A teenage boy ran away from his home in Barrie, USA after his parents banned him from playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
Brandon Crisp, 15, was last seen more than a week ago after arguing with his parents over his "fixation" with the FPS, which police say he had become "obsessed" with.
He was last seen riding away from home on his yellow and black mountain bike on October 13.
"Over the last couple of years, Brandon has become less involved in sports and extremely involved in 'Call of Duty 4.' They have found him waking up in the middle of the night playing it," Sgt. Dave Goodbrand told CTV.ca. "Since that day he left home and has not been seen," he added.
Police have been tracking the boy's Xbox Live Gamertag but "he has yet to log on from another location," an officer said.
Brandon is described as male, white, 100 pounds, 5'2", short sandy blond hair. When he was last seen, he was wearing a yellow and grey jacket. Police are appealing to anyone with information to get in touch. If you're reading this and live in Barrie, that's a great name you've got there.
"They have found him waking up in the middle of the night playing it" what? he would go to bed then wake up a few hours later playing COD? thats crazy talk. cue the barrage of "games are bad for you" holy soldier activists who don't have a clue what they're taking about
He's become more obsessed with CoD4 over the last couple of years, has he indeed?
Might want to check the release dates on that one before you go scaremongering, parents. Also, why were they letting him play a game he's not yet old enough for?
Wow, sensitive kid. When I was 12 or 13, my dad more than banned me from my PlayStation, he smashed the damn thing. It was after a particularly heated argument and many instances of me refusing to do chores and stuff because I was too busy playing it. This particular case was washing the car I believe. After refusing multiple times, he ripped the cables out while I was still playing, picked it up and asked me one last time "Are you going to wash the car or not?" to which I replied "No", thinking that surely he wasn't going to break my expensive piece of equipment. So he calmly said "Ok then" and slammed it down on the floor.
It shattered to bits, and what followed from my perspective resembled the beach scene from Saving Private Ryan. Slow motion, no sound, PlayStation parts everywhere, and Final Fantasy VII disc 2 rolling across the room, lost and disoriented having flown out of the 'Station during impact... it was horrifying. That PlayStation cost me every penny of my birthday money, the breakage cost me over 6 months of FFVII downtime while I tried to get a new system, and I still didn't run away from home.
This is possibly one of the most rushed articles i have ever seen. As stated a few comments up, the are some strange typos and COD 4 has not been out for years.
I was like that when i got my new Sega Mega Drive when I was a kid, got told off but never banned, and if I did I wouldn't have run away from home. Kids these days..
Sheesh, parents these days banning their kids from video games. Whats next?! Banning them from food and drink!? And hey, while your at it why not ban them from oxygen too! f**king bastards.
Im surpised at how much humour people find in this article, I mean sure its funny and all, but after you realize hes been missing for a week, you should be concerned, what if the kid kills himself or something?
First of all, Barrie is in Canada, I should know, I go to this kid's school. So BattleMoose it's really not funny. Second of all, you guys are sick. Do you not realize that this kid has been missing for over a week! Not to mention it has snowed in the area today, so if he is in fact lost somewhere, he could be dying as we speak. His family is worried sick. This has become a national issue, so I don't think it is something you should be laughing about. Ok, so he ran away because he got in a fight with his parents, but we don't know what could have happened to him after he ran away. A week is a long time! So to those of you calling him a wuss. I'd say get how about you get off your asses playing these video games, and do something with your life!
Im surpised at how much humour people find in this article, I mean sure its funny and all, but after you realize hes been missing for a week, you should be concerned, what if the kid kills himself or something?
I think if this kid killed himself over this i'd simply put it down to natural selection.
That is sick! He did not kill himself. He ran away, and his body has not been found. You people obviously are not understanding this. Imagine if it was your best friend. How would you feel?
Kids these days... lol! Seriously though my brothers friend (who's 12) has clocked up about 11 days on COD4, twice the amount I have and im a student.
Within a year I clocked around 25 days on one online game, 5 days on another. When you realise online gaming with your mates is fun it gets addicting I didn't run away though, I just quit
That is sick! He did not kill himself. He ran away, and his body has not been found. You people obviously are not understanding this. Imagine if it was your best friend. How would you feel?
"Killed himself over this" may have referred to indirectly killing himself...as in running away caused it.
It's Dark Humour that causes people to laugh. I'm sure if his body was found then the replies may not be filled with humour, but considering the situation, people just block that out of their minds...and reply with some hilarious dark humour. If you personalise it to yourself then obviously it won't be funny, you'll feel anxiety. The humour could be clased as a defence mechanism.
Obviously I'm going to personalize myself over this! I know the kid. I just think it is sick that you can joke about it, I doubt this is a "defense mechanism" considering you guys don't even know the kid. This isn't about the game like you guys seem to think it is. It's about the fact that he has been gone for a week, and no-one has any idea of where he could be. So just because you don't know the Brandon, doesn't give you any right to joke about the tragic loss his family and friends are feeling right now!
Humour is a good defence mechanism...by making a joke out of something and not taking it seirous you avoid the anxiety of it. You personalise yourself with it because you know the kid. You'll feel a lot of grief, something others will want to avoid...
Out of al the people who have made jokes, and laughed at them (including me), I am sure than none of them really want this person to end up dead, and would prefer if he was alive and came back well. It's dark humour, it happens in loads of cases. Whether you agree with it or have laughed at dark humour, there are hundreds of jokes every year to do with deaths, whether it is Princes Diana or 9/11. In a tragedy there are always jokes. It doesn't mean people don't care, it's just dark humour, satire.
So let me get this straight. Kid gets COD4, becomes addicted to it enough to wake up in the middle of the night to play it, gets into an argument with his parents and runs away from home for over a week. and he is 15! I might accept that if he had a mental disability, but come on, running away from home is a bit much! Hopefully someone will slap some sense into him. Oh, and ehurst, welcome to the internet.
Wow, sensitive kid. When I was 12 or 13, my dad more than banned me from my PlayStation, he smashed the damn thing. It was after a particularly heated argument and many instances of me refusing to do chores and stuff because I was too busy playing it. This particular case was washing the car I believe. After refusing multiple times, he ripped the cables out while I was still playing, picked it up and asked me one last time "Are you going to wash the car or not?" to which I replied "No", thinking that surely he wasn't going to break my expensive piece of equipment. So he calmly said "Ok then" and slammed it down on the floor.
It shattered to bits, and what followed from my perspective resembled the beach scene from Saving Private Ryan. Slow motion, no sound, PlayStation parts everywhere, and Final Fantasy VII disc 2 rolling across the room, lost and disoriented having flown out of the 'Station during impact... it was horrifying. That PlayStation cost me every penny of my birthday money, the breakage cost me over 6 months of FFVII downtime while I tried to get a new system, and I still didn't run away from home.
Something about this story just doesn't sit right with me... Ok, so: I can buy a 15 year-old with an unhealthy obsession. I can get the mid-teen hormonal angst causing him to run away from home. I can even believe that computer games can drive kids into doing weird stuff (particularly whe they're playing games that frankly they shouldn't).
Obviously I'm going to personalize myself over this! I know the kid. I just think it is sick that you can joke about it, I doubt this is a "defense mechanism" considering you guys don't even know the kid. This isn't about the game like you guys seem to think it is. It's about the fact that he has been gone for a week, and no-one has any idea of where he could be. So just because you don't know the Brandon, doesn't give you any right to joke about the tragic loss his family and friends are feeling right now!
It is just dark humour and the majority of people don't think it's funny in a realistic sense, but just that we find it humourous that someone would run away over something as trivial as a game. For you to come on here saying you know the kid and that, then you should have noticed the signs of him being 'addicted' to playing it.
Did you ever recommend to him that he should stop playing as much of the game, or as you put it 'get off your lazy ass and get a lif?' Personally I have a life, and I dont need to go befriending young, vulnerable children.
who was the one on crack saying he became more addicted the past couple years, it hasn't even been out a year. it came out the 6th of November, 2007. But, honestly I can understand why he might run away, especially if he is actually mentally addicted to it.
Not all gamers are fat you know! Most of the ones I know (including myself) are skinny to average. I weigh 8 stone (or a tiny bit less) which is 112 pounds. I'm about a stone underweight but considering this kid is 15 and short (like me) it's quite feasible.
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I didn't run away though, I just quit 
