Call of Duty - responsible for a baby non-boom?

I've seen a lot of Call of Duty articles recently due to the recent launch of Black Ops (I haven't read that many, but I've seen them).

There is one that did make me just stop and stare for a minute.

Did you know that Call of Duty is keeping people from having sex?

According to The Sun in the UK, that's definitely happening.

It seems that some people are so into the Call of Duty franchise that hanky panky takes second place in their mind (or even lower, if that 13-year-old idiot keeps killing you in Team Deathmatch) to playing the game. (and did I just massively date myself with that reference?)

("Look. Go away and get laid or something")

The Sun highlights two stories.

First, there is Jay & Janine Foulgar. It seems Jay is so into the game that he does stuff like disappear from weddings, only to be found playing the game in the hotel room with another wedding guest (the Sun doesn't say whether the other guest survived when he told his wife where he was). And, of course, there's the sex.

"It has affected our sex life. There have been nights when I've been waiting for Jay to come to bed then woken up at 3am to find he's still playing against a stranger on a different continent.

"Now we have Lauren, Jay has had to calm down a bit. I was over the moon when he volunteered to get up to do night feeds - until I realised why. During the night he will feed Lauren then rock her to sleep in his chair while playing the game in silence."

Sounds dedicated, don't he?

Then there's Jodie Gurney & Chris Jackson, where *she's* the one who's addicted to the game.

"He says: "Her gaming has taken up romantic time before. The moment will come for us to have some 'alone time' and I'll think she's almost finished the game. I'll give her a kiss but then she says, 'Just one more game, one more game'."

Jodie admits that she will get up in the small hours to play and puts testing her abilities ahead of going out with friends too."

Is this what it comes down to? Will there literally be *no* babies born in July 2011, due to the Black Ops release on Tuesday? Should the government do something about this? (Sorry, couldn't resist).

Should somebody sue Activision? (Don't all nod your head at once). I'm just waiting for the inevitable conspiracy theories that Activision planted this story out there in order to garner even more publicity (you know, because nobody's heard of this game). You know that some people are stupid enough to believe that.

While this is a light-hearted article about the lack of sex lives of some gamers, it does highlight a serious issue. That of game addiction. Yes, it's funny to laugh about foregoing sex to play one more game of Domination (the non-kinky version). But is putting games ahead of *any* social interactions really a good thing?

We all experience it a little bit. I've been playing Splosion Man for a while now, and the "just one more level" urge has kept me up later than I've wanted to be quite a few times. But is that any different than the "just one more chapter" feeling you get from a book? Both are signs that the game or book are very enjoyable.

In the meantime, we can laugh at the image of the look on Janine Foulgar's face when she walked into that hotel room.

"Janine, 32, says: "Call Of Duty has been like the other woman in our relationship for years."

Maybe it's time to find another guy? Maybe someone who says "Wii?" (or is that "Oui?")

(h/t: a tweet from Dan Americh at One of Swords)