Brandon Crisp went missing from his home in the Southern Ontario city of Barrie, Canada, on Monday Oct 13. Multiple reports state that the child left his home after an argument with his parents which culminated with Brandon’s father, Steve Crisp, confiscating his Xbox 360. Despite air and ground searches, as well as a massive flyer campaign, the boy is yet to be found.

“He left because we took his Xbox away,” said Steve Crisp, who also asserts that his son was losing sleep because he spent so much time playing the mature-rated Call of Duty 4. “This was his addiction,” he added.

Now a child psychologist from the same city, Dr. Ken Marek, has given his opinion on the negative effects of videogames.

“You’re essentially just sitting there, staring at the screen and other aspects of your brain aren’t being exercised. A child could be great at these games, but can’t handle doing fractions in math,”

“The real danger of playing video games is when the child isn’t able to differentiate reality from fantasy,” he added. “They get trapped in a mindset that what characters do is fun and OK so it must be the same for us in real life.”

And yes! Microsoft has doubled the reward for a missing child gamer from $25,000 to $50,000. Microsoft makes the game console, Xbox, Brandon used to play Call of Duty 4, the game his parents say their son was addicted to and led to his disappearance.

Ok,i admit! im a gamer since i was 13! aside from atari, family computer, old school playstation… first MMORPG ive played was The Legend of MIR, City of Heroes, Black Hawk Down, etc… and not to mention i currently have PS3, XBox, WII, Game Cube ( which is crappy ) etc etc etc and oh! yea! me and my dad use to play Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter! believe it or not… we did!

But when it comes to differentiating reality from fantasy… i never did have a problem with that coz yea up to now i am still playing the ever famous World of Warcraft. Before, yea it was very too addicting but eventually you will lose interest if you have basically achieved what you wanted in-game and NOT forgetting whats really out there in real life. i know that there are some people who are having trouble differentiating reality from fantasy and believe me! OMG! its so freaky! theres this dude i know… OMFG who has been hallucinating and making up stories or i dont know! maybe craving for too much attention. ( Dude! you’re playing too much! quit it and get a life! before you lose it! ) Bottom line, its all in the mind on how you handle things and the situation that you are in and how you use your brain. Do not imagine things that are wayyy far from reality.

but anyway, thats beside the point. In my opinion, The only reason this is garnering so much attention is because it’s about a video game. Wake up people, Video games do not cause kids to runaway, be violent, etc. etc. etc. This is just another kid who couldn’t handle punishment and rules and decided that leaving would be easier.

The other thing is, there could be all kinds of problems with this boy and his family. I highly doubt he ran away JUST because they took his 360 away, I’m sure there’s other issues. But that wouldn’t make a very interesting headline I guess, at least not in the way it would make videogames the scapegoat. “Boy ran away from home because the family has had issues for years…” Wow, what a shock. But “Boy ran away because his parents took his xbox away” is much more of an attention grabber…and now we’re talking about it. I feel like such a pawn.

So its been almost what? 2 weeks? Where is he? if they wanted to trace his interaction with other gamers, microsoft should have helped a week ago, it is now too late..did the police check the parents.. this is getting more and more suspicious… It seems a bit strange to me that this is turning into some kind of promotional opportunity. Microsoft became involved, and now “Mantracker”? I suppose it’s good to have all the help you can get, but there’s something odd about it. But, one thing that amazes me is that the goodness in people willing to close down a store and drive miles to help another unrelated person. His safety and well being is the only thing that matters right now. Question is… did he relly ran away?