Old News

I'm sure this is old news for a lot of people by now, but man, am I sick of Call of Duty.  At one time it was a surface level frustration, similar to being sick of eating pizza everyday for lunch - eventually you're gonna come back and eat pizza again.  This is deeper though... it gets at me in a deep spot, a place that I feel abused and controlled.

I even enjoy playing it (most of the time).  I can easily say that the only reason I still actively play it is because of who I'm playing with.  The group of guys I play online with (who I do know in real life) are amazing company, but this is the only game they play.  Some play other single player games now and then, some at one time play other first-person shooters, but really, COD is it.

Here is the tricky thing about it all... no one I play with can really articulate anymore, what makes COD better or different than other FPS out there.  I remember when COD4:Modern Warfare came out... it was so easy to see what set Duty apart from the rest of the pack.  Incredibly smooth gameplay, customizable weapons, fast instant multiplayer action.  What FPS doesn't have that stuff now? It's become so routine that no one really remembers what set COD above the competition in the first place... it's just always been that way.  It's Call of Duty, that's why...

I think what makes me so mad at this whole thing is how unashamed Activision is in changed almost nothing on a game by game basis.  I would love to be corrected on this, but aren't all of the current COD games using the exact same gameplay engine that COD4:MW did?  That came out in 2007 - That's 5 years of using the same tech, same gameplay design, same texturing...  How lazy.  Could we add something new please?! If it isn't going to be in gameplay (different style perks, bigger maps, vehicles, etc) could it at least be in the tech (destructible environments, changing levels, better animation reconciliation, less clipping)

On of my good COD buddies came to it's aid here... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  Fair enough.  But the truthfulness of that statement in this situation depends solely on your definition of success.  Activision sees the dollar sign as a success.  Because so many people buy it, it must be a solid product.   All those people who buy it, see all the other millions buying it, so they believe it must be a solid product.  This is all an elaborate ruse.  It's a house of cards, just waiting to fall.  Activision knows that as soon as they change anything, it's going to ruin their money printing machine.  As soon as a large enough chunk of the population gets tired of it, they are going to jump ship.

I'm jumping ship.  Bobby Kotick is going to have to come to my house and show me his business model to fix my complaints about COD.  I'd like to say that I won't even play it, but I know myself better than that to make that promise.  I can make the promise not to buy it - my money will not be going to Activision. 

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As an additional reminder, here is the quote from Kotick in response to why Activision dropped Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend from their line-up after their merge with Blizzard:


“[They] don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now.”

Kinda speaks for itself...