Nice Shootin', Tex

I have an unusual passion for the female of the species....I love video games. More specifically, I love shooting, racing, and fighting video games. Not to sound sexist, but come on. How many chicks do you know who would jump at the chance to kick your behind at Mortal Kombat?

My favorite type of video game of all is the aforementioned shooting type. Whether it's just targets, dinosaurs, or zombies, if shootin's involved, sign me up. My husband and I have spent hours trying to outdo eachother with each game system we have ended up purchasing.

Then why on Earth was I so put off by Call of Duty 4? Eww...is all I can say. My husband was playing last night, waiting my return from the bedtime rituals with our children so that we could try a new game for the 360; Bully something or other. When I finally joined him, he was lost in the combat zone.

I watched, trying to ascertain if I wanted a turn. "This is pretty realistic, isn't it?" I naively asked. "Yeah, it's amazing!" was his exhuberant reply. And yes, the graphics were unbelievable.

I watched as he snuck up behind the "terrorists" and literally blew them to shreds. "Do you get any extra points for hitting that garbage can?" I inquired, feigning interest. "No baby, it's not like that," he chuckled. "Well, can you shoot up the car?" "Sure," he said, "but you don't want to waste your bullets or your time with that."

Hmm....this doesn't seem fun to me. When I play a video game, I want to do the unreal, like kill the undead. For me, there's no fun to be had in realistic war games.

This got me to thinking....could video games actually be bad? I've always been an avid supporter of them. When discussions would pop up that the violence in video games has led some kids to commit acts of violence against another, I've always used myself and my husband as examples. "Hey, we've been playing these games for almost 30 years and we're not violent. We have enough common sense to know what's real and what's not. We have the ability to think before we act. Stop blaming these games for other people's lack of moral conscience."

Wait a second.....this Call of Duty game is actually bothering me. As I watched my husband, I found myself growing concerned for the millions of kids that are playing it. Maybe this is getting them too amped up to run off and join the army when they turn 18. They'd be getting fabulous training; my husband even admitted that. I felt myself growing sickened the more I watched him play. But it wasn't just the bloodshed that brought me down...it was the realism of the killing. Something about it just didn't seem right.

I'm not so sure where I stand now in my ardent belief that these games are totally innocent. Maybe I'm getting old; my kids would probably say that. Maybe I'm not as much of die-hard gamer as I once thought. I'm not saying I'm ready to have games of this nature banned. But I think we might need to look at the world around us, the current one, the one with the real war happening as you read this, and then think twice about how our children spend their free time.

Now, moving on....who's up for House of the Dead?