It's true. I am a psychic, a prophet, if you will.
What I'm on about is the compulsive, championing support savvy fans once had for the well-milked Call of Duty franchise that has all but backfired. Now, ever since the release of images depicting Activision's new service, Call of Duty Elite, fans have cried out in rebellion. Finally.
Don't believe me? Check the comments sections in these two stories: (http://www.1up.com/news/1up-poll-anticipated-shooter-sequel-e3) (http://www.1up.com/news/call-duty-web-series-elite)
It took three good, long years for the tides to turn. The money cash-in has kept me captivated ever since my Modern Warfare addiction for how surprising it is that such an enormous amount of people would be attracted to the same exact game year-in and year-out. And for some time, the suckers bought it. They played a reskined version of the game I was for so long obsessed with, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The series wasn't nearly as big back then. Starting with World at War, the series eventually gained unheard of levels of popularity and success with each consecutive title.
It seems thrice is the charm because it took World at War, Modern Warfare 2, and Black Ops for people to realize Call of Duty is a shallow ripoff that doesn't deserve to do as well as it has for the laziness displayed by its two development studios; Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Well, let's not say "laziness" per se, but rather 'lack of innovation'. Sound better to you? I think so too.
It seemed it was Activision that was the one that asked for scant updates through the years as people were still in the honeymoon stage of their relationship with "CoD".
And to use my amazing prediction skills again, despite all of the internet's collective revolting, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be even more popular than the record-selling Call of Duty: Black Ops of last year. Google's autocomplete function is already indicating buzz surrounding the next installment. And E3 2011, just as every E3, will be Activision's pedestal to show Modern Warfare 3 off to its nearly billions of fans to wow them again. I thought gamers, even the relatively unintelligent ones, were smarter than to keep buying the same Goddamn thing every year!
I know for a fact Modern Warfare 3 will appeal even more to the shallow, kill-whoring masses with its multiplayer offerings and way-too-amped-up, turned-to-eleven, that's-enough-hyphens single player experience.
For better or for worse, (I'd say worse) the series has too much momentum to be affected by mere internet petitions and fed up message board users. Call of Duty will soldier on, and will continue to be released for at least the next two years before it finally reaches a critical mass and cannot possibly become anymore popular or mainstream. And we can only hope for that day to come even sooner because this behemoth doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon.
This is why it is unfortunate you and me, us ultra-savvy, hardcore gamers can't control what's popular and what's not in the gaming industry; it's the ultra-stupid, noncore, least-common-denominator fanbase that has the influence to say what's hot and what's not. Not us. This inspires similar milkings like this one, reapings for money and a lack of progression and evolution in video gaming. I guess for every Transformers 2, there's a King's Speech, and as for every Call of Duty, there's an L.A. Noire.
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