Is CoD holding back the video game industry?

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Rukus.

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Call of Duty, A name that has become synonymous with the word gamer in the eyes of outside onlookers and early adopters of the gaming community has indeed brought the stereotype of the nerdy gamer out of peoples minds, introducing them to the "normal guy" populace we really are; but is this new breed of player welcome?

The gaming industry (particularly the PC industry) has always been known for being quite anal in its expectations from developers, making comments and asking questions here or there to make sure thier monetary investment is spent well in their eyes. Unfortunately the same isn't true for this new breed of player that will gladly fork over another $60 for a bland, rehashed, spitshined version of its predecessor. Other companies, seeing the popularity of such a tried and trivial type of gameplay, destroy their concepts by injecting aspects of CoD into their game, alienating its previous community and furthering the "they'll buy anything" state of mind. Its not healthy for the industry. Any agree?
 
The Call of Duty series has devolved into the Micheal Bay film of games. They're all sameish, but they sell well enough. Is it damaging to the industry? The simple answer is no. There will always be a game franchise like Call of Duty that will sell well and partially drive the industry.

But if you look at the list of games that are coming out this year, not many look like Call of Duty. In fact the only game coming out this year that resembles Call of Duty is MW3.
 
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Sexy Beast said:
The Call of Duty series has devolved into the Micheal Bay film of games. They're all sameish, but they sell well enough. Is it damaging to the industry? The simple answer is no. There will always be a game franchise like Call of Duty that will sell well and partially drive the industry.

But if you look at the list of games that are coming out this year, not many look like Call of Duty. In fact the only game coming out this year that resembles Call of Duty is MW3.
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Socom 4 is MW2 to THE TEE. The only difference is camera angle. I was in the beta.
 
Like Wow has, for the most part, destroyed the MMO market, so has CoD for FPS.


Hopefully there will be a shining savior in BF3.
 
Rukus. said:
Socom 4 is MW2 to THE TEE. The only difference is camera angle. I was in the beta.
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Socom hasn't changed since 2002 and that's just one game. Some of the best selling games this year have been LA Noire, Mortal Kombat, Dead Space 2, Portal 2, and Crysis 2. None of these have lifted anything from Call of Duty.
 
COD is not holding the gaming industry back, the devs are. Their main goal in a game is money made and not really how good the game is....
 
thebigrobbyrob said:
COD is not holding the gaming industry back, the devs are. Their main goal in a game is money made and not really how good the game is....
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Whoever thinks this shouldn't be making games! Its quality before quantity and innovation before conformation if you want to be memorable and trustworthy in the entertainment industry!
 
Not necessarily. The games do get breaths of fresh air every once in a while, but like the WWII shooters, the "Modern Warfare" has gotten a tad over done. To be honest I'm ready for another WWII shooter, in fact I miss them. That's just my humble opinion, thought.

More game developers/publishers need to be like Arena Net/NCSoft and actually care about the product produced. Activision put out the contract for Infinity Ward and Treyarch to release a new Call Of Duty franchised game every year (alternating every release). In fact, I refuse to do so. If IW and Treyarch could put the time and effort into the games like they did with CoD4 and WaW I think things would be different. But Activision is pushing its developers way too hard and way too fast. For the publishers, its a business, nothing more.

The "DLC" junk that has gone on needs to stop, I'm pretty tired of paying $15 here and there to play a game. In fact, I refuse to do so, I drop the game and pick up one of my older games. I appreciate the extra content, don't get me wrong, but when other developers (like Ubisoft) are able to put out content for game free of charge (Assassin's Creed Brotherhood MP maps and game types), you know these bigger companies (EA, Activision) could easily do the same. Again, its just a business to the publishers.

To single out Call of Duty as holding back the gaming industry, to me, is wrong. Consoles are holding back the graphics of games; publishers are defacing the quality of once good games by churning out new titles every year. Crysis 2 is a perfect example of this, so is Black Ops. Someone else stated it really well earlier, the gaming industry is holding itself back. I'm done now. :]
 
I think CoD is holding itself back. Other developers of similar games are just kind of realizing, "Oh yeah, that's there, and I might have to compete with it." Doesn't really look like the CoD series is impacting any other games, but it certainly isn't moving anywhere from how it is right now.
 
While COD itself isnt holding back the game industry, it has put a damper on the whole FPS genre in that there is too much of it. While the simple pick-up-and-play function is reasonable enough, the whole franchise introduced a whole new breed of gamers, for better and definitely for worse. Unfortunately, as someone else mentioned before me, video games are being held back by the idea of modernization. The whole formula of change is better rarely shows that its for the best. Also, look at games like LA Noire and Heavy Rain. Those two completely changed the concept of gaming, but are they bad? However, franchises like Final Fantasy with its ever-changing formulas often go downhill because of modernizing games for the casual players.

While FPS games like CoD, Battlefield, Halo, Killzone, etc. are basically the "stereotypes" for gamers, they havent completely impacted the industry itself, just being another money ploy.
 
Honestly, I can't stand the CoD series at all, hence why I do not play them or own them. However, I respect their right to be produced in the gaming industry because it needs competition! There isn't always going to be this original game every time they try. It just gives the producers and creators more of a challenge to catch the gamers attention.
For example, this past December, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Red Dead Redemption were going at it for Video game of the year. Rockstar went far and beyond though and beat Call of Duty with their game soundtrack, game play, and the endless list of side quests to do when you weren't working on the main story line.

I'm not saying that Call of Duty is a good thing, but it's not a bad thing either. It's not holding the game industry back because the gaming industry is perfectly able to produce better and more creative games. In every social scene, there will be different subsections and just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. Heck, I think the Gears of War series is a bit disgraceful too, but meh.
 
Madden was rehashing the same old game for years before COD started doing it. Mario? Zelda? Same formula, slight changes over the years. Same game, executed different a little bit each time. Again, long before COD started doing it. Shoot, all our popular source games (CSS, DOS, TF2) nothing but remakes. I don't think it is holding the game industry back.

There have been so many great games coming out in the past 1-3 years, and more great ones are still coming. Just because COD has been wildly successful (like it or not), it hasn't stopped other companies from producing great games.

Success doesn't hold the industry back, it just raises the bar higher. I would argue so far that most companies are rising to the challenge!
 
It didn't up until MW2. It's crazy how much more popular that game was than just about anything released in the past 10 years. Not necessarily for PC gamers though.

Besides, our COD map packs used to be free on PC :(

EA and Activision are holding gaming in general back. EA reminds me of AT&T. When they smell fear in the competition they buy them out, or buy out rights to a particular product.
 
In my opinion, Call of Duty actually helps the game industry. It inspires other game companies to try to make "better games". A great example is Battlefield 3. d:
 
Off topic: I think that is MW3 wants to truly stand out from its predecessors, it needs to make drastic changes to the CoD formula, but not so drastic in that it doesn't feel like CoD. The change from Halo 3 to Halo Reach is a great example of changes to the formula not destroying the feel of the franchise.
 
Spitfire'd said:
Madden was rehashing the same old game for years before COD started doing it. Mario? Zelda? Same formula, slight changes over the years. Same game, executed different a little bit each time. Again, long before COD started doing it. Shoot, all our popular source games (CSS, DOS, TF2) nothing but remakes. I don't think it is holding the game industry back.
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I'm going to have to disagree with that. In Mario and Zelda, it's mostly the maps that affect gameplay, and new maps make different challenges, while with CoD the gameplay doesn't really change, except people just have to find the newest set of overpowered weapons and abilities.

Not to mention CSS wasn't...oh right. And DoDS. But I don't quite see it in TF2, I've heard that it is pretty different from the original TF, and it is rather different from Fortress Forever, which I have played.
 
Ranthus said:
I'm going to have to disagree with that. In Mario and Zelda, it's mostly the maps that affect gameplay, and new maps make different challenges, while with CoD the gameplay doesn't really change, except people just have to find the newest set of overpowered weapons and abilities.

Not to mention CSS wasn't...oh right. And DoDS. But I don't quite see it in TF2, I've heard that it is pretty different from the original TF, and it is rather different from Fortress Forever, which I have played.
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Perhaps Mario and Zelda are extreme examples, and don't get me wrong I love the Zelda series...but we have to be honest the game hasn't changed too much since Ocarina of Time. Then again maybe its a good example (like TF2) of how a game can grow over time and change without changing.

I really shouldn't talk about the original Team Fortress either, since I didn't really play it. I had it with my original copy of Half Life but I could never find a server to play on.

Still when I think about last year, I think about Bad Company 2, Monster Hunter Tri, Red Dead Redemption, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (another series becoming a fun yearly rehash), Super Mario Galaxy 2, these are just a handful of the great games that came out last year, in spite of COD's yearly rehashing.

Of those games you could make the argument that Transformers was affected by COD, it wasn't for the worse in my opinion. Then again people could also argue about how good a game it was, but I liked it. :P

Plus with my belief that we are entering the age of the Indie game with tons of amazing and cheap games out there (Minecraft?), I just don't see the industry being held back.

But that's me, and I'm sure I see it different than some. We are all entitled to our opinions. *Ranthus for thoughtful discussion starter! :thumbup:
 
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Spitfire'd said:
Perhaps Mario and Zelda are extreme examples, and don't get me wrong I love the Zelda series...but we have to be honest the game hasn't changed too much since Ocarina of Time. Then again maybe its a good example (like TF2) of how a game can grow over time and change without changing.

I really shouldn't talk about the original Team Fortress either, since I didn't really play it. I had it with my original copy of Half Life but I could never find a server to play on.

Still when I think about last year, I think about Bad Company 2, Monster Hunter Tri, Red Dead Redemption, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (another series becoming a fun yearly rehash), Super Mario Galaxy 2, these are just a handful of the great games that came out last year, in spite of COD's yearly rehashing.

Of those games you could make the argument that Transformers was affected by COD, it wasn't for the worse in my opinion. Then again people could also argue about how good a game it was, but I liked it. :P

Plus with my belief that we are entering the age of the Indie game with tons of amazing and cheap games out there (Minecraft?), I just don't see the industry being held back.

But that's me, and I'm sure I see it different than some. We are all entitled to our opinions. *Ranthus for thoughtful discussion starter! :thumbup:
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Well, you are right in that it's not like they have changed anything in terms of basic gameplay. You know, find monsters, button mash the attack button, solve puzzles/run around, jump, find stars or whatever fits. And the whole thing about TF2 being different is mostly based on the opinions I have heard of people who enjoyed TF the Quake mod, so I can't really speak either.

Although, out of that list, I'm going to also say that BC2 was at least slightly affected by CoD. They wanted to cater to more people and sell more copies, so they changed it to be slightly more CoD-like (smaller maps, more damage from guns, little things like that). But Transformers and BC are hardly the whole gaming industry.

*pff, that wasn't the start of a discussion.
 
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