Poll: What should be the future of the Call of Duty franchise?

[Skatologist]

I know many of the people I'll be getting on this thread will at least have played a Call of Duty game and may generally have the feeling of dislike for more recent releases from the franchise. So, my question is, should Call of Duty sink or swim as a series? Realistically, it would be fairly tough to completely destroy CoD to the point no new games are made for the franchise, so the prior option is more opinion than anything else, but I'd still like input on whether or not people are so angry at the series as to ask for its death, despite how unlikely it is to go that way. If someone is to choose the latter option, tell me why you think it should continue and perhaps both sides can speak of necessary improvements of the franchise, such as a more engaging single player, overhaul of the current weapon system, improving the online environment, fairer DLC pricing, etc.. I will remind people, "should" is very opinionated and subjective in this context, and this isn't a thread to debate what Activision should do in terms of gaining a bigger profit or wider audience, but rather what we think would probably be the best option for the series to cease gathering hatred from people and how we would like a certain course of action to be taken for the franchise so it becomes more enjoyable.

EDIT: Last option is a simple "I don't care what CoD does anymore"

 

[tippy2k2]

For reference, I am a life-long Call of Duty fan. I have them all from Call of Duty on my PS2 to Ghost right now and everything in-between.

They seriously need to work on their online systems (or possibly tighten up the game itself if it's not the online system).

The single players have always been alright (yes, even the old school CoD games). I'm perfectly happy with the single player stuff and I have played all of their single player campaigns but the online stuff is really getting on my nerves with Ghost.

Now maybe it's been doing this forever but I feel like Ghost is the first time it's actively been hampered by it to the point where I've basically stopped playing it and will no longer make CoD a first-day purchase until I KNOW that the system works fine.

First off, it seems to be laggy as hell. They got rid of the ping bar but you can always tell who host is because they will be 50-2 and virtually unkillable. The game's online system is so freaking bad that you just can't touch the host. They are your new God now; worship them and they may allow you to get a kill.

Secondly, they've made it harder for who knows what reason to freaking mute people. In the old CoD, you click on the menu, find your player, and click A; muted. Now; click start, go to "Mute Options", find the player that you need to mute, click on their name for the mini menu, click mute; muted. Why in God's name did they complicate that shit so much?

Thirdly (although this is a personal grievance), fucking fix Search and Destroy. You have ruined Search and Destroy by making it Search and Rescue (where you can revive teammates by finding their dog tags and you have to run to the tags to eliminate your enemy). Absolutely ruined the game for me. I am the sneaky ninja player, which means it's not uncommon that when my team is wiped out, I'm the one still slinking around flanking. I might as well save everyone the time and put a bullet in my own head for it's next to impossible to succeed now.

I don't know if a longer release schedule would help or not but that would likely be my vote considering my grievances.

 

[LaoJim]

Ultimately it doesn't matter whether we (on this thead) like or dislike the games, Activision has been making 'em yearly because they sell well. The sales of Ghosts was down on Black Ops 2, and this may be because it got poor reviews, it may be because people are (slightly) sick of CoD, or it may be (as Activision claims) because of factors involving with the next-gen transition. There may be a time when it is in Activision's interest to make the series biannual and focus on maintaining quality and making general improvements (possible with a substantial DLC pack at the time they would have released the new version so they don't lose share to Battlefield or others). I'm not sure that Activision will necessarily know when that time is, they may well run the series into the ground. Luckily for them Titanfall, while selling well, seems to have been forgotten fairly quickly; if the same thing happens to Destiny they'll probably be able to continue as they are for a while.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I want both Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed to go away, so the devs can work with less pressure and create something that could wow people again. Added to that, it will make us miss the games, and it could spurn a new direction for the respective franchises, which is ideal, as they are both badly stagnant at time of writing.

So yes, the hiatus option for me

 

[Pogilrup]

Call of Duty X Warcraft.

I don't know why I find that so appealing but I want to put a few rounds into a wizard.

Or tank and spank... a tank.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Hire better writers and spend a few years developing each game, set in a different time period with a single-player campaign longer then six hours. I like COD, but there's so much more you can do with warfare tropes then just "America against X" - MW2 and BLOPs probed in a more ambiguous direction then the other games, so I know they can come up with something if they put some real effort in!

 

[Zhukov]

Just... let it do its thing.

It'll start sputtering before too long. Just let it be and before you know it the name Call of Duty will be an old relic being used to sell F2P mobile games and there will be something else new and popular for us all to hate and blame for everything.

 

[Shadow flame master]

I would like it if the developers would have a slightly longer development time for the games in order to improve and add features to the games. I'm of the opinion that Ghosts was a misstep and could have done things better with the story. And the squads thing in multiplayer feels kinda gimmicky for some reason, like it wasn't fully fleshed out.

Although I'm not any good at it, I'm happy that they created a new sub-game instead of another zombie-fest.

 

[floppylobster]

I got in to Call of Duty when it first started. It introduced me to some famous World War 2 battles, (and some not so famous ones), and made me understand what it might feel like to be involved. I got out of it after Modern Warfare 2 as it became increasingly fictional and over-the-top and started making you feel like a super soldier rather than part of an army.

After Infinity Ward imploded the whole series had been heading down the Guitar Hero path for me.

For the future? It's clear they don't care or understand how to craft an interesting single player experience anymore. They should just go all multiplayer next time. It's become like paint ball for lazy people.

 

[laggyteabag]

Im pretty interested to see how Sledgehammer handles Advanced Warfare, because all things considered, the game actually looks pretty damn decent. If Advanced Warfare fails to be a good game, then Call of Duty is pretty much doomed. Treyarch (in my experience) are the only current CoD dev that can actually make a decent game, and Infinity Ward went downhill the moment that West and Zampella left.

 

[RedDeadFred]

One great game every three years that improves on the prior one in every way is pretty much always a good thing so I'll take the slower development option. Who cares if it has the CoD name attached to every game? As long as they actually have noticeable improvements and aren't the blatant cash grabs they are now, I'd be fine with the franchise's continuation and might actually get back into it.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I want my Call of Duty game set so far in the future that it's epic. I want dropships raining down on planets. I want space battles. I want laser guns. This series is good at going over the top in a lot of ways, and I really believe that they could make a truly epic game. I think what I'm looking for would be like CoD game with Star Wars.

A good example would be one of the levels in the original Halo. You start out in a dropship with a bunch of other marines. You start taking fire before you even land, and then you and the other marines storm the beach, lasers and explosions everywhere. Sadly it only lasts for a minute, but that's what I'm looking for.