Call of Duty - World at War - 3D review

It's a video game; entertainment like books or movies or board games. Playing or not playing them is not going to effect their being centered on Christ. If they know so little of the Word or faith that playing a game with some shooting in it fouls them up in thier walk they have other problems that need to be addressed. We have kids who play as well as those who don't. Both sides have great and not so great examples, but gaming is not the distinguishing factor. As far as desensitizing, I disagree. I have watched the reaction of kids after seeing very real death after a tragic car accident. Gamers and non gamers alike are shocked and dismayed because they are kids looking at real death. It's one thing to say its distasteful and yet another to make some of the far reaching statements being put out there.

Way late to the conversation here...but found this review to be a very shallow attempt to justify these first person shooter games, particularly within the context of student ministry. i'm fine with meeting kids where they are and engaging them in their context...not gonna pretend that if i tell kids not to play these games and then i don't let them play them in youth group, that they won't go play with friends.
desensitizing ourselves to death, violence, bloodlust, revenge, and even simply "hardship" does not help us cope with it when we experience it. it teaches us to become horribly over-masculine, to become passive aggressive, to lose our empathy for those in currently in hardship, and to forget that Jesus is the Lord of all life (which he created), not the Lord of Death (he has another name).
Jesus did not teach violence in return for violence, even in regard to protecting the ONLY innocent life worthy of protecting throught violence...His own.
THis is a shallow review that misses both the cultural and Biblical problems with the game(s).

We have this game at our youth group. I turn down the volume on the tv so they can't hear any cussing but the violence doesn't really bother me. I didn't really think it was that graphic.

I personally have the game and can understand both sides the line. It is definitely graphic, due to the fact that the producers incorporated the gore and language to give it a more realistic feeling. Having said that I don't recommend the game for children, it is rated "m" for a reason.

I have been to a friend's house and his sons were playing the game. The violence is the obvious issue with this game. It does not teach them to be soldiers for Christ. "The weapons of our warfare is not carnal. ""We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities." So, other than the violence, I was appalled when I heard the F-word dropped. What a great tool for our children.

There is a T rated version as well, and a way to turn down violence...

I think that numbing our children to violence may not be a bad thing. After all, what is violence but hardship? They are experiencing hardship vicariously, and are thusly defended when they encounter it in their own lives. These games may teach children to fight, but they also teach them to be soldiers of God. I don't believe there are nearly enough soldiers of God in the world.

I'm a WWII history junkie, and it would be easy for me to get caught up in the such entangling questions as,"Is it historically accurate" and "does it depict what it might have been like" all the while forgeting such questions like "should my teens even been involved in simulation kills, regardless of the era." I would have to agree that, based on my own understanding and study of the affects these kinds of games have on the minds of our young people, that we probably could not condone them, as fun as they may seem.

Walt, I think blowing away Japanese and Europeans are things you should be flagging as what's wrong with the youth. I do not encourage the youth in playing these games due to the very real graphic nature and mission of the game and I'm surprized that you do. Review is one thing, but claiming that the "perserverance under trial" is the take away is a stretch.
Peter in Etown,Pa