1)TEEN COLLAPSES AFTER 4-DAY VIDEO GAME SESSION
A 15-year-old Ohio boy collapsed after a four-day Xbox marathon, his parents say.
The boy was holed up in his bedroom for the majority of the weekend playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, a "first-person shooter" game.
According to NBC's Columbus affiliate, the boy collapsed several times on Tuesday, hours after emerging from his room. He was hospitalized and treated for severe dehydration.
Jessie Rawlins, the boy's mother, told WCMH-TV that he turned very pale and his lips "became a disturbing blue color."
"I was very scared," Rawlins said. "I thought he was going to die. He just fell over three times."
The boy is expected to recover, but won't be playing video games anytime soon. "The Xbox is gone," Rawlins said.
The dangers of hard-core gaming and so-called video game addiction have long been debated.
In 2007, the American Psychiatric Association considered including "video game addiction" in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) but decided against it.
In 2009, an Ohio teenager was found guilty of murdering his mother and shooting his father after they would not allow him to play Halo 3. His defense team argued that he was addicted to video games.
Earlier this year, a Taiwanese teenager collapsed and died at an Internet cafe after playing Diablo III, an online video game, for 40 consecutive hours without eating, according to local media reports. A similar death was reported in South Korea in 2005.
Dr. Mike Patrick, an emergency physician at Nationwide Children's Hospital, told The Associated Press he recommends common sense when gaming: "Get plenty of food and fluids, take breaks for physical activity, and put the controller down now and then to get some decent sleep."
2)Michael Phelps' Call of Duty obsession may be destructive video-game addiction, expert says
Thu, Jul 26, 2012 4:08 PM EDThttp://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--michael-phelps--call-of-duty-obsession-may-be-destructive-video-game-addiction--expert-says.htmlLONDON – Michael Phelps is at "high risk" of developing a dangerous and potentially destructive addiction to online video games after admitting he has been playing Call of Duty for up to 30 hours per week.Phelps revealed in a recent interview with ThePostGame.com that much of his free time is taken up with the hugely popular war-based simulation where characters attempt to complete increasingly difficult missions by shooting enemy forces.
That prompted Liz Woolley, founder of Online Gamers Anonymous, to warn the swimming superstar about the pitfalls of spending too much time in front of the screen in role-playing mode.
"Any time you get up to more than a couple of hours per day regularly, it can start to interfere with your normal life, your job, your family, your friends and your social life," Woolley said.
![Michael Phelps is at "high risk" of developing a dangerous addiction to online gaming. (AP)](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_syAuvuQGykis9gTS8BnuVHeffHiQL4iIBBCGBCXcsU2k8YD5uhOfvwrvSW0h9Bh09bmSFftrfMpcl9B0wvwR5TGMniEicBdCmLLYfFCP0Vshd20WXWL8vZaZCARahOakQeZBI9aGgX-7S45JLhzD7791hJ8tsDRvfeHCaMImRw77FOMw-5A6swwV8zwu3OibG-xLfsrg5gyJgMR1RfydQG6iqC6oqHNq5VrMcI9M3ohdlrKMAMWIyJXYVuxI4VpZM=s0-d "Michael Phelps is at "high risk" of developing a dangerous addiction to online gaming. (AP)")
Michael Phelps is at "high risk" of developing a dangerous addiction to online gaming. (AP)"But it can be even more dangerous for people like [Phelps] who are highly driven and competitive, which of course elite athletes and swimmers have to be. The games can be used as an escape from the pressures of training or competition, but it has to be moderated carefully or it can have terrible repercussions.
"A lot of the people who have the worst problems with this addiction are very high achievers. A successful, motivated individual, combined with a high number of playing hours(...)For a while at least, his video game hobby will need to be placed on pause.
"I really only play Xbox," Phelps said. "I have been playing a lot of Call of Duty recently. I find myself playing like 30 hours per week. People don't know it's [me]. I just get crushed. I always find myself getting heated, trash talking. And you know it is a 10-year-old kid on the other line that just demolished me. It is so frustrating. But it is fun, I am very competitive in everything I do."
Studies conducted at London's Hammersmith Hospital in 2005 found that dopamine levels in players' brains doubled while competing in video games, which officially makes the games chemically addictive.
According to video-game-addition.org addiction to games such as Call of Duty, with its life-like game pattern and graphic violence, can have a negative impact on personal relationships. Other symptoms reported by addicts include carpal tunnel syndrome, migraines, sleep disturbances, backaches and eating irregularities.
