Going crazy with the new Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2

I can now see some advantages to allowing kids to play video games.  The speed with which one must recognise a target, and find the button to shoot the target, then shoot the target and hit the target, is amazing.  All on an XBox 360. 

Last night I played the new video game called “Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2″.  I was playing my son and our extra son from across the street.  This was the first time that I had played a first person shooter in about 4 or 5 years.  I am not trying to make excuses for why I was bad at it, because I was really not good when I did play before, I was merely sharing a fact.

These games carry with them an extreme amount of violence, much like “Law and Order” on television. They also require that a great deal of attention be payed to the screen of your character.  I don’t know it is the correct way to play but I try to watch the other screens too, that way I have a close idea of where they are.  Come to think of it, maybe if I just played my screen I would not be thrown through the air by large caliber rifles and shotgun bullets quite so often.

I loved the maniacal laughter of the boys as they would hunt me down for an easy kill if they needed another mark on the board.  They really enjoyed the hunt, and then of course the minor victory they would get by blowing my character to kingdom come, then they would say “Sorry Dad.”

We had a good time and we played for about 2 hours.  By the end of the game they were not quite so confident that they could get an easy kill just by hunting me down.  I was starting to become less bad, not more good, just less bad.

While this game is really violent, playing it with my son provided me some insight into the game.  We were doing training missions most of the time and he was very patient while teaching me the controls.  We were kind of working our way up to doing some co-op missions, whatever they are.  It appears as though I cannot embarrass him when I am with him, but he does get embarrassed when I bring his standings down in the gamer world.

The hand eye dexterity that is required in the game is amazing.  The ability to scan an area and find a target requires a highly developed skill.  I have neither of those abilities.  I spent most of the game back in a corner, scanning the the 90 degree area in front of me.  Then the boys figured out what I was doing and the would just run by the room where I was and throw a grenade in there, thus resulting in me having to find my way back to that room.  That never worked out well.

I look forward to developing my skills.  Wait, wasn’t my last post about procrastination and how that was a time stealer?  Maybe developing this skill is not so valuable.  But it is a bonding time with my son.  Right, there is nothing so bonding as hearing your son say, “Sorry for shooting you in the face Dad.”