Evening all, hope you're doing well.  Just a short one (for me, NEhow) for you tonight, while I'm recovering from a rough day at work.

It has come to my attention that Gaming - while it has brought joy to people all around the world - has also created a whole new sort of problem for our medical people to deal with...  I refer to the Gaming Injury. 

In recent times, I have seen (firsthand, I might add) two good examples of this one.  Let me explain the stories of these poor unfortunates:

Injury 1 - Guitar Hero Back

A friend of mine (who shall remain nameless for her sake) recently had to go see a chiropractor to sort out a problem she was having.  It appears that she had some serious lower back pain that was causing her some grief in moving around and playing with her children.

After a consultation and some questioning, it became apparent that her problem stemmed from a marathon session of Guitar Hero, during which time she had played many a song.  Her posture during this time was allegedly not great, and she was quite tensely holding the guitar controller.  Both of these things contributed to her back problem.

So now she needs to take more regular breaks, otherwise she will need a return trip to fix her Guitar Hero Back...

Injury 2 - Wii Arm

Even more recently, I was witness to another form of Gaming injury.  This one, again suffered by a nameless lady (whom I live with...) was due to an excess of playing a certain Game.

After the release of the Wii, I had taken the Console across to a friend's place (said friend had suffered Injury 1, actually  *grin*) and we were playing a bit of Wii Sports.  Several of sports Games there involve quite a bit of activity (Boxing and Baseball are two good examples), and given that the Wiimote is motion senstivie, a fair degree of movement on the part of the player.

So after a particularly vigorous session of Baseball (in which a 185 metre home run was hit), our poor Gamer suffered her injury.  This one involved some muscle soreness in the arms and shoulders which persisted for several days.  Said lady now needs to be careful when playing on the Wii, so that she doesn't need to see a Doctor.

So heed my warning, ladies and gentlemen.  Gaming is fun, but you need to make sure you Game safely.  Injuries are not fun at the best of times, but getting them while you Game is just not on, K?

(Actually, do any of you out there have any other examples of Gaming-related injuries with which you've had experience?)

So while I make sure Anna doesn't hurt herself any more, make sure the rest of you continue to:

GAME ON!  :D