I never thought I'd say this but, there's a game I actually don't feel comfortable with having a massive following among 8 to 15 year olds.

Call of Duty 4.

Now I'm only basing this age bracket claim on my personal experience with the multiplayer, as well as many forum threads and having heard a lot of kids talk about the game so much.

This actually worries me, whereas Mortal Kombat and Halo never did. It's not the violence really. It's the depiction of the middle easterners in a present time setting. This game alone surely stands as a kid's primary window to the middle eastern conflict. They're certainly not watching the news, or getting any honest information from their schooling. The schools would be in deep shit if they ever did, as it's still so fresh, and much of it could be argued as opinion.

Now the other CODs can exploit history all they want. I'm not so worried about those. Nazis aren't really a presence these days, and the Japanese...well, videogames wouldn't be where they are today without them. The japanese people don't take a lot of abuse from gamers.

But when it comes to COD4, I actually cringe when I hear the 13 year old punk get on voice chat and call me a tower head or sand nigger, because I'm playing as a brown person. It really worries me that this game, being their primary exposure to said culture, could be raising another generation of racist fuckheads.

I don't know. I might just be blowing it out of proportion, but after trying to play COD4 online all last week for the first time, I've come to the conclusion that no one my age actually plays that game. It's pretty much the worst online community I've ever experienced. I guess I'm just annoyed by that.

Anyway, kids can "pwn" as many "noobs" (such as myself apparently) as they want, as long as they understand that COD4 is not an accurate representation of the ongoing war.