After the announcement of “Call of Duty Elite” I noticed a lot of articles online bashing Activision and the Call of Duty franchise. These practices are not anything new, as websites and many gamers in the community seem to be bashing the franchise on a daily basis.
So what gives?
I never really understand the whole concept of “Fanboys” in this industry. I grew up in the age of the Atari 2600 and the battles of the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. Back then these two went at it, but it seemed all in good fun. There were times when things got crazy, but they never got to the point of gamers being venomous towards a game company or game franchise.
These days there’s so much hatred that it is hard for me to wrap my hands around such hatred.
We seem to have a growing battle between the Battlefield camp and Call of Duty camp. I personally love both franchises and I plan on purchasing Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 at the end of the year. Why alienate yourself from two good first-person shooters. Each franchise brings to the table something cool and exciting.
Call of Duty is a series that always seems to sell millions each year. Black Ops sold millions worldwide and the next game in the series is already selling tons of pre-orders. Yet there are many out there that despise this franchise?
Hating the Elite
Activision just announced details for its upcoming project, Call of Duty Elite. Since details leaked around the internet, there seems to be a great divide among gamers. Many seem to like it, many seem to dislike it. All you have to do is look at the Official Call of Duty Youtube page. The latest video about Call of Duty Elite has 3226 Likes and 11698 Dislikes. The odd thing is that three hours ago it was at 1982 Likes and 1642 Dislikes. OUCH!
The program is free, yet people tend to believe that you will have to pay. From what I understand you will have an optional program that will score you the DLC packs as well as incentives like exclusive content.
This is nothing new to the industry. Bungie did it with the Halo franchise. You could pay additional fees to have “Bungie Pro”, which was 320 Microsoft points for a six month subscription. Additional minute packs are $5 (source).
You can also look to games like “MAG” for the Playstation 3. You had the option to purchase additional slots at .99 Cent per month (which is $12 a year for each slot).
I really need to know additional information about Elite to comment on if I find it to be worth the price (which has not been announced yet). The Call of Duty franchise is extremely popular, so while some may hate this concept, others will fall in love with it.
So why all the hate for this franchise?
If some people have a problem with Activision’s president Bobby Kotick that is fine, but why take all of the anger out on the developers? Infinity Ward still exists, and instead of bashing the many talented developers still with the company gamers should be throwing support their way. Same goes for Sledgehammer Games and Treyarch. These groups work hard at trying to give gamers fun and exciting games. Maybe I am just bias towards developers. I feel the same way towards DICE. These guys work hard to bring out a great experience with the Battlefield series, yet people in the Call of Duty camp seem to hate the game.
Each of the Battlefield games I’ve played are fun and addicting to play. The game offers something different as compared to the Call of Duty franchise. And it also has dedicated servers, which is a huge plus.
Others claim that the Call of Duty franchise is the same old song and dance. That the company just uses the same game engine over and over. Many feel that Modern Warfare 3 is the the same as the first two games, with polished graphics.
Will there ever be a day when these two groups put down their weapons and enjoy BOTH game franchises? I will continue to stay in the “neutral” camp and enjoy both games.
I look at things this way, If you are a true gamer then you will give both games a shot and you will also have both franchise titles in your game collection. Isn’t that what being a gamer is all about? Enjoying the games and having fun with your friends? When did it become a war? When did the community become so divided over two war-based first-person shooters?
Maybe we should all take a look at Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario.
These two are now featured in videogames together! These two used to fight tooth and nail back in the 80′s and early 90′s and now they sit around sipping hot tea and laughing about the old days. Will the Call of Duty and Battlefield camps ever come to a truce?
Like it or not, both the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises are here to stay. Might as well learn to live with both and enjoy both of them.
Call of Duty sucks dude, go away and keep playing your garbage. Nobody cares… =/
There was already hate! This just makes it all the worse! Why should we pay to use this service which should already be part of the original game, all it is, is an over glorified community service with extra stats and matchmaking! Nothing worth paying for. We are already paying over the odds for COD as it is, the game, as much fun as it is is far too overpriced! The campaign mode is absolutely pathetic, the only real worth is online gameplay! Most people never even play or finish the campaign so how can they excuse making us pay? They should just release COD-Online as a separate game. But now they also wanna charge us to play online with this stupid service, they can go shove it!! The price hike on xbl was due to activision, M$ is paying them thats the reason for the price hike so, effectively they are already paying to play COD, now they’re all gonna go pay even more for a stupid service, suckers!
I personally dont like this because they will be selling “in game advantage” for a monthy price.
Why all the Call of Duty hate you say?
1. Most Call of Duty games are broken from a multiplayer stand point
2. They make us pay for overpriced map packs, which ARE on the disc
3. It’s the only franchise that has a higher RRP than all other games
Now they want us to pay for stuff that should be included in the game, look at autolog on the new Need for Speed games
Should I carry on?
Have you ever thought that the REASON people hate the game (or more accurately, hate the REMAINING developers that are pretty much forced to make the same game every damn 9 months by activision…………) is because the game sucks???? It’s the same thing over and over. Have you never heard of Activision before? Have you never heard of Guitar Hero? Have you never heard of Tony Hawk? Do some research dude, and you’ll find that ACTIVISION IS A GREEDY COMPANY THAT HAS RUINED MANY GAMES BY MAKING TOO MANY OF THEM THAT ARE SIMILAR AND DON’T TRULY IMPROVE ANYTHING SIGNIFICANT. Just because Modern Warfare 3 LOOKS “cool” and has “cool” explosions.. doesn’t mean it’s anything new or good. Same with elite. Nobody wants to PAY for “stats” and “clans” that they can get on Socom, Killzone, and other games for FREE.
THATS why COD is hated… among MANY other reasons. It’s a game made for kids and noobs, nuff said. Real gamers dont need aim assist and radar to get kills. COD noobs do.
All the hate is bc the series sux! Just bc a game sells millions doesn’t mean its good!
COD/MW players have ruined other fps series bc of their style of play and all their b!tching!
IE … KZ2 was awesome with the weapon weight and all which made it so original, but bc COD players got owned bc it didn’t play like a noob friendly game like COD they complained and it got changed … even my friends that r COD fans say that is easier to play than other FPS which is why I DON’T like it … I play games that take skill and team tactics … just like bullshit spawn camping, lag switchers, modders … etc … I blame all on those pussy COD/MW players … come see me in killzone, ill smoke u! … o yea that’s right, u suck at those games, I forgot … go get ur aim assist … pussies.
I like the COD series, but the older games are unplayable online thanks to hackers.
You guys are all pussies. Call of Duty will still shit on Battlefield this year. Its all about sales and the COD games sell like hot cakes every year. Also the COD series has the best feel. The engine is perfect. ELPRESADOR even stated this online. Go youtube his videos. He is RIGHT.
The same will happen this year. All you Battlefield fanboys need to stop crying about your assholes are hurting since Call of Duty fucks your beloved franchise over EVERY year. This year will be no different. MW3 will most likely sell 5 to every Battlefield 3 game.
And one last thing. Killzone is for pussies. Its like a FPS with training wheels on. All about looks and no gameplay. Come over to COD where we don’t have medics and gun turrets. I will straight up beast your ass.
I have nothin’ against either Call of Duty. Medal of Honor, Battlefield blah blah blah blah. I happen to hate all FPS equally. Since I’m an old coot, I grew up playing video games on Atari/Intellevision, and then later Nintendo. There were no FPS game then. When Goldeneye came out I friggin’ HATED it for not allowing me to see where the hell I was in relationship to everything else, and I’ve never really tried to adapt to them since. I can’t understand how people think that having a disembodied arm/hand with a gun/rocket launcher/knife waggle in front of the camera is ‘TEH AWESOME!!1!!’, I would much rather play Pong.
Like I said, sales doesn’t equal good game … Training wheels??? Lmao : remind me, which game uses aim assist? … oh yea that’s right, COD/MW does! If killzone is a FPS on training wheels, then CODs got Big Wheel written all over it! …
COD’s aim assist can be turned off so it’s not other COD players’ fault if you can’t even find the settings menu. Call of Duty is an arcade-style FPS game and is awesome. No one forces you to buy it. Those who say BF3 will be better just because it’s more realistic are n00bs: If you want realism join the army or navy of your country and enjoy the reality of war, or STFU (how ridiculous are those 13 or 40 year old nerdy gamers sitting in their couch with a bowl of cheetos talking about realism of war). Games are for FUN (remember that word?) so let other gamers be.
Seems that the majority of posters didn’t actually read your article, and immediately scrolled down and got their 2 cents of bitching in.
An interesting article. It amazes me as well that such a heated war between two franchises exists, as if destroying one will validate the fan’s obsessive opinions of the other. The folks that posted these comments, they aren’t gamers. They’re whiny children.
I’ve come to the conclusion that hating a game that’s popular has become as much of a fad as liking it.
Cod is bad. Nuff said. Battlefield is bad. Killzone is bad. There all bad, none of
them are TEH AWESOMEEST THING EVERS!!111!!!!11! FPS’s are the same thing over and over, they offer little campaign. They also make people think they can be in the army cause they got a 3 killstreak. Play a different genre please.
My favourite genre are RPG’s because there challenging. NEFS and GT 5 are also good games. I suggest you fanboys move onto something new. I guess I’m a nerd or geek or whatever you wanna call me, but hey, I don’t care. So yeah one more thing, games like Dynasty warriors get 6/10 for recycled gameplay, but COD gets 10/10 and guess what, it’s the same recycled gameplay as last years one. Case closed. D:<
This is the new world of gaming. You don’t just ”like what you like” anymore, you either accept or deny the FACT that COD sucks, because games aren’t a matter of opinion anymore. A game is either objectively great or objectively crap, period.