Considering Jim Sterling is the fucking reviews editor for Destructoid and that we had a Jimquisition defending Call of Duty, i'm going to call shenanigans on this article and the author.
Incidentally, if any of you have seen and remember MovieBob's Game Overthinker, there's one thing he made abundantly clear in his earlier videos.
VIDEO GAMES! ARE! TOYS!
And what do toys primarily appeal towards? Children. Being a toy doesn't mean it's exclusive to children, however. A rubix cube is a toy, but you're more likely to see a 40-something fiddle with it than a 10 year old.
Hell, Nintendo themselves started out as a goddamn toy company before they became a figurehead in the video games business. Sure, we can have 'artsy' games and games like Heavy Rain that are more like movies, but at the end of the day - it's a toy. Whether you're playing Action Man or GIA Joe (Call of Duty, Battlefield) or Ken & Barbie dolls (any "roleplaying" game ever. Say what you want, you're still playing a role. Your character or avatar is your "doll". Dress up barbie in clothing? Dress up your avatar in armour) you're still ultimately playing with toys. And toys will always have some core appeal with children and young adults more significantly than it does with 30-somethings who are more focused with getting that promotion or asking their partner to marry them. It's just the way it is. And if any of you think this is purely exclusive to the Call of Duty franchise, you're not seeing the bigger picture; this is analogous to every video game produced.
./rant