Wait, games look real and beautiful only now? And it took them how long to notice that? Dudes, seriously, we experienced the entire evolution, I fail to see the massive draw. It looks nice, yes, but that hardly is the only reason people play it.

I know I'd be distracted if they played House on giant screens in the background. ^_^ I love House.

So, yeah, distraction is totally incontrivertible evidence of scary addiction.

I'm so sick of hearing about this guy, as I felt the whole story was blown way out of proportion and just downright irritated me. I was hoping we wouldn't have to hear anymore about him after his death was confirmed. Can't we just let the kid rest in peace now?

News reports about him make me miss JT.

--- I do more than just play games. I draw, too: http://www.silvermelee.deviantart.com

People need to learn what addiction is, what cause and affect is, that game addiction is affect not cause (except maybe MMOs due to the social part of it), and they should not talk about subjects until they actually have scientific proof of what they are talking about when it has been out in the public this long as a topic.  They are just sensationalizing this crap to up their ratings when they know they are telling lies or do not care about the truth to begin with.

Nido Web Flash Tutorials AS2 and AS3 Tutorials for anyone interested.
How to set Xbox 360 Parental Controls

Has to be said...

"Turning every violent teen male fantasy into reality"

-It's not a reality... it's a fucking video game.  It's an image on the screen.  What is the difference between this or Nightmare on Elm Street, another "popular teenage male violent fantasy?"
 

"When we talked to them, we had large monitors playing video-game footage as background, and you could see it: They couldn't take their eyes off the screens," says Findlay.

-They are competing, in competition.  You see the exact same behavior from Olympic Competitors if they are being interviewed as someone else is performing.  Those screens are not still images.  Those screens are the gameplay tactics and techniques those people will be facing soon.  Not watching these battles is a mistake.

I don't like the Fith Estate. CBC most of the time straddles the centralist line, but on occasion programs like Marketplace and the Fith Estate fly a left wing bias. I mean, the Fith Estate did a doccumentry on Hockey Fights and it was clearly shown the producers of that episode wanted hocky fights banned. And Marketplace just did one wanting Airsoft guns and BB guns regulated.

From their little blurb on the site about it:

"His disappearance, and death, became a national news story as it revealed a dark side to what many thought was a harmless entertainment."

What dark side? The kid ran away because he did not get his own way. This has probably happened to 1000's of kids. I ran away and cycled my bike across town one day when I was much younger because of a fight with my parents when they took my sisters side in an argument. The exact same thing this kid did, the only difference is, I didn't fall out of a tree and die while I was gone. If I had done, would there have been a massive news expose on sibling fighting and it's "dark side"?

"Findlay investigates how a video gaming obsession can turn to addiction and a pro gaming circuit with thousands of dollars in potential winnings, experts say, can fuel the need to play."

Maybe Findlay should investigate trees, how climbing them is potentially appealing to kids, but which can be dangerous, experts say, due to the nature of gravity.

Didn't the parents state they don't blame there son's death on videogames?

http://www.magicinkgaming.com/

"As a parent, I was shocked by how little I knew about this world,"


That right there indicates a lack of parental presence and involvement. Kids aren't running from home or hating their parents because of video games- they're hating them because they're not paying enough fucking attention.

"I ran away and cycled my bike across town one day when I was much younger"


Shoot, I was 18 and I drove from my parents to a public park, just because I wanted to get away from them for a few hours- I was angry with them, too. Alot of kids do the same thing- this one just happened to climb up a tree while playing and broke his neck when he fell.

"When we talked to them, we had large monitors playing video-game footage as background, and y--"


That's it, show's over, T.V. off, this more or less proves it. This is like that episode of the Simpsons where they paint Homer as a sexual predator, only in this case, they didn't have to edit. Much. What self-respecting news reporter sets the stage so that it fits his scaremongering that much more? These people should be flooded with complaints for forcing a news segment with obvious media tricks. This MIGHT have worked 20 years ago, but MOST of us know better.

"Turning every violent teen male fantasy into reality,"

The game characters on screen are NOT capable of leaping into the real wordl and itneracting with you ,thus fantasy remains fantasy.

"these games have a simple primal theme: kill, and kill again. And then keep killing..."

If that was the entire point then the concepts of heatl meters/bars and characters being ableto die would never be a part of the game. FYI, yes, there are health meters/bars and yes the character you play as can die. Also, games do have a story i nthere, the violence is usually a party of the story/survival of the main character.

I love these people. Through them the consoles somehow gainn ew tehcnology that doesn't exist yet and parts of the game get added or taken out without the developer's knowing/permission

 I usually expect better from the CBC, but if there's ratings to be had, the sensationalist aspects always seem to get drummed up. 

Shame on you CBC. 

Now that I think about it, the temr "investigative report" is misleading. They clearly didn't investigate anything.

Here's the Toronto Sun's preview of The Fifth Estate's report, which they call "lazy, cheap and disappointingly one-sided":

http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/columnists/steve_tilley/2009/03/...

An excerpt:

Where tonight's The Fifth Estate succeeds is in exploring why Brandon Crisp might have become so addicted to Call Of Duty 4. A smart kid with a drive to succeed in all things, he was too small to do well in his beloved hockey. Video games became his substitute for sports, something he could excel at competitively, albeit to the detriment of a normal life away from his Xbox.

Where it fails is by laying an unreasonable amount of blame at the feet of the video games industry, the games rating board and the professional gaming leagues and sponsors that offer cash prizes to the tiny percentage of gamers with the skill to get paid to play.

"What happens," Findlay intones gravely, "when all that marketing might reaches into our children's bedrooms, hands them a sniper rifle and an assassin's mission, and promises fame, not to mention fortune, to those who kill their way to the top?"

Meanwhile, parents -- the ultimate arbiters of what entertainment is allowed in the home -- get off virtually scot-free, despite blithely ignoring game ratings (and common sense) by buying violent, mature-themed titles for their kids to play.

I thought we had heard the end of this when the parents said that they didn't blame videogames. Jeez, this really never ends. And the sad part is that none of these networks actually care one bit about the topic. They just go after what will get them ratings.

---------------------------------

Internet troll > internet paladin

I'm sorry, but when you go to a place where they play anything competitively, they will always be distracted.  Interview a baseball player while a game is going on WHILE on the bench and they'll be distracted just as much as the next guy.

Search and Destroy Video Games?  Thats a new one.  You can swing it any way you want, it's always going to come up the same way.  Bullshit.

I'm not a fan of House but I know i'd be distracted.  Hell, I'm always distracted when I walk past a TV thats on.  Sometimes those commercials can be funny...

I'll see how they try and spit this story out, but I know its going to be too much to clog a toilet.

I wonder if this little punk would have ran away and died after his parents told him to clean his room would there be a huge outcry against making kids do daily chores? According to this interview the answer is YES. Well there goes the validity of CBS's arguement!

So while the news crews, family, and search party were busy blaming video games, the kid was falling to his death. Even after the fact, they're still blaming video games. Great job, guys.

What's the real problem, though? If the kid was truly addicted to games, he wouldn't think of running into the wilderness without them. So what problems at home are we not knowing about? Are his parents hiding something and using Video Games as a cover-up?

...I would normally say "At least JT hasn't reared his ugly head yet", but he will soon enough, so why bother?

I sent off an email to the writer of the Globe and Mail article, so here is a copy of it so you guys can agree or rip me to shreds, either or.

I found the article that you wrote for the Globe and Mail about the Fifth Estate's coverage of Brandon Crisp was incredibly one sided.  He may well have become obsessed with the game, however it was rated M for mature, such games are designed for people of ages 17 and older.  Parents do not have to buy the game for their children, and while some kids may be able to purchase it anyway, the FTC has indications that it is currently harder to buy an M rated game if one is under the required age than it is to buy an R rated movie ticket or DVD or even an unrated DVD. [http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/05/secretshop.shtm]  As well to play the X-Box online, which is the primary purpose of games such as Call of Duty, an X-Box live account is required.  Brandon had access to an X-Box live account that was being payed for by his father. [http://www.gamertell.com/gaming/comment/runaway-call-of-duty-4-player-brandon-crisp-found-dead/]  His parents at least somewhat facilitated his playing of Call of Duty, which according to the ESRB rating he should not have been playing.  I am, however, by no means blaming the parents for Brandon's death.  My point is simply that children will have arguments with their parents and run away over a multitude of things.  Blaming his death on Call of Duty is like blaming the death of a child who runs away because they do not wish to clean their room on normal parenting.

    In addition, although first person shooters, as the genre is called, do make up a large part of the market for successful games, their objective can hardly be reduced to whoever has the most "kills" wins.  In certain games, such as the Battlefield franchise, people can achieve extremely high scores, including the top three positions, having fired very few shots.  Theoretically, and I am sure that this has happened, one can achieve the top position without firing a single shot.  The games may involve trying to 'kill' the other team, however they also contain a strong element of teamwork.  In fact, many first person shooters have a play mode called capture the flag in which, although the exact method varies, winning always revolves around capturing the flag.  The only 'killing' essential to a team's victory is preventing an opponent from capturing one's team's flag, distracting the opponent so a member of one's team can obtain the enemy's flag, or for recovery of one's team's flag from the enemy.  There is much more to many of these games than "kill, and kill again. And then keep killing."  Teamwork is highly involved.

One last thing, these games do not turn "every violent teen male fantasy into reality" they simply display the fantasy in a different medium.  I would argue that the competition is the focus and primary draw.

I live in Toronto, Canada and will tune in tonight to watch this. The CBC is usually known for their one-sided reporting on issues like the Middle East and other supposedly 'left-wing' causes. This is unfortunate, and while it's not all that bad, the sad thing is that the CBC is much like PBS in the states in that it runs off of viewer money. However in our case, the CBC is run solely off our tax dollars and therefore canadians have no real choice in the matter. I will post a reply with a rundown of what transpired during the show.

Completely agree with Steve Tilley. I sent this comment along:

"Greetings,

I am quite shocked by this evening's episode. I expected a more balanced view on this issue. I am quite disappointed with this evening show. I thought Canadian reporting would be more responsible. For example, when the rating labels are talked about, it seems to be strongly suggested that game boxes doesnt do a good job of warning parents. The reality is, the warning label is very clear and the content descriptors on the back of the box clearly explains why the game is rated the way it is.

Furthermore, if the goal of the is to "warn" parents rather than sensationalize the issue, why is parental controls, available on every major console today, not even mentionned once?

Will somebody take responsability for this biased and sensationalist reporting? There was plenty of people who could have given you a balanced view on the issue. There is so much I could write. I hope somone can restore my faith in the Fifth Estate by answering this comment at the very least because I doubt a more balanced view will ever be reported".

I am terribly terribly disappointed with this evening's show. The Fifth Estate has become the canadian Fox News in my mind.

And to close, they present clips from next week's show: a look inside a safe injection site in Vancouver for heroin addicts.  Coincidence?  Hmm.

---
The Mammon Industry

Wow I was expecting it to be bad, but it was EVEN WORSE than I imagined. At one point the reporter thought that the storyline of the Halo series of videogames was about "killing robots in the future" to paraphrase. Killing robots?!? Now what kind of "investigative" journalism is this? I call upon all Canadians to inform the CBC about the crap journalism on their channel.

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/contact.html

Hey, why isn't this up on there site yet? It's almost 11.

And why are they called The Fifth Estate? How many branches of government do you Canadians have?

---------------------------------

Internet troll > internet paladin

I watched the show at 8EST (time shifting) and it was very one sided. I find it funny how they described Halo as a game of robots killing each other. They interviewed some random kids at a MLG event, and Fifth Estate said they came for the lastest video games as if it's E3, even though it was only Halo 3.

Where I had the most fun was how they tried to block team logos in the MLG videos, I could still tell what teams they are such as Str8 Rippin and Carbon.

I watched the first half of it before getting frustrated and just watching a movie.

She said at one point that game ratings were enforced by law in Ontario, which is false.

She also said that Call of Duty was what was refered to as an "FPS" in gaming circles, but then immediately called it a role playing game.

And she had some moron on there who was apparently a recovered "gaming addict", and this guy seemed like a total psycho.  "I get mad when I shoot them and they don't die.  When I shoot them in the head it feels good".

And the most frustrating part was when she was talking to a game industry representative who told her that most M rated games sold to minors were bought by parents, and the reporter said "well, there's no warning label on the box telling me that there is content in the game I don't want my children to see".  And then just totally ignored the woman when she told her the rating and content descriptors were right on the front of the box.

That really bothers me because games have the rating posted much more clearly than a movie does, plus they have content descriptors that allow you to get a sense of how far a game gets into teen type content or mature type content, but the way she talked about game labeling you could just tell she had never looked over a video game cover in her life but she still felt she had good reason to criticize the labeling on national TV.

WTF seriously...

apparently 'It took time skill and practice' but they 'received army training from a 'kindly cyber mentor'' (in game story cut scene with an scripted AI talking... nothing to do with 'training') 

and soon brandon crisp was 'emerging as a star' getting '6 or 7 kills per round'... (wtf.. star with.. what? you dont automatically play in tournaments.. and 6 or 7 kills per round.. 'a star' .. wtf?

all i cant say.. again.. WTF.

What was the name of his clan on Gamebattles again?  The one with no matches played?

I'm upset. My lambasting comment never went through :(