Call of Duty has ruined gaming.

(TL;DR at bottom)

Right, thought I'd dive deep into some controversy - I honestly think that games like Call of Duty have lowered gaming standards these days. Allow me to explain.

Now COD is by no means a bad game, heck you could argue that its a very polished title with very little flaws and is itself very well presented as I'm sure most of you will point out. My quarrel with it however isn't its technical shortcomings (which it doesn't lack), but rather its lacking of originality.

Cast yourself back over a decade ago or even beyond when we had developers experimenting with innovative gaming ideas all of which were very original - we had Yu Suzuki giving us the brilliant Shenmue games which were so far ahead of their time, we had enjoyed terrific stories from Lucas adventures such as Grim Fandango and Monkey Island, and furthermore we truly had barrier-breaking, astonishing titles such as Ocarina of time, Final Fantasy 7 and Deus Ex which had raised the bar in the gaming world.

Nowadays that same bravery and indulgence into originality has been replaced by a soulless attempt to cash in at the so-called 'safe-selling' games, i.e. games that are not necessary ground-breaking, but rather following a common formula that will most likely appeal to those looking for a quick action fix, typical in games like COD, gears of war or what have you. It seems every game released nowadays is a shameless clone of Call of Duty or Gears of War, if it wasn't already bad enough that those franchises already re-release the same game every year under the guise of a sequel. It sets a depressing precedence, where you forget about innovative ideas and simply go for the fool-proof formula of creating a game with bald, space marines killing terrorists, Nazis, aliens all in a very short single player campaign, while the multiplayer is nothing but an unimaginative fragfest with annoying pre-pubescent children shouting down the voice comm.

Now I appreciate that there are some gems being released out there today, but sadly they don't seem to get much attention and its only indie developers which tend to be brave enough to put em out there, most likely resulting in poor sales and discouraging them from continuing their work. Hence we get this almost Darwinian system where the only games that are left to saturate the market are shameless spinoffs of games like Call of Duty.

Another thing I should note is that I'm not solely blaming the Call of Duty series here, its just the game I happen to think of when I evaluate what is IMO - an era defined with a fall in gaming originality.

TL;DR: Games like Call of Duty have ruined gaming because every game tries to mimic its success by copying its unimaginative formula, not being brave enough to experiment with the originality we were spoiled with in previous gaming generations.

This isn't just a rant by the way, I'm curious to hear what other people have to say on the issue.

"stale" franchises exist since the pong days, COD is nothing new

I actually agree with you. I honestlyhate the CoD games a lot after trying out Modern Warfare 2, it was just the same as CoD 4 and the number of hackers I found were astounding, every game I went to had a hacker and every firefight was won using dropshots. But I think there are some really great shooters, like Bad Company 2, it doesnt copy anything from CoD, and I really am hoping to get Bad Company 2 Ultimate Edition soon.

Bottom Line- I agree with you

Actually the original COD gamesbrought a breath of fresh air to what was a really stale fps genre. I would argue COD didn't ruin gaming, but that Activision ruined COD. What we have now is so far from what COD used to be.

Actually the original COD gamesbrought a breath of fresh air to what was a really stale fps genre. I would argue COD didn't ruin gaming, but that Activision ruined COD. What we have now is so far from what COD used to be.

ElPadilla

I actually agree with you. I honestlyhate the CoD games a lot after trying out Modern Warfare 2, it was just the same as CoD 4 and the number of hackers I found were astounding, every game I went to had a hacker and every firefight was won using dropshots. But I think there are some really great shooters, like Bad Company 2, it doesnt copy anything from CoD, and I really am hoping to get Bad Company 2 Ultimate Edition soon.

Bottom Line- I agree with you

darkassassin911

A sequel is basically the same thing but with a whole mess of improvment. Same thing can be said for bad company 2 if you ever played the first one. They added new stuff since 4 so if you acutually played it rather just follow everyone and hating it then you should know. Theres tons of hackers but what do you except from a billion dollar game? Theres bound to be hackers so I don't see why thats a suprise (they fixed it btw the whole point of a patch...). Drop shooting is just something that people can use just likehow camper friendly Bad Company 2 was with the motion sensor. If everyone was winning firefights vs you by drop shotting, why don't you adapt and drop shot yourself? I'm not saying COD is perfect but the same things have been said for the COD series for a while now... how its the same, hacker everwhere, noobs drop shoting, etc.

People just play it because its sooooo simple. really just need to know two buttons to play. My mom can play it.

People just play it because its sooooo simple. really just need to know two buttons to play. My mom can play it.

rangegear

yep his mom play CoD.. i know ...

jk jk im sorry you set yourself up for that one

The title makes this thread sound like a CoD troll thread, I suggest renaming it. On topic: back in the day gaming was still a largely unexplored territory, but nowadays original ideas are getting harder to come by, but there still are a few: sure, we're in the sequel age, but as long as we get games like Heavy Rain every now and again, it shows there's still originality in the industryBlack_Knight_00

The problem I have is they other game makers see the sells that CoD is having and want it to. The problem is when they take out not out bad complexity but the meaningful depth so that anyone can pick up the game and play with without some thought behind it. Worse is when people try to say they are not and you should just turn but the challenge level.

In the "golden era" of gaming plenty of devs aped the design of other successful games. That is not the sudden and new phenomenon you make it out to be.RandoIph

Nintendo fan and proud.

"Activisionhas ruined gaming."

There you go, all fixed...

There have been rip offs from successful games since mario. Now you're saying there have been many devs trying to follow their footsteps. Could you make a list of games that have been trying to be like COD? Because all I see are new games being released and not one cod rip off.

So far I've seen bulletstorm, crysis 2 and bfbc2 since cod4. Sure there probably are rip offs but they didn't even make good sales. We are still being offered good games and those are the only ones making good sales.

Actually the original COD gamesbrought a breath of fresh air to what was a really stale fps genre. I would argue COD didn't ruin gaming, but that Activision ruined COD. What we have now is so far from what COD used to be.

ElPadilla

I completely agree with this. The first CoD was beyond excellent. It had finally polished a decent FPS to a standard not seen before. The attention to detail is amazing. If you visit pegasus bridge it is genuinally spooky how close the in game environment matches the real world environment. Almost down to the trees.

Activision however failed to really continue this momentum beyond CoD4 which I believe was the last solid CoD title which bought anything new at all. While I still love the games, I love them because of my love of the previous incarnations.

If developers are failing to innovate it's not neccesarily CoD's fault, it's the developers failing to get enough excitement behind a new idea or gameplay mechanic due to a lack of confidence in the market. If I've noticed anything from being a member of the Gamespot community it's that gamers aren't idiots. They know a good game and a game that pushes boundaries. While yes if developers were to release a game which drifted from the CoD style too much then they may lose some of their casual gamer market but I don't believe they'd lose out on such a large proportion that they wouldn't make sales comparable to before the CoD era. These developers that copy the CoD recipe are lacking in confidence and or are just being unfortunately drawn towards the blockbuster profits and style that CoD demonstrates. So I'd put it to you that while CoD has unfortunatly shown no innovative ideas since CoD4, it did innovate back in 2003? and that the disppareance of frequent new releases by developers that are innovative and that push boundaries are not due to CoD's success but to the abscence of confidence in numerous developers.

Plus I think its worthy of note that we haven't completely lost all these innovative classic games. Final Fantasy, Deus Ex, Skyrim to name just a few are in my opinion prime candidates for games whose developers are still innovating and they all have imminent release dates.

Why aren't there more people ripping on New Super Mario Bros for the Wii? As far as I'm concerned, it's good but it doesn't bring any originality.

[QUOTE="RandoIph"]In the "golden era" of gaming plenty of devs aped the design of other successful games. That is not the sudden and new phenomenon you make it out to be.hama666

How many studios have closed in the past 10 years? While it is a bit depressing to see genres become oversaturated, with as much as it costs to develop a game anymore they do have to look at the bottom line quite a bit more than they ever had to before. The whole risk/reward thing. Playing it safe has a better chance to bring profit, especially if you are a smaller development house. Thats not to say creative(while not necessarily innovative...a term that is frankly overused) games aren't there. Plenty of games have offered unique experiences out there, and the xbox/psn/wii marketplace has given smaller devs the chance to flex their creative muscles.

That said, Call of Duty has ruined nothing; the consumer has. If it wasn't for the consumer Activision wouldn't even care about the franchise, but since it is bought in droves, Activision and their blatent displays of greed will pump them out every year with Kotick probably saying something stupid like "We should feel grateful that they do."

So like I said: consumers. It's their fault.

Oh on a side note, I have to cringe at the statement that FFVII was innovative. It wasn't.

I think that someone forgot how many generic beat em ups and platformers there was on the SNES and Genesis, for example. This is not a new phenomenon. Speak up with your money and support indie developers and original games in general.

Call of Duty hasn't ruined gaming but it's definitely changed the FPS genre. These days, the market is dominated by FPS's which are all trying to sponge of the success of Call of Duty. The franchise has now become really casual and lazy in my opinion. The developers are just using the same formula in every game but the problem truly lies with Activision. They obviously want developers to continue using this incredibly popular formula because it makes them millions upon millions of dollars and they decide that they want to release a new Call of Duty every year to keep the money coming in. They are running the series into the ground and eventually it will go down the same road as Guitar Hero and Tony Hawks. I personally don't like Call of Duty apart from a few of the earlier titles but there are lots of people who do and who enjoy playing it.

No you're right, devs trying to mimic the success of rivals is no new phenomenon, but nowadays it's been escalated to an all time high, catalysed by games like CoD.hama666

(TL;DR at bottom)

Right, thought I'd dive deep into some controversy - I honestly think that games like Call of Duty have lowered gaming standards these days. Allow me to explain.

Now COD is by no means a bad game, heck you could argue that its a very polished title with very little flaws and is itself very well presented as I'm sure most of you will point out. My quarrel with it however isn't its technical shortcomings (which it doesn't lack), but rather its lacking of originality.

Cast yourself back over a decade ago or even beyond when we had developers experimenting with innovative gaming ideas all of which were very original - we had Yu Suzuki giving us the brilliant Shenmue games which were so far ahead of their time, we had enjoyed terrific stories from Lucas adventures such as Grim Fandango and Monkey Island, and furthermore we truly had barrier-breaking, astonishing titles such as Ocarina of time, Final Fantasy 7 and Deus Ex which had raised the bar in the gaming world.

Nowadays that same bravery and indulgence into originality has been replaced by a soulless attempt to cash in at the so-called 'safe-selling' games, i.e. games that are not necessary ground-breaking, but rather following a common formula that will most likely appeal to those looking for a quick action fix, typical in games like COD, gears of war or what have you. It seems every game released nowadays is a shameless clone of Call of Duty or Gears of War, if it wasn't already bad enough that those franchises already re-release the same game every year under the guise of a sequel. It sets a depressing precedence, where you forget about innovative ideas and simply go for the fool-proof formula of creating a game with bald, space marines killing terrorists, Nazis, aliens all in a very short single player campaign, while the multiplayer is nothing but an unimaginative fragfest with annoying pre-pubescent children shouting down the voice comm.

Now I appreciate that there are some gems being released out there today, but sadly they don't seem to get much attention and its only indie developers which tend to be brave enough to put em out there, most likely resulting in poor sales and discouraging them from continuing their work. Hence we get this almost Darwinian system where the only games that are left to saturate the market are shameless spinoffs of games like Call of Duty.

Another thing I should note is that I'm not solely blaming the Call of Duty series here, its just the game I happen to think of when I evaluate what is IMO - an era defined with a fall in gaming originality.

TL;DR: Games like Call of Duty have ruined gaming because every game tries to mimic its success by copying its unimaginative formula, not being brave enough to experiment with the originality we were spoiled with in previous gaming generations.

This isn't just a rant by the way, I'm curious to hear what other people have to say on the issue.

hama666

I don't think the video games market is asbland as the OP suggests. There is a great variety in the titles released and, whilst the FPS genre may have stagnated a little, that's hardly the sum total of gaming. What has happened is that the gaming market has blossomed into something reminiscant of the movie industry. How many truly unique mainstream movies are there being released today?

What this results in is thatthe success of a game or movie is predominantly measured by the sales figure achieved. With this being the case publishers concentrate on titles that will make them the big dollars, games that will sell year on year and will earn continued revenue from DLC. So does this ruin gaming as a whole? Well yes and no, it certainly floods the market with a larger range of similar titles but, at the same time, it injects funding and allows other titles to get made that may otherwise have been missed.

The majority of people don't want new and innovative titles, if they did then titles like COD and their map packs wouldn't sell! If you want something innovative have a look at motion gaming or 3D. A game can be innovative in it's story or in it's method of delivery. I can almost guarantee you that the majority of gamers buying yearly titles are multiplayer gamers who don't really care about the SP story of a game as long as the MP is what they want. Therefore where's the money to be made in coming up with a truly unique or new story? Alan Wake is a great example.

Also this isn't just a COD or FPS issue. It's been happening for years. The majority of platformers used to emulate Mario, JRPGS all looked like a Squaresoft production and truly innovative titles were few and far between. Hell most kart racers still look like Mario Kart and the latest Super MArio Bros and Metroid are very similar to the original titles on NES so how far have we come? Add to this that one of the strongest selling, non FPS, games on the PS3 are all the remakes and it's clear that the money just isn't in innovation.

All that aside the video gaming market still needs it's innovative titles pushing the genres forward. Thre will always be a mix of good and bad but we're now at a point where you have to look a little harder if you're after something different. There are plenty of awesome titles being released so gaming is far from ruined or stagnant, people just have to look a little harder, same as with movies or novels.

I don't think the video games market is asbland as the OP suggests. There is a great variety in the titles released and, whilst the FPS genre may have stagnated a little, that's hardly the sum total of gaming. What has happened is that the gaming market has blossomed into something reminiscant of the movie industry. How many truly unique mainstream movies are there being released today?

What this results in is thatthe success of a game or movie is predominantly measured by the sales figure achieved. With this being the case publishers concentrate on titles that will make them the big dollars, games that will sell year on year and will earn continued revenue from DLC. So does this ruin gaming as a whole? Well yes and no, it certainly floods the market with a larger range of similar titles but, at the same time, it injects funding and allows other titles to get made that may otherwise have been missed.

The majority of people don't want new and innovative titles, if they did then titles like COD and their map packs wouldn't sell! If you want something innovative have a look at motion gaming or 3D. A game can be innovative in it's story or in it's method of delivery. I can almost guarantee you that the majority of gamers buying yearly titles are multiplayer gamers who don't really care about the SP story of a game as long as the MP is what they want. Therefore where's the money to be made in coming up with a truly unique or new story? Alan Wake is a great example.

Also this isn't just a COD or FPS issue. It's been happening for years. The majority of platformers used to emulate Mario, JRPGS all looked like a Squaresoft production and truly innovative titles were few and far between. Hell most kart racers still look like Mario Kart and the latest Super MArio Bros and Metroid are very similar to the original titles on NES so how far have we come? Add to this that one of the strongest selling, non FPS, games on the PS3 are all the remakes and it's clear that the money just isn't in innovation.

All that aside the video gaming market still needs it's innovative titles pushing the genres forward. Thre will always be a mix of good and bad but we're now at a point where you have to look a little harder if you're after something different. There are plenty of awesome titles being released so gaming is far from ruined or stagnant, people just have to look a little harder, same as with movies or novels.

Chickan_117

Damn, wish I could come up with stuff like that... did this take up most of your day, Chickan?

Damn, wish I could come up with stuff like that... did this take up most of your day, Chickan?

paranoidpixie95

I wouldn't say it's ruined it, but the flood of unoriginal, military FPS's sure is annoying.

i want something original that doesnt suck. im ssick of sequels

There's still plenty of originality in games that have come out recently, and much of the originality of early games came out of ridiculous ideas that could be supported because games didn't really need a plot.

Plus, much in the way some genres currently seem stale, many genres of the past also had problems with originality.

Go play a bunch of NES/SNES platformers and notice how almost all of them have a fire world, ice world, water levels, etc. Many stage gimmicks within these worlds are also similar.

For another example, look at the plots in various JRPGs of the SNES era. Many of them are strikingly similar.

Now, I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing. Some of my favourite series are the Castlevania series and the Megaman series, and they haven't innovated much since their beginnings.

naw..

CoD4 was a good game and people are just observing that and making their own games after taking notes...

it has improved gaming...shooters before CoD were lame...or maybe people didnt like them as much...CoD broght shooters to the masses.a good thing.

"stale" franchises exist since the pong days, COD is nothing new

JuarN18

I would argue COD didn't ruin gaming, but that Activision ruined COD. ElPadilla

i disagree. gaming isn't ruined. i just think your overreacting. there are loads of great games i want to play, in fact more games than i have the time and money to play.

No. That would be Call of Duty 4. The first game and its expansion were amazing... the second and third games were alright, but still pretty decent. It is when Activision stole the spotlight from everyone else and realized that all the mainstream gamers want is to waste money on the same game every year. And Activision and CoD weren't the first to do this.

No. That would be Call of Duty 4. The first game and its expansion were amazing... the second and third games were alright, but still pretty decent. It is when Activision stole the spotlight from everyone else and realized that all the mainstream gamers want is to waste money on the same game every year. And Activision and CoD weren't the first to do this.

foxhound_fox

Gaming used to be a variety of games, now GAMING is COD more or less. COD takes over the majority of online users on the PSN system. I like COD but it is taking over gaming a bit.

TL;DR: Games like Call of Duty have ruined gaming because every game tries to mimic its success by copying its unimaginative formula, not being brave enough to experiment with the originality we were spoiled with in previous gaming generations.

This happens EVERY TIME there is a wildly successful franchise. Doom, Mario, Sonic, Street Fighter 2, none of those games have ruined gaming, and neither hs CoD.

TL;DR: Games like Call of Duty have ruined gaming because every game tries to mimic its success by copying its unimaginative formula, not being brave enough to experiment with the originality we were spoiled with in previous gaming generations.

This happens EVERY TIME there is a wildly successful franchise. Doom, Mario, Sonic, Street Fighter 2, none of those games have ruined gaming, and neither hs CoD.

NuclearNerd