If You Only Play Call of Duty, You Don't Have the Range

On episode four of Inside The Screen we pulled up a TikTok about competitive gamers and that whole "you're not a real gamer if you only play shooters" debate. By the time we were done going back and forth we ended up doing top five games of all time, and that's honestly where it clicked for me where I actually stand on this. Whether you want to call somebody a fake gamer or not is up to you. My issue is something else. If your only game is Call of Duty you don't have the range to sit here and tell me the greatest games of all time.

I'm not anti shooter

Before anybody comes in my comments let me show you my list. When it was my turn on the pod I went Mass Effect first. Then Black Ops 2, and honestly World at War is interchangeable with it. Then Metroid Fusion on Game Boy Advance. I could have gone top 25 and I told them that. On episode five we finally did full top 10s and mine was Mass Effect, Mortal Kombat Deception, Black Ops 2, Metroid, Baldur's Gate 3, God of War 2018, Fortnite, Sonic Riders, Tekken 4 and Wii Sports. With Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Dragon's Dogma and Urban Reign as my niche picks. And if you asked me my favorite genre it's racing. I wrote up the full top 10 here.

So that's two shooters in my top 10. I'm not up here saying shooters are bad or that the people who play them are less than. I love video games period and that's exactly the point.

Range shows up in your taste

Here's how I said it on the pod. Somebody who's only playing Call of Duty is not gonna sit here and talk to me about the best games of all time or what a game needs. You don't got the range. You weren't playing Pokémon Emerald hiding under your blanket before your mom came in the room. And I'm saying that with love but it's true.

As the games you've played are the reference points you judge everything else with. Part of the reason I don't like certain games is the soundtrack and the sound design. You only notice that kind of thing because you've played enough different stuff to know what good sounds like in an RPG versus a fighter versus a racing game. The homies on the pod have good taste in my opinion and I think it's because they play multidimensional games. You can go from a shooter to Final Fantasy and back and that range shows up in how you talk about games.

Somebody on the pod said it best too. There are people who only play Fortnite, only play Valorant, only play League, only play Siege and they judge their understanding of every game off that one. Go pick up Zelda. Go pick up Mario.

"But shooters take skill"

You might be asking, Don, you know how hard it is to be cracked at a competitive shooter? Yes. I'm not taking that away from anybody. However skill and range are two different conversations. Being nice at one game means you understand that game. It doesn't mean you understand why Mass Effect hits the way it does or why Wii Sports belongs on somebody's list next to God of War. If the question is who's the best at Call of Duty, you're the person I'm asking. If the question is the greatest games of all time, I need you to have played more than one kind of game.

Where this leaves the fake gamer debate

I know that sounds harsh, but I really don't think it has to be an insult. Everybody starts somewhere and a lot of people found gaming through shooters. The move is to treat that as the door and not the whole house. Pick up something that has nothing to do with aiming. Play an RPG all the way through. Play something old on an emulator or a handheld. Your shooter game probably won't even suffer, and your takes are gonna get a whole lot better. If you need a place to start, here's the best video games of 2025 and my must play games for first time gamers.

And if you only want to play shooters forever that's fine too, just know that when the top five conversation comes up you're gonna get checked.

So what's your top five games of all time, and how many different genres are actually on it? Post it in the CXM Discord.