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

0:03 Speaker 1: dig up the oddest, weirdest, and most oh no humanity

0:07 Speaker 1: moments in history, the kind of stories that make you

0:10 Speaker 1: feel better about that embarrassing thing you did in high school,

0:13 Speaker 1: because trust me, it's nothing compared to what we're covering today.

0:18 Speaker 1: I'm Amy, and today we're venturing into the pixelated wilds

0:21 Speaker 1: of gamer history, a place where reality and fantasy sometimes collide,

0:26 Speaker 1: and not always in ways you'd expect. We're talking gamer obsession,

0:31 Speaker 1: crimes over imaginary swords, weddings to Nintendo characters, and yes,

0:36 Speaker 1: even deaths caused by gaming marathons. Buckle up, respawn if necessary,

0:41 Speaker 1: 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

0:49 Speaker 1: holy land of competitive gaming, where StarCraft is less of

0:52 Speaker 1: a video game and more of a national pastime. Our

0:56 Speaker 1: main character, Lee, twenty eight years old, on employed and

1:01 Speaker 1: with the kind of laser focus you usually only see

1:04 Speaker 1: in Navy seals or cats staring at laser pointers. Lee

1:08 Speaker 1: walked into an internet cafe, ordered well, basically nothing, and

1:13 Speaker 1: sat down to play StarCraft for fifty straight hours. No

1:16 Speaker 1: real food, no real sleep, just a few bathroom breaks,

1:21 Speaker 1: which honestly I'm scared to ask about, and maybe a

1:24 Speaker 1: snack or two. By the end, his body said nope,

1:29 Speaker 1: we're done here, and he collapsed from extreme fatigue and dehydration.

1:34 Speaker 1: Moral of the story. In StarCraft, you might lose your base.

1:39 Speaker 1: In real life, you might lose your actual life.

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

1:46 Speaker 2: real one.

1:48 Speaker 1: Fast forward to twenty ten, also in South Korea, a

1:52 Speaker 1: married couple falls deeply, deeply in love with a digital

1:56 Speaker 1: baby in the online world of Prius Online. They spent

2:00 Speaker 1: twelve hours a day nurturing their virtual daughter, Anima. They

2:04 Speaker 1: fed her, dressed her, and watched her grow, all while

2:08 Speaker 1: their real life three month old was left alone for hours. Tragically,

2:13 Speaker 1: the real baby died of malnutrition and the parents ended

2:16 Speaker 1: up in prison. This is the only time in history

2:19 Speaker 1: where you're spending too much time on That game should

2:23 Speaker 1: 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

2:31 Speaker 1: thousand took dating sims to their final boss level marriage.

2:37 Speaker 1: His bride nane Anagasaki from the game Love Plus the

2:41 Speaker 1: ceremony was held at a tech conference live streamed with

2:45 Speaker 1: actual guests. Vows were exchanged, and yes, he took her

2:49 Speaker 1: on a honeymoon to Guam. I imagine customs must have

2:53 Speaker 1: been fun. Anything to declare, yes, my wife, that's a

2:58 Speaker 1: Nintendo DS. Yes, and she's beautiful. What does the wedding

3:03 Speaker 1: registry look like for that wedding? A new mouse keyboard

3:07 Speaker 1: 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.

3:17 Speaker 1: Two gamer buddies were sharing an in game sword in

3:20 Speaker 1: Justice Online worth thousands of real world dollars. One friend,

3:25 Speaker 1: the very definition of oops, accidentally listed it for sale

3:29 Speaker 1: at three cents. Someone bought it instantly, que the courtroom drama.

3:34 Speaker 1: The original owner sued, and the court ordered the buyer

3:37 Speaker 1: to give it back. I'd like to think the judge

3:40 Speaker 1: 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

3:51 Speaker 1: an actual murder. In two thousand and four, a Chinese

3:55 Speaker 1: gamer named Chu Chung Wi lent his ultra rare Dragon

3:58 Speaker 1: Saber sword to a friend that friend sold it for

4:01 Speaker 1: real cash. Q demanded it back. The friend refused, Q

4:07 Speaker 1: responded by stabbing him to death with an actual knife.

4:10 Speaker 1: It became one of the first major cases where virtual

4:13 Speaker 1: theft ended in real world homicide, and yes, it still

4:18 Speaker 1: 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

4:29 Speaker 1: and six, a World of Warcraft guild held a virtual

4:32 Speaker 1: funeral for a player who had died in real life.

4:36 Speaker 1: It was meant to be a peaceful, respectful moment until

4:39 Speaker 1: another guild, Serenity Now, launched a massive raid on the ceremony.

4:44 Speaker 1: Imagine mourning a friend, and suddenly one hundred angry night

4:47 Speaker 1: elves stormed the place, throwing fireballs. It's been called both

4:51 Speaker 1: the most disrespectful thing ever and the most perfectly wow

4:56 Speaker 1: thing ever.

4:58 Speaker 2: The guy who lost his job to farm gold in

5:01 Speaker 2: RuneScape proof you can't pay rent in Dragon Hyde.

5:06 Speaker 1: A man in the UK reportedly quit his job in

5:09 Speaker 1: the mid two thousands to farm virtual gold in RuneScape,

5:13 Speaker 1: selling it for real world money. It worked for a

5:17 Speaker 1: while until the game developers changed the rules. The market collapsed,

5:21 Speaker 1: 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

5:30 Speaker 2: into a tactical response.

5:33 Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen, two gamers got into an argument over

5:36 Speaker 1: a call of Duty match over a one dollar fifty

5:40 Speaker 1: cent bet. One player called in a fake hostage situation

5:44 Speaker 1: at the other's address. But here's the tragic twist. The

5:47 Speaker 1: address he gave wasn't even the guy he was mad at.

5:51 Speaker 1: Police showed up and shot an innocent man. It became

5:54 Speaker 1: one of the most infamous swatting cases in history. All right,

5:57 Speaker 1: let's dive into true stories of how pokmon Go may

6:01 Speaker 1: have gotten millions of people outside and exercising, but it

6:05 Speaker 1: also turned the world into a giant game of Darwin

6:08 Speaker 1: Awards Mobile edition. Here are some real, detailed and darkly

6:14 Speaker 1: funny true stories of players who took got to catch

6:17 Speaker 1: 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

6:30 Speaker 1: men aged twenty one and twenty seven were walking along

6:33 Speaker 1: a fence at a San Diego area bluff while glued

6:36 Speaker 1: to their phones. They ignored every stay back sign, They

6:41 Speaker 1: ignored the fact that there was no railing, They ignored,

6:44 Speaker 1: you know, gravity. They were chasing Pokemon when surprise, the

6:49 Speaker 1: ground stopped existing beneath them. One fell fifty feet, the

6:54 Speaker 1: other fell ninety feet. Both survived with injuries, and the

6:58 Speaker 1: 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

7:05 Speaker 1: were chasing. My money's on a zubat because falling into

7:09 Speaker 1: 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

7:19 Speaker 1: City Boardwalk area, two men were so focused on catching

7:22 Speaker 1: Pokemon that they walked right off an unlit peer at night.

7:26 Speaker 1: They both fell into the frigid Atlantic Ocean and had

7:29 Speaker 1: to be fished out by police. When asked why they

7:33 Speaker 1: didn't notice the peer ending, one said, I was looking

7:35 Speaker 1: at my screen. The other added, I just followed him.

7:40 Speaker 1: Lesson learned in Pokemon go, as in life. Don't blindly

7:45 Speaker 1: 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

7:55 Speaker 1: a rare Pokemon along the river bank that he slipped, tumbled,

8:00 Speaker 1: and fell into the Brisbane River. Phone wallet, dignity, and

8:05 Speaker 1: all witnesses reported that he popped up out of the water,

8:09 Speaker 1: still holding his phone above his head like a triumphant

8:13 Speaker 1: Olympic torch. Apparently, the Pokemon was a magic harp, which

8:18 Speaker 1: 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

8:26 Speaker 1: park walked directly into a large decorative fountain. Security footage

8:31 Speaker 1: shows him striding forward, completely unaware until he vanishes with

8:36 Speaker 1: a splash. Park officials later confirmed the Pokemon he was

8:41 Speaker 1: after wasn't even in the fountain, which means he fell

8:44 Speaker 1: 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

8:54 Speaker 1: to reach a pokey stop and ended up falling into

8:57 Speaker 1: a lake. Local news reported that he emerged with a

9:01 Speaker 1: smile and immediately went back to playing, dripping wet because

9:05 Speaker 1: the poke stop was just within reach from the shore.

9:08 Speaker 1: That's commitment or concussion symptoms. The Brooklyn Face planned Brooklyn,

9:14 Speaker 1: New York. July twenty sixteen, a man playing Pokemon Go

9:19 Speaker 1: at night tripped over a tree route in Prospect Park

9:22 Speaker 1: and fell face first into the pavement. The result two

9:26 Speaker 1: chip teeth, a black eye, and a Facebook post that

9:29 Speaker 1: read caught the Pokemon lost the face.

9:34 Speaker 2: IGN exec goes above and beyond and off a peer,

9:38 Speaker 2: all in the name of Gotta catch them All.

9:42 Speaker 1: In July twenty sixteen, during the early days of Pokemon Go,

9:46 Speaker 1: IGN editor Andrew Goldfarb became part of a viral moment

9:50 Speaker 1: when he fell off a peer while playing the game.

9:53 Speaker 1: The incident occurred during a live segment of IGN's Up

9:56 Speaker 1: at Noon show, where Goldfarb was discussing his Pokemon Catch adventures.

10:01 Speaker 1: While engrossed in the game, he stepped backward, unaware of

10:05 Speaker 1: his surroundings, and fell off the edge of the pier.

10:08 Speaker 1: The fall was captured on camera, leading to widespread attention

10:12 Speaker 1: and amusement across social media platforms. Despite the mishap, Goldfarb

10:17 Speaker 1: appeared unharmed and continued with the segment, turning the incident

10:22 Speaker 1: into a humorous and memorable moment in gaming journalism. So

10:26 Speaker 1: what have we learned today that video games can be

10:29 Speaker 1: amazing escapes, incredible social spaces, and sometimes absolute chaos factories.

10:37 Speaker 1: Remember take breaks, drink water, and if you find yourself

10:41 Speaker 1: planning to marry a Nintendo character, maybe just maybe talk

10:45 Speaker 1: to a friend first. This has been the Strange History podcast,

10:49 Speaker 1: reminding you that truth is stranger than fiction, especially when

10:53 Speaker 1: there's a loading screen involved. Don't forget to subscribe and

10:56 Speaker 1: share with friends who in the world wouldn't want to

10:59 Speaker 1: listen to this weirdness while running dungeons or killing zombies.

11:03 Speaker 1: Until next time, dear listeners, stay weird.