Why has Cod become what it is?

[Nazulu]

You are doing it again! What makes you so sure it's a vocal minority? Even then, does that automatically make the minority wrong? AND even then, there is a lot more than 6 million people in this world, and pretty sure there is a lot more then that are into playing games. I would say it's a pretty big minority to just ignore.

Look mate, I'm not going to ignore you even if you we're he minority. Hell, sometimes the greatest things are thought up by certain individuals and they can change world.

Just incase, I'm not saying COD is bad and it should die. I'm aware there are many other franchises that do this as well and I give them shit too, so COD isn't special to me alright. I just wished it would slow down and take the time to improve in most ways and expand on the options. You know, make the perfect game, like sequels used to try to do.

Another one of my point of views that I don't expect you to agree with, but these developers are not just entertainers, they are also educators. A lot of people are inspired (there's another word I would prefer to use if I could remember it) by their work and I believe they have a obligation to show it's a good thing to try something different every now and again. To me this is very important.

I'm doing it again? Really? How so? Please, do explain.

What makes you so sure it's NOT a minority? I have sales figures that say it's one of the most popular game series in history. What do you have?

Also, I never said that the minority was wrong. I never even took a side in this whole debate. Yeah, I like CoD, but I don't play it anymore. I just didn't like that guy making up all that stupid shit. Hell, I probably stopped playing it because it got boring and didn't innovate. I don't know. But do I give a shit? No. Why should that bother me? I can play other games, mind my own fucking business, and let people who enjoy CoD, enjoy CoD in peace. I don't have to harass them on forums to feel better about myself (Not accusing you of that, before you get all defensive.)

CoD didn't stop Bioshock Infinite from being made. Didn't stop the new Tomb Raider, or the swelling of (some fantastic) indie games we've seen. So this idea that it's stifling creativity is beyond bullshit. And your idea that people need to "Inspired" by CoD (Or whatever word you were looking for), well, there seems to be plenty of inspiration to go around. CoD is not stifling creativity or killing the industry. If ANYTHING the publishers are to blame; EA forcing every game to have a tacked on, and often times completely shitty, multiplayer that no one plays; Ubisoft saying they won't publish a game unless it can be turned into a series; and every publisher running their triple-A franchises into the dirt VIA yearly releases. I loved AC when it started out, but then Ubi published, like, 600 of them (Or that's how it felt,) and now I've zero interest in this new one.

Have I made it clear enough that I have no horse in this race? My only agenda here is people accusing CoD of all the industry's problems, when it's responsible for... lemme see... NONE of them. When CoD dies (if it dies) they'll find another series to run into ground, and everyone will be hating on THAT game when they turn it into a yearly franchise. What I don't understand is why people give a shit about what CoD does or doesn't do. If you don't play it, why do you care whether it innovates?

And you're wrong: I do agree with you. I think calling them educators is pretty silly, and I think that forcing them to change their artistic vision to cater to your perfect "Ideal" of what a game "Should" be is also silly... and... well I guess I don't agree with you. Look, I think adding new features is great and all that--I'm all for it--but calling game developers that aren't making educational games "Educators" is asking a bit too much.

Furthermore, what is innovation to you? What features would YOU add to CoD to "Revitalize" it? You talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? I'm not asking for much specific, just a general outline of some things you'd change.

You're doing the same accusations again that don't belong. You just come out and say "And yes, people who hate CoD are a vocal minority. By shouting real loud, small groups can make themselves sound big. I think BO2 sold, what was it, 6 million copies? It would take A LOT of angry forum-goers to turn 6 million into the minority." I must be shouting really loud to sound big, huh? Actually, what the hell is the point of bringing up the minority thing in the first place? Does it mean anything? It seems you have fallen into that same trap as most do, and I have to ask "why is it a problem to you if people have complaints about the franchise"? You don't play it anymore, so why should you care that I care? I find it really silly you keep repeating 'it doesn't effect the industry" when it obviously has, and that you think people should not criticise something because of whatever. Maybe it has stifled creativity more than you think. As far I can see, there is no positives to all these sequels, remakes and what not. I'm not impressed with the industry right now so I don't care for your examples.

I can say my opinion, I'm not forcing shit so you can throw that bullcrap out. Also, you don't think entertainment effects how people think? It can really be a main source of education to some, and by some I mean a lot. I find it also silly to ignore that. If you don't care, fine, whatever. I can ask again, why do you care what other people think? Why not just ignore everyone if you have no horse?

Also, you are grouping those aggresive bunch, because I never used the word 'innovate', I kept repeating trying new franchises and expanding on what they already have (not dlc wise). In fact, I reckon they've done almost enough innovation, by creating different types of challenges and trying different views they're not too bad. I liked bombing from the plane, or jumping from one plane to another, or crawling carefully past tanks to get to the perfect position. I reckon the multiplayer could use a lot more options and modes though to make the best of it for everyone.

I talk while I walk the talk

 

[Evonisia]

Care to elaborate on this?

One thing I have to disagree on is the 'it contributes nothing to gaming' part of that, as that's just completely wrong. For a start, gaming is massive.

For instance, there's how a game is played: 1st person, 3rd person, top down, point and click etc, there's also the genre of game, such as role playing, strategy, adventure, shooter etc.

Call of Duty is a first person shooter, and 1 of the biggest (if not the biggest) franchise of multiplayer FPS games out there. People are able to join a game quickly and play for as long as they fancy, and because it's played against humans, it doesn't feel as repetitive. You could say it's like sports played in real life in that it pits people against each other in a game which is straight forward about its' goal.

So whether you like COD or not, you can't say that it doesn't contribute anything to gaming as that is completely false.

There are probably many reasons people don't like COD, as you can't have a 100% satisfaction rate, but COD seems to be hated quite devoutly by some people, and I suspect it's because they don't see people that only play COD as 'proper gamers' due to the fact that the game play doesn't require much thought at all and is quite repetitive really.

Hmm, perhaps I should have worded it differently, something along the lines of contributing nothing to progress it, further it?

But even in the multiplayer department CoD wasn't the big "breakthrough" for gaming, we have games like Counter Strike and Halo which came out years before to thank for it.

For the record, I do like CoD, I own each major one willingly and I like all but about two or three of them.

*Why I didn't say Skyrim? Well, Skyrim became immensely popular and everyone got it, that's why.

Lol sorry to burst your bubble but so did Oblivion.

Yeah it did... but then again I don't remember seeing Oblivion taking over popular conscience or having as big an impact as Skyrim did last year/late 2011. Maybe it's Oblivion's fault that the hype/excitement/fanfare happened.

It contributes nothing to gaming,

It contributes everything to gaming a game needs to, it contributes a certain amount of entertainment to the people that like to play those games. That is all a game is required to contribute, its all a game needs to contribute. To demand anything more from a piece of entertainment is pretentious, I do not know where this stupid games as "art" crap started but the people responsible should hang their heads in shame.

Some games just like some movies or certain books could be considered to have art in them but its unrealistic and false to expect every single other game to fall down into someones arthole with them, some games are just simple basic entertainment and thats all they need to be.

Who said it needs to be artful? I said what I said because it provides the exact same things as games which have come before it. It has entertainment value, but what can be taken from it that couldn't be taken from a different game?

If a game has artistic intent and integrity, great, but a game/franchise doesn't need it.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

In my personal experience, I believe that after COD began gaining popularity as an online multiplayer, it started to go down in terms of quality single player campaigns and overall presentation.

I mean, the last COD that I enjoyed playing was World at War. That games was awesome; the single player campaign was awesome and suspenseful and the multiplayer was a great time. The overall gore of the game (blood, skulls exploding after head shots, limbs flying left and right, and bodies generally getting blown to bits) was a reminder that war was not pretty, but that doesn't meant that it can't look awesome.

Nowadays, how is the violence in the most recent titles? You get shot in the chest and you do a twirl before falling flat on the floor; you get killed off by a head shot and you either cover your face out of agony or do a stiff man fall. And blood? What blood? You die and cash falls out of you. I know that all this is done to not seem too gory or possibly show that every soldier's life is priceless (?), but seriously, this is so that loud mouth 8 year-olds can play and not get traumatized. Team Fortress 2 is a lot more humorous and lighthearted and it's still more violent than the COD multiplayer.

The last game that I've been interested wad COD:MW3 (I mean, c'mon! It's f***ing WWIII! How can you mess that up?). The trailer had this big built up to having a great campaign on a scenario that could make anyone excited for. Up until a month before it's release, I was stoked to get it. Then they spent the last month advertising the multiplayer and we never saw the initial trailer ever again. Seriously? You really wanted to remind gamers that a COD game has multiplayer and completely disregard the WWIII scenario in the single player campaign? That's when I was immediately turned off.

I'm not too sure what Ghosts will push for, but if it's anything like COD:MW3, the single player will just be a wasted effort.

 

[aguspal]

So, for what I could gather so far in this thread, people dislike COD because:


-"It influences the other games to turn into a COD clone" Except thats the fault of retarded devolopers who try to copy COD, and not the fault of COD itself.

-"Its community sucks and is full of 13 years old whining in the mic" Please tell me how a retarded fanbase is COD´s fault. Besides, if you hate COD so much you are not playing it, so this is kind of stupid to whine about. As if every other fanbase didnt have their dumbass people. Ha.

-"I just dont like it looool" Well then dont play it and leave those who do actually enjoy it alone.




Please note that I NEVER said than those stataments are FALSE. COD is certainly and most likely one of the reasons that the industry is focusing more in brow shooters 2 guns and whatnot, and it also happens to have a really bad fanbase, but- the key is here- IS NOT COD´S FAULT!!!! You guys are looking for something to put the blame on, but in the wrong direction! The fault is really of the Industry itself, not COD. Or if it somehow is, I would like someone to enligth me then...

Legimate complaints such as "the gameplay is boring/broken" and whatnot are okey, But when people say stuff like "ITS KILLING THE INDUSTRY AND THEREFORE MY GAMES!!!!!111" It really just sounds like a REALLY selfish justification just to hate on COD some more because... I dunno... I guess they need to hate on something to make their hearts content or something lol.



Have a nice day everyone.

 

[Sande45]

I don't hate Cod. I'm just very disappointed with it. Back in 2007 with Cod 4 the series was still something special. It was a fast paced shooter that was very well made. Great controls, looks, framerate, minimal lag. But Activision wasn't happy. They gots to get moar ca$h. So with every iteration since they've gone more frantic and chaotic, easier weapons, and more aim assist to appeal to even wider audience and somehow they managed to ruin hit detection and connections while they were at it. Still I hope that some day they get their heads out of their asses and start thinking "what would be good" again instead of "what will sell the most". Yeah, I'm not holding my breath.

As to the hate, I'm baffled. In every Cod related comment section and with the thumbs on Youtube etc. there's just so much hate. I would never waste a damn second shitting on some game I have no interest in. But these guys have been doing it for 5 years and counting. Don't like it? F***ing move on.

 

[Azure23]

I remember loving CoD4. It was my second ps3 game (after unreal tournament) and I was stunned by the graphics, the gameplay, the setpieces. I can't even remember how many times me and my brother played All Ghillied Up, trying to run around knifing fools in that section where you crawl under the trucks, discovering the secret armory atop the fire escape and taking everyone on. We would even duel on the largest map and have these intense sniper battles. I really like that game (especially the stealth focus SAS levels). I was living in a dorm when CoDMod2 came out and I immediately grabbed a copy for the rec room console and we would have 2v2 tourneys on the weekends. I still remember one amazing match against the best player in the dorm (an alaskan kid who had spent pretty much his whole life gaming) and another friend of mine. I was teamed with this guy Dowson, he was decent but I was carrying the match. I remember coming out on a balcony and seeing them below me heading down the street, I waited until the rear player was below me and I jumped off and assassinated him with a knife. Then I turned, dropped a knee, and headshot Alaska just as he was turning to fire. Fucking amazing moment, I was in that zone the whole match, you other CoD players know what I mean, hyper aware, twitch reflexes razor sharp, tactical decisions on the fly and everything is going your way. Alaska's constant refrain during this match? "How are you so good right now!?" That's how I experienced CoD, set apart from the acidity and seriousness of the greater online community. It was great. Me and my bros still have our custom classes for CoDmod2 saved on my younger bros xbox and once in awhile when we're all together we'll get drunk and go a few rounds.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

I'll try to put it in a way that is neither praising nor panning.

...CoD is the most popular flavor of ice cream, it's Vanilla Soft Serve.

Now, there's nothing wrong with vanilla soft serve. It's a decent flavor, and great if you're not that adventurous when it comes to food, but it lacks to oomph of say, Pecan Praline.

We'll say TF2 is Pecan Praline. It has lot's of tasty chunks and swirly colours, but it's harder and colder, making it more difficult to eat. At it's core it's still Vanilla, but it's got so much more to offer that you hardly notice.

In the end, some people like their comfort zone, and CoD is very comfortable for that kind of person.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I play a lot of CoD. I mean a lot. I can spend several hours at a time, as long as the lobbies aren't full of snipers, campers and target finders.

But I also hate this shit out of it, mostly because of the things mentioned above and a few gameplay issues; spawning right in the line of enemy fire is pretty fucking terrible, the lag sucks (a full clip to just wing a dude? No) and a few other issues. The people are the worst thing about it, a lot of the time; snipers who feel they're entitled, ***** about getting shot when they lie on the floor in the same spot for the whole match, target finders who sit in a corner and general campers who... Also sit in corners. People complain about the guys with knives but they're only a problem when they're on your team; I'm yet to find one who doesn't suck.

When it's good, it is good. I know it's a pretty generic shooter but it kinda fought to be the that. I saw off Medal of Honour and the like to be the best generic shooter and sometimes that's all I want to play. I enjoy clearing out sniper nests just to piss them off, I enjoy winning, I enjoy just shooting people.

Bottom line; it's a lot of fun but people like to ruin fun.

 

[Faraja]

Call of Duty is a first person shooter, and 1 of the biggest (if not the biggest) franchise of multiplayer FPS games out there. People are able to join a game quickly and play for as long as they fancy, and because it's played against humans, it doesn't feel as repetitive. You could say it's like sports played in real life in that it pits people against each other in a game which is straight forward about its' goal.

So whether you like COD or not, you can't say that it doesn't contribute anything to gaming as that is completely false.

All I got out of your argument was that it brings stuff to the gaming table because it has multiplayer. Not for nothing, but I'm pretty sure there were a lot of other games that had multiplayer before CoD. Including the other CoDs (really, I assume that this thread is really just directed towards the MW and BlOps games).

It did add one thing; a feeling of accomplishment whenever you prestige or gain a new skin for you boomsticks. So, yeah, I suppose it did show the gaming world how to make even the pettiest of victories seem absolutely amazing.

When it actually comes to hating CoD, I just don't have the passion for it. It's a thing. It exists. For some reason, people play, despite every MW game just being the last one with a slightly newer coat of paint. Really, it's like crack, you keep shelling out more and more money just to try and get the same high. That's why it's so successful with it's map packs and it's bigger map packs disguised as new games. If people want to waste their money on it, fine.

I do, however, hate what it's done to the gaming world. Not just because publishers have it in their head that every game that is not Call of Duty is not Call of Duty enough. Don't get me wrong, I hate that to no end. It's saddening really, to look at any upcoming big budget FPS and thinking, "oh, look, another CoD clone." I hate the fact that anyone against video gaming on the planet can point to the CoD multiplayer base and say, "see, this is the shit we're trying to protect you from!" Admittedly not a new problem, but it has grown.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

At first, CoD was a pretty good game at telling histories and telling stories in WWII. Specifically the second Call of Duty -- though there isn't much emotional investment by the characters, it did give you a good sense of what was going on in WWII and what the battles would've looked like. That was back when main characters were the 'every man' and had no influence on the story besides witnessing the battles.

The shooting was pretty solid, but it wasn't bordering exceptional. Back then when the only other game of CoD's breadth was Medal of Honor, simply having varied level design, a good look to its animations and textures, and pretty solid gameplay was enough to make it better (in my opinion).

The game simply worked. But, that's when the WWII shooters became really common place, and Call of Duty wasn't about to make four games in a row about WWII, they wanted to be a little different.

Come Modern Warfare, that changed. It wasn't about telling history, it was about making an action story. Call of Duty was less about you, the every man, experiencing Normandy or the Battle of El Alamein for the fortieth time; now it was about a guy named Bart Steinfield (or whatever) who singlehandedly took down the terrorist cell I.S.U.C.K. using nothing but the game's rather standard shooting and occasional moments of "Click A to use the power drill on the door".

Well. It worked, didn't it? What made CoD really playable and really repeatable is that it really, really isn't hard to learn the game. In a game where two shots = dead, and guns all are accurate and players aren't flailing in the air like Quake or Unreal Tournament, there isn't any challenge to learning it. It's all a sake of having the preferable loadout and Ironsight + Shoot. It's not like TF2 or Painkiller where there is a lot to learn about projectile speeds, jumping strategies, weapon switching for various situations, and the magical DM. CoD works because you never need to learn that -- there's no weapon with projectiles, jumping is useless, all weapons perform in the same ways in all ranges, DM is unused because everyone dies in a shot or too.

I could probably pick up CoD, and give me one hundred hours, I could be as good as everyone else. If the standard person were to start a much more competitive FPS like Quake, give them one hundred hours, and they'd still be pretty crap at it.

People don't want to be crap at it until they hit their two thousandth hour, they want to be good. CoD means being good in a short time, which is why a lot of people think it's bullshit.

It just fucking works, too. CoD is cemented in the gaming industry because it does what works. I have no fucking idea why people get mad at CoD for not changing its working formula when they defend Nintendo for only using its working formula.

 

[TrevHead]

CoD is an OK console FPS that is very good at rewarding those who suck and not just the best skilled gamers like all the best hardcore MP games do.

However as others have mentioned it's how much CoD has affected the industry and game design in general that most ppl hate it. Even worse is that CoD's mechanics have affected PC shooters even though the stop and pop console FPS sub genre doesn't suit the much faster run and gun M&K FPS.

It's not just the industries fault though, alot of the blame is against gamers who demand other games play like CoD.
Just like Tripware devs had trouble with playtesting their FPS with COD players
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/13/call-of-duty-red-orchestra-2-interview/.

Although it's partly the industries fault as to why there's so many modern gamers demand every game is basically a reskin of their favourite game as that's what AAA's have been spoon feeding modern gamers with for years. It's just the same with Dishonoured and Hitman devs too but that was more about how badly modern gamers are at problem solving especially when it comes to improvising.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/180845/New_Hitman_asks_players_to_improvise_but_have_they_forgotten_how.php

It's certainly a problem AAA devs are having to tackle with now we are moving into the next gen and new IP and game ideas, but just how do you cater new games to these massive CoD playerbase that is so set in their ways like a toddler that only likes Rice Crispy cereal and won't eat anything else.

The industries answer until now has been to make everything taste of Rice Crispies, however it doesn't seem to be getting them anywhere as it alienates their existing fans. Personally I'd prefer the industry to stop it and view CoD as like another FIFA & Madden and concentrate on making other games the best they can under their own merits it's the only way to get out of this rut AAA is in atm.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

The series was a good underdog series that had a fair bit going for it. CoD 1, UO and Call of Duty 2 was quite popular and was quite a PC centric game in terms of features such as mods, servers but had terrible spawns and weapon balance in some respects. CoD 4 was very popular and gained a substantial following on consoles after a solid foundation of console fans in CoD 2. Still remained very much a PC friendly game. WaW went largely unnoticed and aside from zombies was a largely average affair comparatively speaking and was little more than an expansion for CoD 4 in my opinion.

Then came MW2 and that is when things went sour for a lot of people myself included. Being a longtime fan of the series I was very excited for this game preordered it and all that following the release closely. Then one day I cancelled my order. They completely gave a massive fuck you to the original(but by no means better) fans of the game the people on PC. Took out features such as mods, dedicated servers, lean among others and having the most dumbest excuses I've ever heard such as maps aren't balanced for lean.

This is where a lot of the ire for the series originated. There was a somewhat successful petition/boycott that had the PC sales drop by 1/4 of a mil also being roughly what the petition was that got slated a lot. A well known picture from a steam group that had something like 800 players in it and about 17 actually playing MW2 being a reason the petition "failed". This led to much flame on the forums and many an ignorant argument but these feature were brought back in CoD:BO.

This and the fucking ridiculous statements from Bobby Kotick that got on the internet which were a PR disaster.

This one game released 4 years solidified the image of CoD you see now of money grubbing innovative, for loud mouthed twelve years olds , etc for the years to come. The weapon power creep building from the previous games became ludicrous in this one and the balance was horrendous. That said my game time with this one is quite limited as I didn't buy it I "boycotted" and my friend made me give it a go. You only have to look at videos to see the how bad certain builds/weapons were.

After that the series has remained in the mire it made for itself four years ago happy with the financial success and pleasing those who still enjoy the current beast.

There is my QQ retelling of how CoD got from underdog shooter to the guy everyone hates from someone who cared to sink well over 1k hours into CoD 1, UO, 2 and 4.

 

[Ecliptica Wolf]

Threads like these show just how pompous some members of the gaming community can be.

I've played games for 15 years, running everything from simulators and strategy to mass corporation activity in EVE Online and I enjoy Call of Duty immensely. People who say that the series gives nothing to gaming are completely foolish, it occupies the market that it occupies and it does very well in doing so. The single player experiences can vary in my opinion but in terms of multiplayer it's incredibly addictive and good for a quick session alone or with friends. Understandably people don't like the game and don't enjoy what it offers but that isn't a reflection on the game, merely on the opinions of said person.

Just because it's 'cool' to hate on Call of Duty, it doesn't mean you should do it.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Simple. Its success lead to a high saturation of CoD clones in the market, replacing what could have potentially been interesting new game ideas in place of just making a generic "well whatever sells" brown/grey shooter.

Call of Duty is a poison in the games industry in terms of creativity.

About this, in my opinion. It's done nothing special or new, and everyone is just following their example. We need some interesting games coming by once in awhile, not everyone trying to follow one bloated cash overflowing fat guy on the street

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

CoD is an OK console FPS that is very good at rewarding those who suck and not just the best skilled gamers like all the best hardcore MP games do.

That line you wrote is the absolute epitome of everything that is wrong with the gaming community in regards to the claims of entitlement and elitism. Congratulations. See you wanna know why CoD is popular despite being on the internet hate list? Simple. Because you can play CoD without having to be a part of a bandwagon or scene. You don't need to dump half your life into the game to make it fun. You don't need to go on the internet and constantly assert your alleged superiority every nanosecond. You can actually get your foot in the door without legions of sneering veterans telling you how much you suck every match. If you seriously look down on CoD simply because it allows new players to have a good time then I am truly saddened.

OT: It's in the spotlight, it gets the hate. CoD could be designed and programmed by god himself to give you an ambrosia-like experience of unbridled ecstasy and edgy shitheads would still flood the internet and talk about how Super Mario 3 is better because it isn't as new.