I honestly can not follow the thinking my fellow gamers out there. Those I associate with can not understand it either. The topic for this particular post is the Call of Duty series. As well all know Infinity Ward released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last November, and it shattered records for top selling game. The game was touted by its fan base as realistic, amazing, and awesome. I did buy Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360, and even gave it the honor of being the very first Xbox 360 that I would purchase (Xbox 360 Elite MW2 Edition). Aside form my utter dislike for the story and my anger at the utter stupidity that this game exhibits, I still poured hours into this game.

Recently we've all been allowed to peer into the legal battle between the original developer of Call of Duty, Infinity Ward, and their publisher, Activision. From what I can gather the company is shafting the developer, whilst the developer is turning on the publisher, and both are now running and crying to the legal system in our country like two little kids who just got into a quarrel. The whole thing sickens me and makes me glad that I've decided not to support either company (Infinity Ward for the sheer crap they developed and had the gall to actually call a game, and Activision for their unethical business practices and knack for driving good Intellectual Properties into the ground with a release every year).

But what really strikes me as odd is that people are still mesmerized by the game and its company, even after some of them have discovered that the game is nothing more than a piss poor excuse for a single player story slapped on top of a twitch-based multiplayer mode that requires little skill and does nothing to promote team work. The stimulus package is one example. 2.5 million buys in the first week? For 3 new maps and 2 recycled ones? All for a grand total of 1200 Microsoft points? Where is the brain activity people? Honestly, why are people still pouring money into a game that screams stupidity and treats its fan base like crap.

To add to this glorious crap storm is the recent announcement of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Call of Duty: Black Ops is made by Treyarch, a company hired by Activision to keep the Call of Duty games rolling out every year. The game is set in the Cold War era of history and claims to let us witness the birth of the Special Forces groups. For what ever reason, gamers have set aside all of the lessons learned from Modern Warfare 2 and gone and jumped on the bandwagon for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The whole thing makes me absolutely sick and I can't bear to watch all of the events unfold this way. The Call of Duty title has been bastardized to the point of no return. The games have become nothing but random titles released every year, and have become a series I can no longer respect. The story used to be one of Call of Duty's main selling points, "in war no one fights alone", anyone remember that from the first Call of Duty game released on the PC? The game was a single player experience with a multiplayer attachment to lengthen the life span. Now the multiplayer is the main focus and the single player mode gets shafted by the developers. I can not support a game that abandons the very thing that got it to where it is today. As far as I'm concerned Call of Duty is dead, and I will no longer be supporting any of their titles until the developers get their crap together, which in the case of Infinity Ward seems very unlikely.

Just my opinion.