While some WoW players managed to ignore sleep and the pressing needs of their bodies to accomplish awesome-but-still-sort-of-sad things, some weren’t so lucky. Over in Sweden, one such unlucky customer happened to be a 15-year-old boy.
The boy (whose name hasn’t been revealed due to his age) had been playing Wrath of the Lich King with six of his friends. Like many WoW players have done at least once since WotLK’s launch, the seven decided to ignore those stupid time wasting things like sleeping and eating, and instead focus on the game. His father had believed that the boys slept a little and were eating regular meals in front of their computers, but he was proven wrong at 2 PM when the other boys called for help because his son was suffering from an epileptic seizure.
According to doctors, his seizure was likely caused by hypoglycemia and syncope. In other words, the teen’s lack of eating probably threw off his body’s normal glucose levels, and that combined with lack of sleep and intense concentration on the computer screen forced his brain to demand more of the low glucose blood, leading to fainting and a seizure.
Thankfully, he’s expected to make a full recovery with no lasting effects.
This event is only going to cause further worry among European parents and doctor, though. When Wrath of the Lich King launched this week, medical professionals on the other side of the Atlantic were already concerned with the game’s addictive nature, especially when the first man to queue for WotLK in London collapsed at the head of the line due to exhaustion.
Video game addiction centers across Europe, such as the Game Over Centre in Sweden, have noticed a marked spike in calls from parents concerned about their children playing the latest Blizzard expansion. “It’s [WotLK] been a huge problem," said Game Over’s Emilie Backlund. “We have parents who call everyday and ask [about it].”
Ultimately, WoW players and parents, it boils down to this:
1) If you’re going to play a marathon WoW session, make sure you eat (real food), drink (water), and sleep every now and then.
2) If you’re a parent, pay attention to what your kid is doing and raise him/her; don’t let the virtual dancing priest and warlock do your work for you.
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