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Call Of Duty Is Doomed

    THE BEGINNING ....... and the end


   I know what you are thinking ...... "this guy is a major hater",  however,  I feel obliged to inform you that I have been one of the Call Of Duty franchises best and most hardcore supporter since the first online COD. As a matter of fact, I have run clans with thousands of members from all over the world and built a rather large following based around the COD franchise games. I have been blessed with great clan websites, partnered youtube channels, large facebook base and much more all because of Call Of Duty. With that being said and now out of the way lets get down to business shall we?
  I recently retired from playing Call Of Duty and verily running my successful COD clan MvK* ( Most Valuable Killers ) and now only play video games with new and fresh idea's to explore and have fun with. You see, Call Of Duty started out amazing, thus; the very large following, however, after many years of implementing stale idea's and repetitive gameplay the franchise has hit rock bottom. You may say to yourselves that COD is doing just fine, however, this could not be farther from the truth. In fact, the COD franchise has been doing rather bad as of lately with its last 3 releases. When the franchise began to move away from the original idea's that made the franchise great to begin with the fans noticed. Gone were the days of MW, World At War and Modern Warfare 2, the best COD games ever made and apparently never to be matched again.


 NEW RELEASE EVERY SINGLE YEAR .


  With a new Call Of Duty every single year the quality and vision has fallen to almost laughable lows. With tight schedules to keep and very little feedback from the most hardcore of supporters the new games roll out un-polished and lacking in almost every single way imaginable. The rushed games appear with horrible graphics using the very same engine that has been used for well over 7 years with what they refer to as "upgrades to the old engine" ..... in other words the same engine. The maps are always horrible with no real vision or imagination and utilizing gimmicks like "Missile Launch Sites" in the hopes that a missile taking off every few minutes will cover up the fact that the map is otherwise boring and not very clever. It seems that the developers solution to all of the yearly COD staleness is to make each new COD installment more and more "futuristic" leading to an even more out of touch game that the core supporters have come to like. Now, with the new "Advanced Warfare" game release imminent ....... it seems as though COD fans will be playing nothing less than a rip off of Halo, Titanfall, and Star Wars just to name a few. Since when did Call Of Duty which used to be based on actual warfare like World War 2 turn into a science fiction movie night for nerds who eat popcorn while watching old versions of Star Trek?


 OH NO .... NOT ANOTHER DLC.


 Now its time to really start hitting hard. The entire COD DLC con game is one of the very reasons I have decided to switch to indie games on next gen and triple A games on my new gaming PC. As soon as you buy a copy of the rushed new Call Of Duty game it begins to sell you the next maps that was removed from the full version of the game ( yes the DLC was made with the rest of the game ) that cost you the full price of at least $60 and attempts to sell you the rest of the partial game you already purchased. How does that make any sense? People actually get excited for the non stop DLC releases that just never seem to stop coming. In other words, after you buy a partial un-polished and rushed game at the full retail price of $60 you then spend an additional $15 per map pack (unless you get season pass also for a ridiculous amount) you in all honesty spend well over $100 for a single game. As if that wasn't bad enough ..... now COD is selling EVERYTHING , you can now purchase skins ( designs ) for your guns , a wolf instead of the usual dog and on and on it goes infinitum.


ANNOYING LITTLE KIDS
 
 I remember when me and my vast network of COD friend could play the game for days without hearing so much as a sqeek from an undeveloped 9 year old. Now, all you can hear on your mic (or through your Television) is the horrible sound of an ocean of little kids mad at their parents for not getting enough hugs yelling and screaming into their $300 headphones just so that everyone can hear the terrible sqeeking sound in full ear splitting HD sound. You will be hard pressed to find a single match of COD without a bunch of little kids who faked being sick so that they can stay home while their parents are at work and yell obscenities at the top of their little pink lungs which would lead to them being swiftly grounded if their parents were home to hear them. At thi9s point, it is very safe to assume that most mature older gamers have vacated COD for something a little more respectable.


 THE MEANING IS LOST


  In the Call Of Duties of old gamers competed for the number one spot on the leaderboards seeking fame and fortune and many a gamer has achieved these things. Not any more........ the meaning of COD is lost forever and where gamers used to make names for themselves for being great at the game or doing something big on COD is now a huge empty void. Simply put, nobody cares anymore. The old days of famous gamers like codemajic (just an example) are now lost forever  in a sea of sludge where every single little sqeeky 9 year old thinks himself the greatest in the world no matter how bad he is or how much he yells into his mic when his Mommy is not home. Call Of Duty youtube video's have hit a brick wall lately with only the usual large channels making any money or getting any real views while everyone else uploads gameplays that nobody wants to watch anymore. The old days are gone ...... welcome to the future and I hope you enjoy playing Advanced Warfare with your new headset on mute 100% of the time..... after all,  that's your only option unless your some kind of sicko who enjoys listening to little kids scream non stop obscenities about your family.

Are Call Of Duty Players Real Gamers?

                                        

 In my experience of playing with and/or alongside other Call Of Duty players since the first online COD was released I found that almost all gamers who play COD almost never play anything else. Most hardcore Call Of Duty players only own COD games and spend all their time playing this single franchise. This leads us, of course, to the question of the day....... Are Call Of Duty players really gamers? The answer to that is a profound "NO". Now, I understand that this will make many a COD player mad at me and I can already see the disgust on their faces while they read this article, however, before you get high blood pressure allow me to explain in detail and defend my case.
 I'm a popular guy on PSN and have quite a few friends most of which play COD religiously. I have tried in vein to get some of my closest COD friends to buy or check out a great new game many times to no avail. Simply put, they will not purchase another game and even if they do after only 2 hours of playing it will put it away and get right back on Call Of Duty again. The only exception to this rule was GTA5 and even after its release everyone was right back on Call Of Duty soon thereafter. Mind blowing I know.
 Now, in my defense I will bring up Infinity Ward's Mark Rubin who in an interview with OXM LINK  said that

"The majority of people who play Call Of Duty games aren't really hardcore gamers or even gamers for that matter."    Mark Rubin Of Infinity Ward

 Wow, now that's some harsh words coming from somebody who actually brought you Call Of Duty. They even go farther with this buy saying in the same article as the link above :

"They aren't hardcore gamers, or even gamers, but they play Call Of Duty every night. And those guys are going to continue to play regardless of the platform. So I think not only will we continue to engage with that existing player base, but we'll take next gen and see how far we can go with it."

 What this guy who actually makes COD games is saying here is that no matter what they create or do these COD fans will buy the game regardless and mindlessly. I don't think most people understand  the depth of this here. For example..... there are a lot of COD fans who buy game consoles and expensive audio headsets just to play one game. In other words a Call Of Duty fan will buy a $420 PS4 along with the $60 copy of COD, $50 in Playstation plus( which is needed to play online) for a year and maybe even a $150 pair of gaming headsets all to ever only play a single game and nothing more. That's a grand total of around (on average) $680 just to play COD. That's a lot of money to drop to play a single game or even three really.
 In order to be called a true gamer or a so called hardcore gamer ..... one must be fluent in regards to most games and genres and spend equal time with different games including understanding the video game market and keeping up with video game news..... then you are a true hardcore gamer, otherwise, your just a another person who just spent $680.00 dollars to play a single game.

How To Make A Living With Video Games.

 Making a living doing what you love to do is one of the hardest things to accomplish in life. Some people today find it hard to simply find a job that they hate to do. Lets juts jump right in here shall we? There are only a few ways to make a living with video games and all of them are complicated processes except one which I will focus on here after a brief description of the less viable options. These less viable options include working your way through ladders and competitive tournaments which mean you have to be exceptional at the games you play and lucky at the same time. If one is successful in this area money flows in as awards won, prizes which can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and sponsorships. The problem with this competitive option is that your chances of success here are astronomical to say the very least.
 Another less viable way to make a living with video games is on social media which as it turns out is just as hard as doing it the competitive way. Why is it so hard you ask? Well, the answer is very simple........ there are millions of other youtube and twitter channels all dedicated to gaming which have been well established for a very long time. What makes your content good enough that people cease to support their favorite social persona's for you? Most people who want to see the latest in gaming or a new review will simply go to IGN. To put it plainly ..... your material, however great, is like a speck of sand on an entire beach. Your odds of being found amongst the countless millions and being lifted into social stardom is the mathematical equivalent of being struck by lightning twice in a single night without any rain clouds in the sky.
 So now the big question ..... So how can one actually make a living with video games? The answer to this question is also rather simple : You commentate as a professional (or seem like a professional) on what the competitive players are doing by covering their competitions , careers , tourneys, ect. Now, this can be done very cleverly as to make yourself become an authority on E-Sports in the process of making a name for yourself. You cannot choose a single E-Sports player or seem as if your a stalker. You need to cover their competitions with an air of authority by pointing out their mistakes, what they could have done better and almost coach into your video if Youtube is your media which I shall assume it is. If you do some research into the rules and regulations, follow up on the news and big stories happening in E-Sports you will, in a short period of time, build a reputation as a solid commentator on what people want to see most and, most importantly, an authority on the subject. Instead of being the actual pro-gamer out in the competition you stream the comp live and commentate with authority about the athletes actions as if you know more about it than they do. In this manner, you can add legit meta-tags into your video's , streams, websites and/or blogs, twitter ect, thus: bringing in the viewership you need to succeed and most likely being asked and/or employed by an entity which represents E-Sports or even E-Sports themselves.
 To pull off something like the above tutorial you will need to be highly motivated, smooth talking and most importantly ..... very clever. Its just a matter of doing some research, watching and studying other E-Sports commentators and becoming your own unique personality and using it with the flair of authority which is also very important. Nobody wants to hear someone talking( or blabbing) like they are scared or nervous. People want to hear someone who sounds like he or she knows exactly what they are talking about in a firm yet professional voice with solid opinions and advise or critique. Youtube is filled with commentators who talk over their own gameplays trying to make it big. This is their first mistake as their gameplays, no matter how good, are not pro and there are verily millions of other skilled players doing the same thing. If you want to make a living in video games do not fall for the proverbial " I deserve this because I'm the best player" or " My material is better than all the countless millions of others doing the same exact thing as me". Think outside the box, that is what makes money in anything you decide to do and E-Sports and video games are no exception.

COD Advanced Warfare: Too Advanced Maybe?

 The name of the next Call Of Duty should be telling enough .... advanced warfare means war using advanced technology to win. One of the problems with recent Call Of Duties is the unrealistic nature of the technology used in game. Look, I understand that the franchise has grown stale and you can only add so much to a yearly game where you play basically the same game modes with different guns to kill the other team. Why not spice it up a little bit? Sure.... but a 3D printed rifle? Not just any 3D printed rifle either, its a 3D printable rifle that "prints" its own ammunition right there in the guns own chamber. Look, 3D gun printing is real (and illegal ) and we know it can be done, however, magically printing bullets in the chamber of the rifle is a feat which shall never be accomplished no-matter how advanced a society grows. Its simply impossible that a gun could print its own bullets in the very same chamber used to eject them.
 I know this concept is probably exiting to the to a 9 year old wanting to blast a plasma rifle ( and yes there is a plasma rifle in AW ) and slip on a exoskeleton suit. But what about the serious competitive players? Where does this leave the pro competitive gamers in this whole "more advanced every year" scheme of things which leads each new installment of Call Of Duty looking more like Star Wars than a competitive war game on planet Earth.

Call Of Duty The End Of A Era.

 When the first online multiplayer Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare was released on November 5, 2007(North America) gaming was changed at that very instant. Who can forget the feeling of overwhelming fun while playing with your friends online to see who could get the most kills or simply win against your opponents? The solid gameplay, great maps and mesmerizing background music (MW still has the best music) sucked gamers in from all over the world and created something of a digital subculture.
 By the time Call Of Duty World At War was released on November 11, 2008(North America)millions of gamers were flocking to stores trying to get their hands on a copy at midnight or even trying to get a copy before the official release date for an advantage over others. A new Era had begun .... one which would dominate first person shooters for the next 6 years.  Those who played the game well and placed high on the old traditional leaderboards were met with fame from the Call Of Duty community and some even became rather wealthy. It was the all American youthful dream..... to become a pro or semi pro COD player and make money doing what you loved to do.
  Around this time (2008-2009) Youtube began to explode with countless channels filled with fresh and original Call Of Duty gameplays and/or commentaries, which in turn , led to many Youtube partnerships, money and online fame. This success went on for years with Call Of Duty video's getting countless views  and copies of the games flying out of the stores faster than they could keep them stocked. These were in fact the "golden years" for Call Of Duty and verily the gamers who played them. Like all "golden years" in history they always come to an end sooner or later and COD is no different.
 The Call Of Duty franchise began to make drastic changes to their successful formula starting in 2011 with the release of Call Of Duty Black Ops on November 9th of that same year. COD Black Ops was a huge success selling millions of copies world wide and shooting Call Of Duty into superstar status. However, something strange began to happen after the release of COD Black Ops 2 on November 13, 2012. Gamers began to slowly realize that the COD brand was somehow becoming stale and repetitive. Youtube began to fill up with so many channels dedicated to Call Of Duty gameplays and/or commentaries that the system was flooded with content making it impossible to compete because to compete with millions of other channels uploading the same material is like a needle being found in a haystack.
 Then on November 5, 2013 the death blow came about with the release of Call Of Duty Ghosts. Ghosts was not received well at all outside the hardest of core COD fans and received bad reviews from all angles. Old Call Of Duty players who have been stomping on COD since COD4 or WAW found themselves trading in their copies of Ghosts for other games or simply quitting gaming altogether ( Most hardcore COD fans only play COD). Youtube gaming channels began to sit there dormant and inactive. There is no denying the facts and even the developers admit that the series has become rather stale with yearly new releases and few new upgrades to boot. The developers began to complain that a single year was hardly enough time to create a top tier COD game and it was beginning to show in Ghosts.
 Now its 2014 and there is already talk and video previews of the next Call Of Duty "Advanced Warfare" ( sounds familiar doesn't it? MW3 anybody?) and they are obviously trying to spice things up a little bit. Apparently, Sledgehammer Games who have been working on this next installment seem to think that making COD even more futuristic is the answer when this is what the problem has been with the franchise since Ghosts. In one last desperate attempt to regain their dominance in the field of online multiplayer first person shooters they have created what looks like from the previews a rather far flung futuristic Titanfall concept. We can notice, if we look close enough, soldiers scaling walls like spiderman and deploying gadgets from the Halo series. It was bad enough that COD Ghosts had included a shootout in outer space and now they want to incorporate Mass Effect and Halo into the next COD. I'm sorry, but I must say now that this approach just is not going to change the current downhill path of Call Of Duty, rather, it will lead to its decline even faster.

                                                                                                        J30-06K

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COD Advanced Warfare / A Deeper Look

 After the worst selling and verily badly rated Call Of Duty in history COD Ghosts the next chapter in COD has been revealed as MW4 Advanced Warfare by Sledgehammer games. The Call Of Duty franchise has been slowly in decline for years now and with COD Ghosts getting an average of a 6 on a scale of 10 in most ratings they are in desperate need of something new to reinvigorate the series. Can MW4 Advanced Warfare bring Call Of Duty back from the verge of a slow death? Or is it yet another gimmick in a desperate attempt to reach a new audience and sell more units? Either way, after watching the video's on youtube it seems that they are making the same mistakes as times past. They are yet again ignoring their old fans and franchise hardcore in search of something ..... well, not very Call Of Duty like. In the video's you will see mech like soldiers in futuristic uniforms jumping 40 feet in the air and climbing walls. After watching this , one must ask themselves..... Is this a COD game or new Spiderman. In my opinion .... Call Of Duty keeps pushing farther into a future of war in which almost nobody seems very interested. You can watch the reveal of MW4 Advanced Warfare in the video below.