The Truth Behind The Hate For Call Of Duty

An eGamer journalist analyses what he believes to be the true reasons for the "surge in hatred" for the Call of Duty games, and attempts to look at the situation objectively.

[Jacobite]

Good read, myself being a PC gamer mostly I thought COD, CODUO, COD2 and MW are the best, the rest playable (except BO) said after BO never again lol MW3 19.99 @ Christmas just a tad of hope left (doubt it)never mind still to play it probably SP only lost interest in MP after MW2.

[Agent-86]

As another PC gamer, I have to agree with both your points: this was a great article and COD just hasn't been worth playing since MW. My actual favorite was COD:UO because it had larger maps and vehicles. Great fun! Oh well, like the author, I moved on as well. BFBC2 and BF3 were much better games; I haven't missed COD at all.

[h311rais3r]

@solid

i stopped reading after you said "BF bad company3" clearly says battlefield 3 on the box. that and u said bf is not fun. im sorry but me and ALL my friends have had much more fun doing this - you and your squad run into a building fill of enemies. plant c4. collapse the building killing everyone inside only to come under fire by a helicopter which then gets hit by a missile and you dive attempting to not get crushed by the flaming giant. you get back up and hip fire someone at close range then suddenly you stop. you see a knife holding your dogtag and your dead. - thats a bf game. here is cod - RUN! DIE! DIE DIE DIE! RUN KILL! AC130! lose -

[Majin-vegeta]

Not to mention they rehashed some buildings from MW1.
http://youtu.be/b5dsOn06w1s

[Tachyon_Nova]

I dont see why people care about this, buildings in BF3 are reused like 100 times each...

[metsgaming]

I really hate COD for 1 reason over everything else.

It ruins other games, how so you ask?

1. Developers change their IP's and try to copy COD and ruin what the series was about and what made it special.

It ruined on of my favorite series Ace Combat. Assault horizon is Codized and it is nothing like a true ace combat.

2. Similar to number one but about new Ip's. most games seem to try to copy cod or use elements popularized by Cod. If i wanted to play Cod i would play cod and your rip off will not convince Cod players to switch to your game.

This has thus destroyed innovation because everyone wants the COD money. Good gameplay and ideas are thrown away because its all about the money.

3. Another thing is that truly good games dont get the recognition they deserve or any recognition at all and die.

[Ducky]

1 & 2 are due to simply the game being popular.
They're both not really justified reasons to hate a game. CoD didn't ruin your favourite series, the developers of your favourite series did.

As for 3, truly good games still wouldn't get recognition even if CoD didn't exist.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

People hate it cause its a bad game series after COD4 its just the same shit over and over.

[BattleTorn]

I can't remember whether when exactly Call of Duty became "Arcade".

It sure wasn't until its later years that it became formulaic, and acheived that title ("arcade shooter")

My personal taste have either never liked that direct, or out grown it.

Now it seems like the maps designs are circular, which wasn't always the case.

World at War had vehicles, and larger maps. Why can't they attempt that again?

[gnothe1]

In my opinion MW2 was the best one...but you wanna know why games like RFOM,KILLZONE,BF an other shooters dont sell like COD?..because their just not fun...i argue an complain for HOURS while playing COD but at the end of the day me an my buddies had a blast...we have all tried these other games an maybe a half hour into we're all bored an either offline or back to playing COD...each cod title i've put about 21 days worth of play time in...that means we're having FUN..no other game has held our attention like cod

[Gamer-Z]

True until another developer makes a game as fun and addicting as COD it wont ever be topped. I still play MW2 a lot and i never get bored of it, i would still play COD4 but hackers are giving it the business. MW3 is garbage though i wont ever play shit.

[RNTody]

Hey guys, I'm the writer of the article, and I'm glad to see the active discussion taking place here :) However, I am a little sad that there are BF3 Vs Cod arguments going on. That wasn't the intention behind my article.

It was me trying to understand the massive negativity surrounding CoD these days, and in all honesty it was because as a gamer I felt upset at what Call of Duty has become. For me, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare sits with the likes of Battlefield 2, Counter Strike and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory as one of the greatest multiplayer FPS games I've ever experienced, and some of the most influential games in the genre. Only time will tell if Battlefield 3 can make the mark, so I won't comment on it yet. I do however love BF3 right now.

But nothing has been the same since CoD4, for reasons I mentioned in the article. It's true that Call of Duty is the best at what it does - the run and gun arcade shooter, but it's no longer the game we can count on to push boundaries and bring fame to new and exciting elements.As I mentioned in the article, we won't get another game-changing CoD title until it ceases to be the most financially successful game on the market, because it doesn't make sense to take risks right now from a business perspective.

In my opinion though, as I mentioned in the article, after eight Call of Duty games I've just personally grown tired of it. I've moved onto other games. There's nothing left that CoD can do for me personally, or show me. However, others will still play and love it, and they're free to do so. And that's the beauty of gaming I guess.

But I believe that after the reactions to Modern Warfare 3, something has to change for the next CoD game. Maybe Treyarch will be used as the scapegoat since it's their turn this year, which means they'll be facing tons of pressure, but either way, it remains that gamers have just as much power to influence the next Call of Duty game’s success as the developers have the power to change the genre, innovate and take bold steps forward to make gamers try out and learn to love potentially cool new things. But that just won’t happen will it?

I mean, let's be honest. If Call of Duty does something drastically new that is well received, it could change the entire industry's approach to FPS games. Much like Call of Duty 4 did with its perks, ranking and personal player challenge systems for example.

[Gamer-Z]

when the original IW made COD4 they poured their hearts and souls into the game they took their time and came out with a masterpiece and it showed so much so that it redefined the FPS genre like no other. COD4 was damn near perfect, everything from the map design, sound, graphics, gun balance, gameplay, and even the hit detect was spot on (best in the series imo) but Activision took all that innovation/quality and threw it out in favor of a yearly cycle, fired the guys who made it in order to take control of the IP and started making carbon copies of the game in order to milk it as much as possible.

[Oschino1907]

You couldn't be more wrong and delusional, but having said that I wish I could live in the fantasy world you speak of...

(I still own most cods and have mw1 2 and 3 and still play a bit of each now and then)
Maps in cod4 were far from perfect but the few maps they did right are time tested favs amongst the majority, sound was great back then but it is now better then it ever was, graphics were great for time but now clearly better and even more refined, gun balance was decent but considering the amount of content now I can't really say cod4 was much better, it just had less variety and number of things to balance, hit detection was no better or worse and thinking otherwise is delusional, listening to you is like hearing people talk about how much better things used to be "back in the day", its called selective memory and you selected only the good times and blew them out of proportion.

Oh and for gods sake, cod was already basically a yearly cycle game and the orignal iw guys screwed themselves when they started talking to ea while under contract with acti. Stop being so biased and one sided, you troll almost every cod article, get over it, it was the orig iw who started down the bad path and mw2 is what almost killed series for me, thankfully damage control stepped in and mw3 has fixed many things mw2 broke... sure it lacks the simplistic fundemental level of fun cod4 had but its the best all around cod to be produced thus far hands down, stop living in your delusional past and be real with yourself for once....

[RNTody]

Whether that's true or not Oschino, don't miss the true point behind Gamer-Z's comment. He is very right in that the original Modern Warfare was massively influential to the market today, and brought fame to a great many trends you now see in practically all multiplayer shooters.

For example, CoD4 really highlighted the now famous perk system, it brought fame to personal player challenges for bonus experience online, it really emphasised weapon customization and fine-tuned a player progression (ranking) system and weapon unlock system.

Personally, I felt the maps in CoD4 were a great deal more entertaining and exciting than those in Modern Warfare 2, but that's just me.

But really, the value of CoD4 makes it the most important game in the franchise in my opinion, and it will always be what I consider the best if you look at how it influenced the genre and industry. It took Call of Duty in a completely different direction and killed off the World War 2 genre.

[Stretchystrong]

You call him a troll by attacking his opinion? You're the cod fanboy troll. MW3 hit detection is atrocious. Saying mw3 graphics are better is just blind fanboyism and means you don't know it's the same engine as cod4, which tells me you don't know anything else about the development of the game. Tell me how much heart and soul can be poured into yearly iterations. It turns into a math equation that amounts to the dollar sign and a lot numbers after it.

[Hicken]

Great article.

[scrambles]

Great article but it forgot that CoD is evil for one other reason, it changes other FPS's. Many other Devs have gone and said HEY we want CoD's audience. So what do they do? They casualize their game make it "more accessible" so games that were insanely complex turn to little more than run and gun mind numbing meat grinders. This makes fanbases rage cuz who wants to play with CoD's fanbase. That game breeds lone wolves and nonteamplay the kind of ideals that go against other games' core values. So as every game developer goes after CoD's fanbase, we get a more and more dumbed down genre as a whole. CoD also is one of the more famous for its grind leveling system. You get more points and shiny awards for doing solo work. This has proved potent in keeping their fanbase playing. My friends cant even play games anymore without an extensive reward system! That is so insanely messed up it baffles me! Why dont you play a game because you like the gameplay? Why dont you play a game cuz its fun! if you play a game for your MMORPG grindfest and get rid of it as soon as you finish it, its obviously not good game! This all can be seen in games like BF3. The insane unlock system that promotes self improvement over others! the low skill ceiling to allow anyone to play. The big ribbons that show up every other 30 seconds and block your screen. BF3 is more casual than BF2. They shaped it for an audience that didnt want to play an indepth game. CoD is hurting the industry and it will have a terrible time recovering.

[RNTody]

This is the last comment I'm able to make sadly :( But I enjoyed reading your response, and it brings up a very good point actually. Thanks! :)

However, I didn't forget about that point, I just decided against using it in the discussion. See, as much as it is actually true despite fans' rejection of it, the undeniable fact remains that Call of Duty cannot be blamed for other developers failing to stick to doing their own thing. That's why I didn't use this argument, because it's often not received well, isn't conveyed well by writers and, because, it's not really something that can directly be blamed on Call of Duty.

I must say you put the point forward really well, UninformedInformer, but I wanted to take a very different approach to the argument based purely on my own analysis, and I personally feel this isn't something that can be blamed on CoD.

I wanted to address Call of Duty's own issues, which is its neglecting of PC, its focus on money and, of course, the fact that it no longer innovates and moves the industry forward like it used to.

[scrambles]

I know its not their fault really. they have a game and they stick to their strengths. CoD makes money everyone wants money. EA wanted Activision's money so they probably had a hand in making BF3 more casual. I dont hate CoD, I hate what it does. If it was all off on its own and everyone ignored it then i wouldnt have any problem with it but as it stands now, it is still a massive problem with the gaming industry. It grows massively every year and has the "World of Warcraft effect" until some day everyone gets bored of it then someone replaces them. Anyways, thanks for the reply and hopefully more articles like these will pop up. Its probably one of the best articles I've read on this site in sooooooooo long. Atleast someone is willing to write these kind of articles. :D Enjoy the rest of your day. Also ignore my name its kinda ironic in a sense lol.