Was Brandon Crisp a video game addict?
p2pnet news view Games | P2P:- Not only the parents, but schoolmates of Brandon Crisp, are grieving as authorities make efforts to to prove conclusively that a body found in the reeds near his home in Barrie, Ontario, was his.
Dental records may confirm it’s Brandon’s, says the Globe and Mail.
Police have appparently ruled out foul play and an autopsy scheduled today will determine the cause of his death.
But will the pathologist include addiction to video games as part of the findings? Because an obsession with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a shooter from Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Windows, and XBox 360, literally drove Brandon from his home in the first place.
He’d clashed with his parents over it.
Are they responsible? No. Are the companies involved in the game’s creation and with marketing and selling it to blame? They’re not. They exist for one reason only: to create profits for their shareholders. Everything else is secondary.
It might be argued companies such as Microsoft already have enough and don’t need to create more ‘product,’ which then has to be ruthlessly targeted at potential users, including children of all ages. But in today’s society, there’s no such corporate concept as ‘enough’ and ‘consumers’ have been trained to consume.
So was it Brandon’s own fault? It wasn’t. It was a tragedy, but it was no different from similar tragedies which occur every minute of every hour of every day around the world.
Says the Barrie Examiner, “Brandon left his family’s home in Barrie on Oct. 13 after having his video gaming privileges taken away. His parents, Steve and Angelika, are convinced their son had an addiction to playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfareon his Xbox.”
The story has Roger Bourne, a local marital and family counsellor, saying, “Some kids, depending on their personalities, will get lost in these games and parents have to break them of that.”
However, it’s not that simple, otherwise husbands and wives and children of addicts would simply “break” them of their addictions. But that never happens.
Addicted in the truest sense of the word
The term ‘addiction’ used to apply almost exclusively to people hooked on alcohol and drugs. Today, it’s also, “sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction,” says the Wikipedia.
“In these kinds of common usages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individual’s health, mental state or social life.”
Alcoholics Anonymous was the first organisation created by addicts for addicts. Narcotics Anonymous followed and there are now a number of similar organisations which help people to effectively deal their problems.
Brandon may quite literally have been addicted to playing the game — addicted in the truest sense of the word. And addicts are incapable of staying away from what ever it is that draws them so hopelessly and helplessly, chocolate, alcohol, sex, drugs, video games and the Internet itself.
They have to have help from people who understand them and their compulsions.
Twelve-step programs such as AA and NA do help. Immeasurably. And one exists online for people whose obsession with games has gone wildly out of control.
Its called OLGA – On-Line Gamers Anonymous.
It says it’s is a, “fellowship of people sharing their experience, strengths and hope to help each other recover and heal from the problems caused by excessive game playing”.
Need Help NOW? – it asks, going on, “For immediate assistance, the following options are always available »»»
If someone is in our chat room, you can join in and get live help and support by clicking the “Chat Room” link at the top.
You can call the OLGA Hot Line at 612-245-1115.
Are you considering suicide?
If so, please contact your local Crisis Center. Call 911, to get connected, OR call the Suicide Hotline at 800-784-2433. You can also go to any emergency room. They have to help you, even if you have no money. Tell them that you are considering harming yourself.
Suicide is a mental illness.(period) No sane mind thinks that “killing myself” is a way to resolve something. It is highly common in bipolar disorder. It is very treatable. Don’t think you can “work it out”, if you were healthy you would have never even thought like that.
“YOU are WORTH saving, and YOU are the only person that can do anything about it!” – it adds.
And as with most 12-step programmes, it also offers help to the relatives and other people who find themselves powerless over the addictions of their loved ones.
Globe and Mail – Police using dental records to confirm Crisp’s identity, November 7, 2008
Barrie Examiner – Learning to cope with tragedy, November 7, 2008
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November 7th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I posted this in the other thread, it belongs here too …
The game is not even remotely an issue.
Every year, many kids run away for MANY reasons, sometimes with tragic results.
The parents aren’t necessarily to blame.
An inanimate object such as a game ( in this instance ), or a Bicycle, or a baseball card collections,
or any of a thousands other things that a parent may take away as a disciplinary measure.
As a parent myself I have taken away gaming, tv , internet, and other such things as
disciplinart measures.
Many parents have.
There is no ‘blame’ to go around here.
Only sadness and regret at a terrible loss.
The notion that the game has anything to do with this at all is just nonsense and sensationalism.
The only reason someone will use it as an excuse is for political gain or self aggrandization.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Its the kid’s own fault, he ran off without the proper clothes, its his own fault if he froze to death. But that is because He loved his xbox to death
November 7th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I have as a parent taken away my childrens privilages as a disciplinary measure as well, however, this child was not playing a game and keeping up with a social life/grades etc (if you are to believe the parents). I dont believe either that the game is to blame. Unfortunetly at that time in that childs mind it was everything to him and one has to wonder why that would be.If as a parent you see your child completely and utterly engaging in unhealthy behaviour /addiction that would not the time to help him pack and call his bluff! !
November 7th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I wouldn’t call gaming necessarily ‘unhealthy’ behavior.
The parents in this case simply didn’t understand their child!
They even think he was addicted to it, I think the gaming was but one of the issues these parents couldn’t quite understand about their child. He could have had depression for years perhaps before he even saw a video game. I think the commentary about taking away the kids video game should have never made it to a single headline, because really this isn’t about video games its about parents who just dont understand their childs generation.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I do not agree. I think it is quite feasible for someone to get addicted to a game and people aged 15 may be more likely to become victims than some other age groups becuase they are more exposed. I have a child I have to watch closely or she would be on there all day. Someone who has a tendency towards becomign addicted is automatically more at risk.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
but you could be addicted to anything thats not why he left his home…
I drink to much coffee maybe im addicted but im not going to leave my home when someone takes it away. This is about more than what he mat or may not have been addicted to the parents are at fault more than gaming ever was.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
^^ If you were addicted, there’d be no doubt about it. You might not admit it to yourself or to anyone else, but deep down, you’d know.
“addicts are incapable of staying away from what ever it is that draws them so hopelessly and helplessly, chocolate, alcohol, sex, drugs, video games and the Internet itself.”
Cheers!
November 9th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
The game is 17+, blame the fathers, not the game!
December 30th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I think that to take away gaming is not a good decision. Kid’s response to this could be negative and will not resolve the problem. To my opinion, it is better to limit gaming time. We live in the 21st century and there are a variety of internet filtering software. The one I use is Ez Internet Timer http://www.internettimer.net It works perfectly under Vista x64.
Filters are an important part of Internet safety that all parents should consider for their children, but it’s important that parents understand that filters should be part of a broader protection strategy.