http://www.vnunet.com/News/1136154

I thought I'd start us off with that link. I also figured we should discuss this new development. Now, I'm not saying it's a trend. Certainly not. Two cases doesn't qualify it as an international emergency. I don't think there should be a NATO envoy sent, Canadian peacekeepers shouldn't get packed, and I don't think the United States should go to Defcon 1. This doesn't herald the end of civilization, and no, sorry, none of those shitty cyberpunk novels are coming true. Sorry Willie Gibson, but we're not there yet.

The key word in that little bit was, of course, "yet". Two Asian men in their 20's have died. Many believe as a direct result of playing video games. They're right. VIDEO GAMES KILLED THESE MEN. It's true. I firmly believe and agree with the previous statement. After playing video games for 32 and 86 hours respectively, these malnourished, sleep deprived men died. Darn those insidious video games. Making normal, well adjusted people go absolutely insane. They must have some sort of mind control properties that derange the average gamer, and turn them into mindless zombies who can't master the simple act of feeding themselves. In case you haven't figured it out, I have exactly no sympathy for these men. None. I neither pity them, nor do I honestly place blame for their deaths on whatever crappy, malicious, "addictive" games they were playing. Actually, I think it's kinda of funny. Funny in that sick, demented way that most people find appalling. BUT NOT ME.

It's a sign really. These two individuals are the beginning. No, I'm serious. They're the two frayed threads that mark the worn edge of life. You watch. In another week or so, you'll hear of another death, and another. All in the East. We'll report about them from the land of democracy, sickened and apprehensive, yet cautious as ever. We'll fret and moan, and bitch that it might happen here. It won't, and we'll forget it, somehow hoping to tack it onto some sort of cryptic part of the Asian culture. Something that we don't understand, or even pretend to. It'll make us feel superior and impervious once more. We'll look on them with pity, but feel safe that something so drastic will never happen here.

Yet it will. In time, news will creep across the western nations of a Caucasian, middle class male in his early 20s who was found slumped over his keyboard by irate neighbors who were curious about the smell. Friends and family will make statements that he hadn't been seen in days, and an autopsy will confirm that he died of exhaustion and malnutrition. Then the axe will really fall. Up until now, video games have been blamed for any number of evil, naughty things. Of course the games themselves were never the direct cause of any deaths. Sure they were blamed for Columbine, various violent crimes, and declining grades across the country, but never has there been a situation where a video game was directly responsible for the expiration of a human life. When that happens - and I say "when" with full confidence - gamers in this neck of the woods will be in for good times. Lawsuits will fly, bills will be passed, protests will march through cramped, concrete jungles and gamers will suffer. "Dev labs" will be formed in burned out churches where programmers, designers and artists will gather under a shroud of secrecy to create the next FPS. John Carmack and his gang of renegades will be hunted outlaws, and the OGL will fall to flames in a rain of ash. And gamers will look to the heavens and scream, "WHY GOD, WHY?"

And Darwin will be laughing in his grave. Because he knows that it's just evolution baby. People dying at their keyboards is just another way of filtering the old gene pool. Personally, I'm happy these two men sacrificed themselves to show us there error of our ways. Right? I mean there's no possible way that these two guys could be held responsible for their OWN deaths, could it? We don't do that anymore, do we? Why blame people when you can blame ideas. Isn't that how it's done now? Seriously though folks. Wouldn't you -really- rather these people die in front of their 19 inch, trinitron monitors than bump into you in the street? I say keep the video games, no matter how bad the dying gets. Humanity could use a few good bug zappers.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm full of shit. Yet the world keeps finding new ways to tell me I'm right.

-Landslide