How Call of Duty has Ruined Online Shooters

The Call of Duty series has set the benchmark for online gaming this generation, but is that truly a good thing? SIXAXIS Gaming takes a look at the negative consequences Infinity Ward's franchise has had on online multiplayer.

[PidgeottosCrew]

Hopefully Battlefield starts to take over...though since it takes a bit of skill I don't think that will happen.

[SquirrelT]

Call of Duty does take skill to be good at, but yeah, I'm hoping BF can at least make IF think about making some drastic changes.

[SquirrelT]

I mean, IW - Infinity Ward.

[Asgaro]

"Call of Duty does take skill to be good at"

Having skill at fast paced shooters will give you MAYBE an advantage.
Fact is: since MW2, when you suck at CoD, you can still be on top in a match.
- Go sit in a corner
- Rank up some kills
- Get a killstreak
- Kill some guys with it
- *BAM* In top five.

The killstreak system has messed up the necessity of skill.
- Because everyone can sit, camp, get killstreak and feel epic about it.
- Because you can't determine whether the guy in first place got there by deserved kills, or by spamming the field with his AC130...

[Utilities_Horton]

Really depends on who you're up against. Sure, you can camp away in the corner in some nooby pub game, but as soon as you find yourself up against a team that know what they're doing suddenly there's no safe place to camp. The best players always seem to be running continuously, and killstreaks don't last long when the opposition are organised. AC130's can go down faster than Black Op's servers at launch.

[beastgamer]

I blame..
The Perks
The Campers
The Last Stand
The noob tubers
The remote toy cars
The BS I shot him complains
The Crazy long distance throwing knife kills
The bullet fly pass anything kills
The far distance pistol kill
The 12 year old kids
The females that should be respawning in the kitchen (some of them are cool to play with, but the ones just f ing up and don't know what to do should respawn)

If COD never had any of these, probably it would be a good online shooter

[Dransfield]

That's just what's wrong with call of duty itself.

[M-Easy]

"The females that should be respawning in the kitchen"

Lol and people say gamer are misogynistic. Funny.

[slaton24]

i blame campers, last stand, long distance shotgun kills, the 12 year old kids, and biggest thing the connection...host leaves everyone leaves i hate that, also man dont be sexiest girls can play anything we play man and in the kitchen wow that was wrong man ur mom should have raised u better than that

[SonyStyled]

discover killzone my friend

[TheFirstClassic]

It really all comes down to the people playing, nobody wants to work together, they just want to play Rambo and run around on their own. It's become a casual online shooter, the gameplay isn't deep and varied, it's just constant run and gun.

[HeavenlySnipes]

from my time playing both the beta and Black Ops, I don't want games to model either of them.

Both are full of cover and have low health, making campers have orgasms laying prone everywhere
http://www.thegamingvault.c...

That pic basically sums up the first area of rush on Metro.

Maybe its just me, but I don't like MP games that reward camping, I don't think it takes skill to find a spot in a secluded area and pick people off.

My favourite FPS is still KZ2, that game took massive amounts of skill to be great at.

EDIT: I still play KZ2 to this day. The server lists allow you to just jump into games that are near full so you never have to play with low player counts. But yeah, as for total players, its probably a few thousand at most

[PidgeottosCrew]

I agree, KZ2 was brilliant fun. But it died out so quick, and you just have to look at the changes they made for KZ3's multiplayer to understand how cod is killing diversity.

[FunAndGun]

lol, that pic. haha

[solid warlord]

i hate on COD alot but i just cant stop playing that bitch. Its like addicted to sex, u know it feels good but cant get enough.

BF in the other hand, is fun while it lasts. After playing BFBC 1&2 and the lates BF3 beta on ps3 and 360. I rest my case, the game was just crap to play. I am reminded how boring BF can get over COD or Halo for example. Sometimes i get the highes kills in the match but after a 20 odd minute match...u just not satisfied. COD i thought reward the player more. Gears 3 im starting to love now.

BF3 i had hopes but after the beta, it feels like BC2.1 and i certainly wont be buying.

[Orbis]

One of the best articles I've read in recent times. A lot of truth.

[Utilities_Horton]

nothing wrong with CoD. Im still playing it every day and havent gotten bored. MW3 will be BEAST

[gamingdroid]

I'm really looking forward to MW3, and don't see how it ruined online shooters at all. If anything, it opened it up further!

It's only ruined for the few that don't like it. The rest will play it happily and the other will complain and secretly play it anyhow.

[slaton24]

maybe u r a camper than i dont know but u have campers and the poor connections host migration and stuff like that so yeah there is stuff wrong with campers on duty...even though i like it and will be gettin MW3

[TheFirstClassic]

How long have you been playing? MW3 will have been the fifth cod game in the past four years, I don't understand how anyone could play the same game so long. All you do is run and gun, there's no variety in my opinion.

[farhsa2008]

not only has it ruined shooters but also the industry

[LOGICWINS]

COD games have been the top selling games on the PS3/360 each year for the past three years. Considering the revenue these games generate, how is COD hurting the industry?

[LightofDarkness]

By ensuring that the focus of developers remains fixed upon ever increasing monetary gain through homogenization, thus stifling the creative space and leaving advancement and artistry as secondary, even tertiary concerns.

[Dransfield]

By being TOO big and TOO unimaginative. When the most popular game in history doesn't do anything different with every new edition but still grows in popularity...well, other more innovative games get played by less people because everyone's already playing call of duty. In the end, games become less innovative and become more like cod so they can compete.

[gamingdroid]

I would say creating something so awesomely "creative", yet not being able to produce any value anyone is willing to pay for is hurting the industry more...

I will take the first, something people are willing to pay for and play to death.

I guess success these days are now a detriment to the industry.

[LOGICWINS]

"By ensuring that the focus of developers remains fixed upon ever increasing monetary gain through homogenization, thus stifling the creative space and leaving advancement and artistry as secondary, even tertiary concerns."

Is that COD's fault..or is it the developers' fault for not having the balls to create their own vision?

You can't blame the leader just because people choose to follow him.

[Unicron]

LightofDarkness, kudos. That was a well said post.

"Is that COD's fault..or is it the developers' fault for not having the balls to create their own vision?"

It's just as much the consumers fault as it is the developers IMHO, both are to blame. People forget that money talks. If so many people want CoD, clearly they like what it does, so why would you design something different, when so few support it? This is still business.

[Arnon]

Because CoD has placed the industry in its own creative coffin.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Nope it's CoD's fault for not innovating and/or doing something new with their game instead of rehashing the same ****!

[Dransfield]

Developers have no choice but to make decisions to ensure their game sells well, and this ends up with them making it similar to other popular games. If there wasn't much a monopoly on the FPS genre (I suppose a duopoly, if you consider Halo) then maybe we would already have something better than Call of duty. It's rare for a game to get every new thing it does right straight away, but we usually persevere with it because we know it will get better. Now we don't persevere with it - we jump back on cod. Nothing can change that way.

[0neShot]

COD actually made video gaming the biggest entertainment industry, and created the first multibillion dollar franchise. It has not ruined it obviously but simply made it MASSIVE.

[FunAndGun]

well then, I wish gaming would go back underground.

[Dart89]

*First of all, I have to say that every COD is a downright solid game…at least the ones made by Infinity Ward.

Correction the ones the original IW created.

@above really nothing wrong with cod??How about the party system being broke when they release MW2,Blk ooops,laggy as hell online for blk ops ps3 version i could go on but you get the point.

[Hufandpuf]

biggest offense: imitators. classic games have to abide to the COD effect just to stay relevant anymore.

[0neShot]

Let's wait what Respawn can come up shall we? This might be the next big thing and hell yeah, it's about time.

[drsnobby]

One must admit that COD is a monster franchise,but how has it ruined online shooters?as shallow as this artcle is,we must look at how much good the COD franchise did for the entire gaming industry.gamers obviously love playing COD day and night over other games.look at how much it sold on all the platforms.i would say that,its sales shows that it has not ruined online gaming.if you suck at online gaming,admit it and move on.what the author fails to admit that COD is helping the gaming industry survive the rough spell.gamers vote with there wallet and nothing can change that. if the author thinks COD ruined online shooters,then millions of happy COD fans says hello. ;)

[SquirrelT]

"How bad articles has ruined gaming journalism"

Yep, welcome to the world of COD.

[narutogameking]

I bet the guy that wrote that article sucks at COD. LMFAO!
Haters gonna hate!

[Gamer-Z]

Yes because if you offer any sort of criticism your automatically a hater right? Did you know most people that criticize COD are the ones that really want it to improve and be a better game. Its people like you that take a blind eye to all the problems it has and continue to support lazy development by buying it every year will ultimately and inadvertently destroy this franchise.

[PidgeottosCrew]

Well said. There are those who are already disillusioned with the franchise but keep playing it because they're caught in the trap. It seems these people will have to wait until EVERYONE is disillusioned with it until something happens, though perhaps the ex-Infinity Ward developers will produce something as radically different as COD4 was when it came out.

[GraphicX]

Terrific article !

[AznGaara]

"This, in turn, leads developers to think that gamers must want features like killstreaks and regenerating health in all their games, which is an absolute nightmare for those people who despise Call of Duty."

This. After playing the Uncharted 3 Beta I can honestly say that I wished Naughty Dog stuck with the way Uncharted 2's multi-player played. IMO all they had to do was polish the multi-player but instead we get load-outs, weapon tweaks, killstreaks and sprint... no thanks.

This is why I love Gears of War it stayed true to its formula.

[Phantasm]

The only thing that the COD franchise (multiplayer) has ruined (or helped ruin) are lengthy single player campaigns.

[SonyStyled]

i think the community and how cheap the players can be is what ruins the game. i dont play the multiplayer because of that and how it doesnt require much skill, its more of a 'who shot you first wins' kind of game. i enjoy cod for its campaign. but even still the campaign has too many impossible action movie moments. im sure you know what im talking about

[TheDivine]

I like cod. Its fun because everyone can play. Noobs can get perks and guns to help them hold their own and vets can get awesome unlockables and killstreaks to pawn people. No matter what skill level your at you can have fun and get some kills but it still takes alot of skill to be the best. Its fast and fun, all action. I actually like killstreaks and the deep customization of bl ops. Its more balance and theres always something new to unlock. I HATED mw2, its all cheap tactics like camping and noobtubes. I can hold my own on bl ops but can barely kill anyone in mw2 because its all bs quickscoping and cheap shi* that i dont do.

Bottom line though is cod is fun and most people who play it only play it BECAUSE its accessable. They wouldnt ever play kz2 or bf3. If some games try to immitate cod thats the dev's fault for not staying true to the fans. Cod is cod, make your own game and we will like it for bieng whatever it is. Games like kz3 (which i loved btw) tried to make it more accessable and turned off longtime fans while failing to capture the cod market. Making your games like cod wont make people jump ship because they already have that with cod. People stick with it because of the big community, constant dlc to keep it fresh, and all their friends play it. It sucks for stuff like homefront where you cant find a match on dlc or a game like section 8 prejudice where sometimes you cant find a game period. Community is a HUGE part of a great multiplayer experience and cod has it in spades.

[Gamer-Z]

COD4 in my opinion is the perfect FPS and is still a lot better than any of the other CODs. More effort and love when into the creation of COD4 and you can see it while the other CODs feel more like a quick cash grab.

[floetry101]

CoD4 is about as good as it gets. It's the best Call of Duty game and will not be topped by any other CoD title this generation. Grenade amounts are literally the only thing I would change. Almost every map is perfect, the guns are appropriately balanced and fun to use, and the pace of the game is frenetic without becoming the clusterf*ck that MW2 created.

[SH0CKW4VE]

Disagree about gun balance...

Stopping power killed the game because it made the M4 & M16 the only guns worth using.

[PidgeottosCrew]

I don't know; the mp5, ak47, ak74, p90 and g36 were all very effective in the right hands. So was the G3 and all the half of the snipers and...yeah, cod4 was pretty good.

[majiebeast]

Dice and EA are trying everything for the cod gamer like the lonewolf scoreboard the camptard maps that require no skill the quick scoping with snipers. BF3 Falls so much short of bf2 a game 8 years old.

Quickscoping is fiction http://www.gametrailers.com...

We need shooters like payday the heist and resistance 3 not rehashed trash like cod.

[Father Murder X]

I don't understand the hate for COD. Its pretty fun but you have to take it for what it is. I personally prefer Halo Reach to anything else because it appears to entail more strategy and teamwork. I also like the fact that unless you get sniped in Halo Reach you always have a chance to turn the tables. I have said it once and I will said it again Halo Reach maybe the most underrated game of this gen.

While I prefer Battlefield over COD. I think alot of you fall into the "I am cool because I hate what is popular" group. If you don't like it don't buy. Coming on the internet running down a game that you don't like is really stupid when you think about it.

[miamicanesruleall]

Battlefield will never surpass MW unless its stops its pc first focus. End of story. End of discussion.

[Asgaro]

Unfortunately true.

But I still prefer the extra PC attention, over BF getting more popular than CoD.

[tickticktick]

How has the number one online game ruined online shooters? More CoD vs BF BS, I don't even like CoD or BF. Both games are exactly the same in just about every way.