Panorama ‘insider’ slams game addiction tale

One of the men who featured in BBC One’s Panorama investigation into the possible addictive qualities of video games has questioned the way in which the show represented his friend, Joe Staley.

The documentary claimed that Joe’s life went into freefall when he bought an Xbox, with Joe himself stating: “I just spend more and more time playing. I wouldn’t move from my bed, with my controller by my side. I couldn’t physically drag myself away from the game. I could go two or three days without sleep. That to me sounds like an addiction.”

Friend Trent Pyro, whose house was in fact the setting for Panorama’s piece about Joe after Joe’s father refused filming permission, was then quoted as saying that Joe “just eats, sleeps and eats games – it became his occupation”.

However Pyro disputes Panorama’s editing of the piece.

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

The full report is now available on MCV