Overwritten.net

Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Pugnate on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 10:48:38 AM

Title: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Pugnate on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 10:48:38 AM
I've been following this story for the past week (by following, I mean noticing it on Kotaku), and am pretty shocked that the boy was found dead. Pretty awful..

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5095138.ece
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Cobra951 on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 11:57:49 AM
Quote
That's like cutting his legs off.
. . .
I just took away his identity, so I can understand why he got so mad and took off. Before, I couldn't understand why he was taking off for taking his game away.

This is crucial.  Too late for this kid.  Once parents neglect a kid long enough for this to happen, they can't suddenly take it all away and expect anything less serious than DTs.  It's a hell of a lot bigger deal than it seems.

I'm really sorry to hear that.  The story doesn't mention what happened to him.  Was it exposure, an accident, foul play?
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Pugnate on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 12:16:19 PM
I was wondering about his cause of death myself, but it wasn't mentioned.

I was just sad to see the loss of life, and didn't really care that it had to do with gaming.

While I do back parents who feel drastic steps are necessary, they shouldn't really let it get to that point in the first place. You just can't ignore your kid for 15 years, let him get hooked on "bad influences", and then suddenly take everything away without taking other steps. Gaining the confidence of your children is important, yet going too far and letting your child do as they please isn't a good idea either.

I suspect this kid had few school friends, and had inadvertently started depending on COD4 as a means of gaining some sort of a social life. Unfortunately, Xbox Live is no place for a young teen. While I haven't used the service, I've heard from friends (online and off) that it is full of ill mannered and crazy idiots. And I can imagine a socially inept 15 year old, letting that sort of social circle influence his behavior in real life.

As I get older, I realize that parenting is most definitely one of the toughest jobs in the world.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Cobra951 on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 12:35:37 PM
What I was getting at is that these parents understood, too late, that what they did was too drastic.  They didn't just take away a toy.  They took away his life.  Not saying it was right to let it get to that.  I am saying that once it does, you can't just snatch it away any more than cutting off a diver's air hose.  Some sort of rehab process is needed.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Pugnate on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 01:12:19 PM
Ahh... yea, we are in agreement.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Quemaqua on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 02:33:55 PM
Absolutely.  It's a lifeline to a lot of people, just like the internet.  I think it's the same debate as went on with people shutting themselves into their houses to sit in front of the computer 24 hours a day, it's just extended to games now because games involve people so much more.  Same with MMOs.  MMOs and online games draw in the same kinds of people who got hooked on chatrooms back when AOL first became popular.  My cynical side just calls it thinning the herd of the weak people too stupid to successfully live in real life, but that's probably no fair at all.  Especially when you're talking about kids.

Unfortunately, with kids the source of the problem is that parents need to be more active in the lives of their children and not allow them to escape to something like that, but nobody will ever call the parents out on it.  They'll just say "Boy, he was addicted to video games... damn those evil video games."  Damn you for being worthless parents, or at least not being aware enough to realize what was actually bothering your son and then failing to discipline him in a constructive way.  I'm a big fan of discipline, but it doesn't work if you just neglect it for years and then suddenly try to use it as a one-off against some problem that crops up.  That leads to results like this.

Of course we don't know that the guy is a bad parent or that he never disciplined his kid.  The kid could have had other problems or been a little addled.  I'm just saying.

Also, one of the comments on the article says that the kid basically ran out into the snow in a t-shirt.  That makes it sound to me like the kid probably just ran off in a fit of rage, then realized all too late just how quickly weather can kill an unprotected individual, which would make this more of a tragedy than the article let on.  The kid's immediate emotions may well have been what got him killed.  If he'd just run to his room and locked the door instead, or gone to a friend's house, or... uh, gotten in trouble in summer, maybe it wouldn't have happened.  What a shame.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: iPPi on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 05:16:43 PM
I followed this story as well.  Definitely tragic, but I don't like how the certain news sites (CBC for example), are trying to put the blame on video games, when in fact it was the parents' fault.  I'm too lazy to type out crap so just read Que's post, because it sums up my thoughts nicely.  :P

Edit:  Autopsy finds that he did not freeze to death, but suffered chest injuries relating to a fall from a tree.  Foul play has been ruled out.  http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/11/08/crisp.html
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Pugnate on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 05:22:25 PM
Ahh shit. Poor kid.

And isn't the game M rated?
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: iPPi on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 05:28:48 PM
Yea the kid was obsessed with Call of Duty 4, which is M rated.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Pugnate on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 05:31:34 PM
So it throws any criticism of the game out of the window. We all know the drill... the game wasn't designed for someone of his age yada yada yada.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Quemaqua on Saturday, November 08, 2008, 06:47:33 PM
I blame the questionable game design elements of running away from home, crawling through snow without proper safety gear, and jumping out of trees.  This death could so easily have been prevented if all you did in the game was shoot guns at people.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: shock on Sunday, November 09, 2008, 05:44:11 AM
How sad.  I was following the story as well. 

And I won't beat the horse by saying the same stuff as the rest of you about online games being more than "just a video game"
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: gpw11 on Sunday, November 09, 2008, 02:12:13 PM
I blame the kid.  Don't worry - I've already thrown the book at him.


Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Cobra951 on Sunday, November 09, 2008, 02:20:13 PM
He's dead.  There's no need for tough love now.  It just makes you look heartless, with no up side.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: ren on Sunday, November 09, 2008, 03:43:27 PM
Autopsy says he fell out of a tree
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: WindAndConfusion on Sunday, November 09, 2008, 03:54:53 PM
Story gets even more fucked up:

Quote
When he said he was going to run away on Thanksgiving Monday, his father helped him pack his knapsack and let him leave – assuming, he said, that Brandon would be back hours later or at worst the next day.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/531082
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: idolminds on Sunday, November 09, 2008, 04:39:54 PM
Ok, I'm going to hell. Found on Shacknews.
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: gpw11 on Sunday, November 09, 2008, 04:48:50 PM
Quote from: idolminds on Sunday, November 09, 2008, 04:39:54 PM
Ok, I'm going to hell. Found on Shacknews.
(click to show/hide)

Holy shit, that is awesome.  I also just realized this kid was fifteen years old.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Quemaqua on Sunday, November 09, 2008, 04:56:54 PM
I hope it isn't wrong to laugh at that.  Because I kind of did...  :-\
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Dragonlor on Friday, November 14, 2008, 04:31:23 AM
I agree with some of the things you say about the parents are to blame but then again i disagree with some of it as well.  Like what Que said the parent's should have possibly been more active with the child or payed more attention to him.  But he was fifteen I remember clearly I was able to rationalize weather doing one thing was right or wrong.  honestly do you think they could have done anything else besides take the xbox away.  he's a 15 year old he would find a way around the rules if they tried to limit his time on it.  Sorry I honestly think the kid is at fault as well for not being able to logically think about the whole situation.  Also for the comment about him dad packing stuff up for him, big deal.  I was going to run away once when i was a kid and my mom told me if i came back she was going to beat the shit out of me.  I can understand why one would want to blame the parent, but the parent is always blame it's never the kids fault.  I just hate that kind of thinking.

But now that being said it is sad that the kid died.  That had to be a pretty painful death.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Cobra951 on Friday, November 14, 2008, 12:13:24 PM
The kid needed discipline, and that had to start by reducing play time.  My problem is the complete ignorance of the proper way to do that with a game addict.  Of course it's the kid's fault.  15 isn't 5.  But informed adult guidance could have prevented it.  Even so, I'm still not blaming the parents.  They just didn't see the trap and fell into it.  The snap killed one and seriously injured at least 2 others.  Tragedy all around.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Quemaqua on Friday, November 14, 2008, 06:58:03 PM
I blame the parents mostly because I suspect this kid's problems began well before they yoinked his box away from him.  I imagine the fact that he was so obsessed was probably already related to some other stupidity on their part.  I have little to no faith in the average parent these days.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Cools! on Friday, November 14, 2008, 10:30:38 PM
This happened not too far from where I live.

The kid ran away and died from a chest injury, that's it. It could've happened to any child, wether or not they ran away because of an XBox or some other stupid reason. Kids do stupid things all the time and parents can't control it all. This is an unfortunate accident, and I don't blame the parents for it.

Instead, I think the tree he supposedly fell from should be made an example of so trees don't do this shit to anyone else.
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: Dragonlor on Monday, November 17, 2008, 03:59:05 AM
In reply to cools comment trees are evil murderous creatures.  And i see where you come from Que working in retail I saw a lot of irresponsible parents.  Hell I have a family member that doesn't deserve to see her children.  My sister neglected her children and had them taken away from her for a short time.  She kept one child in the crib he wasn't able to develop good leg muscles till it was taken away.  It started walking well after it should have started.  And yes maybe taking away the xbox wasn't the best choice.  But when someone is obsessed with something trying to restrict their time on it is almost impossible They will find was to play it when not aloud to if it's in the open and available.  The child was just stupid and made the wrong decision.  The parent's or you could have foreseen his death.  But this is only an opinion. I don't have a child but neither do you que, what you say now could be totally different from what you would do if you had a child.  The fact that the father was showing some sort of punishment actually surprises me when most parent's who buy kids expensive stuff like that don't discipline their children at all.  It was just bad choices on both their parts and some unforeseen events.

(edit- maybe there were some other kinds of issues not spoken about for the kid to become obsessed.  Maybe he was bullied or something at school.  But the thing is we don't know.)
Title: Re: Xbox runaway found dead...
Post by: gpw11 on Monday, November 17, 2008, 05:43:26 PM
Quote from: Quemaqua on Friday, November 14, 2008, 06:58:03 PM
I blame the parents mostly because I suspect this kid's problems began well before they yoinked his box away from him.  I imagine the fact that he was so obsessed was probably already related to some other stupidity on their part.  I have little to no faith in the average parent these days.

See, I tend to think most kids these days are just total bitches.  I mean the kid didn't make it a day.  I'm just glad this happened before he got his license.