Teenager Runs Away From Home Over Call Of Duty 4

[ElephantGuts]

I hate to sound unintelligent here, but that kid's a loser. Addicted to COD4? Running away from home because he can't play it? Not very serious to me. And where they said

"Over the last couple of years, Brandon has become less involved in sports and extremely involved in Call of Duty 4

I hope that was just a mistake, because that sounds a lot like the media badmouthing and lying about video games again, but this isn't Fox so it's hopefully a mistake.

 

[Andy Chalk]

First of all, I'm not sure where the criticism of "the media" comes into this. The parents and the police are the ones saying the incident was triggered by CoD.

Second, the kid's 15. Bit undersized from the sounds of it, plays a lot of videogames, withdrawn from other activities he used to have interest in. It's easy to read too much into things, but who knows? Could be having a rough time in school - be in his second year of high school, I suppose, which can be rough - or in other aspects of his life. We have no idea. Taking the game away may have been the last straw.

Furthermore, anyone who claims they didn't do at least one really stupid thing in their teenage years is either a liar or completely missed out on the fun of being a teenager.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Over reactive, but what to expect from someone who's definitely too young to make well planned and well judged decisions.

 

[Milkatron]

The whole thing is wrong. There are numbers of things that can be blamed, and the game is the last of them. The fault lies with the parents for being unable to talk to the kid, and to the kid for not being able to talk to the parents. You're not supposed to immediately set boundaries, that's a recipe for failure. This is all failure to communicate by both sides and could be easily resolved by a mutual agreement. You can't blame the game for this, it doesn't think.

I hope parents see this and think more of communication issues than "games is bad, no child of mine shall play this terrible object of Satan (or something along those lines)".

 

[Sgt. Giggles]

Quite a dumb reason to get upset enough to run away from home, but in today's society I can't say I'm completely surprised. Hopefully this news isn't widespread enough to feed more fuel to the American media's anti-video game fire.

 

[Dante_Alucard]

1 down, 250,000 15 year olds shit talkers left to go. Line them up.

 

[RAWKSTAR]

My word,
Times... they are a changin'!

 

[Raven28256]

Now, I don't claim to know everything about this kid and his parents, but generally, true obsession starts because the person is trying to escape something. If you notice that your child is truly becoming obsessed over something, then it is a good idea to sit down and talk with them. There might be a reason WHY they are being drawn away from what they used to like for something else. They mention he used to like sports and has become distant from it. Maybe he is being bullied by other players on the school team, if he is involved in school sports?

You don't just magically develop an obsession overnight. I'd bet that this wasn't about the game but that there is something else bothering him...He was just using the game as a means of escaping his problems. Most people develop an obsession over something they like because it helps them deal with a problem by forgetting about it.

Again, I'm not trying to say this is what is happening, just that it is a possibility and the parents just didn't notice, and instead jumped on the "blame the games!" bandwagon. It is much more logical than "OMG the Satanic video games made him do it!!"

 

[Cid Silverwing]

I think there's a pattern forming here...

 

[BBLIZZARD]

He's throwing away his life! Someone should tell him how much CoD4 sucks!

 

[SunoffaBeach]

Hm...COD4 must be better than I thought it was.

 

[stompy]

Post

That's quite the analysis, and I agree with it. If the kid was obsessed, then why didn't the parents act on it before?

Frankly, this thing sounds like an over-reaction. My only worry is that Anton's scenario happen.

 

[Imitation Saccharin]

I'd know my parents would have alerted the police already. Dumping it in a direction altogether unassociated with where he was holed up ...to keep them off his trail

He's 15, not Solid Snake.

 

[b4dsmllz]

My word,
Times... they are a changin'!

Guess the parents never heard that song

 

[ImmortalItalian]

1 down, 250,000 15 year olds shit talkers left to go. Line them up.

That's one out of those thousands you won't be hearing on Live. <3

 

[Amnestic]

I'd know my parents would have alerted the police already. Dumping it in a direction altogether unassociated with where he was holed up ...to keep them off his trail

He's 15, not Solid Snake.

Again, that was speaking from what I remember of being a 15 year old (3 years ago, to reiterate). You watch enough of those TV cop dramas they start to ingrain themselves in your head. ;D

 

[hem dazon 90]

hes dead