Yes, the Modern Warfare 2 juggernaut just continues to batter its way through the video game agenda. UK industry news sites including GIbiz are proclaiming that Infinity Ward's FPS shifted 1.78m units in its first week on British shelves, grossing around £67m and shattering the £39m record previously held by GTA IV.

However, with such a high profile, controversy – and some stiff condemnation – was always inevitable. Yesterday, the game was debated on the BBC's religious affairs programme, The Big Questions, where it drew predictable criticism from Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders. Fazan Mohammed of the British Muslim Forum is quoted on news site MCV as suggesting:

"You can't equate it with watching TV or a movie or reading a book. This is a much more intimate experience. You're mentally playing out the effects of violence. A lot of people make the excuse that this is sport – that it's just entertainment. But Joseph Goebbels – the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany – said his entertainment did more for the German people, in terms of creating the psyche for war and hostility towards others, than the speeches of Adolf Hitler. The idea this is entertainment is not justification whatsoever."

Meanwhile, it's also being reported on gaming websites that the title has been recalled from shop shelves in Russia, allegedly due to its depiction of the country as a terrorist stronghold. We're seeking confirmation on that right now.



In other news, Modern Warfare 2 has enjoyed mixed fortunes with UK newspaper columnists. In a startlingly sexist and outdated piece for the Telegraph, Hannah Betts wonders whether the game should carry a "relationship health warning", opening her piece with the line:

"Something momentous took place in The World of Men this week, something that those living in The World of Women – that is, largely, The Real World – may yet be unaware of."

The article, which conveniently ignores strong statistical evidence that 40% of gamers are adult women, prompted a tirade of angry comments, including the succinct: "Female. Played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Finished it. Do your research. Open your eyes."

As for the whole video game violence angle, Michael Moran over at the Times was more receptive to Modern Warfare 2 than the BBC's panel, seeking to distance the experience of playing CoD from the real business of war:

"I believe that the grisly imagery of the Modern Warfare 2 level 'No Russian' will teach more that it corrupts. I don't doubt that when the next Columbine or Virginia Tech massacre occurs some commenters will inevitably try to link it with Modern Warfare, but simulated guns don't kill people, real ones do. The NRA bears more responsibility than Infinity Ward."

His words were reflected by the Observer's Barbara Ellen, who opined:

"Are we still convinced that children are such hair-trigger sociopaths, so feral and simplistic, that they cannot tell the difference between reality and a video game? This "video nasty desensitising the nation's youth" argument has been raging for 25-plus years, but are our high streets plagued by 40- to 45-year-olds in Super Mario moustaches attempting to run up walls to escape invisible assailants? It seems to me that our anger should be reserved for the nightmare that real soldiers are facing."

She also made the interesting point that, while we wring our hands over the effects of violent video games on young men, no one seems to care about the influence of supernatural romance fables like Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series on the sexual proclivities of teenage girls:

"Maybe we should ask ourselves why we're fine about young people being engrossed in a culture of sexed-up murder and bloodsucking, only to become agitated when they enter what is to them the equally fictional world of soldiers and battles?"

This is the important thing about Infinity ward's game. While us gamers feel like we've been talking about Modern Warfare non-stop for months, everyone else is just getting hold of it, wrestling with it, and coming to their own comparisons and conclusions beyond the fanboy orthodoxies. This is how we know that games are important. Or, at least, the million-selling ones are …