Phillipe, a five-year-old otter who resides in Achewood often tortures himself by asking his friend, LieBot, about sad occurrences in the world.
"LieBot," he says, "what's the saddest thing?"
LieBot is always obliging with an answer, usually something to do with a simple man crying over a cracked chicken egg and promising this egg that one day it will be a real chicken capable of a loving friendship. I felt as helpless as Phillipe when I read about the death of 15-year-old Brandon Crisp, a boy who ran away from home when his parents made him stop playing Call of Duty 4. It's especially bad news for his parents, who called his bluff and helped him back when he threatened to run away. Ouch ouch ouch.
Crisp's disappearance brought to light a lot of discussion about video game addiction, some of it enlightening and a lot of it negative. There's been a small surge of "Look what games do to our kids" chest-thumping by alarmists who (as usual) ignore the core problem: addiction. Addiction has few prejudices. If Crisp hadn't become addicted to Call of Duty 4, he could have just as easily fallen into alcohol, drugs or monkey-sniffing.
I do feel badly for his parents because they noticed a problem and tried to tackle it with good old fashioned discipline. Taking away the source of the issue makes sense, but fighting addiction is not like straight-up behaviour correction. I'm not a psychologist or even smart, but I believe the generation gap also played a part in the conflict. Chances are there are a lot of adults out there who just see video games as an extension of the idiot box: turn it off and the kid will find something else to do. But games are different. They give you a sense of accomplishment that can fill inner gaps you never knew you had. Approval, of course, is addictive. I never knew I cared about Xbox Live Achievements until I realised "Hey, I like this little army of icons I have on my profile! They make me feel good (and they tell me to burn things at night)!"
Aside from hoping Crisp's family finds some peace someday, I hope others will take away a lesson from this episode other than, "Holy shit, look what happened in Canada, get that demon box out of our house."
Related Links:
One Crazy Summer of Arcade
Ender's Game: Where Are All the Fictional Games?