Terramax said:
It's increasingly coming to my attention that Modern Warfare 2 is receiving a lot of bad press from both the media and gamers alike and it's got me fearing this could end up being the next Halo 3.
I don't mean a comparison in terms of quality, but the hatred that arises from a game that becomes so popular that a sequel either doesn't (or could never) reach fan's expectations, or a backlash from non-fans who don't understand what the fuss is all about to counter-balance any hype.
So why does it matter? Well, we've had enough anti-Halo threads on these forums over the years and as if that's not enough to deal with we could soon be putting up with anti-Warfare threads side-by-side.
Do you think this could happen regardless of whether the game is good or not? What do you think would be the cause? The game becomes too appealing to a certain audience (i.e. young gamers), marketing over-saturation that starts getting annoying, too many threads of the said game on these and other forums, over-referencing or quoting, jealousy, over-recognition?
Let me tell you, I ALREADY hate this game. Call of Duty just stands for me as one big pile of sameyness. Trying to make distinctions between one game in the series and the last is like trying to convince me that one Final Fantasy is way different from the other--it's hair-splitting that I think only core fans appreciate. That's not what bothers me, though. If it were just that, I could just as soon shrug and look the other way. But Activision is acting COMPLETELY full of themselves over it, as if they've developed the best game ever made. I don't care how good Call of Duty actually is, and I don't care how Infinity Ward actually feels (for the record: from what I can tell they have a great deal more humility than their publisher--it endears me to them greatly that they actually didn't want to make Call of Duty 2 ANOTHER World War II game), when a company acts THAT full of themselves, when they feel the need to treat themselves like King Louis at the palace of Versailles over one title, indistinguishable from dozens of others, unremarkable but for the fact that it's technically competent and fills a well-traveled niche, that company is DEAD to me and that game is a subject ripe for boycott.
I hate Bungie and Blizzard for the same reason--Blizzard especially because they actually take it to the point where they won't hire designers unless they're guild leaders in World of Warcraft. That's just great, isn't it? Limit your hiring pool to only the most hopelessly and sheepishly devoted fans. Generate no new ideas, don't listen to anyone who isn't willing to pay a monthly fee as a qualification or who doesn't think your games are absolutely the best thing since sliced bread. Never mind the fact that your next releases are sequels that've been in the works for 10+ years and that are in all likelihood copy/pastes of the previous games. I CAN'T STAND developers who let their egos get carried away, no matter how successful their products are. They don't know what could happen! Ten years from now Call of Duty is liable to have the reigns wrested from it in the shooter market in favor of some other bland shooter that copy/pastes the mechanics we've been running on since Goldeneye on the N64--and then how will those claims look? I'd make a claim about Blizzard, but ten years later somehow, with only World of Warcraft to their name otherwise, they've turned from "makers of Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft" to "THE GODS OF GAME DESIGN!" They've made NO GAMES but people worship them, to the point that some of my fellow students are willing to throw up their arms, give up on trying to think for themselves as they design their projects, and literally just imitate Diablo figuring that it's the best formula and that none better can possibly exist.
No matter what company it comes from, it's DISGUSTING, and the fact that they actually get away with such a limited portfolio of games and ideas and that people actually BELIEVE them when they claim themselves to be makers of the best-game-ever just disgusts me all the more...
...
So yeah, in answer to your question, I don't care.
