August 25, 2001

9:48 PM

Uh, guys? It's just a damn game.Three different stories on the same page about people taking games far too seriously. I love my video games as much as the next person, but the closest I've come to injuring myself (or others) was getting an hour or two less sleep on the weekend from playing Civilization too much. Does anyone have any personal stories about games (video, board or card) unexpectedly causing injury?
posted by Grum (28 comments total)

Well personally, the worst I experience is self inflicted fist slamming when dunce CounterStrike players block me from rushing and I end up dying.

But anyway,

I'm pretty sure this is a repost, but there was the guy who neglected his infant son so he could instead play Everquest.

My favourite "injury" resulting from a video game has to be when Doug Glanville of the Phillies apparently hit two homeruns off his former teammate to avenge the death of his Everquest character.
posted by yupislyr at 10:09 PM on August 25, 2001

Playing GTA on Lan broke my keyboard's space bar that's about the worse that's happened so far.
posted by riffola at 10:36 PM on August 25, 2001

competition, it's in all of us!

i used to play virtual pool with my best friend, and we'd be extremely competitive. the closest we've came to injury of sorts was when he smashed the keyboard after losing for the fifth time consecutively. now i've lost my touch so we're pretty much even again, and with a new keyboard that hopefully would last a while.
posted by dai at 10:39 PM on August 25, 2001

those fools at penny arcade take their games seriously as well.. but oh, the hilarity.
posted by lotsofno at 10:48 PM on August 25, 2001

He had his food while he "killed" his "enemies" on the screen, who were other players in the shop.

I'm just going to "kill" all my "enemies" now. So there won't be any "competition" in the "race". I like to put "words" in "quotation marks" to make my writing sound more "sinister".
posted by bytecode at 10:55 PM on August 25, 2001

I've seen a fist-fight break out over a game of Diplomacy at a gaming convention.

I've personally bled from the arcade game "Track and Field."

Oh, yes, I almost forgot. My soul has been damned because I played AD&D. I don't want to be Elfstar anymore....
posted by marknau at 11:07 PM on August 25, 2001

Oh I forgot, back at Clarkson during Freshmen year, we'd have people running down the hall yelling things, ready to wrestle the person who managed to slip 'em the Queen of Spades in MS Hearts (again on LAN. Actually substitute any multiplayer LAN game at Clarkson and the person running down the hall thing holds true.)
posted by riffola at 11:26 PM on August 25, 2001

My favourite "injury" resulting from a video game has to be when Doug Glanville of the Phillies apparently hit two homeruns off his former teammate to avenge the death of his Everquest character.

Hehe, thats just great. Now I picture all MLB players with these silly-named Everquest characters trying to use their celebrity to get a sword-of-slaying or something.

MUDs are such addictive time wasters its amazing they haven't been turned into a weapon of war yet.
posted by skallas at 11:32 PM on August 25, 2001

I never suffered from repetetive-stress syndrome until I got hooked on Myst. All that dang mousing! Oh, the humanity!
posted by diddlegnome at 11:35 PM on August 25, 2001

Um, that should be "repetitive-stress." That'll teach me not to check my spelling.
posted by diddlegnome at 11:37 PM on August 25, 2001

Oh, boy...riffola's tale brought me a college flashback of my own.

Hearts for blows.

1 punch in the arm for each point you stick the other guy with.

Alcohol, of course, was involved. And *real* cards.

(Whoa, old-timer! Ease up with the stone-age stories.)
posted by marknau at 11:40 PM on August 25, 2001

ah, damn MUDs... oh, how many hours did i waste building up my half-elf thief on gemstone 3, when it was free on AOL... ah, the backroom in the pawnshop, forming newbie parties when us level 5 fools decided we were through with kobold town and went to orc country, and of course, always rolling around with a trunk full of clothes i had picked up in my journeys. it didn't matter that no one could see it, i was still rocking the freshest of fresh gear.
posted by lotsofno at 12:09 AM on August 26, 2001

I'm sure this poor guy has nothing but counter-strike to blame and not his poor health.

Speaking of addcitive video games, I finally managed to cancel my UO account. Now maybe I can find a job...
posted by Hackworth at 12:20 AM on August 26, 2001

And wouldn't you know, during my browsing since my first reply I just happen to notice another story along the same lines. This time it's some kid who got knifed in-game during CounterStrike, and in retaliation, he knifes his competitor in real life.
posted by yupislyr at 12:27 AM on August 26, 2001

yupis, don't know if you noticed, but check out the sidebar of the original link.
posted by lotsofno at 12:33 AM on August 26, 2001

It allows up to 32 people to shoot one another via the Internet connection or a local-area network.

Well, gee, it just looks so stupid when you put it that way...
posted by kevspace at 2:03 AM on August 26, 2001

I failed an Organic Chemistry test because I was too busy playing Starcraft to study. Uninstalled it after I got the grade back.
posted by gramcracker at 7:50 AM on August 26, 2001

A close friend of mine once played a MUD (Diku?) for 76 hours (3 days, 4 hours) straight during college. Sadly, this man's addiction trapped him into the downward spiral of becoming an entrepreneur as the co-founder of a successful computer services company, a homeowner in Fairfax, VA at 23 years of age, and the married father of three.

A moment of silence, please...
posted by NortonDC at 8:31 AM on August 26, 2001

I remember almost dying of several would-be heart attacks from playing Castle Wolfenstein. I had these huge speakers connected to my PC and you were just on edge the whole fricking time... then you would go around a corner and hear "GUTEN TAG!!!" followed by gunfire that shook the room. I used to only be able to play for 20-30 minutes at a time in order to avoid anxiety attacks.
posted by fusinski at 11:48 AM on August 26, 2001

fuckem all I say!
posted by arnab at 12:00 PM on August 26, 2001

Aliens vs. Predator - There's nothing more shocking than to have a face hugger pressed up right in your face.
posted by Cavatica at 1:28 PM on August 26, 2001

oh, i relate completely...

i nearly had a heart attack playing Alien v. Predator. that game is damn scary. especially when you play it alone...at night... with the sound up... gasping for breath every time you turn a corner...

good times, good times.
posted by mjane at 1:34 PM on August 26, 2001

AvP, scary indeed. Heck, even with my friend's crappy laptop speakers and screen... okay, I'm just a wuss.
posted by whatnotever at 7:28 PM on August 26, 2001

I'm from Singapore, where said attack happened. And some blokes here are definitely socially-lepered enough to think Counter Strike is reality. I've sat in LAN gaming cafes and watched them become complete lunatics. It can be kind of scary in a ludicrous sort of way.
posted by jetgrrl at 7:36 PM on August 26, 2001

Cavatica: Actually, I can think of a more shocking place to have a face hugger pressed.
posted by shinji_ikari at 5:42 AM on August 27, 2001

EVEN a non-violent game like Monopoly got nasty in the
UK when a man punched his 13-year-old stepson and kneed him in the groin after losing to him, a court heard yesterday.

Apparently the stepfather, 49, who cannot be named for legal reasons, even forced the boy's 11-year-old sister to play and flew into a rage when he lost against her too.

did anyone scroll down on that page for this gem of a story? knee in the groin over monopoly? alright!
posted by adampsyche at 6:23 AM on August 27, 2001

Oh, the days of Civilization (I) and BBS's w/ that Red Dragon game...how many night i failed to do h/w logging onto multiple BBS to play games and how many hours i logged playing Civ. Those were the days...
posted by jmd82 at 9:15 AM on August 27, 2001