A reader has just brought this matter to my attention.

From GamingHorizon.com:

“Earlier this month, gamer named Mitchell S.
with the online screenname “Kuja105” who posts on a few online videogame forums (including GameFaqs.com and MetalGearSolid.org) committed suicide. On
January 2 he posted a message in both forums detailing his intent
to end his own life, citing overwhelming complications with school and finances.

A very brief period of initial disbelief was followed by a
barrage of replies from fellow forum members pleading that he not take his life,
trying to talk him out of it.

For days, no word was heard from Mitchell. Fearing the
worst, members and administration from metalgearsolid.org began searching for
contact information, spending hours on the phone trying to get in touch with
him. Finally on January 4, Ryan K., an administrator at
metalgearsolid.org, got him on the phone and spent hours desperately trying to
talk him out of it.

Sadly, Mitchell soon ended his own life by consuming
antifreeze and painkillers.

Later, members from the site contacted Mitchell’s family to
find out the grave news. They reported it to their online community, and posted
a tribute to their passed friend on the front page of metalgearsolid.org.” Full Report Here.

Mr. Jack Thompson then sent in the following letter regarding the situation to MetalGearSolid.org, one of the forums frequented by Mitchell, where he was known well:

“Your “gamer friend” will find peace through the Lord, Jesus Christ, but sadly it’s too late for that.

There
is a void in every heart. You can fill it up with the things of God, or
the things not of God. This unfortunate soul chose to fill it up with
combat games. The playing of these video games is masturbatory
activity, meaning senseless self-stimulation. If you gamers could use a
dictionary you would know that that term is not necessarily a sexual
one.

The real tragedy here extends beyond the life and death of
this one fellow. There are literally millions of young people and young
adults whose despair is deepend by turning to the things of this world
and then finding them meaningless.

All of you gamers need to put
down the controllers and get a life. The utter inanity of the vast
majority of postings here shows how vapid “gaming” really is.

You
are one of the cheerleaders for this wasting of time and the wasting of
lives. Do you feel any remorse for having contributed to this “culture
of death?” Of course not. Hey, let’s all play MORE games, and ignore
all the really productive things to do with our lives.

Let’s
pretend to be shocked that a gamer might descend into deeper
depression, as his gamer “buds,” knowing he was killing himself,
couldn’t figure out how to call 911 themselves for him. That would have
involved leaving their computers I guess.

Sad. Sad for all of you.”

Here is an article written by friends and peers of Mitchell at MetalGearSolid.org.