CBC: The Fifth Estate has a story, Top Gun: When a video game obsession turns to addiction and tragedy about the death of Brandon Crisp. They overstate the case against video games. Brandon died not from gaming but from a fall from a tree. Yes, he ran away from home angry that his parents wanted him to stop playing, but running away from home is not new to gaming. Nor is climbing trees. The story then gives us a tour through teenage addiction and peer pressure. The worst part is the porn of showing players concentrating on their playing. Why not show readers reading or people watching the TV? Is 7 hours a day of television a balanced life?
A more balanced view would argue that the problem was not the game but the social commitments that Brandon made to other online players. He got into conflict with his parents because of who he was hanging out with, what they were doing, when they were doing it and his commitments to his gaming buddies. In short he was hanging around with the wrong crowd and his parents tried to separate him from the social scene of the game.