By Sean O’Brien
I like the Call of Duty video game series.
There. I said it. And, you, probably, just judged me in one of two ways.
1) “Gross. You probably don’t play video games. You aren’t hardcore like me. There’s also a good chance that you don’t like people who aren’t white”
Or…
2) “Don’t you know that there are better ways to spend your gaming time? There are so many other, better shooters that you could be playing!”
This most recent Tuesday saw the release of the latest in the, now, yearly Call of Duty series; Modern Warfare 3. A series that has been popular since its very first iteration, back in 2003, and, has since gone on to completely revolutionize the gaming industry. You’re familiar with it, so, there’s no need to go into the history of *why* the game is such a huge part of the industry’s history.
Leading up to release, there has been an overwhelming sense of anger towards MW3, not only amongst fans and detractors, but, also from people in the games press. With rival-shooter Battlefield 3 on the market, suddenly, MW3 had to prove itself worthy of our time and money. Developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games were being called out for just cheaply releasing out another yearly “roster update” sequel.
Then, on Tuesday, the 8th, the game was released to mostly positive reviews. At the time of this writing, Modern Warfare 3 sits with a rating of 89 on Metacritic. As they have been for the past few years, fans were lined up outside GameStops across the United States for the midnight release; a sign that the series doesn’t seem to be slowing down in terms of popularity.
I woke up Tuesday 
morning, checked Twitter, and was flooded with comments and retweets slamming and dismissing both the game and its fan base. You’ve heard the arguments: “have fun with all the racism!”; “this game is for idiots/casuals/people who don’t play REAL games”; or, my personal favorite, “it’s the same game from last year!”
I was getting the disturbing feeling that some of these people were giddy with cynicism. Many just digging through articles and their Twitter feed to find people comments that were in line with their antagonistic views. I had never seen so many people wanting so many others to be disappointed, or let down by a video game. From Battlefield fans, to people who don’t even play shooters, a large community of people was speaking out, all in unison, against the game.
I suppose, with great popularity, comes great opposition. The CoD series is one big enough that’s known in circles even outside of gaming. Many people who don’t play many video games will indeed play, and possibly even enjoy the Call of Duty games. Undoubtedly, people like to hate on the popular guy.
My question is…why? Why are so many of us so intent on hoping that others have a shitty experience with something they’re excited for? What pleasure do we get out of making fun of others, simply for liking a video game?
In my 29 years on this planet, there are few things that I can say I’ve actually learned, but, one of them is very simple: people will like whatever they like, and that’s OK. Someone liking, and being excited for Modern Warfare 3 does not affect me, you, or anyone else who doesn’t work at Activision, in the slightest degree. We all may not always agree on everything, but, Modern Warfare fans have every right to like those games as much as fans of more obscure titles get excited for games like Catherine and Dark Souls.
So, consider this rant – a plea, on the side of CoD fans everywhere. We know you don’t care about Modern Warfare 3, and that’s fine. No one says you have to. It obviously is not the best example that gaming has to offer, but, why is it so important to you to ruin our fun?
We just want to shoot many mans. We’re not all that bad. Come play with us. You just might have…what’s the word? Oh yeah! Fun!
Excellent article, I like COD games too, I know there has been a history of COD bashing from DC and no doubt GP and that’s fine, if fact I’ve often thought that’s what makes these forums stand out, no drones here thank you. But that said I do spend hours and hours playing MP FPS’s and COD is top of that list.
I agree – I am an even greater target for others’ derision, because I play CoD games mainly for the single player. And I enjoy them. The reason for people being so down on MW3 is, as you point out, because Battlefield 3 was released at around the same time, and the Battlefield series is still deeply rooted in PC gaming (despite two, and technically three if you include the Medal of Honor reboot, console-led games being released since 2008), and therefore somehow less of a sell-out. By supporting BF3, or more accurately by not supporting its rival, one is stating their credentials as a purveyor of quality.
The comment I’ve heard the most about Battlefield 3 is probably in response to people saying they don’t like it, and it is basically “it’s amazing if you play it with the right group of people. If you play on your own, it will be rubbish – it’s a team game.” Fantastic – and for those who don’t know the right group of people? Or aren’t able to schedule gaming time in advance? Or just want to jump in for half an hour of larking around, without organising anything beforehand? Call of Duty does the job extremely well.
Battlefield 3 may provide a better experience, but I don’t tend to play that much multiplayer, meaning any group I do play with will inevitably be much, much better than me – to put that another way, I will be a hindrance to any group I play with, frustrating them as well as me. CoD allows me to play with a group, coordinating tactics (the difference between securing an objective in Battlefield 3 and in CoD escapes me), but also by myself, and it does it very well indeed.
I might be a sucker for buying the same game every year, but I’m looking forward to “Black Ops 2: The Hunt For Alex Mason.” Good article, and it’s nice to see someone admit that they like the most popular gaming franchise in recent years – for something so popular, nobody seems to like it very much!
I think most of the hate for the series is probably misdirected hate for Activision and Bobby Kotick, We all know this guys modus operandi, ” We want to take the fun out of making games” and the way they treat developers, from the situation with IW to the acquisition and then shutting down of Bizarre Creations, the driving into the ground of the Guitar Hero series are all things that rub most gamers up the wrong way.
I genially thought the first MW was a masterpiece of a game, from the fantastic single player to the sublime multiplayer.
When MW2 was launched I was disappointed, from the terrible, incomprehensible story to the multiplayer that seemed to have everything but the kitchen sink thrown at it, the perk and kill streak system had become fat and overblown to the point were I felt it detracted from the core gameplay. To the clockwork release of paid for DLC while failing to address any of the games problems with exploits and Hackers.
And the less said about the “No Russian” mission the better. I have only played this mission once and thought it was disgusting. If they truly wanted to say something with this mission I should have been able to make a choice in the game that said “NO, I won’t do this, nothing, no mission objective is worth this, and in fact Im going to attempt to kill the people perpetrating it” ,but no, any attempt to do this resulted in game over.
I’ve been playing MW3 and have so far found it much improved, and a lot of the complaints I’ve had with the MP have seemingly be addressed.