credit: Activision
Reporting Mai Martinez
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CHICAGO (CBS) – It’s just a video game, but some industry experts are predicting it will out gross some big box office blockbuster movies, like “Titanic.”
People waited in long lines for the much anticipated “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” It hit store shelves at midnight.
CBS 2′s Mai Martinez takes a look at the game with its fans and its critics.
“Modern Warfare 3” is finally here, and sleep-deprived gamers are singing its praises.
Gamer David Glass said, “I played it all night.”
Across the country, eager-gamers waited in lines for the midnight release, even braving the cold and rain outside a Game Stop store in Chicago.
The Best Buy on Clark held a preview party with a launch at midnight, selling about 100 copies of MW3 in just half an hour.
Like many gamers, Best Buy employee and video game enthusiast David Glass said it’s hard to stop playing MW2.
“You start solving missions, you start, you know, racking up points, you get intense stuff like that happening. So, I mean, it just keeps you going. You lose track of time.”
But doctors warn there’s a downside to all that kind of intesity.
Dr. Louis Kraus, Chief of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center, said, “these types of video games, with very graphic first person violence, has a higher likelihood of resulting in the kids being more violent.”
Kraus has studied the effects of violent video games on kids.
“The younger kids are, the more likely they are to repeat or mimic what they see without understanding the short- or long-term ramifications,” Kraus said.
Kraus said that’s because the video games almost numb the players to the violence they’re experiencing.
Even some seasoned gamers agreed. While interviewing Glass as he played MW3, Martinez flinched at images of being shot at, while Glass didn’t.
“I’m kind of used to the game,” Glass said.
“Modern Warfare 3” is rated “M,” for mature, so that means it’s meant for players 17 and older. It costs about $60 and some industry experts predict it will gross more than $1 billion in its first six weeks of sales.
