If you watched or listened to the news on Nov. 8, you may have noticed that a lot of attention was given to the release of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” The game’s publisher, Activision, proceeded to sell 6.5 million copies of the video game in the first 24 hours in the United States and United Kingdom alone.

To be clear, the $400 million they brought in during the first day of sales is more than has ever been made by a movie during its opening weekend. The best opening weekends recorded by movies include the last “Harry Potter” movie and “The Dark Knight,” both of which brought in approximately $160 million over a Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The game is set to beat the sales figures from its predecessor, which brought in over $1 billion in the first 60 days of sales. So why, when we should be studying vigilantly for finals and trying to get homework done, are millions of young adults and teenagers flipping on their Xboxes instead?

There are two competing priorities at work here. One is the need to study, learn, and work to eventually make a living for yourself. The other is the video game company’s objective to keep you occupied and entertained by a story that you take part in so that you will buy more of their games.

Disappointingly for teachers and professors everywhere, the tug of a shiny new videogame is usually too great for young people to overcome. We know that even in a studious town like Ames, Iowa, hundreds of you waited at midnight for “MW3” or at least stopped by the bookstore after classes. You just wanted to stop and take a break from your studies, right?

Are our priorities misplaced? Aren’t we the generation that needs to fix the U.S. debt problem, stop terrorism, end world hunger? How are we supposed to do that when we are busy playing the latest “Modern Warfare” game with our friends instead?

Many of us at the Daily like to play a fun video game from time to time too. But we need to remember that even though the realism in video games is increasing exponentially, the virtual game world is not the same as the real world and your ability to make a stupendous amount of headshots in a first-person shooter will not help you with your Econ 101 test next week.

So we recommend you put down your game controller, get your work done for class, then maybe hop on Xbox LIVE for an online game with friends. At the very least make sure you take time to get up, stretch your legs, eat something healthy and sleep well. Games are fun, but do not let them take over your life.