Poll: Do You Think Modern Warfare 2 Will Be the Next Halo 3?

[S-Unleashed]

I hope not. This game looks as good or better than Halo 3. Yeah I like Halo 3 sue me.

 

[Janick_Gers]

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.

I don't understand the hate against Blizzard here. If you think about it, there isn't a single BAD Blizzard game. The Diablo series has been the only GOOD 3rd person RPG, also one of thefew that are even playable. Starcraft was AMAZING along with the Warcraft series. And believe it or not Blizzard has plenty of fresh ideas, hence why their games remain playable LONG after they've been released (I still play Diablo 2 with my friends; it's that good!). Honestly, Blizzard has some pretty legit numbers under their belt, so there is no shame or sin for a little boasting about it. And I'm no guild leader in WoW, but once I've got a little more training, I'll be a designer for Blizzard (I've applied and discussed this with real Blizzard represntatives). Sorry to counteract the ignorance in your post, BUT I had a minute so I figured why not? Finally, the formulas used in the Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft series have been immensely pleasing and successful, so what point is there trying to come up with something to top it, when you can make your own game with a similar formula, and get more sales for less work?

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

Yes it will..by that I mean that it will be good and fun.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

How about we wait until the game is out? Then we can ask the question and have concrete examples...which we have personally experienced...to base our arguments on.

Frankly, I don't care.

Agreed, I don't see the point in these threads.

 

[plastic_window]

Before I join in this discussion, someone will have to show me all this 'bad press' surrounding MW2 that has been spoken of. I wasn't aware there was any.

 

[azncutthroat]

MoWa 2 better have that D.C. apocalypse level, looks fucking epic. One reason why I was disappointed in Halo 3 (hate isn't the correct term) was because of that huge diorama in the Believe commercial campaign depicting an epic battlefield, which never made it into the game. I really wish IW doesn't leave out the D.C. level, because even if they did people would just turn their attention to the multiplayer.

With that said, MoWa 2 won't reach Halo 3 hate unless multiplayer is way umba. And so far, IW has a great record on game quality, so the chance of that happening is highly unlikely.

 

[NickCaligo42]

I don't understand the hate against Blizzard here. If you think about it, there isn't a single BAD Blizzard game. The Diablo series has been the only GOOD 3rd person RPG, also one of thefew that are even playable. Starcraft was AMAZING along with the Warcraft series. And believe it or not Blizzard has plenty of fresh ideas, hence why their games remain playable LONG after they've been released (I still play Diablo 2 with my friends; it's that good!). Honestly, Blizzard has some pretty legit numbers under their belt, so there is no shame or sin for a little boasting about it. And I'm no guild leader in WoW, but once I've got a little more training, I'll be a designer for Blizzard (I've applied and discussed this with real Blizzard represntatives). Sorry to counteract the ignorance in your post, BUT I had a minute so I figured why not? Finally, the formulas used in the Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft series have been immensely pleasing and successful, so what point is there trying to come up with something to top it, when you can make your own game with a similar formula, and get more sales for less work?

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. Thank GOD. You have to understand that this was the buzz among all my classmates where I went to school a year ago, though, and a lot of them claimed to have heard it from Blizzard recruiters at GDC. Evidently they had a big collective stroke at the time, and it wouldn't be the FIRST time they misinterpreted something an important game design representative said. Still, I stand corrected and probably shouldn't have trusted such an outlandish claim in the first place. Thank you for the bit of info, and I apologize for my unwarranted and rather overly emotional complaints.

Now I can actually play Diablo III when it comes out.

As for the rest of your argument...

First, it's one thing if you can UNDERSTAND the formula and imitate it at least with competence, but my classmates didn't. They didn't analyze it, didn't know why it worked the way it did or why certain elements didn't fit in the project they were trying to make. They'd frequently make poor, superficial decisions that ultimately led to an uninteresting project, not because they were trying to avoid "re-inventing the wheel" so to speak--as one who's made countless homebrew RPGs with the d20 system I can definitely understand that--but because they were lazy. I'd often raise my concerns regarding these designs, trying to objectively explain why the numbers didn't add up, but they'd always hide behind the defense that "Blizzard did it in World of Warcraft! Therefore it HAS to work! Are YOU Blizzard? Hmm? Have YOU made a multi-million dollar game? No? Then shut up!" and dismiss me. Wherever the abject worship of a company and its practices exist, there exists the excuse not to think. It's okay to have respect for someone's design, and imitation is one of the best ways to learn, but to abdicate your thought process completely is, and I think you'll agree since you seem to be an intelligent chap, completely reprehensible.

Remember something: when Blizzard first made these games, they were just a bunch of guys in a garage (figure of speech; I think by the time they hit Warcraft 2 there was probably a building somewhere). A bunch of genius guys in a garage, but guys in a garage none the less--no different from you or me except that at least a few of them were genius game designers who really, REALLY understood the craft. As much as I talk smack about them, I'll freely admit that Diablo was especially genius, and in the way Nintendo defined platformers and adventure games these guys defined RTSes. But the way they did it wasn't magic, and it's silly to think of it in terms that border on mysticism. They studied games, understood the way the numbers worked, and had one out of a dozen notions of how to translate from pen and paper gaming to the computer. You have it within you to do the same as they did, and it's selling yourself gravely short to think otherwise.

Second, "what's the point in trying to top Diablo" is the wrong attitude, as is "let's try to top Diablo." I just don't think developers of any kind should think in those terms. That's like someone starting a restaurant chain and going, "we need to beat Pizza Hut" for no discernible reason, or else it's like someone who really loves to cook saying "there's a Pizza Hut, so what's the point in having me around?" Different games provide different experiences and kinds of pleasure, even within the same genre, and if your game has merit people will buy it, period. Case in point: Star Wars - The Old Republic. People keep asking if this is going to be a WoW-killer, and frankly, it's not. It isn't the same KIND of game. Bioware didn't take the WoW formula and staple Star Wars on top of it because, first, they understood their own design better, and second, it wouldn't have been appropriate anyway--as Galaxies proved with its infamous revamp. Rather than getting really ego-maniacal about it and trying to "take down the giant," so to speak, they asked themselves what they had to offer and would like to see in an MMO and worked from there, and the product's going to fill completely different senses of enjoyment from WoW as a result. That's good design and clear thinking at work.

Third: The ONLY good third-person RPG? I'd think Bioware's millions in sales figures would make you think twice if nothing else since you seem to have a great deal of respect for that kind of thing. Otherwise you'd just be casting purely subjective opinion in an objective argument.

In closing, I want you to try and imagine a world where everybody just accepted that Star Wars was the end-all be-all of movies. Imagine if James Cameron had decided that instead of thinking "if George Lucas can do it, so can I!" when he made Alien that he said to himself, "well, what's the point?" Imagine if countless OTHER directors or writers did that. More sales for less work is one thing--within the context of the company that originally devised the formula, I TOTALLY understand it and will willfully leap to any other company's defense. Freely I admit that what I said earlier was hypocritical and bullheaded at best. But what we're talking about here is people mentally shutting down and not having ideas because of this image of a godhood that seems to propagate unchecked in peoples' minds when they think of Blizzard; not thinking critically, not trying to understand WHY they're successful, just flat-out not thinking and accepting their success. I guess I shouldn't blame Blizzard for this as much as I have been (it helps my image of them a LOT that you've cleared up that little rumor I heard); after all, they're just doing what they do best: kicking ass and making games. Frankly, as I look back, it seems I've been projecting a lot of my personal bitterness over my teammates' unwillingness to listen to me on them, which is really unfair.

Even so, the world with one movie isn't the world for me...

 

[Sh0ckFyre]

Thank trolls, dude.

 

[Hypeoz]

I think cod6 ( I prefer saying cod6 over Modern Warfare 2 even though it pisses off my friends) will be the best of all the call of duty games, I am really hyped about all the new perks, attachments, guns, and abilitys!

 

[Neotericity]

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.

Well it seems like you care enough to write a novel... Oh and the fact that you used caps and words like DISGUSTING etc.. For me you ruined an interesting arguement with that last comment. It almost made me somewhat agree and than I realized this developers are big and famous for a reason because people like their games and they're good at doing it, but I can't change your mind since you're so adamant on getting your "controversial" point across and see how many folk you can rile up.

OP: Naw I don't think so because well frankly, Halo seems (in my opinion) to get more bad rep because it's a microsft exclusive and that riles sony folk and pc folk quite a bit.

 

[NickCaligo42]

Well it seems like you care enough to write a novel... Oh and the fact that you used caps and words like DISGUSTING etc.. For me you ruined an interesting arguement with that last comment. It almost made me somewhat agree and than I realized this developers are big and famous for a reason because people like their games and they're good at doing it, but I can't change your mind since you're so adamant on getting your "controversial" point across and see how many folk you can rile up.

OP: Naw I don't think so because well frankly, Halo seems (in my opinion) to get more bad rep because it's a microsft exclusive and that riles sony folk and pc folk quite a bit.

Did you read my later post? The one in response to Janick-Gers, where he basically changed my mind about a lot of things? You can change even an adamant person's mind about anything so long as you have a point to argue and argue it well, which he did. Evidently you either had no response and simply wanted to malign me openly on this forum for disagreeing with you or don't feel that your reply was worth your own time.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

No, and can we not have a flamewar start?

 

[Sinister Minister]

In my opinion, yes, except it's likely people won't be pronouncing the campaign as "meh" like a bunch did with Halo 3.

 

[LordGarbageMan]

Halo 3 was alright, and pretty fun the first six months. Modern Warfare 2 could possibly be the best shooter ever made to date. I think Mw2 will be much more popular.

 

[Terramax]

So yeah, in answer to your question, I don't care.

Well after what you've just written I'm pretty certain you do care, because if you're this enraged before it's released, you're heads probably gonna explode with anger when it finally comes out.

 

[Husky.Gnoll]

Lol, I hope not.
Halo 3 sucked ass, especially the ending.

 

[Ryuk2]

Wait, what? No, it won't. It will be a bad game about generic soldiers shooting people at Middle-East.