Call of Duty (the videogame series)

I'm a big fan of videogames as a form of entertainment. This November there will be a new release in the Call of Duty franchise. I'm not sure I'll buy it when it first comes out or not but I will likely end up buying it at some point. The first COD game I bought brand new was Modern Warfare 4, which was a departure from the WW2 theme. It was a release that broke new ground, not just technically with graphics and gameplay speed but in picking up a modern day military story. I eventually purchased COD Finest Hour for the PS2 and then later COD World At War, which came after Modern Warfare and was set in the Pacific Theatre of War. There have been two software development houses involved with the franchise. Treyarch, who published COD2, COD3, COD WAW and COD Black Ops. And Infinity Ward, who broke the mould with Modern Warfare, MW2 and MW3. COD Black Ops was the first Treyarch COD game I bought when it was first released and next month they release Black Ops 2.
The games are all first person shooters. They are fast and frantic and brutal, with knife kills, grenade kills and all manner of different weapons.  The single player campaigns last 15/16 missions or so but some people can tear through them in 10-12 hours. The multiplayer is really where it's at. On Xbox Live it's possible to encounter players who have spend thousands of hours playing the games and developing their skills to kill those like me who join for some trivial entertainment. I have spent far too long playing these games, I'm not quite sure why I find them so alluring. I think it might be because they enable me to fantasise or play at soldiering without actually having to get close to real violence. Are games like this good for society? I don't know, the jury is still out on that one for me, they are a guilty pleasure for me because yes I do feel a bit of guilt over enjoying them. I sort of feel I should know better, which means that yes I should probably know better and give them up. But then you read the sales figures and realise that millions of gamers have bought them, including men as old as I am. I don't think they're kids games but unfortunately they fall into the hands of kids all too easily.