Jimquisition: Defending Call of Duty

[Chezza]

Well then. He made me not lol but LMAO a couple good times during that episode. Congrats, originally I wanted this series out... Now I am getting a good laugh, agreeing with his points while I am not a CoD fan whatsoever and accepting his strange, self loving persona.

I think either Jimquisition or I, are settling in. I would like to see him argue a topic such as innovation in games. Curious to see what stance he will take and what examples he would use.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

Okay, Jim, assuming you read these comments...

I don't play multiplayer anything, so I've no opinion on CoD multiplayer or CoD multiplayers, but I did play the SP campaign of CoD4 and found it severely lacking. It was so bad that I almost didn't bother completing it at all, but fortunately it finished just as I was about to quit it. Normally I'd complain about such a short campaign but in this one case I was relieved. It's the only FPS I own that I've not replayed.

I basically have two (related) problems with the CoD4 SP campaign: 1) respawning enemies and 2) what I like to call "scripting the player".

Respawning enemies suck. Shooters are about shooting things. The whole point of shooting something is that it dies. If the devs bring it back to life mere seconds later then the point of shooting it is almost entirely removed (indeed, much of the SP gameplay is about figuring out where to run rather than what to shoot). This is bad enough in any game, but in CoD it's especially annoying because it ties in with the scripted player problem. "Scripting the player" is what I call it when a game presents an apparent choice to the player (e.g. shoot the guys to the left and flank left, or shoot the guys to the right and flank right, or go down the middle) but only one of those choices is actually viable (e.g. because if you shoot the guys to the left or right and try to flank then they'll respawn before you're halfway to safety). These fake options are just insta-death traps dressed up in pretty graphics and animation.

Fighting through CoD4 I never got the sense that I had achieved anything. The only way to really "kill" an enemy was to pass whatever invisible line caused him to stop respawning - which didn't much feel like a victory to me - and finding the right "tactic" for any given section was just trial and error, not any great tactical planning or quick thinking on my part.

Do I look down on people who like the SP campaign? Yeah, I suppose I do. They strike me as easily fooled. I want games with genuine gameplay depth, but all these CoD players are voting with their wallets for shooters where kills have no meaning or purpose, and even the player's "decisions" are made in advance by the devs.

 

[Alexnader]

Jim reads the Escapist I see. He takes upon some discussed topics to troll everyone with at the beginning - quite funny in my opinion. Also Jim, no, COD didn't invent unlockables in FPS - Battlefield franchise did. Much earlier. Just saying.. not like there is an internet argument to be won.

Irrespective of who invented it first his point was that Call of Duty "popularised" the mechanic. My problem with that is that CoD didn't popularise unlocks because it handled them in a new or particularly good way. It "popularised" them because CoD itself was already crazy popular and it happened to have unlocks in multiplayer. Battlefield handles unlocks in almost the exact same way but we don't see Jim crediting it.

It's exactly like saying Avatar popularized CG. I said the exact same thing as you did in a post before that, and yes, I agree with you Alexnader.

And I agree with you. Wanna fight about it?

Seriously though not all of that post was addressed to you, sorry if it sounded like it was. I should've made a new paragraph. Also I liked your article "Strapped for Cash".

 

[Evilpigeon]

Personally I take issue with any series that offers to sell you essentially the same product multiple times. I've nothing in particular against the gameplay I just hate that one of the biggest and well known franchises in gaming is representative of the industry at its most exploitative.

Also: yes the difference between a levelling system that creates concrete power differences between experienced and new players and something that's part of learning the game are very different.

One progresses at the pace decided by the game designer and gives long-term players and unfair advantage, ontop of being better at the game, the other is part of learning how to play and improving and occurs at the same pace the player progresses at.

 

[Calico93]

Fucks sake this guy is FUCKING annoying. Couldn't fucking watch all of it.
Yeah COD is good sure, because most people want action immediately and like the arcade style gameplay. Me not being one of them I hate it.

 

[A Free Man]

My opinion of CoD has pretty much been the same since I first played it. It is a decent game with some nice visuals and an average story, the multiplayer was quite enjoyable for a short while. But I never liked it as much as many of those around me. As far as video games go it was decent but when I compare it to other series of as much popularity I can't help but wonder how so many people love it so undyingly.

 

[Twinmill5000]

Jim, I want to say thanks, and that I enjoyed the video. In addition, it's sparked inspiration for me to record and upload another video on a similar subject. Unfortunately, after exporting it, I realized that I now need to rerecord...

But yes, I'm being sincere, and am surprised you're getting as much hate as you are. Seriously. The people hating... well
http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/121/523/Fluttershy%20umad.jpg?1304916780

 

[Tax_Document]

I don't mind him, but he's so UGLY, guuuh, can't he just fill it with animations or game-play videos.

PLEASE! You're pure eye-vegetable, opposite to candy.


OT: You're actually quite funny now.

 

[Spoon E11]

*facepalm*

ok well COD hasn't been anything new its the same game with differnt weapons and maps. And well paced? the 2 that I played were just bruce willis action flicks; non-stop-over-the-top-action. And you know what? It made every single explosion lose it's impact, because it's happened a thousand times before.

Now COD is just a twich shooter whoever pulls the triger 1st wins. Now you may say that makes it realistic. But if you wanted a realistic game you will die once and then never respawn... ever not in this game, and not in the next.

End of the line COD is a mediocre. Sure it's done somethings that has changed multiplayer i.e. perks. But with it still the same after far too long I'd rather get my hopes up for BF3 not MW3.

 

[vivster]

THANK YOU
all that bullshit hate against COD was getting on my nerves
it's like all the gamers mutated to hipsters

but the worst thing is not the other people who look down upon COD players but the players themselves
people play the game, have a lot of fun with it and then suddenly start to trash it for absolutely arbitrary reasons totally forgetting that they were the ones buying that "shit" and even had fun with it

i barely played any COD but i saw a lot of stuff and read some reviews and it looks really good
if i were into shooters this one would probably in my collection
i find it always very odd when many people are complaining about a game that got to critical acclaim by many many different reviewers

 

[mb16]

Also, I don't buy in the hatred towards younger gamers. I'm sure most of us have played games before we were legally allowed to. What gives us the right to deny those players the game? People who bash little kids for playing CoD (and other games) are most likely Hypocrits.

yes when was about 8 i first started gaming. But it was all single player games like Half-life, Unreal, Comanche 3. The first time i played multilayer was a few years later when i was 13 when i played age of mythology.
Now 8 year old kids start on multilayer games right off and you have to listen to them drone on about how "sexually active" they are with your mother.

 

[themilo504]

I completely agree with everything you say. but the single player needs to be longer they should lower the price which will never happen.
i think we should pay for the multiplayer and the single player separately aka 20 for the multiplayer and 20 for the single player but that?s also not going to happen.
a even better idea is to not kill the franchise with a new game every year instead make one game every 2 or 3 years that extra time to make the single player more awesome by including perks and weapons that you have to unlock and can use like the multiplayer this will allow you to make the game longer without it becoming boring but that will also not happen and the cod will die.
i don?t care because your ego just killed me

 

[MrPanda_94]

Well done Jim you have successfully picked a contentious topic; successfully riling both the fan-boys and the haters enough to provoke response that will further promote your show.

I agree with many points, but I'm not a fan of how they're made. If you're going to make a serious point, make it in a serious way. Don't insult our intelligence by presenting it via such a childish method as the flower-hat dude.

In my opinion CoD is a good multiplayer (maybe not BlOps though) and as was mentioned, the perks, unlocks and challenges provide a motivation to continue playing.

The only downside to CoD is that the vocal majority are those "swearing teenagers" (I swear many are barely in their teens...). You rarely meet anyone on CoD who isn't shouting "Noob" or "fag" every 5 seconds. Maybe if this wasn't the case it could lead to the teamwork and tactical gameplay that I wish the game delivered... maybe I'm playing the wrong game.

Some recognition of the dismissal of the notion that people's character can be discerned from the games they play is due though. That has always irritated me.

 

[MickyD47]

CoD is killing gaming with sequals and copycats. Wait how many sequals did Mario have with the same story and last I checked gaming is still here.

 

[Bonecrusher]

first game, the modern warfare 1 was a great game. the story, the gameplay was different and unique.
however, sequels to that game just copy/pasted same formula with non-original style. world at war, modern warfare 2, black ops. just boring repeats of modern warfare 1.
they are just for milking cows.
so defending the call of duty series is meaningless.

 

[L4WLI3T]

All I have to say is, THANK YOU JIM!
I won't get into further detail, besides,, I agree with almost ALL of your statements.

 

[teebeeohh]

you want a good reason why cod sucks?
not only has everyone else copied the game

Stop right there.

Why is other people copying the game a reason for CoD sucking? That makes no sense. In fact, it really goes to show the opposite of what you want: nobody would try to copy a game that sucked, because people would have played the original and said "that sucks!". Nobody's copied E.T., Daikatana, or Big Rigs Over the Road Racing.

everybody would have copied daikatana if the game had sold well.
games are not being copied because they are popular, games are being copied because they make money and because across all the people who buy games there is only a very limited pool of money that will be spend on games the more money spend buying cod-clones the less money is left to be spend on other games. And because of that we will have more cod-clones because they make more money than other stuff

 

[Riddle78]

Jim carries some valid and strong points,although his delivery could use some refinement in my eyes. However,I'm here to follow up on his request for an intelligent rebuttal. Here's mine;

Killstreak rewards. In an online multiplayer experience,there always needs to be a chance of turning a game around. This exists...For people who can string together 4+ kills in a row without biting someone's bullet. And,the most likely scenario,the side that's performing the best will be getting the killstreaks. Thus striking down any chance people had on turning that match around.

Killstreak rewards keep up momentum,but they also ruin the competitive balance that any multiplayer game should have. Yes,it may be fun and cool to call in an AC-130 "Spooky" gunship,then be the gunner,but those on the recieving end will simply curse your name because there's nowhere to hide anymore.