Game Over: The Strangest True Stories from Gamer History You Won’t Believe

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Strange History Podcast, the show where we dig up the oddest, weirdest, and most oh no humanity moments in history, the kind of stories that make you feel better about that embarrassing thing you did in high school, because trust me, it's nothing compared to what we're covering today. I'm Amy, and today we're venturing into the pixelated wilds of gamer history, a place where reality and fantasy sometimes collide, and not always in ways you'd expect. We're talking gamer obsession, crimes over imaginary swords, weddings to Nintendo characters, and yes, even deaths caused by gaming marathons.

0:38 Speaker 1: Buckle up, respawn if necessary, and let's press start.

0:42 Speaker 2: The fifty hour StarCraft marathon of Doom.

0:46 Speaker 1: Let's start in two thousand and five South Korea, the holy land of competitive gaming, where StarCraft is less of a video game and more of a national pastime. Our main character, Lee, twenty eight years old, on employed and with the kind of laser focus you usually only see in Navy seals or cats staring at laser pointers. Lee walked into an internet cafe, ordered well, basically nothing, and sat down to play StarCraft for fifty straight hours. No real food, no real sleep, just a few bathroom breaks, which honestly I'm scared to ask about, and maybe a snack or two.

1:25 Speaker 1: By the end, his body said nope, we're done here, and he collapsed from extreme fatigue and dehydration. Moral of the story. In StarCraft, you might lose your base. In real life, you might lose your actual life.

1:43 Speaker 2: The parents who raised a virtual baby but not their real one.

1:48 Speaker 1: Fast forward to twenty ten, also in South Korea, a married couple falls deeply, deeply in love with a digital baby in the online world of Prius Online. They spent twelve hours a day nurturing their virtual daughter, Anima. They fed her, dressed her, and watched her grow, all while their real life three month old was left alone for hours. Tragically, the real baby died of malnutrition and the parents ended up in prison. This is the only time in history where you're spending too much time on That game should have been shouted through a megaphone.

2:26 Speaker 2: Man marries his Nintendo DS.

2:28 Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine. In Japan, gamer sal nine thousand took dating sims to their final boss level marriage. His bride nane Anagasaki from the game Love Plus the ceremony was held at a tech conference live streamed with actual guests. Vows were exchanged, and yes, he took her on a honeymoon to Guam. I imagine customs must have been fun. Anything to declare, yes, my wife, that's a Nintendo DS. Yes, and she's beautiful. What does the wedding registry look like for that wedding? A new mouse keyboard and case of Mountain dew to wash down the shame.

3:11 Speaker 1: The three cent sword that started a lawsuit China. Twenty nineteen. Two gamer buddies were sharing an in game sword in Justice Online worth thousands of real world dollars. One friend, the very definition of oops, accidentally listed it for sale at three cents. Someone bought it instantly, que the courtroom drama. The original owner sued, and the court ordered the buyer to give it back. I'd like to think the judge was rolling his eyes so hard he saw his own brain.

3:44 Speaker 2: The real life murder over a virtual weapon.

3:48 Speaker 1: Speaking of weapons, the game legend of mere Thie caused an actual murder. In two thousand and four, a Chinese gamer named Chu Chung Wi lent his ultra rare Dragon Saber sword to a friend that friend sold it for real cash. Q demanded it back. The friend refused, Q responded by stabbing him to death with an actual knife. It became one of the first major cases where virtual theft ended in real world homicide, and yes, it still gets discussed in gaming law conferences today.

4:21 Speaker 2: The World of Warcraft funeral raid the day grief got gangd.

4:26 Speaker 1: Here's one that's infamous in gamer lore. In two thousand and six, a World of Warcraft guild held a virtual funeral for a player who had died in real life. It was meant to be a peaceful, respectful moment until another guild, Serenity Now, launched a massive raid on the ceremony. Imagine mourning a friend, and suddenly one hundred angry night elves stormed the place, throwing fireballs. It's been called both the most disrespectful thing ever and the most perfectly wow thing ever.

4:58 Speaker 2: The guy who lost his job to farm gold in RuneScape proof you can't pay rent in Dragon Hyde.

5:06 Speaker 1: A man in the UK reportedly quit his job in the mid two thousands to farm virtual gold in RuneScape, selling it for real world money. It worked for a while until the game developers changed the rules. The market collapsed, and he went from being RuneScape rich to very very unemployed.

5:26 Speaker 2: The call of Duty swatting incident when trash talk turns into a tactical response.

5:33 Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen, two gamers got into an argument over a call of Duty match over a one dollar fifty cent bet. One player called in a fake hostage situation at the other's address. But here's the tragic twist. The address he gave wasn't even the guy he was mad at. Police showed up and shot an innocent man. It became one of the most infamous swatting cases in history. All right, let's dive into true stories of how pokmon Go may have gotten millions of people outside and exercising, but it also turned the world into a giant game of Darwin Awards Mobile edition.

6:10 Speaker 1: Here are some real, detailed and darkly funny true stories of players who took got to catch them all a little too literally right over the edge.

6:21 Speaker 2: The bluff Brothers of Encinitas, California.

6:25 Speaker 1: July twenty sixteen, only days after Pokemon Go launched, two men aged twenty one and twenty seven were walking along a fence at a San Diego area bluff while glued to their phones. They ignored every stay back sign, They ignored the fact that there was no railing, They ignored, you know, gravity. They were chasing Pokemon when surprise, the ground stopped existing beneath them. One fell fifty feet, the other fell ninety feet. Both survived with injuries, and the local fire department had to repair hell down to rescue them.

7:01 Speaker 1: The kicker, the police refused to say which Pokemon they were chasing. My money's on a zubat because falling into a dark abyss feels thematically appropriate.

7:12 Speaker 2: The peer plunge in New Jersey.

7:15 Speaker 1: Also in July twenty sixteen, in New jerseys famed Atlantic City Boardwalk area, two men were so focused on catching Pokemon that they walked right off an unlit peer at night. They both fell into the frigid Atlantic Ocean and had to be fished out by police. When asked why they didn't notice the peer ending, one said, I was looking at my screen. The other added, I just followed him. Lesson learned in Pokemon go, as in life. Don't blindly follow someone unless you're prepared to share their fate.

7:49 Speaker 2: The Brisbane River Dive, Australia.

7:52 Speaker 1: A young man in Brisbane, was so intent on catching a rare Pokemon along the river bank that he slipped, tumbled, and fell into the Brisbane River. Phone wallet, dignity, and all witnesses reported that he popped up out of the water, still holding his phone above his head like a triumphant Olympic torch. Apparently, the Pokemon was a magic harp, which makes the whole thing poetic.

8:20 Speaker 2: The Japan Fountain fiasco.

8:22 Speaker 1: In Tokushima, Japan, a player chasing Pokemon through a public park walked directly into a large decorative fountain. Security footage shows him striding forward, completely unaware until he vanishes with a splash. Park officials later confirmed the Pokemon he was after wasn't even in the fountain, which means he fell in for absolutely nothing, not even a slow poke.

8:48 Speaker 2: The Michigan Lake Leap.

8:50 Speaker 1: In Michigan, a player misjudged a concrete ledge while trying to reach a pokey stop and ended up falling into a lake. Local news reported that he emerged with a smile and immediately went back to playing, dripping wet because the poke stop was just within reach from the shore. That's commitment or concussion symptoms. The Brooklyn Face planned Brooklyn, New York. July twenty sixteen, a man playing Pokemon Go at night tripped over a tree route in Prospect Park and fell face first into the pavement.

9:24 Speaker 1: The result two chip teeth, a black eye, and a Facebook post that read caught the Pokemon lost the face.

9:34 Speaker 2: IGN exec goes above and beyond and off a peer, all in the name of Gotta catch them All.

9:42 Speaker 1: In July twenty sixteen, during the early days of Pokemon Go, IGN editor Andrew Goldfarb became part of a viral moment when he fell off a peer while playing the game. The incident occurred during a live segment of IGN's Up at Noon show, where Goldfarb was discussing his Pokemon Catch adventures. While engrossed in the game, he stepped backward, unaware of his surroundings, and fell off the edge of the pier. The fall was captured on camera, leading to widespread attention and amusement across social media platforms.

10:15 Speaker 1: Despite the mishap, Goldfarb appeared unharmed and continued with the segment, turning the incident into a humorous and memorable moment in gaming journalism. So what have we learned today that video games can be amazing escapes, incredible social spaces, and sometimes absolute chaos factories. Remember take breaks, drink water, and if you find yourself planning to marry a Nintendo character, maybe just maybe talk to a friend first. This has been the Strange History podcast, reminding you that truth is stranger than fiction, especially when there's a loading screen involved.

10:55 Speaker 1: Don't forget to subscribe and share with friends who in the world wouldn't want to listen to this weirdness while running dungeons or killing zombies. Until next time, dear listeners, stay weird.