A teenage boy who ran away from home last month after his Xbox was confiscated has been found dead in Canada.

Brandon Crisp, 15, went missing on October 14 after his father forbade him from playing his video game console after becoming concerned about the teenager’s obsession with the online game Call of Duty 4.

Steve Crisp said he removed the Xbox 360 after his son’s behaviour began to change. He said Brandon’s grades were slipping, he had started skipping school and stealing money.

Brandon fled his home on his bicycle and was last seen in a popular hiking and cycling path near Barrie, Ontario, north of Toronto.

A local newspaper and Xbox creators Microsoft offered a $C50,000 reward (27,000pounds) and 1600 volunteers searched the local area, but all they found was his abandoned bicycle with a flat tyre.

Brandon’s body was found by hunters in a cornfield on Wednesday.

Read the article on TimesOnline.co.uk

Commentary

It is much easier to take the xbox out of the house than it is to take it out of your son’s heart. It is not uncommon for gamers to become violent when their game systems are taken away but this may be the first. The key is to help your gamer say “no” himself if at all possible.

What do you think?

Listen to the Episode.

This growing trend to shelter and protect our children is limiting their options for adventure until the only choice is inside the game world. Many moms like how games keep their children quiet and at home where they can be kept out of “real” trouble.  I would contend that the outside world is not as dangerous as an Xbox.

Here is a video about 5 dangerous things your children can do. Its not long and I think it offers a healthy perceptive on sheltering children.

If you want to provide opportunities for your children to do dangerous real world things I recommend buying a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys and the Daring Book for Girls. These books offer fun real life adventures such as starting a fire, skinning a rabbit and building a tree house.

It is not fair to  tell you child to stop playing on the computer without giving him an alternative more interesting than homework and chores. Children long for adventure, they long to experience childhood. We need to stop protecting them from natural childhood experiences.

What do you think? Are children today to sheltered from the natural world?

“In March 1999, a small number of Californians discovered a new world called Norrath, populated by an exotic but industrious people. About 12,000 people call this place their permanent home, although some 60,000 are present there at any given time. The nominal hourly wage is about USD 3.42 per hour, and the labors of the people produce a GNP per capita somewhere between that of Russia and Bulgaria. A unit of Norrath’s currency is traded on exchange markets at USD 0.0107, higher than the Yen and the Lira. The economy is characterized by extreme inequality, yet life there is quite attractive to many.

The population is growing rapidly, swollen each each day by hundreds of emigres from various places around the globe, but especially the United States. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the new world is its location. Norrath is a virtual world that exists entirely on 40 computers in San Diego. Unlike many internet ventures, virtual worlds are making money — with annual revenues expected to top USD 1.5 billion by 2004 — and if network effects are as powerful here as they have been with other internet innovations, virtual worlds may soon become the primary venue for all online activity.”

Edward Castronova. “Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier” December 2001. CESifo Working Paper Series No. 618. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828

I doubt this is still true since many EQ players have moved over to WoW but it is still interesting.

Trailer:

It looks interesting. Once it comes out expect a full review here on the blog. For more info visit SecondSkinfilm.com

“Come on, Mom. … Just a few more minutes; I’m almost done with this level.” Parents have all heard it: a child’s pleading to get just a little more time to play. I know. I was that child.

When I lived in a college dorm, my room was across the hall from a gamer, whom I will call “Dominique.”He played the computer game World of Warcraft for sixteen hours or more each day. He stopped going to class and eating at the cafeteria, and he withdrew from anyone outside of the game. He took only brief breaks to pick up fast food to eat while playing. The artificial greatness of gaining Level 70 replaced the adventure of following Christ in his life. How could someone become so consumed by a mere game?

The Problem
Unfortunately, Dominique’s story is not an isolated occurrence. Nearly 2.8 million gamers play for thirty hours a week or more. Some of those gamers play for as many as sixty, or even eighty, hours a week. Oh, and gaming is not just for kids anymore. According to the Entertainment Software Association, gamers are thirty-three-years-old, on average, and sixty-nine percent of American heads of households play digital games.

It gets worse. Imagine those hard-core gamers as parents and spouses. The resulting impact on their families is similar to any addition: neglect, abandonment, and divorce. There are online groups, such as EverQuest Widows and World of Warcraft Widows, which together have over 10,000 members. Many of these women believe that they have lost their husbands to gaming addiction. While some have filed for divorce, others feel separated by a digital chasm that they cannot cross, and they do not know what to do. They are bitter, hurt, and angry. Their stories would break your heart.

One woman posted the story of how her husband quit work so he could have more time to play. After a while, he hardly talked to her as he spent his entire day in the digital world. When she went through a difficult pregnancy, her husband was so glued to his game that her parents had to move in to care for her. Now her son is two years old and has spent maybe twelve hours of quality time with his father—ever. Her grief is palpable as she describes feeling abandoned, a single mom in the presence of her husband.

What appears to be an innocent pastime can easily become a slippery slope into a life-devouring addiction. But what makes games so addictive?

Your Brain on Games
You have probably heard long, scientific words like endorphins, adrenaline, and dopamine in connection with drugs like cocaine. You might be familiar with how they can cause addictive reactions. You probably have educated your children about the dangers of addiction and warned them to stay away—far away—from drugs. What you may not know is that a gaming addiction involves the same biochemicals as cocaine.

Several British researchers did a study on the brain in which their test subjects played a game while a PET scanner monitored their brain activity. They found a “two-fold increase in levels of extracellular dopamine” while the gamers were playing. Dopamine is what gives a high similar to that of cocaine. And for good reason: it is the same chemical released when you take cocaine. Dopamine, adrenaline, and endorphins unite to form a powerfully addictive combination. This is why it is so hard to get your son to stop playing and go to bed.

Longing for Significance
However, the draw of computer games goes much deeper than just biochemicals. Gaming also artificially satisfies our longing for significance. In digital games, players do not compete for a regional high school match. They play for the Super Bowl. They do not save a cat out of a tree; the save the world. Video gaming offers an easy path to artificial greatness, without the responsibility and hard work required for true success.

I think it is this need for significance, more than the biochemicals, that entices people like Dominique. The more he played, the more significant he became in the game, and the less significant he became in the real world. This draw for significance sucked him into a virtual world as much as physically possible.

Shepherding Your Gamer’s Heart
What do you do if you have a child who is into digital gaming? There is no simple answer. Taking the PlayStation out of the living room is much easier than taking it out of your child’s heart. Your gamer may have a chemical and emotional addiction to the gaming experience, and removing the Xbox may be as effective as getting all the beer out of the house of an alcoholic.

The best thing to do depends on the age of your gamer. Removing the games or game system is more effective for younger children. If your gamer is older, he will need to understand the problem so that he can say “no” himself. I have watched many teens either count the days until graduation or just play at a friend’s house because their parents threw away the console. The PlayStation may have been out of the house, but it lingered in the heart of the gamer like a cancer.

Some gamers need nothing less than spiritual surgery, and this can only be done by the hand of the Great Physician. God did this to me by refocusing my priorities on Christ. My Web site, Cgames.com, has a test for gamers to use to examine their hearts to see if gaming has become a problem. You may find it helpful when discussing this issue. The site contains many other resources to help you deal with this difficult problem.

Thomas Umstattd, a former gamer, directs Cgames.com, a Web site and podcast dedicated to providing a Christian perspective on digital games. He graduated from twelve years of home schooling in 2004 and is currently writing a book on the dangers of digital gaming, offering a plan for action.

Franklin Springs a family media company has put together a DVD on how to create an amazing tree house. In the sneak-peak they mention how the last several generations of men have missed out on the joy of holding a hammer and making something with their own hands. They even mention video gaming as one of the causes.

Many young men turn to gaming because they don’t have a father active in their lives. If you are a dad and want to help your son with his gaming addiction, buy him a power saw and a hammer and teach him how to use it. If you don’t know how, the Measure Twice Cut Once DVD may be just what you need.

For more information you can visit FranklinSprings.com or watch the DVD trailer.