The United States' Surgeon General warns that the following statement may cause heart attack, stroke, nausea and possible loss of bowel control...

I have no interest whatsoever in Modern Warfare 2.

...it's all right.  I can wait...

...back from the hospital yet?

Good.

To explain.  This view is not at all for lack of trying.  I've been wondering myself that if, as a gamer, I may just have a head full of bad wiring.  God knows I tried to hop on that bandwagon.  I really did.  I WANT to be interested in this game.  I want to know the thrill of the hunt in a tense multiplayer match, stalking my racist, foul-mouthed, poorly raised fourteen year-old prey.  To experience what is sure to be a phenomenal single-player experience as well as what I hear is an amazing co-op with the Spec-Ops mode.

The screenshots were amazing.  The video superb.  There is no reason why I should not have every intent and interest in this Game of the Year contender.  But I don't.  And I have no clue why.  I fully understand why I have not even the slightest inkling to play Assassin's Creed II.  That first game was stunning to behold...and dead boring to play.  But I enjoyed CoD4.  Very much.  Maybe it could be that I never finished it, but over the years, I've lost any interest in even going back and completing that one.  And that was a game that had my attention.

Maybe as time has gone by, my tastes have shifted.  Perhaps I've lost my faith in the online aspect of playing games, especially with complete strangers.  However, I'm still very apt to just jump into a random match of R6V2 and go to work and still love it.  Could be that maybe I'm subconsciously rebelling against the hype, but that's never been the case with me before.  I've always been more than capable to judge a game based on its merits as a game.  Not on whether or not the majority of people think it's cool.

This is not hate for the game.  I know it's become a popular pastime for people to hate on successful properties and games just to increase their image as some sort of renegade.  This is not this case.  I have not and will never just start chugging Hateorade just to rankle and incite flame wars.  I'm not even looking for anyone to give me their own perspective on the matter, even though that would be completely welcome and appreciated.  I have stared and studied and read and tried to get my inner fan worked up and ready to go defend the White House from invading forces (which looks freaking awesome, I might add).  I just...can't.

Hopefully no one takes this the wrong way and decides to lash out at me, having only read about five or six choice sentences.  And no, despite what some may think, I'm not just trying to get people riled up or inflame someone's ire.  I'm just voicing my feelings because while most of my friends list is occupied with all things MW2, I've found myself content with Chronicles of Riddick and Dragon Age.  Feeling at times like the kid who got invited to the party, really wants to go, but has some arcane, intangible reason why he's unable to get excited for it enough to go.

I'm sure a day will come where I'll pick it up and hopefully join a game night or two.  But it won't be for some time.  Maybe I should just suck it up and buy a copy on payday.  Submit to the siren song of destruction and drama.  Probably, it's just me who feels this way.  At least, it feels like it's just me who feels this way.  Or perhaps everyone has one title that everyone else loves and they just can't find an interest in.  Who knows.  I'll just go try to save Ferelden from civil war while I give it some more hard thought...