Michel Belanger and Keagan Durst light up like kids at Christmas when they talk about Call of Duty 4.

The popular Microsoft video game has recently rocketed into the forefront of media and dinner-table talk around the world as it was the centre of a dispute between Brandon Crisp and his parents. After being grounded from the game after playing excessively, the 15-year-old Barrie teen left home on Oct. 13. Despite extensive help from the media, Brandon has not been seen since that day.

For people who have never played this type of video game, the fuss it's receiving can be quite perplexing.

The Advance recently asked two students, who are self-professed “masters of the game,” to explain what it’s all about.

Call of Duty 4’s storyline involves a Russian nationalist by the name of Imran Zakhaev who is set on returning his homeland to the Soviet times using modern warfare. He knows the United States would never allow this to happen, so he funds a coup in the Middle East, organized by his ally Al-Asad, to draw attention away from Russia.

The two men and their seconds-in-command gain the nickname The Four Horsemen. However, the British and U.S. governments have been monitoring Zakhaev's activities and discover his real intentions. The story is told from the perspective of a British 22nd SAS Regiment operative in Russia and an American 1st Force Recon in the Middle East.

To further explain the work of technological art that is Call of Duty 4, people must first understand that although the game’s extensive storyline for the campaign mode is exciting, most gamers actually play for the interactive online fun the game provides.

On the XBox, Microsoft’s gaming system, online Call of Duty 4 is played on what is called XBox Live. It can also be played in a similar mode on Playstation or a computer.

“It's pretty much like the Internet,” explains Belanger. “A network set up by Microsoft allows you to play with other gamers when they’re signed on.”

XBox Live can be purchased for $60 a year.

To begin playing, you must first create an XBox Live account, similar to an e-mail account.

You create a profile of yourself and give yourself a screen name that will be used to identify you to the world. You can even use your picture to enhance your profile.

When gamers have created an account and a profile, they may begin their much-anticipated playing.

In addition to playing solo, players have the choice to join or create a team called a “clan.” The various clans are identified by what is called a clan tag – a short code that players input to join.

For example, if you want to join a specific clan, you input the code into the proper space before you start playing and you automatically join. Pre-existing clan members have no choice but to accept new members and there is no limit to how many members belong to a clan.

Just because you are a member of a clan does not mean you play with the same people every time you play.

Just like in e-mail, XBox Live enables you to create a contact list. From that list, you can choose who you want to play with and send them an instant message. They then have the choice to accept or decline your invitation.

You can also play a private game with your close friends but these games don’t give you any points and therefore are less popular with avid gamers.

To add more excitement to the online mode of the game, Microsoft has created multiple game types, along with different areas of play called maps. Before starting a game, a player must choose one game type that he wants to play out of around 20 others.

The game type determines the mission he and his team must accomplish to win. For example, in one game type called search and destroy, one team must plant a bomb and protect it while the other team has to try and defuse it. Each time one of those objectives is completed, it’s the end of one round. To complete and win an entire game of search and destroy, a team must win three out of four rounds.

The frustrating part of this and other online play is the speed at which it is played. There are 20 or so people thrown into a little area, all armed to the teeth with all sorts of weapons, each one with the desire to kill whoever gets in their way.

Bullets fly, grenades explode, the screen flashes and, if you turn up the sound, it actually feels as if you're in a war zone. For inexperienced players, it can all be very intimidating and dying becomes just as regular as taking a breath.

Whenever you get killed, you have to wait to “re-spawn,” or reappear, in order to continue playing. Depending on the game type you play, re-spawning can take a few seconds or a few minutes. For newcomers to the world of Call of Duty 4, you may spend more time waiting to re-spawn than actually playing.

For more experienced players, getting killed while playing is devastating –not only because the character they’ve played with for so many hours was mercilessly gunned down, but because it also brings down their ranking.

Rankings are calculated by using various gaming statistics such as a kill/death ratio. This is how many times you’ve killed someone and how many times you’ve been killed. Obviously, the whole point of online play is to kill as many people as possible without dying.

It’s this competitive aspect of the game that makes it so addicting to gamers.

“The desire to go higher in the ranks is what pushes me to play so much,” said Keagan.

You begin the game as a private but, with everyone you kill, and with every mission you win, you get points. These points enable you to go higher through the levels until you become a level 55 commander. When this feat is accomplished, gamers are faced with a difficult choice.

They can either remain as a level 55 commander and enjoy all the perks that come with such a high position, like more ammo and stronger weapons, or they can restart from scratch and try to get what is called a prestige.

Every time a player gets to level 55, it counts as one prestige. The next time he gets to level 55, it counts as two prestige and so on, until finally culminating at the pinnacle of all dreams: level 10 prestige.

“It’s such a fun game,” says Belanger. “I once played until 8 a.m., went to bed for an hour and started playing again.”

“If you don’t play for a while, you start to lose your touch and when you start up again you end up dying a lot more than you normally do,” adds Durst. The fear of dropping in the ranks and losing what one worked so hard for is what keeps a lot of gamers hooked.

Call of Duty 4 has become so popular that outside gaming companies have been organizing special tournaments with prize money for the more experienced players.

Although money for winning tournaments sounds appealing, a lot of gamers just enjoy the easy entertainment the game offers.

“My favourite moment in the game was when I chased a sniper with a live grenade in my hand. We both ended up dead but it was so funny watching him try to run away,” recalls Durst.