Magazine Profile of Missing Gamer Focuses on Game Addiction
Magazine Profile of Missing Gamer Focuses on Game Addiction
November 5, 2008
Maclean's, a weekly news magazine in Canada, has published a lengthy article on the Brandon Crisp disappearance.
What Happened to Brandon? zeroes on Brandon's supposed addiction to Call of Duty 4:
The police are still searching the nearby fields, but the large-scale volunteer search that has been going on in recent weeks is over. Hopes that Brandon might be comfortably hiding out in one of the expensive summer homes on Lake Simcoe are all but dead. The question hangs heavier than ever: what happened to Brandon Crisp? His parents have ideas and they all centre on the video game and the growing fear that Brandon's addiction might prove fatal...
But what confounds everyone involved in this case, from the police to his parents, is that beyond his devotion to Call of Duty, he showed no outward signs of trouble. "He was a teenager who had a problem, but he wasn't a problem teenager," says Sgt. Dave Goodbrand of the Barrie police...
Among others, Maclean's also spoke with Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family:
I don't think [video game companies] want to touch addiction with a 10-foot pole. It raises all sorts of liability issues for them. And my interpretation is that their strategy is to ignore it and hope it will go away. If you talk to front-line counsellors in places like universities they'll tell you that this is a huge issue. The way people are viewing this is changing quickly.
ECA president Hal Halpin is quoted from a prior interview with the Washington Times:
What we're really talking about here is media addiction, but unfortunately we're not even talking about that. The issue has been politicized down to games, to the exclusion of all other media, including movies, music and television. It seems disingenuous on its face.
Over at The Escapist, Andy Chalk has a rant about the Maclean's piece:
The most recent example of the "games made him do it" coverage appeared in this week's edition of Maclean's magazine... What the hell? ...The boy's father has proclaimed his belief for some time now that Brandon's gaming habits had something to do with his disappearance, although actual evidence to that effect - beyond the fact that he ran away from home after a fight over the Xbox - is scant... Brandon Crisp's disappearance highlights one of the biggest problems facing the gaming industry today: Not that videogames are or aren't the greatest scourge faced by civilization since Elvis, but that they're consistently presented as such, to one degree or another, by the mainstream media...
GP: Meanwhile, Brandon remains missing. He has been gone for 23 days. CanWest is now reporting comments from Barrie Police spokesman Sgt. Dave Goodbrand which seem to indicate that the investigation may be moving away from Brandon's gaming:
[Brandon's Xbox 360 is] still being analyzed a little further, but at this point we have no reason to believe there is any connection to date between the Xbox and his disappearance.
FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.
A PUBLICATION OF THE ECA
SUBSCRIBE
LOGINGamePolitics ShoutBox
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:01am
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:53am
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:46am
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:31am
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:07am
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:06am
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Posted 11/08/09 at 12:24am
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Copyright © 2007 ECA. All rights reserved.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
If he was an addict, would he not go to a place where he could get his "fix"?
Brandon had a fight with his parents about his gaming habits. If he'd had a fight about listening to rap on his iPod would they be blaming the music industry? I know he's too young, but hypothetically if they'd taken away his privilege to drive the family car would they blame the auto industry? Parents and children fight, and sometimes they run away as a result. Doesn't seem to me that it's the fault of whatever caused the fight, it's the fault of the fight. But we wouldn't want to blame poor parenting, would we?
Not necessarily the parents' fault. The kid could just be a dumbshit.
And before you pull they "they let him run away" card, parents have been doing it for YEARS. In fact, my GRANDPARENTS did it to my parents when they reached their 'rebellious youth' stage. This time it just went tragically awry because the kid either happened upon an abduction or something, or the kid is a dumbshit who deserves to be smacked.
I'm not saying these are good parents, but I'd think twice about calling them bad ones, too, since we know nothing about them outside of what we've seen on the news and sites. We've been trying to shake off this ill-concieved notion of other people labelling us, let's not be the kettle calling the pot black.
Brandon's Xbox 360 is] still being analyzed a little further, but at this point we have no reason to believe there is any connection to date between the Xbox and his disappearance.
Well done. 23 days after the fact, let's start looking for a real solution. Truly a bang up job.
*facepalm*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon
*facepalm*
Mine's bigger. ROFL Just playing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon
I win!
*FACEPALM*
Argh just you guys wait, when i find a font bigger thans yours lol
Lol epic legendary right there.
Ah, a fancy facepalm with serifed font. Well played.
Oh really? That's not what his father said:
To be fair, Brandon's father implies that the truancy, stealing, and not doing his homework was prompted by his excessive CoD4 play.
Andrew Eisen
Edit: I haven't read the entire article yet. No time right now but I'll do so later this afternoon.
Hmm...Well if that is the case why were the parents letting him play the game excessively in the first place. You have to set some limits on this. The xbox has a timer now. Set it and once its turned off the boy should be doing something else.
The sad thing is, the longer this goes on, the higher the probability that this will end in tragedy. While I hope he's alright, with each passing day I'm expecting to hear him found dead or something else horrible.
One of the things I wonder about all of this media attention, though, is that it may possibily be causing him to remain hidden. One of the theories going around is that he might have broken into one of the unused cottages and is holding up in there. If this is the case, assuming he has access to TV/internet, I can easily see him getting off on the attention being placed on his case in that sort of "that'll show'm" teenage smugness. A bit of a long shot, true, but it's something I think worth considering. Much more plausible than the video game scapegoat crap.
I'm not surprised in the least that some idiots are finger pointing video games. Disappointed, yes, but we all knew it was going to happen.
Tea and cake or death! Tea and cake or death! Little Red Cook-book! Little Red Cook-book!
He's dead. Very tragic etc etc and all that vomit. Lets move on. Denial isn't a river in Egypt.
--------------------------------------------------
I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
My money is on them finding him dead with no evidence that xbox or cod4 had anything to do with it and years later they will still bring it up blaiming it on video games ... Cho anyone?
That or he's found dead with a CoD4 disc lodged in his skull...
--------------------------------------------------
I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
O.o, is that possible?
Ever seen Hellraiser 3?
He left willingly. He had friends online.
Maybe day 1-3 you focus on those who physically saw him.
But by the end of the first week, I'd be begging the community that knew him really well, the online community, for ANY and all help.
Whether you identified his online identity or not, there was still a pretty good chance that the fact his online persona went missing at about the same time should be helpful in identifying him to his close friends and community.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Nightwng2000 has also updated his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl
"[Brandon's Xbox 360 is] still being analyzed a little further, but at this point we have no reason to believe there is any connection to date between the Xbox and his disappearance."
wow, took them that long to figure it out?
*facepalm*
I'd like to say that this sort of slanted reporting is the reason I let my subscription to Maclean's run out, but actually I was just tired of Barbara Amiel whining about how her husband (ruined ex-pat Conrad Black) was "mistreated" by the American justice system. Shouldn't have renounced your Canadian citizenship if you wanted sympathy, old man!
But holy-moly -- I have never seen such an unsaturated collection of abject falsehoods in this magazine before. This journalism is too yellow even for my tastes. Canada's most-circulated news magazine deserves better. I'm gonna write a letter to the editor, and I strongly suggest that anyone who feels the same should do so as well.
Update: posted it.
---
The Mammon Industry
"If you talk to front-line counsellors in places like universities they'll tell you that this is a huge issue. The way people are viewing this is changing quickly."
So....quotes? Sources? Names? How about you actually um...TALK TO THESE PEOPLE and print their statements? Oh that's right, they probably told you to get lost and come back when YOU had a degree is physchology.
A sad news of update: the boy is found dead.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/531082
I think that blaming one part of the problem never ends well. It's pathetic, because they never focused on his other problems. They automatically blame video games.
This occurs with scapegoating a bunch. Blame the thing of hatred, even though there were a crapload of other factors.