Sky News has an article about an unfortunate young gamer who died while plugging in his GameBoy (I assume Advance) while on vacation in Thailand. The story seems mixed as to whether or not the boy was soaking wet when this happened. Tipster Jonic says:
I doubt they would have focused on the appliance he was using had it not been a portable games console. Do you agree?
[Thanks, Jonic]
[UPDATE: Replaced previous tasteless image. My apologies. -David]
I was told he just came out of a pool and disconnected it from an outlet.If any lawsuit is brought up, it just wouldn't make sense.
Tasteless use of image with this article, don't you think?
surly it would be the plug not the actual console
Your thoughts on the image aside, the fact that it was a Game Boy is news. It was what he was doing. There's no "they're out to get video games" angle here. This is simple journalism.When the reporter asked what happened, police said "electrocution." Then, being a good reporter, he/she asked "how?"So, no, I don't agree. I'm a journalist myself; it's what I would asked, and it's what I would have included in the story.
not sure i agree jack- plenty of people electrocute themselves. not all are reported worldwide. as noted in gi.biz- 'The story has been picked up by a number of UK newspapers, including the The Sun, The Mail and The Mirror'. I think that the media have picked it up b/c of a general public perception that video games are somehow dangerous; whether the danger is to victims of gamers, the player's social life, or the gamer himself due to ?faulty? hardware. This is consistent with the 'ds users can talk with strangers' hype.
So what was the previous image?
Anonymous said… So what was the previous image? It was Death from the old Grim Fangdango games from Lucasarts. Or someone who looks like Death anyways. I must be sick, because the image made me laugh.
That image wasn't tasteless, some people are just ridiculously sensitive and self-obsessed. Put Grim back.
I kinda liked the other image.
I never saw the image put up before but its a good call to take it down. That just cheapens and ridicules the death of a little kid who either didn't know any better or forgot the dangers of electricity and water.A lot of people seem to think this is funny or think the kid deserved it. Bad as they can be, it's not the sensationalist media who give games a bad name. It's pricks who have no concept of empathy or compassion and don't deserve to play video games or be a part of common society who make gaming look bad.