According to earlier reports, Brandon told his parents he would run away if his system was not returned and, in an effort to "call his bluff," his father helped the teen pack his belongings. Brandon's parents now fear that he has been "lured by gamers" through the Xbox Live gaming service, "It could be organized crime or someone involved in Internet gambling. Pedophiles can stalk kids through these games," Brandon's father told The Star.
While it's easy to argue how Xbox Live is being misrepresented in this situation the fact remains that Brandon, who purchased Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare -- an M Rated title intended for gamers 17 and above -- with his own Christmas money, is still missing and his family is completely distraught. We hope for his safe return home.
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)
10-24-2008 @ 12:34PM
yolarrydabomb said...
word.
10-24-2008 @ 12:45PM
A1exander1 said...
Another case of turning the blame to video games and media when what we have here is another example of bad parenting without being willing to accept responsibility. Epic fail.
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10-24-2008 @ 12:51PM
MyGirlHatesBox said...
I live near this kid and heard about this at work, 4 days ago. I didnt beleive the guys that where telling me about this.
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10-24-2008 @ 12:52PM
Mcfail said...
Quick someone caption that pic so I can start my LOLparents website ! and why is that kid in a grad gown in his pic, he's 15 what did he graduate from? Seriously though , I'm a new parent and a Canadian and I would not let my son play that much CoD4, unless he had his own xbox... maybe
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10-24-2008 @ 12:55PM
YakuzaElite said...
This is the reason why parents need to watch which games their children are playing and keep an eye on them. If they see that he is obsessively playing the game, they should have intervened in in a different way. The sad part is no matter how much we blame the parents (Xbox live has nothing to do with this), or say we feel sorry for them, its really up to Brandon to come home. I think that a 15 year old kid should not be playing these type of games what so ever. They are rated 17+ for a reason. Its funny how parents blame anything other than themselves for their mistakes.
I live in Toronto, barrie is like a 30 min drive from where I am. Come back home Brandon, us Canadians wish you the best hope for your safety.
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10-24-2008 @ 1:03PM
Scwhoogie said...
These parents are morons. It's their fault their little bastard played the game as much as he did, and it's their fault for them not spending time with him as parents. I played games as a kid, a shitload, but when my parents said enough's enough, I knew it was time to quit.
Parents/Kids these days are all waterheads.
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10-24-2008 @ 1:41PM
DBell said...
I'm a resident of Oro-Medonte, it's got a population of only 16, 000. I know the area where he went missing, and in this close-knit community, 6 degrees of separation is usually only 2 or 3. There are literally thousands of people looking for Brandon right now. I'm glad to know that here, he has over 10% of the population looking for him, and that he has loved ones who want to find him. I'd like to think there aren't people here that would contribute to his death. That being said, organized crime is minimal here. We are such a rural community that online luring is highly unlikely. But these parents fear the worst. They're pointing at the finger at other things such as Call of Duty 4 - but of course they feel the pain. Their child ran away on Thanksgiving, maybe forever. It's altogether likely that video-gaming affected him in a different way than it affects you or me - maybe he was anti-social. Maybe he was so incredibly stubborn he decided to stay overnight in the dense forests surrounding the area. Maybe no one will ever see him alive again? It's a shame that the parents are blaming other things for their mistake. It's a shame that the media is taking their misfortune and turning into an anti-gaming story - when it's not a story about Call of Duty. It's a story about a missing boy. The worst shame is how the gaming community at large is reacting to this tragedy. Some of you should be disgusted with yourselves.
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10-24-2008 @ 1:57PM
ryan said...
How should the gaming community react when their community is called out on because of a missing boy? Should we let this go and agree that xbox LIVE led to his disappearance like the parents are suggesting? Or do we find a rational explanation for his disappearance?
It's sucks, true. I had a 33 year old brother disappear and die in Washington state, face down in a river. But he was sick in the head and far from help. It was an unfortunate circumstance for everyone.
But to place the blame of this boy's disappearance on something silly as "online gaming" is just stupid. It's obvious the parents did not raise him to limit his game time, and just be more social with him. The dad packing his bags to call his bluff just shows the level of understanding he had with his son.
10-24-2008 @ 4:54PM
Scott Summers said...
How.....are we the bad guys? We're not the XBL Mafia, pal. His dad packed his bag for him. He let the kid play a M-Rated game. You uh....you might wanna read the article better.
10-24-2008 @ 5:01PM
DBell said...
I think death supercedes ego when it comes to being appropriate. I never said you weren't within your rights to be offended. I just think a lot of the gamers are responding in an absolutely shameful way considering the context of the situation. Furthermore, my other gripe was with how the media is transforming a story about a missing boy into a story about gaming gone wrong. Which is exactly what THIS article did.
10-24-2008 @ 5:22PM
Scott Summers said...
And as you'd just said in your earlier post..."Literally thousands of people looking for him"- you really think they're not gonna find him? You need to chill the hell out, dude. It's like I just wrote a while ago on here.
"Uhm, dude...we're responding to what we SEE. What exactly do you expect when we're given a set of information? To suddenly know more than what's going on? Sorry, pal. Doesn't work like that. Not to mention the parents blamed a system we all use happily(Well, most of us anyways)? What, exactly, do you think we're gonna do? XBL's already a shark's pond as it sits. Parents opening their mouths and bagging on something that wasn't the problem when it's already bad enough as it sits isn't gonna help XBL's rep get any better. So you're damn right we're gonna respond defensively and point out the douchebaggery when we see it. Get off your high horse."
10-24-2008 @ 6:18PM
DBell said...
It's just sad that someone who has so much to say on an issue has to concentrate so negatively.
10-24-2008 @ 2:02PM
roral sampler said...
It's a shame that with the Gaming industry going the way it is that parents still see it as a negative. "Gaming" is becoming a normal things, these parents complain that their son spent all his summer indoors playing games and not playing sports or doing "useful" activities. Gaming is not a bad thing, would his parents complain if he spent 8 hours a day building his skill in a sport? Probably not. Was running away a mature thing to do? Probably not. Both the kid and the parents are to blame, Not Xbox Live. Next time i log on COD4 i will make sure to look out for the mafia though....... Sigh why is gaming still an easy source to point a finger at?
Both the Parents and the Kid need to grow up.
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10-24-2008 @ 2:11PM
txshurricane said...
No one is blaming the game. Why is everyone so defensive?
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10-24-2008 @ 2:23PM
Antifuse said...
Umm, except for the part where his parents say he probably ran away because he was "lured by gamers" through Xbox Live. As opposed to running away because first his parents took away his XBox, and then packed his bags for him to help him run away.
10-24-2008 @ 2:43PM
Doug said...
Is this the Xbox Live "community?"
Xav, how can you work for a site like this when your readers are ghouls? You're writing for a bunch of 15-year old trolls who would rip parents from a newspaper article. What if the boy had ADD/ADHD? What if he was mentally unstable?
This is just sick, this whole thing. And X3F, you know this is going to happen when you post this with the title "Blames online games."
These parents are ignorant to Live, but that doesn't disqualify them from being human. I'm going to go throw up now. Can't check this site anymore.
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10-24-2008 @ 5:01PM
Scott Summers said...
Uhm, dude...we're responding to what we SEE. What exactly do you expect when we're given a set of information? To suddenly know more than what's going on? Sorry, pal. Doesn't work like that. Not to mention the parents blamed a system we all use happily(Well, most of us anyways)? What, exactly, do you think we're gonna do? XBL's already a shark's pond as it sits. Parents opening their mouths and bagging on something that wasn't the problem when it's already bad enough as it sits isn't gonna help XBL's rep get any better. So you're damn right we're gonna respond defensively and point out the douchebaggery when we see it. Get off your high horse.
10-24-2008 @ 2:45PM
Waff said...
Little xbox live boys are tasty.
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10-24-2008 @ 5:36PM
Neato said...
nasty dude lmfao
10-24-2008 @ 2:52PM
Phil J W said...
HEY! i sent this is! Wheres the credit??
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