So the new Call of Duty is out, huh?
Hmmm. Hmmm.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
--Genesis 3, New International Version
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Yep. I’m starting to get irrationally angry here.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is making the rounds. I hope you’ll forgive me for letting my biases run amok, but I can’t summon up the will to care. I’ve tried opening my heart to this series on more than one occasion, incidentally with the other BLOPS games. I tried BLOPS2, and I thought it was bad. I tried BLOPS3, and I thought it was bad. Something tells me that I don’t need to give it a fourth shot. To me, it might as well be Call of Duty: Another One.
Except…is it really, though? One of the things that stuck out to me in the news (prior to release) was that BLOPS4 would drop the series-standard campaigns. In its place? Traditional multiplayer, Zombies, and a battle royale -- in the same vein as Fortnite or PUBG, though I’ve heard it’s closer to the latter. There’s a part of me that’s willing to leave the game on the other side of a steel wall, preferably with the rest of the continental United States between us. Still, there’s a twinge of angst and melancholy I have about the situation.
As brazen a comment as it may seem -- because it means disrespecting the thousands of man-hours that went into development -- I have to be honest. For an outsider looking in (like me), it seems like BLOPS4 is The Give-Up Edition.
I’ve said as much before, but I’ll keep saying it until someone actually pays attention to me: I’m a big proponent of good storytelling in video games, partly because there’s so much potential in the medium waiting to be tapped. I want everyone with the means and opportunity to make those stories to give it that old college try. Yes, that includes the AAA kingpins like Activision, EA, and Ubisoft; if anything, they should try even harder because of their influence, resources, and prestige [citation needed].
The two BLOPS games I’ve suffered through have had campaigns so bad that I couldn’t even finish them. I don’t think I’m the only one that has that sentiment; in fact, the common argument I’ve seen murmured around the four corners of the internet is “nobody cares about the campaign, so they should just get rid of it”. But that’s where I draw the line. The stories of those games (and plenty more, in the franchise or out of it) have been bad but I don’t want Activision and its myriad armies of code monkeys to quit. I want them to keep trying so they can get better. No, scratch that; I want them to do better. Be better. The idea that a multibillion-dollar company can’t put together a simple, satisfactory narrative is a riddle so baffling, it’d make a sphinx’s head explode.
To BLOPS4’s credit -- a phrase I’m reluctant to have on this planet, let alone this post -- there does seem to be some form of story embedded, however light. Just enough for context, by the sound of things. Well, at least in one of the modes; Zombies continues to have a little something extra compared to the rest by way of having actual characters and actors behind them (God, I got roped into playing way too much Zombies in the last game because my brother’s a Jeff Goldblum fanboy).
But think about the strides in the medium. Think about what can be done with both active and passive elements. Now think about the fact that, instead of expanding on ideas and techniques and momentum, the solution is to just do what everyone else is doing and have a battle royale mode. The key difference being “a battle royale, but with COD money behind it”. I’m exaggerating, obviously; in the same vein that different iterations of Street Fighter have all sorts of crucial nuances, I recognize that there’s stuff in BLOPS4 that sets it apart.
But this is my blog, and I get to be a salty baby hater about it so here we go.
To be fair (rrrrrrrrrrrrgh), I’d assume that the campaign is just taking a break this year. The annual nature of the series means that we’re in a Treyarch age now, and we’ll jump back to the other guys for 2019 -- meaning that they’ve got the chance to add in a campaign. Plus, they can learn from past mistakes and improve. If people don’t care about the campaign, they need to figure out why and polish themselves until they can slap glowing praise from reviewers on each box. That’s the ideal, at least.
You know what, though? Honestly, this isn’t even about me being salty that COD dropped the campaign. I could live with the fact that it’s got another battle royale; I put a few hours into Fortnite, and I can see the appeal. Generally, I can live with the fact that it’s more multiplayer action, with lots of guns, and explosions, and zombies, and perks, and prestige, and whatever. It’s not for me. It’s for the fans of the franchise, and shooters in general. I can’t begrudge them, because otherwise it’d mean I’d come one step closer to claiming that all video games need to be high art…and given that I’m sitting here, carving a groove into my knuckles as I sit on my hands and wait for Smash Bros. Ultimate, I’d be a hypocrite.
Well, doesn’t matter. Guess I’d better just dance for sanity.
Making $500 million in three days is an unfathomable amount for the average man, given that that’s more than hundreds of people’s bank accounts put together. It’s mitigated, barely, by the fact that it’s not the biggest show-stopper or record setter in the industry, even in the framework of other COD games (for now). Likewise, there’s still some obfuscation about the actual sales numbers here -- which is common for games, but that’s the nature of the beast. But even in the worst case scenario, there are already big numbers.
Is that a good thing, though? Like I said, I’m an outsider looking in, and I wear my biases like a scarlet letter the size of a station wagon. So on one hand, I’m happy that (I assume) those that have bought the game and care about it are glad to have this new entry in their libraries. I’m glad that, presumably, they’re having fun. On the other hand, I’m worried. A lot of money is going to go into Activision’s pockets thanks to this game -- and while that’s as certain as the sunrise every morning, I’m still wary. Giving money, sales, and recognition to Activision at this point is like dumping out your wallet in front of the bully du jour, 3.8 seconds before he gives you a wedgie.
I’m not going to go over everything Activision has ever done for the sake of getting those big numbers. Jim Sterling has done that plenty of times before, so I’ll refer you to him (here’s one to get you started on your journey!). Speaking of, he recently put up a video going over the big numbers Activision and EA are boasting about -- in this case, how their market value has collectively gone up by a sum of over $70 billion. Not to sound like a sycophant or a sheep, but -- as usual -- the man has a point. Activision’s using its games for big profits, but what’s it all in service of?
Is it for the gamers? I’m inclined to think that that’s not the case, the reason being that their growth was made possible by the “games as a service” model. At the very basest? My guttural, instinctive reaction is “Well, that’s it. The Empire wins.” There was a chance to shut this down, but that’s gone now. Microtransactions are here to stay. Lootboxes are (possibly?) here to stay. Unfeasible and/or unpleasant content-unlocking scenarios are here to stay. Tweaking and distorting games to create conditions where players are pushed toward making in-game purchases are here to stay…and boy that was a long one to type out, but it’s true. We’re going to get more of this, and it makes me sweat over the future of the medium.
We’re already in a precarious position. It’s not all doom and gloom, considering the array of titles not so keen to vacuum your pockets clean. But it seems like the scales teeter every other day, so that high-quality labors of love and top-notch indie projects get overshadowed by the next AAA behemoth. And to me, the symbol of that girth -- of that greed, eschewing the greatness of the medium -- is the one and only Call of Duty.
There’s just so much wasted potential here. I’ll go ahead and guess (or at least hope) that COD in its myriad incarnations -- just one head of the hydra -- has done well on all fronts. By which I mean “it’s more than just a shot of time-killing dumb fun”; I mean something that takes full advantage of the genre, franchise, resources, and medium. One of the Modern Warfare games made it taht far, right? So what have we gotten since? Has the needle been pushed forward in the time since? Or is it just “another one” year after year?
But even if we look past COD, I’m stunned, worried, and angry about the future Activision has the power to lead us towards. (And EA, and Ubisoft, and my arch-nemesis Squeenix for good measure.) The message has been sent: devs don’t have to try. Relatively speaking, because blessed are the toilers actually putting the games together and not their shareholder/executive overlords. What I mean is that as long as checkboxes are checked, that’s enough. Expectations met. Features included. Marketing on point. Visuals prioritized.
What’s the point, though? I mean sure, there’s a point for Activision; as long as they make money now and as fast as possible and as soon as possible, that’s good. Of course, with games as a service, they can make even more money over a long period of time. But what do gamers get out of it? Those that follow the franchise will just have to upgrade in a year to the next “Another One” and start the process again. So I guess the answer is that COD is that fun, driving people to come back for more over and over.
That’s my guess. But is it true? Are the games really that fun? More importantly, are they actually getting better? Are they taking advantage of the resources and knowledge available to make each new iteration better than the next? I’m not trying to be (any more of) an asshole here. I’m asking, genuinely, because I’m genuinely confused. I don’t get it. Why come back for more, to this game?
And are they even coming back? My gut instinct says probably, and there are likely charts and stats out there that prove as much. I’d like to see them at some point, because the spiteful, devilish part of me (who also happens to be a bitter cynic towards the things that makes him salty) wants to believe that each COD game’s life is short-lived, even more so than the impending “Another One” next year. How much of the player base does each game retain a month after release? Two months? Three months? Six?
For now, I can only speak for myself via anecdotes. My brother has bought 4 different COD games (MW1, MW2, BLOPS3, BLOPS4). He’s had his fun with the former three. He dropped all three within a month of purchase -- no more than three weeks, if I had to guess, and even that’s probably generous. So the first two got traded in, and the third was permanently stricken from the PS4. Now he’s playing BLOPS4 and gushing about how much fun Zombies is now, and how crazy it is…but there’s been enough historical precedent to suggest that he’ll be back on the Dragon Ball FighterZ grind in a week or two.
The drop-off is real, and I don’t blame him for it. Now, does that mean that every gamer in the world has a built-in eject button vis a vis a COD game? No. But the percentage has to be greater than zero. Maybe in another world, that would signal something to Activision -- but now that they’ve found the secret to success, there’s no way they’ll be in a rush to apply what they’ve “learned”. Except for “microtransactions rule”.
My biggest fear is that their sphere of influence will hurt the industry even more than it already has. I mean, this is about more than just more COD or more microtansactions. The AAA devs of the world are sitting pretty, knowing full well what it takes to make monetary gains in one shot. How will that impact games from here on? Does that mean everyone is going to try and ape their success? Does that mean that superficial quality will reign supreme? Does that mean more walled-off content and shallow, surface-level thrills? Hell, does that mean that we’ll end up losing more genres than we already have under the pretense that there’s even less money in them?
I don’t know. And I’d prefer to never find out. But I guess we’re going to have to, sooner or later.
*sigh* In a parallel universe, these guys are still putting out good Tony Hawk games.
And that’s all the time we have for today. You’ve heard my salt-infused opinion? What’s yours? What’s going on with Call of Duty? Tell me your thoughts, experiences, tidbits, and more. Because otherwise, I’ll end up looking like an overly sanctimonious asshole again?
So sayeth Reddit, at least. And I’m inclined to believe they’re a credible source.
They…they are a single mass of quasi-sentient neuron clusters inexorably linked into a hive mind, right? I thought they were.
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