Man profiled in gaming addiction TV show says he was "taken out of context"

When it comes to TV exposes, being able to tell a riveting story is more important than actually being truthful. At least, that's what appears to be the case on BBC's recent program on video game addiction.

The TV special aired as an episode of the broadcaster's "Panorama" series. It looked into the lives of several people who were supposedly obsessed with games and had no real life to speak of.

Trent Pyro was one of those guys. He let BBC's cameras come in and film his daily life, and then found himself presented on TV as a diseased, addicted gamer. You would almost have to ask yourself, "Why would this guy agree to be filmed in the first place?"

Well, Pyro wrote a whole story onThis Is My Joystickabout being on the show. And despite how he may have come across to millions of viewers, the actual reason he agreed to be on the show because he actually wanted to prove his "addiction" wasn't even a problem at all.

"While it may seem to some that I was all for the cause that the BBC was creating, I was actually trying to inject some sanity into proceedings, all of which was cut," he said.

And why not? If there was sanity on the show, BBC wouldn't have been able to make this grossly sensationalistic teaser:

While it doesn't surprise us, Pyro's story is kind of disturbing to hear. What does surprise us is there must be viewers out there - like parents and politicians - who actually still believe that video games are some sort of cancerous tumor. Really? Apparently as long as there are clueless people out there, there will be fear mongering TV specials. Sigh.

Dec 15, 2010