Call of Duty: Why it's More Alive Than Ever

"Last week fellow dlb-network editor BlindMango wrote an article about the Call of Duty franchise. He discussed his concerns with the franchise stating “Yeah, I’m happy to see this mammoth dying, it’s about time.” Everyone here at dlb-network.com has their own opinions, but it’s those difference in opinion that makes us such a fun and diverse group. Whenever we write opinion articles or create videos it’s really just trying to share our opinions with our audience. The article your about to read isn’t necessarily a response to BlindMango’s, but rather a difference in opinion. I have the utmost respect for BlindMango and the article he wrote last week."

"I can understand why gamers would feel “franchise fatigue” with Call of Duty. Yes a new title is released every year, and yes it’s probably Activision cashing in on the name. Honestly I really don’t feel the same way as those gamers do."

[PS3SUPPORT]

Great article in response to the one that was posted earlier in the week. Im personally burned out on the game and would love a change. But they would only piss off the COD lovers.... Cant please everyone right?

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

.

"Call of Duty hasn’t really had any strong competition in the FPS genre for the past five years. The only other game in that genre to threaten COD was last year’s Battlefield 3."

The funny thing about Battlefield 3 threatening CoD is that BF3 plays more like CoD than any other Battlefield game in the franchise. Take out large maps, prone, vehicles and aerial combat, BF3 plays like CoD. Where as in past BFs the gunplay and pace is much different.

This is the main issue with CoD. It’s tainting other franchises indirectly.

I will use my favorite multiplayer game this gen, KILLZONE, as an example. Killzone 2 was a very unique First Person Shooter. It was a tactical shooter that required team work and strategy to complete objectives that would change as the match went along.

CoD players that picked KZ2 up complained about the controls not being like CoD. They blamed input lag as the culprit while the main reason why they didn’t like the controls was because their success in CoD didn’t translate to Killzone. Instead of learning the game they wanted to apply CoD tactics in Killzone not realizing that you can’t since CoD and KZ are two different games.

Fast forward to Killzone 3, Guerrilla Games implemented CoD-like features into the game, such as Killstreak points, ribbon perks, low health, low recoil, high bullet damage, match making (KZ2 had dedicated servers and ranked custom games), etc.
Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing something from other games, but when it changes the CORE of the game or brings about severe balancing issues there is a problem.

That was the case with Killzone 3. Killzone 3 suffered from the infamous CoD-ifacation of a franchise. Guerrilla Games attempted to widen their audience, but as a result alienated their fans which led to KZ3 selling less than KZ2.

At the end of the day, I wish that developers and publishers would see that COD fans will always play COD. And that the fans that they currently have are there because their games aren’t COD. So trying to sway the COD crowd will just repel the fans you already have all the while the COD fans just skip over your game to buy another COD game. Developers just need to make the games that they want and for their fans while publishers need to let developers do just that.

[BlindMango]

Yeah, that's what I was trying to argue, that people cannot accept anything else in the FPS genre that works like Call of Duty, I thought Killzone 2 was a great game with how it worked, but the CoD effect killed that game... sucks.

[morkendo23]

your right cant PLEASE everyone. call of duty,metal of honor,uncharted bound to die out just as everything was a hit at one point. same gos for musicians,singers,tv's,com puters,tv shows etc..... it is the cycle of life.

MORAL of it all
YOU ONLY CAN GO SO FAR, DO SO MUCH
"before it pass its popularity"

[us_army]

Everything does come to an end, unless they innovate as well as keep the good, and keep things fresh so people can willingly come back each year.... but this last installment is fun and is cod, but gets dry fast, innovation and change is needed, but still needs to stay true to the series

[clewis94]

Great article but im not sure what to agree with atm i think cod will stay on top for a few more titles but after that it will lose its edge.

[Summons75]

Maybe alive but it isn't good in the least

[GraveLord]

May be a live? It's on **** steroids.
It is good, just not for you.

Just because you don't like a game, it doesn't mean the games sucks or is bad. Different people have different tastes.

[NYC_Gamer]

It's far from dead since MW3 broke sales records on release day

[BlindMango]

But, the January sales numbers are suffering tremendously, it got basically half the sales of Black Ops and basically half the sales of MW2 also during that month, so release day sales numbers aren't necessarily the proving ground, especially since nobody had access to the game prior to release day so they couldn't experience it.

[NYC_Gamer]

How many games released last year came close to MW3 numbers?and made billions of dollars in profit.If Call of Duty is dying based on all that then the other franchises have been died.plus MW3 was the number #1 selling title last month based on npd numbers.

[clewis94]

I dont really like cod anymore its done for me. Even though it sells doesn't mean its good we all know its bug heavy.