Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. Despite the Brandon Crisp thing happening months ago, CBC has nevertheless decided to hop onto the late bandwagon and strongly implicate videogames in his death. Apparently, a 15-year-old running away from home and falling out of a tree is evidence that gaming has a "dark side," and CBC wishes to explore it in an upcoming programme.
"When Brandon Crisp’s parents took away his Xbox, they had no idea that their attempt to restrict their son’s video gaming would lead to tragedy. In retaliation, Brandon ran away. His body was found three weeks later. His disappearance, and death, became a national news story as it revealed a dark side to what many thought was a harmless entertainment. Gillian 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."
Brandon Crisp's death was a case of teenage rebellion going wrong, with the videogame implication being tenuous at best. CBC's claim that it "revealed a dark side" is bunk, and in fact so off-base that if they're choosing to hinge the entire show around that incident, we'll be in for one of the biggest stretches of imagination and reason since Denis Dyack told us that Too Human was good.
Maybe it'll be a fair and even-handed report, but the forecast is looking bleak. The show airs on CBC at 9pm tonight, and I recommend that those in charge of making it read our article about things we can ban instead of videogames, to put this so-called "dark side" into perspective.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
9:00 AM on 03.06.2009
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My friend Ricky got his collarbone broken once playing 2hand touch in a field by my house. Perhaps we should investigate that, and, as Jim so aptly puts it "ban that sick filth" too.
As far as the CBC is concerned, MOST of the time they do things fairly. That being said, as far as the Fith Estate is concerned, I don't know...I haven't watched much of it lately.
I'm not too worried.
GTA & Manhunter for every pre-schooler!
You can tell video games have had a detrimental effect on that man.
It's the kid's fault and partially the parents fault for not teaching him that homeless people die in Canada every year because it's TOO COLD to live on the streets in sub arctic temperatures.
I thought you was from Mississippi not fancy Franceland. ;-)
@sickNasty - I'm with you 100% on that one.
after an fps gaming marathon the parents threatened to take away his xbox, so the child stood up, beat them parents to death with a controller yelling "pwned bitches!", "fragged!", "wtf am I supposed to do? play my PS2?!!!!" and "don't take away my xbox, I can't live without my xbox!!"
It would still be questionable whether it was just some nutjob or whether games had any influence, but it would be closer.
At best the Brandon Crisp story demonstrates that parents need to be more proactive in raising their kids so that things don't get so out of hand over something as trivial as a video game. My head aches to see them try to spin that into a portrayal of the "dark side" of gaming.
It is sad, though. =\
Time was when they were distinctly different from the news availible through Global and CTV. They used to emphasize stuff like 'standards' 'class' and 'research' but now they've embraced the American model of news broadcasting.
The Fifth Estate is about all thats left of value, their day-to-day broadcasts are a lost cause. Seeing them regurgitate the Crisp story with the bullshit VG framing would have been a shocker a few years back, but now, sadly, its just more fail for the failpile.
*palm to face
CBC not CBS. the CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Watching now.
Oh no worries then, nothing Canadian matters.