Poll: Why I think Call of Duty is Poisoning Video Game's Image (besides the fact that i don't like it).

[Pegghead]

Agreed, I attend an all male highschool where most students are obsessed with the franchise. Me, I enjoyed some of the earlier call of dutys but I've never really enjoyed most modern militarized shooters due to them all feeling very samey and generic. But I decided to take a stab at call of duty four's campaign and it wasn't very good. The main reason I actually have the game in the first place is due to the fact the government issued us laptops and it's pretty much the only game people have which we can verse each other in and anything's enjoyable when played in LAN against people you know..

 

[ShadesOfGrey84]

It's been a while since I was a teenager, so cant exactly recall, but when I went to highscool, gaming was either unknown, something considered for children or something for anti social nerds.

It wasn't exactly something you let other people know or talk about unless those were into gaming themselves.

But I digress.. is the image realy that important? As long as it doesnt affect you, who cares what the population at large thinks about your hobby.. you'll always have those weird preconceptions wheter it's about your favourite musical genre, hobby, religion, your country.. whatever.

As long as no one is trying to keep you from enjoying those things, or try to hurt you.. just smile and nod when someone is being an idiot. Because after some time, the population will be obsessed about the next big fad.
Or maybe someone who doesnt have a clue about games heard a lot about MW2, and just wants to be nice / make smalltalk?

Really, with the fact that gaming has become mainstream enough that almost every male teen plays, even if it's only a single game.. it's good. At least it's no longer the preconception that all would be gamers are school shooters to be?

And about MW2, it's not a bad game really. I can see why it got so big. It's not my cup of tea, I played singleplayer on it for a short while.. it was all very polished and 'round' in a way, it's just that it a bit too 'flashy', trying to impress me and get my atention all the time, and rushing me and full blown climatic action all throughout the levels. I like action, but I'm more a laidback player.. I need breather moments now and then. This is why I like Half-Life 2. Bouts of action and climax, with puzzling and exploration and atmosphere in between.

I'm not even old, just hit 26 a week ago, but I definitely see a change in the attention span of the newer generations. Only 10 or so years of difference, but it's noticeable how media geared to the teens of today work with completely different levels of stimulation. It's like they gear everything to the average attention span being of some guy with ADD watching MTV while doing crystal meth or something..

 

[Guest_Star]

I couldn't give a flying toss about COD, but I sincerely hope it _will_ ruin video games. I play computer games, most of which demands a bit more than just two working thumbs.

/troll off

 

[Virus49]

In my opinion COD2 was the best.
Im not saying the MW series is bad. The actual games themselves are fantastic. However the experience is destroyed by the online. The maps are good, other than commando I think the perks and killstreaks are good. Guns are balanced. So what could be so bad?
The players. You get your standard kids aged between 8-14 playing MW2 all the time.

Im not sure about a lot of you but the modded FAL is a pain. And considering thats a modification of the game I can assume there are others.

Personally I play playstation 3 MW2 occasionally. The problem of gamers who annoy/cheat isnt really bad at all there. But my friends who play on xbox say the game is littered with them. Even down to people reaching 10th prestige final rank with a single bullet.

The image of mainstream video games is poisoned to me. I still buy them. Play single player, play online with friends. But I now near enough refuse to play with others.

The age limit thing, ill face it im a hippocrite for. Im 17 and play 18 games. But I dont think thats as bad as the kids aged 10,11,12 and other very young ages who can single handedly wreck the experience. Through screaming down the microphone. Sending messages after games. Thank god the game doesnt have friendly fire....in most modes.
I know I can mute and break contact with players but I dont like doing that several times a day and even multiple times a game.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Well, a little bit. I don't like it. To me, very few of the things in it are fun. From a technical standpoint, yeah, it's good. Everything works well, pretty solid in the way of glitches... Made a major enemy NPC glitch out by dropping a grenade at his feet, but I couldn't replicate it. That was fun.

The reason that I think it's hurting the image is because it's the most popular game out there in North America. It propagates the idea that all games need to be realistic or something. It's just... Well, I've experienced people who will play CoD, and NOTHING ELSE AT ALL, EVER.

We live in the age of realism. I think that defeats the purpose of a video game.

 

[Eponet]

So COD is bad because it's popular?
And the game is not responsible for those retarded mongrels who prejudge games. That's their own retard fault. The story, well can't argue there.

Exactly, before it was GTA, before that it was Mortal Kombat, and before that I don't know what order games came out in.

People just *****.

Did you know they used to complain about theater? Yeah, that theater. New mediums are always considered evil by most people of the previous generation, at least for a while.

Don't forget World of Warcraft. Warcraft is pretty much immediately connected to that now, unless you're talking to some DOTA players.

 

[SuccessAndBiscuts]

I'd like to add on to Fallout 3. There is a very good reason to go insane and kill everyone. That reason is called Little Lamplight.

The poor, broken plot doesn't exactly help my sanity either.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 rant inside

Watch me destroy the plot right here.
Your dad is trying to build a water-purification plant. This is pointless, since a water purifier already exists in Megaton.
That not good enough for you? Here's another way to get easy, clean water: Condensation.

Your robot butler gives you six glasses of pure water every. single. day. They could have taken all that time building the purifier, and just used it to build an army of robots that created water through condensation.

Honestly, Fallout 3 has the worst plot I have ever seen.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 counterpoint

I was under the impression that the giant purifier was designed to try and clean the ocean and by extension start purifying the world as a whole. To improve quality of life for all people. Not just to provide clean water for a smallish society.

In regards to modern warfare I do kinda see where you are coming from but I don't think it is as bad as you seem to think.

My personal issue is with farmville, why? I know a lot of people who play it people who play this game and others like it, gamers if you will, but what happens when I try and introduce them to the wider world of gaming? "You guys are a bunch of nerds" Apparently farmville doesn't count as gaming and as such I see people who I know would probably enjoy other games refusing to try them because "its too nerdy" That gets on my nerves a whole lot.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

I agree. But most people wont pre-judge because of one game that people constantly play.


And plus when has been killing innocents in Fallout 3 been right?

 

[Irridium]

I'd like to add on to Fallout 3. There is a very good reason to go insane and kill everyone. That reason is called Little Lamplight.

The poor, broken plot doesn't exactly help my sanity either.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 rant inside

Watch me destroy the plot right here.
Your dad is trying to build a water-purification plant. This is pointless, since a water purifier already exists in Megaton.
That not good enough for you? Here's another way to get easy, clean water: Condensation.

Your robot butler gives you six glasses of pure water every. single. day. They could have taken all that time building the purifier, and just used it to build an army of robots that created water through condensation.

Honestly, Fallout 3 has the worst plot I have ever seen.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 counterpoint

I was under the impression that the giant purifier was designed to try and clean the ocean and by extension start purifying the world as a whole. To improve quality of life for all people. Not just to provide clean water for a smallish society.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 counter-counterpoint

Thats never stated though. Your father specifically states that he wants to clean the water in the Wasteland. He, and no one else mentioned trying to purify anything else.

 

[teisjm]

Meh... you care way too much about what rancom people think.

Maybe it's just me (which i doubt), but i've never heard anyone really care about what games anyone played online, unless it was because they wanted to play with them.
I've never experienced anyone outside of gaming looking down on me or others for playing games, and i've only experienced other gamers bad-talk specific games.

Besides, image-wise, whats the big difference between mw2 and counter strike 10 years ago?

 

[Daedalus1942]

(This mostly pertains to Modern Warfare)

I'll admit.

I don't like the newer Call of Duty games, both modern warfares failed in my eyes, the only one I can think of that I enjoyed was World at War, even then that was just because of Nazi zombies. Call of Duty 3 was more enjoyable than the modern warfares. But I suppose I have to thank them for helping to make my hobby of choice mainstream, video games are pretty common place, and almost everyone I know has at least taken a stab at them.

But at the same time I have to point out that they make video games and (and teenage boys) look bad. At least where I live, "COD" has become almost synonymous with video game. You're playing a video game? It's assumed that you're playing COD. You're not playing COD? You're gay.

And even if you're not playing Call of Duty, someone you know is, and their non-gamer family member or friend will come and watch then kill people for two seconds and judge all games. Granted this goes for most games, but these thoughts are commonly brought up by Call of Duty, which has a horrible story, and (in my mind) doesn't stand out as an example of a "good reason to kill virtual people" (see Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption or Fallout 3 among others for good reasons to kill virtual people).

If nothing else I have to thank the games for being the poster boy for games. Because of that, the jerks who don't care about researching and trying games (and a few who do, because the game generally get amazing reviews) flock to it, because they don't put in the work to find a good game. As such, they stay out of my Bad Company2.

Now, I'm not asking you to change your ways, if you like CODMW (pronounced kind of like codmwah) then play it, I just want to keep this game from ruining the greatest generation the Industry has seen.

I find it pretty funny that you ***** about MW2, but then go on to say Mass Effect is a good example. Now let me just clarify, if you're only referring to the first game, then I wholeheartedly agree, but if you're including the second game, then you're basically comparing one frathouse mainstream mindless shooter to another frathouse mainstream mindless third person shooter.
-edit-Also... when you talk about keeping this game from ruining the greatest videogame generation the industry has seen?
I'm not following you, how is Modern Warfare 2 going to affect the 1980's? :S
You confuse me.

 

[SuccessAndBiscuts]

I'd like to add on to Fallout 3. There is a very good reason to go insane and kill everyone. That reason is called Little Lamplight.

The poor, broken plot doesn't exactly help my sanity either.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 rant inside

Watch me destroy the plot right here.
Your dad is trying to build a water-purification plant. This is pointless, since a water purifier already exists in Megaton.
That not good enough for you? Here's another way to get easy, clean water: Condensation.

Your robot butler gives you six glasses of pure water every. single. day. They could have taken all that time building the purifier, and just used it to build an army of robots that created water through condensation.

Honestly, Fallout 3 has the worst plot I have ever seen.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 counterpoint

I was under the impression that the giant purifier was designed to try and clean the ocean and by extension start purifying the world as a whole. To improve quality of life for all people. Not just to provide clean water for a smallish society.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 counter-counterpoint

Thats never stated though. Your father specifically states that he wants to clean the water in the Wasteland. He, and no one else mentioned trying to purify anything else.

Im gonna leave the spoilers off because they are approaching redundant. You are right its not directly said but I feel it is strongly implied.

The plan was to build a facility that could purify all the water in the Tidal Basin at once.

Thats a whole lot more than the water dealt with through the megaton facility, as for the robots I suspect they would be volume for volume even less use than the megaton purifier supposedly is.

 

[Yureina]

I don't associate with people who like MW2. Its really that simple. But, then again, most people in the real world don't even know I play games, so its not too big of an issue for me.

 

[Kair]

Call of Duty is the new Counter Strike. Full of kids, pricks and elitists (most times not separately) who generally don't know how to communicate anything other than insults and boasts.

 

[Irridium]

I'd like to add on to Fallout 3. There is a very good reason to go insane and kill everyone. That reason is called Little Lamplight.

The poor, broken plot doesn't exactly help my sanity either.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 rant inside

Watch me destroy the plot right here.
Your dad is trying to build a water-purification plant. This is pointless, since a water purifier already exists in Megaton.
That not good enough for you? Here's another way to get easy, clean water: Condensation.

Your robot butler gives you six glasses of pure water every. single. day. They could have taken all that time building the purifier, and just used it to build an army of robots that created water through condensation.

Honestly, Fallout 3 has the worst plot I have ever seen.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 counterpoint

I was under the impression that the giant purifier was designed to try and clean the ocean and by extension start purifying the world as a whole. To improve quality of life for all people. Not just to provide clean water for a smallish society.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 counter-counterpoint

Thats never stated though. Your father specifically states that he wants to clean the water in the Wasteland. He, and no one else mentioned trying to purify anything else.

Im gonna leave the spoilers off because they are approaching redundant. You are right its not directly said but I feel it is strongly implied.

The plan was to build a facility that could purify all the water in the Tidal Basin at once.

Thats a whole lot more than the water dealt with through the megaton facility, as for the robots I suspect they would be volume for volume even less use than the megaton purifier supposedly is.

Yes, but who would even be able to use all that water? The wasteland is still littered with raiders and slavers, so its not like everyone's going to be making routine trips. And you don't even need robots to make the water, they use condensation, which anyone can use.

And with all the time and resources put into Project Purity, they could have put all that into the Megaton one, making it a lot better than it is now. Plus Dr. Li at Megaton was apparently making progress on growing fresh plants in fresh water. Instead of dragging everyone back, he could have stayed and helped them make progress on what they're doing.

 

[SuccessAndBiscuts]

I'd like to add on to Fallout 3. There is a very good reason to go insane and kill everyone. That reason is called Little Lamplight.

The poor, broken plot doesn't exactly help my sanity either.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 rant inside

Watch me destroy the plot right here.
Your dad is trying to build a water-purification plant. This is pointless, since a water purifier already exists in Megaton.
That not good enough for you? Here's another way to get easy, clean water: Condensation.

Your robot butler gives you six glasses of pure water every. single. day. They could have taken all that time building the purifier, and just used it to build an army of robots that created water through condensation.

Honestly, Fallout 3 has the worst plot I have ever seen.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 counterpoint

I was under the impression that the giant purifier was designed to try and clean the ocean and by extension start purifying the world as a whole. To improve quality of life for all people. Not just to provide clean water for a smallish society.

Spoiler: Fallout 3 counter-counterpoint

Thats never stated though. Your father specifically states that he wants to clean the water in the Wasteland. He, and no one else mentioned trying to purify anything else.

Im gonna leave the spoilers off because they are approaching redundant. You are right its not directly said but I feel it is strongly implied.

The plan was to build a facility that could purify all the water in the Tidal Basin at once.

Thats a whole lot more than the water dealt with through the megaton facility, as for the robots I suspect they would be volume for volume even less use than the megaton purifier supposedly is.

Yes, but who would even be able to use all that water? The wasteland is still littered with raiders and slavers, so its not like everyone's going to be making routine trips. And you don't even need robots to make the water, they use condensation, which anyone can use.

And with all the time and resources put into Project Purity, they could have put all that into the Megaton one, making it a lot better than it is now. Plus Dr. Li at Megaton was apparently making progress on growing fresh plants in fresh water. Instead of dragging everyone back, he could have stayed and helped them make progress on what they're doing.

Away off topic we go! This is becoming almost a speciality of mine.

The issue isn't just providing drinking water, its about the environment as a whole, bringing it back to life and a semblance of civilisation. People fight over limited resources unlimited clean water would go a big way to resolving more than a few conflicts that are going on in the wastes, clean the sea water and by extension you start cleaning rivers and the rest of the environment, which would decrease the rate of mutation in wildlife and bring about a kind of stability.

Localised condensation purifiers simply wouldn't put through the sheer volume required to make the change (6 glasses of water against the millions of gallons project purity will supposedly produce). What I am talking about is closer to terraforming than just providing drinking water.

When it comes to life as we know it, water is the most important factor.

 

[MattyDienhoff]

As far as I'm concerned, little of any real value would have been lost if the Call of Duty series had never been a series and had simply ended after the first game and its expansion pack.

Even the first game was very formulaic, it was yet another WWII shooter. It succeeded anyway because it was well presented (mainly by way of the series' much lauded "cinematic intensity" which, in my opinion at least, has become diluted through overuse in the subsequent games).

It was also fun to play and had solid multiplayer, but the only remotely unique trait was that it dispensed with the 'one man army' premise many of its predecessors were stuck on. It was a good game, not great, but good, and United Offensive is still my personal measuring stick for expansion packs.

Call of Duty 2's single player campaign was more of the same, just more polished, and the multiplayer was a big step backwards from United Offensive in my opinion, and boring by comparison, to say nothing of the fact that it was released without cheat protection on the PC which made playing it a headache for the several months it took them to patch it in.

[can't comment on Call of Duty 3 since I never played it - I get the idea it was non-remarkable anyway]

Call of Duty 4 was an interesting development. Switching to a modern era and focusing on high-tech equipment and special forces helped to mix it up a bit, and the single player campaign was varied and well executed. The perks system and the concept of leveling up to unlock things also added a little bit of depth to the multiplayer. It was too over-the-top "action-movie" in tone for my liking, and it was still formulaic and incredibly linear, but the changes helped freshen it up and I found it to be an enjoyable experience. Again, good but not great.

Call of Duty: World at War was a decent effort by Treyarch but the only unique thing about it was the tacked-on zombies minigame. The rest of it may as well have been called "Call of Duty: Darker and Edgier" and "Call of Duty 4: Back In Time" (SP and MP, respectively).

As for Modern Warfare 2... it's "Call of Duty 4: Michael Bay Edition", as far as I'm concerned. It's the same game, but louder, more obnoxious, and even more cliched, and has a PC version which isn't a port but still feels like one.

 

[Warforger]

(This mostly pertains to Modern Warfare)

I'll admit.

I don't like the newer Call of Duty games, both modern warfares failed in my eyes, the only one I can think of that I enjoyed was World at War, even then that was just because of Nazi zombies. Call of Duty 3 was more enjoyable than the modern warfares. But I suppose I have to thank them for helping to make my hobby of choice mainstream, video games are pretty common place, and almost everyone I know has at least taken a stab at them.

So stick to Halo maybe? CoD is a series that likes to be taken seriously until you play the bonus content.

But at the same time I have to point out that they make video games and (and teenage boys) look bad. At least where I live, "COD" has become almost synonymous with video game. You're playing a video game? It's assumed that you're playing COD. You're not playing COD? You're gay.

And even if you're not playing Call of Duty, someone you know is, and their non-gamer family member or friend will come and watch then kill people for two seconds and judge all games. Granted this goes for most games, but these thoughts are commonly brought up by Call of Duty, which has a horrible story, and (in my mind) doesn't stand out as an example of a "good reason to kill virtual people" (see Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption or Fallout 3 among others for good reasons to kill virtual people).

IMO few stories ever bring up a good reason to kill people, at least the amount you kill, let's say a terrorist group kills your wife and only child, how is it justifiable to go then kill 1,000+ of them? I know two lives are important, but you just ruined 1,000+ families.

I don't see why Red Dead Redemption is justifiable either, I didn't play that game much but from what I can tell you go and kill the people who abandoned you so you can redeem your life as an outlaw. This is like Kratos, your trying to redeem your life of murder and causing suffering for others then you decide the clear solution is to murder more people, not realizing that the first step is to STOP MURDERING PEOPLE.

If nothing else I have to thank the games for being the poster boy for games. Because of that, the jerks who don't care about researching and trying games (and a few who do, because the game generally get amazing reviews) flock to it, because they don't put in the work to find a good game. As such, they stay out of my Bad Company2.

Oh please, Bad Company 2? Modern Warfare had much more justification for killing people then that game did and its just a rip off with a few different features.

Now, I'm not asking you to change your ways, if you like CODMW (pronounced kind of like codmwah) then play it, I just want to keep this game from ruining the greatest generation the Industry has seen.

How is it ruining it? Didn't Halo already do that? Didn't Gears Of War already do that? I'm sorry but your just pointing out a game which is better then most of the mainstream, I'd go after Halo, basically dumbed down the genre for retards.

 

[Irridium]

Away off topic we go! This is becoming almost a speciality of mine.

The issue isn't just providing drinking water, its about the environment as a whole, bringing it back to life and a semblance of civilisation. People fight over limited resources unlimited clean water would go a big way to resolving more than a few conflicts that are going on in the wastes, clean the sea water and by extension you start cleaning rivers and the rest of the environment, which would decrease the rate of mutation in wildlife and bring about a kind of stability.

Localised condensation purifiers simply wouldn't put through the sheer volume required to make the change (6 glasses of water against the millions of gallons project purity will supposedly produce). What I am talking about is closer to terraforming than just providing drinking water.

When it comes to life as we know it, water is the most important factor.

If they wanted to help the environment, they could of just activated the GECK, which would have turned the wasteland into a fertile paradise. And from that you could grow seeds and whatnot to expand that paradise. And as the Oasis quest showed, plants can grow using irradiated water.

Plus, Tenpenny Tower had clean water(unless you let the ghouls in), so they somehow have a working water purifier.

 

[Davey Woo]

So COD is bad because it's popular?

Exactly what I was thinking.

OP: You're saying it's bad to pre-judge games, when all your doing is judging the Call of Duty series.

A large number of video gamers are childish, defensive fanboys. So a popular game is going to attract more of these people to it, making it seem like only these kind of people play this game.