I've been thinking about Call Of Duty.

[Jakub324]

I like the franchise for both its single-player and multi-player experiences, but it's clear that they're running out of ideas.
With Russia's usefulness as a villain exhausted, the games have set out in search of new enemies, and haven't been very successful, although both Black Ops 2 and Ghosts were, in my opinion, entertaining enough games.
But Menendez' plan was basically the same as the villain in Matthew Reilly's Scarecrow came up with, if memory serves (flip the balance of power, so third world becomes first), and turning South America into a superpower like the Federation (especially one whose soldiers execute civilians) would take some serious doing.
So who does that leave? China? Yeah, right; they don't take kindly to being depicted as the villain. North Korea? Not a chance; they can't even afford the fuel they'd need to give their fighter pilots actual air-time. Iran? Right, because what we want to do is mislead people into thinking they're the enemy. Who else is there?
But who says the protagonist has to be American? Who says the enemy can't be aliens or something (and I mean in the main plot, not that Extinction thing)? Who says the Call Of Duty franchise even has to be set on Earth, in this reality?
You can say my thinking is ridiculous, but something has to change, and a strong story with an interesting villain might be exactly what's needed.

So, Escapists, I ask you - what will it take to save Call Of Duty?

 

[Evonisia]

I don't think Menendez's plan was to bring down the First World so that it can be reborn as the Third World, more like just get revenge. Either that or I don't recall him making any plan on rebuilding in the third world's name.

If by save you mean in terms of quality then I'd say give us a different interpretation of what we've already seen. Call of Duty can't really move out of the whole big battlefields thing for contrived reasons, so let us look at it from somebody else's perspective. Black Ops II touched on it a bit with Chloe and Menendez's back story (I'm not acknowledging any 'justification' presented in Ghosts) and if we just had a whole game as the villain or better yet half the game as the hero and the other as the villain I think it would greatly improve.

Oh and make the areas larger, they don't need to be huge but something along the lines of World at War's Pacific Missions wouldn't go unappreciated.

 

[Rolaoi]

Indonesia.

It's perfect. They just make up some story about Muslim extremists out of Sulu backed by Indonesia setting off a dirty bomb in Manilla, Indonesia starting up a massive build up of its military to dominate the world's richest trade lane, terror attacks throughout Indochina. You could spread the campaign out from India all the way to Japan and Australia. Maybe throw in some Australian, Singaporean, or Dutch Special Forces if you want to add a little variety outside Navy Seals. You could even let China join in on the fun.

 

[Zhukov]

Clearly the next villain must be England.

"For centuries they have bided their time, sipping the bitter tea of resentment. But now an opportunity has presented itself. Now they come to reclaim their lost colony. Only one man and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of sexy, sexy military hardware stand in their way. But can the improbably brave and undeniably virile Joe S. Stripes save us from their pallid grasp?"

 

[Racecarlock]

Clearly the next villain must be England.

"For centuries they have bided their time, sipping the bitter tea of resentment. But now an opportunity has presented itself. Now they come to reclaim their lost colony. Only one man and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of sexy, sexy military hardware stand in their way. But can the improbably brave and undeniably virile Joe S. Stripes save us from their pallid grasp?"

That actually sounds like a great idea. Self parody is probably one of the best ideas call of duty can go with right now. No more political points, no more shock bullshit, just good ol' lashings of the ol' ultraviolence.

And the british soldiers can say "It's called football ye idiot!".

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Have a world crisis to collapse the world nations and form new ones. In the year 20xx, you have a fictitious conflict between fictitious superpowers with fictitious weapons. It will be a full-scale war (Think American campaign in MW2) instead of a few guys slaughtering a few thousand soldiers. Play both sides.

Ditch the pseudo-realism.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

The villain should be everyone, literally everyone.

Every country on Earth realizes they hate apple pie, freedom and alpha males. The invasion would be spectacular, the game would be glorious.

Of course the efforts of one bad ass soldier who loves America would be enough to defeat the entire planet, in the end every country would become America and the entire planet would be renamed. Not before your trusted friend sacrifices himself though, got to be a little sacrifice.

 

[gargantual]

It should be as humourous as ROTT or Shadow Warrior take place partially in imaginationland. with Matt & Trey providing consultation on the script, the plot is, the christmas critters are trying to revive the antichrist inside the white house.

Oh and we should bring back rocket jumping.

I dunno what you can do with this series really.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Set it in the future. That solves the nation problem. If you really can't think of something, you can just use Gundam's idea of Colonies vs. Earth, but man, I've been waiting for a Call of Duty game with laser guns, space drops, and just all out sci-fi action, but they refuse to make it.

 

[Tom_green_day]

"For centuries they have bided their time, sipping the bitter tea of resentment. But now an opportunity has presented itself. Now they come to reclaim their lost colony. Only one man and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of sexy, sexy military hardware stand in their way. But can the improbably brave and undeniably virile Joe S. Stripes save us from their pallid grasp?"

(I'm going to assume you're American in this post)
This is the problem. America (and I assume other places where the media/internet shares a similar viewpoint) thinks England is only about tea, Doctor Who, gentlemanly class, fish and chips, a firm monarch that everyone loves, and classical music. In reality those things are really from China, America (they are more Hollywood than most Hollywood TV/film), America, Belgium (for chips at least), ... OK a monarchy is firmly English but no-one in this country really cares about her (except the Middletons, if you catch my drift), and Europe in general, respectively.
America's perception of the UK is influenced by what they want us to be, and not what we actually are like.
If you want to know what we're like watch something like 28 Days Later (but without the Zombies), Trainspotting (in some areas), Black Books, Hot Fuzz, or the classic film The Man Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain. I'm sick of people who think England is Harry Potter, Downton Abbey, Doctor Who and Sherlock (although the latter is relatively British I'll admit)
Sorry, rant over, I'm just so sick of the abundance of Americans on the internet who have the dumbest expectations on what us Brits are like. To the person I've quoted, it's not aimed at you.
OT: Why can't Americans be the bad guys? They invariably are in 24. Or make up a country, there is absolutely no way to insult someone if you do that (unless you cock it up monumentally)

 

[Inazuma1]

They ran out of ideas as far back as Modern Tardfare 2, but Activision refuses to let the series die because idiots keep buying it every year. It's just going to keep on going until it reaches Homefront levels of bad, and it might still keep going after that; depends on how stupid people will continue to be in their buying habits.

Also, OP, you've probably been putting more thought into CoD than the developers have. Best stop before you suffer a fatal aneurysm.

 

[The White Hunter]

Go back to roots with a thrilling WW2 shooter with multiple weapon slots and a great campaign spanning multiple front.

 

[The White Hunter]

Snipples

Isn't that pretty much why every American outlet for games journalism panned ZombiU, whilst most European ones praised it? That it was too much of a depiction of actual London?

Oh and the whole, survival horror thing...

 

[Treeinthewoods]

The villain should be everyone, literally everyone.

Every country on Earth realizes they hate apple pie, freedom and alpha males. The invasion would be spectacular, the game would be glorious.

Of course the efforts of one bad ass soldier who loves America would be enough to defeat the entire planet, in the end every country would become America and the entire planet would be renamed. Not before your trusted friend sacrifices himself though, got to be a little sacrifice.

You do know that the biggest hero in the CoD series is British, right?

Which makes his shocking betrayal of America all the more heart wrenching. I suggest he should be the one who kills your trusted companion and perhaps even your faithful American Shepard, resulting in a super violent killing spree across the globe not just for America, but for revenge American style.

It writes itself.