Who Do We Still Care?
The sad part is that a lot of innovations that we are seeing from COD titles are things that other games have been equipping us with for years, things that in some cases weve been getting for free. Lets do a quick inventory check on what a COD ELITE PREMIUM subscription nets you as a consumer and gamer, you can follow along with this
link starting with number 9: 9) Youll receive the DLC for free; this is a common mentality behind season passes and other premium services. By having you save a little bit of cash, but pay up front, you have basically given away your money for the promise of quality content. Youve identified yourself as a fan that is willing to forgo reviews and others opinions of the content, gambling that youll enjoy it all before even seeing some of it. To this day I regret shelling out money for that shitty Eastern Block map pack on Black Ops, along with the crappy Jungle Zombies-expansion. 10) If you need an e-sports fix, there are plenty of other less costly outlets to pick from. Not to mention you could always get some friends together online and, you know, play the game. 11) Exclusive clan benefits is fairly ambiguous, extra emblems and other atheistic additions seem more like vanity items, nothing that would be useful or give you a competitive edge online. 12) There are LITERALLY DOZENS of great individuals and websites dedicated to helping you improve your gameplay. Speaking as someone who dumped over a months worth of REAL TIME into Halo 3 I can assure you that with practice, you too can become a feared killing machine online without all the expert help. 13) This is the first feature that seems like it would be worth money. I love theatre modes and the ability to save my filthy no scopes and sick plays, but hate the inability to render them myself. With services like this bridging the gap for you (for a nominal fee of course) you can finally take a stab at that killer montage youve been dreaming of. Or, like me, sit on your computer and watch your greatest moments in glorious hi-definition as you relive each and every kill during late lonely nights at home. 14) This last premium feature seems to fall in with the expert strategy videos, not something that I would pay money for personally.
At the end of the day, if youre a COD nut and you know youll be buying every single DLC pack, its probably in your interest to purchase the service. With Black Ops, if you bought every DLC pack for about 15 bucks, thats 60 dollars and you have essentially purchased the game twice. DLC exclusive playlists and the inability to play with friends are the biggest pulls for purchasing DLC (aside from, you know, the new content). Many games have taken to strangling your online options in an attempt to part you and your money in an elegantly devious manner. Heres a shooter that pumps out a title every year while offering little innovation between games or DLC. Other developers use the time in between DLC and games to find ways of improving the experience, but as history has shown us, Call of Duty seems to make no such effort. Many will argue if it aint broke dont fix it, but after years of recycled assets and ideas surely Call of Duty has gotten stale. Surely gamers are beginning to grow weary of this polished online version of hide-and-go-fuck yourself; tired praising realistic multiplayer as they load themselves with superhuman perks and abilities, sprinting around the map throwing knives and waiting for streak bonuses that usually result in a free kill for someone, somewhere. And therein lies the rub. In my early years I played Metroid Prime Hunters, a fast paced twitch shooter on the Nintendo DS that required quick thinking and an intimate knowledge of how the game was played. I later graduated to Counterstrike, grinding along and purchasing guns in a vain attempt to kill far more adept players than I; it was frustrating, but fun knowing that I earned every kill I got. After that I sunk my teeth into Halo 3. The games multiplayer was broken in the sense that expertly conducted matches took place entirely between the barrels of rival teams Battle Rifles, but even power weapons like the Rockets required you to beat someone else out for them, or meticulously time the weapon spawns and pick ups. Only with Call of Duty did I find myself falling ass-first into kills. My MW2 play style was strikingly similar to that of a slack jawed yokel, sitting on his porch as he runs a cloth along the barrel of his shotgun. Ill never forget my first Nuke; sitting behind one of the airport counters with the muzzle of my gun peeking out only as much as it needed to while I sat there, gunning down sad saps that whistled down the hallway a little too quickly. The Nuke was the crowning symbol of in-match supremacy, dominating other players in such a way with no possible recourse of defense other than to quit out in droves as you relish the victory. Halo 3s closest equivalent would probably be the Perfection medal, requiring you to score 15 kills without dying and win the slayer match. The key to this comparison is not that Halo 3 is a better game, or that Perfection is harder to obtain than the Nuke but rather, that Perfection requires your TEAM to win. In Halo 3 EXP could only be gained by winning matches, where as in Call of Duty it is solely an individual endeavor. Personally, I didnt think twice about losing my victory bonus if I knew I was going to rack up a huge score that match regardless. Winning was nothing compared to my own personal progression. Its the same reason the Koreans accidentally took each other out at the 2010 Olympic Games and its the same reason why I didnt give a rats ass who won Team Deathmatch in Call of Duty; as long as I was number one and had the best stats, nothing else mattered. Ill often compare Call of Duty games to going bowling with the safety bumpers up; but to keep the comparisons within the realm of video games well compare it to Mario Kart. In Mario Kart the shittier you perform, the better your items will be. This allows better players to use their skill to maintain leads while worse players take advantage of all the great items that they just happen to be getting. One of the features introduced in MW2 was the death streak, which awarded advantages to players who had gotten killed X amount of times without scoring a kill. Let me repeat that one more time for you in all capital letters, YOU GET EXTRA STUFF TO HELP YOU IF YOU DIE LOTS. I cant remember the last time Halo 3 spawned me with Rockets while I was getting spawn trapped in 4v4 Onslaught. This is the bottom line, and quite honestly the only line: Call of Duty is a casual game that is built to look like a hardcore game. One of my best friends was a whiz at Call of Duty 4. Nick could ninja defuse 5 on 1 and leave every member of the opposing team scratching the back of their heads. I never played much COD4 with him, but I did play MW2 with him many times. We would play Hardcore Search and Destroy and he had class with dual P90s, an LMG and ammo perks, meaning he had over 1350 rounds. As soon as the round started, he would pull down on both triggers and not let go until he got killed or we won. Nick was a 9th Prestige and had a KpD of over 2.1. Even when he was acting like a complete idiot, Nick still managed to pull positive stats out of his ass. When I went to pick his brain for this article he offered a simple sentiment: Its slapstick, a cheap thrill Call of Duty is the only game where you can act like a jack ass, play like a loser and still have fun and do well. Am I saying that Call of Duty is a bad series that makes bad games for bad players? Not at all, I love Mario Kart (and have thoroughly enjoyed past Call of Duty games). But there has to come a time where we, as consumers with a passion for video games, need to sit back and ask what the hell were paying for. It is my belief that many people play Call of Duty because it is what their friends and playing and because it is easy, no other reasons. Are those bad reasons? Again, not at allbut to continue to revere the series as Gods gift to the FPS genre is ridiculous. Its high time we reconsider why we still care about a series that does little between titles to maintain their devoted fan base. Maybe Im wrong and Black Ops 2 will introduce some totally new ground breaking idea that revolutionizes the over-saturated genre, but I doubt it. Ever since Call of Duty 4 the series has devolved from a good shooter into a marketing exercise. You can only ice a cake so many times before people begin to realize its gotten stale.