I hate Call of Duty. There, I said it.

Okay, it’s not that simple. We had to set up some background stuff first. I mean, I don’t just hate something for no reason — even the Hate Round on the podcast doesn’t support that. If you’re going to spend time hating something, you have to make it a calculated thing, not something spur of the moment.

First things first: I’m not a big fan of shooters, Call of Duty or not. They’re not real high on my favorites list. I’ve played a few over the years that I’ve actually liked, but the list is pretty short and each one has its own reasons.

• Goldeneye (N64): Look, back in the day, this was the big party game. You could bring together four people, some jackass would take Oddjob, everyone would camp the Golden Gun and eventually you made matches where you could only chop. But the single-player campaign was very good — in fact, it’s one of the few successful movie to video game adaptations to this day.
• Halo (Xbox): I’d like to sit here and say I hate this game, but it wouldn’t be true. I hate Halo 2, and Halo 3 was average at best, but the original was a very solid game. Maybe I’m biased because I loved that pistol. Either way, the main campaign was solid and the multiplayer became an experience in itself. I’ve only ever done one LAN type setup for games, and it was in high school with 16 people spread across four TVs playing Halo. Even though I sucked, it was still fun.
• Left 4 Dead (360): This is probably the one shooting game I would ever say I liked. Granted, I’m a sucker for anything with good cooperative play, which is what separates this from a run-of-the-mill shooter. If you don’t work as a team, you’re dead, simple as that. One Hunter or Smoker and those foolhardy run-ahead tactics are a thing of the past.

Still, those games are the exception, not the rule. There’s a few other shooters I’ve played that I thought were okay, like Borderlands or Perfect Dark, but beyond that the genre really  isn’t for me.

This is where the problems start. I’m not the type of person who’s going to sit here and tell you what you shouldn’t play, or that your game is the worst game ever. Unless you’re a Call of Duty fan. Then I’m going to tell you that your game is the worst game ever.

See, I don’t actually hate Call of Duty either. I say that because I’ve never played it, and judging a game without playing it is stupid. I just don’t care enough to pick it up. But my problem is with the rampant 13-year-olds out there who have played Modern Warfare for 300 hours, rendering them incapable of coherent thoughts about any video game besides Call of Duty.

To the obsessed CoD fans, no other game can even come close. It doesn’t matter if someone else just has a different opinion, or likes a game in another genre entirely. (“Super Mario Galaxy 2 was okay I guess, but it’s no Call of Duty.” Great.) For some — not all — Call of Duty fans, anyone who doesn’t love the series is an idiot who knows nothing about video games. And that’s the part I can’t stand.

Personally, I think most shooters these days are boring and repetitive. At this year’s E3, I saw about 15 or so that I didn’t care about, especially the umpteenth  World War II game. We get it; Nazis are an easy enemy to go with because everyone hates them. Good job. But at the same time, I don’t have a problem with people who still enjoy first-person shooters — or any other game out there that I don’t particularly like. If that’s your cup of tea, go crazy. Hell, it’ll mean fewer players online for the games I care about.

Just don’t waste my time telling me that it’s CoD or nothing.