loss of a friend. We always wish we could have spent more time with friends who have passed, regardless of what their hobbies were. To close, I will share the reason behind my own transition. It boils down to one simple notion: Do you want to spend your days living in a world someone else created? Or do you want to build your own?

ChuckMcM 14y ago

Having spent way more time than is healthy playing WoW I realized one day, after I had spent 12 hours collecting virtual materials to make virtual armor so that I could go with folks into a simulated environment without dying so that I could get other armor that would replace the armor I had made, that there were much better ways to spend a Saturday. The challenge of course is that it is so damn easy. And by that I mean that one of the things video games have over programming (what I had previously spent 12 hrs on a Saturday doing for fun) was that in the game everything is set up so that you can get right toward making progress against your goal, and you can stop, and then come back later and get right back into it. From power up to 'engaged' was like 3 minutes, vs programming which seemed to have an hour just to get to the point where everything was in shape to work on it. Since that time, I've been trying to make programming as easy as gaming in that regard. Things like 'screen' can help since you can pop right back into a session, everything is setup your cd path is current, as is your history etc) and stuff like picking one editor and using it everywhere helps too. A USB keyboard is essential because switching between Macbook keyboard to desktop keyboard can generate a lot of mistyped keys. Finally there is the 'questing' system, where in the game you log in and the quests you have to complete are sitting there in a list with a short note about what needs to be done. I use a notebook for that but it has the same effect. Open up the notebook to the book mark and the things that need doing are highlighted and circled, stuff that is done is lined out. I'm still not there yet, work to do. But I am long past being 'hardcore' in WoW.

swah 14y ago
How a procrastinator faces a todo list: you read the first item, realize that its a hard one and you should game for a little while so your subconscious can work on the problem and generate creativity. (But I always end up realizing that conscious effort/thinking about the damn task gives better results).

mattiask 14y ago

I used to be a gamer but then I realized something. While gaming is fun, sometimes fulfilling and a source of "flow" it's ultimately without higher meaning. Imagine spending hundreds of hours playing WoW, DI:3 or whatever, now imagine what you could have done with that time. It's better to game your life than spending your life gaming. I Enjoy gaming in certain amounts,prefer gaming over TV, but prefer creating, socializing and learning over gaming.

vm 14y ago

At what point is it wrong to engineer a product to be addictive? Tobacco companies are evil for doing this. But when it comes to things like fast food, gambling and games, I hear things like "everyone knows those are bad for you" so you should "be responsible" Like all things, not everyone submits to urges. But I bet most gamers don't know there are sophisticated teams fine-tuning the gaming experience to maximize time played (or whichever metric). Some people are outmatched by those teams. I had been thinking about this earlier today when I saw this quote from Bing Gordon: "World of Warcraft has 0% churn from levels 35-40" [1]. Those guys at Blizzard are good. [1] https://twitter.com/ericries/statuses/204601761560932352 https://twitter.com/ericries/statuses/204601761560932352 - I put faith in Eric Ries for the accuracy of this statement

Dylanlacey 14y ago
Evil comes when the user is expected to lose significant amounts of something for no return. Tobacco companies expect you to lose years of your life, tens of thousands of dollars and return you yellowing teeth and nails, smelling bad and lessened taste and smell. Evil. WoW expects your monthly subscription fee and you'll probably put some time into it as well. They don't actually care how MUCH time you put into it, just that you're engaged enough to keep playing. In return they give you fun, a sense of achievement, a vibrant community and new content. Not Evil Zynga games are boring. In fact they're worse, they're work. They guilt you into playing, they try to manipulate you into harassing your friends, they're designed to nickle-and-dime and get you playing as much as possible. In return you might get a sense of achievement, but you irritate your friends and waste a bunch of time on a game that isn't any fun. Evil. I think it's always evil to engineer a product to be addictive. Compelling yes, addictive no. If you don't return a positive benefit to the user then even compelling is evil.
- pemulis 14y ago
  There are people who enjoy smoking and playing Zynga games, though. Positive benefit is relative. Just because you don't like cigarettes or Farmville doesn't mean that no one does. The argument that Blizzard doesn't care how much time you put into World of Warcraft doesn't hold up, either. The lower levels have a lot of grinding and the higher levels have multi-hour raids. World of Warcraft has addictive properties baked in to keep you playing, just like Zynga games. You could make the argument that Zynga is "evil" for milking addicted players for thousands of dollars, but Diablo III's auction house creates a similar dynamic. Isn't it enough to say that you think Zynga's games suck, but Blizzard's are good?

spqr 14y ago

Bunch of first class assholes in here. Guy loses his friend at an unnatural age from a disease that is fantastically mitigated through eating well and regular exercise. Then he posts a warning to people saying don't be consumed with something that lends itself to eating poorly and being sedentary. So everyone gets up in his grill that he dared imply that an overweight unhealthy 32 year old probably should be doing something else with his time than sitting 18 hours per day at a computer. Look, when you're young, exercise is optional. Sedentary lifestyle will not kill you when you're 25. At 30 though, the worst offenders will start dropping off. More at 40 and then downhill from there. God forbid this guy try to make something positive from his friend's death by reminding people of this simple fact.

kreek 14y ago

Some have questioned whether it was gaming that killed him, obviously playing video games won't give you a heart attack. However sitting in one place for hours on end could give you one (or a stroke). Playing games, coding, flying, in all those cases you should be getting up every now and then.

aeturnum 14y ago

I think this does the dead man a disservice. He was unhealthy, had unhealthy habits, and he played video games because it was easier to do that than other leisure activities. If he were still alive to be offended, would you have said he played too many games, or perhaps that he didn't exercise enough? There are people who have real, legitimate behavioral addictions to things. There are sex addicts, video game addicts, gambling addicts, even fitness addicts. However, the great majority of people are unhealthy for a large number of subtle and difficult to address reasons. If you've ever known someone who's struggled with their weight, or their general health, you shouldn't be as ignorantly reductionist as the person who posted this. Video games (almost certainly) didn't kill, or even harm, your friend. His poor health killed him, and playing video games gave him a way to enjoy his free time. I understand the idea that endemic boredom would have saved him, but I think that is the result of a fundamental misunderstanding about motivation. Also - if he didn't play video games, but was a voracious reader, would you have posted, "Please don't let reading consume your life?" "Writing?" "Programming?" Etc.

cletus 14y ago

I've had conversations on similar aspects to this many times. There are many psychological issues involved but the highlights are: 1. People eat for many reasons, sustenance being only one. People eat for enjoyment, because they're happy, because they're sad, to deal with stress, as a substitute for something else arguably more destructive and so on. The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as nothing more than fuel, the better off you'll be; 2. American cities with their car addictions make it incredibly easy to lead a sedentary existence. Biking is a somewhat hazardous option that's not always realistic. The ideal exercise (in times of reward-for-effort) is probably walking. I live 7 minutes from work and the absolute minimum steps I could take in a day is probably 5000, maybe 6000 (I have a pedometer). 8000 is more common, which is still a bit low (10,000 is recommended). Live 10-15 minutes from work and walk to and from work every day and you massively better off; 3. People treat diets and, to a lesser extent, exercise regimes as a transitory effort to get back to some goal weight or fitness level, at which point they seek to return to the previous behaviour. This is a mistake. You're getting older. Your metabolism is, all other things being equal, slowing down (it requires more effort to keep it up at any rate). You should view a dietary change (in particular) as a lifestyle change, not a temporary adjustment; 4. Psychological addiction may not be as "obvious" as physiological addiction but its effects can be very real. I'm sorry for your loss. It may sound callous but ultimately we are each responsible for our own well-being. If someone chose to die that way, it's sad but there's not much you could do. You have to choose to be helped.

scrub 14y ago
Concerning 1, I personally believe that on the flip side, having an intimate knowledge about food is beneficial to health. Being able to have at least some awareness of what you put into your body allow you to be aware of what constitutes a sensible portion, and being able to appreciate various nuances of food beyond fat, salt, and sugar will generally result in healthier eating. Extended destructive binges are usually a symptom of some other emotional stress, and I presume that regular eating habits aren't going to be followed, anyway.
surement 14y ago
"The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as nothing more than fuel, the better off you'll be" Better off how? Eating for enjoyment is one of the best pleasures in life. To quote someone else, if you spend your life eating no butter, no lard, no salt; you're gonna feel like a damn fool lying on your hospital bed, dying from nothing.

omgsean 14y ago

I think it's really interesting to see so many people here jumping up to defend gaming. Nobody is blaming games or gaming, the original post simply states that like everything else, you should make sure that you moderate the amount of gaming you do and also try to do things that are good for your body. I think it's a good message for Hacker News given the number of gamers we have here (I can easily log 20-30 hours a week when I have a new game and some free time). If you game a lot but you don't let it get in the way of your health then this message wasn't intended for you (except perhaps as a cautionary tale).

gavanwoolery 14y ago

These days I won't get near an addictive game - I tend to favor games that I can easily pick up and put down, like collectible card games or board games. Also, as a "game designer" I often question whether I should intentionally make my game non-addictive.

dhughes 14y ago

Sorry to hear about your friend Ben. I actually had to kick the video game habit I have to get my electronics cert by August (or I am jobless, will be the first time in 30 years) and I haven't played any game at all since early December last year. Console (an apt word) or PC games certainly are addicting, some people say it can't be since it isn't an opioid drug (some say the same thing about weed) but it's your world when you're alone. It will be nice if, maybe, someday technology will be so seamless that you won't sit and browse the web or play video games maybe it will be a part of our lives all the time but more subtle. Like the telephone was so futuristic when it came out people had no idea it would become so ubiquitous and easy to use. Maybe information won't have to be sifted through on Google or Duckduckgo it will just be there when desired. I remember reading about stimulus response reward training given to US Army soldiers so they would instinctively fire at the enemy it pretty much removed the thinking part of the procedure. That's what it seems like for me anyway when I played, really I had trained myself to play without thinking and kills in the game were my reward.

daeken 14y ago

First things first, I'm very sorry for your loss; it's never easy to lose a friend, let alone one so young. With that said... This hit so close to home that it's scary. I'm 24, and my weight hovers between 350 and 385lbs. I've always been fat and otherwise unhealthy. While I don't eat a lot (I definitely eat more than I should, but I don't think that I eat to excess by any means), what I do eat is terrible; that's gotten worse since I moved to NYC and had money to get delivery effectively every night, meaning I eat at my computer and pay no attention to what I'm eating. In my case, it's not gaming but programming that's killing me; I don't get away from the computer and exercise effectively at all, and even if I ate perfectly I'd still be screwed for that reason. But with that said, blaming programming/gaming/whatever for my health problems is like blaming the manufacturer of my chair for making it so damn comfortable. At the end of the day, it's an excuse to take the attention away from the real issue: sedentary lifestyles are unhealthy and will kill you. I don't want to get too far off-topic here because this is about your friend, not me or anyone else here, but the focus really needs to be put on a healthy lifestyle, not on isolating one specific component as the failure point. A serious change in my life (and I imagine Russell's) wouldn't involve removing the object of obsession, but changing a million factors, and it's definitely easier said than done; that said, it's something I'm working hard on myself if only because... I want to live. Edit: Something that I missed while writing this initially, as I got caught up in it. > We should have tried harder. I know you say that with the best of intentions, and I know that you're beating yourself up over this, but you shouldn't be. Speaking as someone who's been on the receiving end of that many times, I can't describe how deeply embarrassing it is to be in this position and how much shame is involved. I know you can't exactly hide being this fat, but you damn sure try to put it out of mind and keep it from being a topic of conversation. That absolutely makes it harder to get help. Think of it like someone being a closet alcoholic, but they always reek of beer regardless.

Hytosys 14y ago
>While I don't eat a lot (I definitely eat more than I should, but I don't think that I eat to excess by any means), what I do eat is terrible I would argue that you do excessively eat. Contrary to popular ignorance, the reason people get fat is simply due to a caloric excess. The idea is that if your maintenance intake is 2500kcal/day, and you eat exactly that much, you will not gain (store) or lose (use) any fat (energy). So even if you eat three meals a day consisting solely of chow mein and orange chicken from delivery, and all meals add up to be 2500kcal, you will not fluctuate in body fat percentage. Of course, you will otherwise have terrible health due to the high consumption of saturated fats and sodium, but that's another story. In this vein, I think everyone should tally caloric intake for a week and compare it to their daily caloric needs which can be calculated using all sorts of tools (e.g. http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html). Hopefully this discussion is not completely irrelevant, but I thought it was all worth noting. I'm certainly not trying to pick on you either, just thought this was a good outlet.

UK-AL 14y ago

Remember most jobs are like gaming. Sitting at a desk for hours on end, maybe a few breaks. I don't think it is gaming alone, it is bad life styles in general. The worst part is most people HAVE to adopt that lifestyle for a desk job.

Peteris 14y ago

Regular exercise really is the solution. I know exercise makes me more hungry to the point where everything tastes good. And if you've put in enough effort, you will not want to waste that by eating junk. Solid exercise involves a lot of physical pain and once you learn to deal with that your willpower will be off the charts and sticking to the right food will be a breeze. I was out of shape until I did P90X last summer and now I'm a different person altogether. You would be surprised how much can be done in three months of proper hard work. But it does not have to be a full blown fitness program. People aren't always aware of the options. When thinking of weight loss, jogging is the first thing that pops to mind. I have always found it extremely challenging mentally and I was never even overweight. Commit yourself to a few basketball games a week, or a cycle, a climb, a hike, skiing, whatever you enjoy. If you push that little bit harder every time and get some sweat going, get your heart racing, you will be surprised what it will do to your body. Also a tip for motivation is to focus on performance. If you can run faster and farther, jump higher or feel better, just keep progressing and the weight will come down naturally.

EricDeb 14y ago

How sedentary does one have to be to be at risk of a heart attack at age 32? This story seemed a bit odd to me, like it could have been entirely contrived. I certainly hope it wasn't. Exercise (really just walking and getting up on a daily basis) is vitally important, and for those of us OCD enough to program or game 12 to 18 hours straight, it is important to remember such facts.

readme 14y ago

> We are placing the blame on ourselves at work wondering if we made him come in on Friday would he still be with us today? I'm sorry for your loss. It is not your fault. Please don't beat yourself up over it. I know how this feels, I've experienced survivors guilt over my direct family before.

nodata 14y ago

One of the problems is right here on this thread: lots of conflicting advice, everyone claiming their advice to be true.

muraiki 14y ago

If you're a gamer and are looking for a way to get some physical activity, I suggest trying out fencing. I recently started taking lessons and I'm having a blast! Fencing is a sport that appeals to many aspects of a gamer personality: it requires the use of the mind as much as the body; it is competitive; it has clear feedback as to whether you are improving or not. It will get your blood pumping and also stretch you out -- something that most of us need since we probably are sitting at computers all day! When I first thought about trying fencing I watched some videos online and had no clue what was going on. Things happened so quickly that it seemed like people were just moving at random to get a touch. But now that I've fenced, I see why fencing isn't so popular as a spectator sport: in order to appreciate what is going on, you have to understand the techniques. It is only then that you can appreciate the brilliance and athleticism of a high level fencing match. It's much like watching chess or go: largely indecipherable to a layman. I know that I don't have the patience or discipline to run on a treadmill, but fencing is a different story... and it's even motivating me to the point where I might hop on a treadmill or jump rope to improve my fencing. Give it a try!

Pedrom 14y ago

Sorry in advance for this but... Is there chance that this could be a hoax? It's not that it couldn't happen but I couldn't find the obituary or any other reference to this other than the same text reposted on another blog. Also Buildstarted's account was just created to post this entry, which it is not helping me to sorting this out in my mind. I don't want to be skeptical but I take very serious these kind of news and it would be really sad that somebody would be joking with these matters.

astrodust 14y ago

Kickstarter idea: A USB connected exercise bike with a keyboard and mouse tray on it and a VESA display mount. If you don't pedal fast enough the screen dims. If you stop the screen blanks and the network connection drops. You'd need a "break" button that you can recharge every so often so you can coast or grab a drink, but otherwise it'd be the ultimate "hard core" mode for gamers.

swagdaddy 14y ago

Gaming is a serious problem in the country. I have known young teenagers devote their lives to "raiding" or getting "frags". Where did they end up now? Working at a McDonalds barely making minimum wage sharing a 2 bedroom apartment and saving up money for the next new hit. I should know, I am one of them. When I am not gaming, I am either posting on video game message boards or masturbating. We need to treat this like a serious problem in America. Kids these days are addicted to video games just like how they are addicted to marijuana. We need to stop this.