For all its strangeness, Jennifer Strange’s death was an easy story to miss: The 28-year-old mother of three died of water intoxication last week after taking part in a radio contest called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii.”
Listeners of Sacramento’s KDND-FM competed to see how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom.
The winner received a Nintendo Wii, the white-hot video game console from the makers of Mario Bros.
Three hours into the competition, disc jockeys offered Strange tickets to a Justin Timberlake concert as a consolation prize. She and the other remaining competitor refused.
“I want the Wii,” Strange told listeners.
The Sacramento Bee reported that Strange downed nearly two gallons of water over the course of four-and-a-half hours and came in second place. A few hours later she was dead.
If Strange’s case sounds extreme, her desire for the 6-inch-tall box of wonders is quite common among gamers. Thousands of Americans have gone to great, and even dangerous, lengths to get their hands on gaming consoles.
Wii and other systems fetched as much as $15,000 at online auction sites such as eBay.com. The Daily reported Dec. 4 that NU students camped out to buy and preorder the systems.
The Daily reported in the same article about crime related to gaming consoles. In Ohio, two men in ski masks stole five PlayStation 3s. And in Hartford, Conn., two armed men tried to rob people who were waiting to purchase the new system, and they shot a man who refused to hand over his wallet.
Since its release in November, the Wii has become the most coveted piece of video game real estate in the world. Nintendo has sold more than a million units and most stores struggle to keep the system stocked.
“The Wiis are gone within five minutes,” said Tyler Monaghan, 20, a clerk at EB Games, 920 Church St.
Rubbing at the removable “Wii” tattoo on his hand, Monaghan said the store receives as many as 20 calls a day regarding the system. Eager parents, mostly mothers, swarm the UPS delivery man when he walks into the store some days, he said.
The Wii sits in a shrine near the front of EB Games. When I visited the store Tuesday night, Monaghan and three coworkers were quick to turn the conversation into show-and-tell.
From behind the counter, Monaghan strapped on two white remotes used to direct play on a screen.
