It somehow feels like they're trying to turn the game into an e-sport. Feels a little late, though.
The thing is, CoD can be fun, but it isn't really suited to be an e-sport. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Starcraft (the original), Counter-Strike, those were some of the big original e-sports. They all have three things in common...
1: Gameplay is entirely reliant on skill to succeed at the pro-level. These guys put in hours upon hours to get to the level they're at. You don't just wake up and play Starcraft at 300apm.
CoD: I think the killstreaks ruin this. Yeah, they're flashy and fun, but they reward a single player getting out in front and extending his lead, and honestly, most of them depend entirely on luck (air strikes and such). I just don't see that kind of thing making it in a pro-level FPS.
2: These games were all very well known for their balance, which helps enforce them being skill-based game. You can't ***** about mechanics (most of the time), your winning or losing is on you.
CoD: If the killstreaks were taken out, CoD may have a shot at this. Although, I haven't played CoD since the first Modern Warfare, so i don't know how far they've pursued balance issues.
3: Most e-sports games have been around for AGES. That's what lets people get good enough at them to play them at a professional level. There are STILL pro-level SFIII:3S, Counter-strike and Starcraft 1 tournaments. It took almost a year for a lot of the big-name Starcraft 1 players to switch over to Starcraft II, because they were unsure about moving to an entirely new game.
CoD: A new Call of Duty gets released yearly. Unless they picked ONE version of CoD for e-sports, the yearly release schedule just doesn't work. Well, I suppose they COULD just make every vesion of CoD play exactly the same, which would make new games have zero learning curve for older players. But...well, that's a way for a series to get run into the ground and die out (see also: Guitar Hero)
You mean pro-commentated matches that this little free to play game called League of Legends streams for free quite frequently?
And do you mean strategy videos just like the champion spotlights the very same game puts out for every new champ and has begun to do retroactively for old champs?
Again, this is a completely free to play game, where the only thing they make you spend real world money on is cosmetic changes. Everything else can or must be bought with in game currency you have to earn.
So tell me, what is this service providing us? The chance to beta test their maps for them? Just like beta tests you can do for free for any other game?
The chance to enter tourneys? Just like any other game will let you if you have enough skill?
Yeah, this post sums up a few of my own views on this. Any kind of serious competative game has free commentated vids (everyone and their grandma has a livestream now), free tournament recordings and most stream tournaments completely for free. The only way I could see people needing to get Elite is if Activision actively started to clamp down and shut down CoD youtube vids and livestreams, which wouldn't work because those are protected under fair use laws.
Who says they want to play those cheaper games? I could not get Dark Souls for $60 and buy a bunch of cheaper games. But do I want to? Hell no.
I wouldn't count out the cheaper games. "AAA" and big graphics really don't mean shit these days. Hell, the game I've put the most hours in was the original Sword of the Stars. Picked up the complete collection for $20 on steam and have over 150 hours into it.
