As a physician, I see patients who develop dry eyes because they resist blinking when playing games and using the computer. Video game addiction is a strong behavioral addiction that the addict resists blinking, eating, using the restroom, and taking care of personal hygiene, and sometimes may lead to death due to poor nutrition and associated health problems. This is demonstrated in the story of the Korean man that died after his marathon gaming session.

This recent article illustrates a murder associated with video game play.

Benjamin Redgate has joined his brother, Chris, with a murder conviction, in the death of a man during an argument over a video game. A jury this afternoon found Benjamin Redgate guilty of second-degree intentional murder in the beating death of Luke German last October. Jurors deliberated a little over two hours. Sedgwick County District Judge Jeff Syrios set sentencing for 1:30 p.m. Oct. 21.

This article illustrates the melding of the real world with the virtual world in gamers. This is also known as the "Tetris Effect".

“Gamers can’t tell real-world from fantasy,” screamed the headline in the Metro on Wednesday morning. Dr Mark Griffiths, who heads up Nottingham Trent University’s International Gaming Research Unit, must have slumped back in his chair with incredulous horror when he read that.

Video game addiction or excessive playing of video games is a rapidly growing problem at all colleges and universities. While waiting for a flight from San Diego to Baltimore, I met a computer science major, Brian, who said every student in his computer science department played numerous hours of video games during school. Several students had performed poorly in their academic work because of playing more than 30 hours of video games a week.

An article in The Sun discussed the death of Chris Staniforth who developed a blood clot after playing Xbox for up to 12 hours at a time. An autopsy revealed that Chris Staniforth — obsessed with games like Halo — had suffered a deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot. Chris' dad, David, said: "He lived for his Xbox. I never dreamed he was in any danger. As a parent you think playing computer games can't do them any harm because you know what they are doing. Kids all over the country are playing these games for long periods — they don't realize it could kill them."