Stage 3 - Part 9 - "It's Just Too Easy!"

This was actual discussed: Aiming down the sights.
Red Orchestra 2 = 0.7s
Call of Duty (B.O) = 0.5s

This article danced its way into my world recently and, as everything does, gave me pause for thought. For those who cannot be bothered to read it, it outlined not just the fact that Call of Duty had ruined first-person shooter players, but how. In summary, the developers had shrunk the learning curve dramatically, meaning other games looking to take on the market were literally forced to basically become "copy-cats" of the franchise. During the testing process of Red Orchestra 2, a lot of the players were crying for a more "CoD" style, frustrating developers and leading them down an unoriginal and less inspired path.

One thing I can speculate on in this regard, is that Call of Duty has indeed brought a huge increase in the amount of traffic in the video games industry. Its popularity is almost incomparable, and sales of consoles should almost be thankful to the franchise for its aid. This is of course, at the expense of what games used to be; challenging.

The question I would like to pose to developers all over is what is really more important to them? What Tripwire Interactive appear to be protesting is their lack of freedom to do what they dreamed of doing from the start. It is down to the popularity of video games and one video game in particular that has quashed the vision of creativity and individuality outright. The reason I always loved video games was that same freedom of creativity, exploration and experiment, however their accessibility and global reach have meant the culture has become stronger, broken out from the underground and accepted as an official member of the Entertainment sector. Gamers do not need to shy away from potential judgement, and developers can create bigger and better games. This is mostly in the mainstream video games market, however, and perhaps this is the problem involved in developers making their games. If they are looking for big budget projects to earn big numbers, they need to play by the rules of supply and demand. If the public want "CoD" then other developers have to deliver something close enough to it that it could almost be a spin off of the same game. Either that, or the developer has enough of a solid following that it can create its own franchise and comfortably set itself aside from other products. Fifa and Pro Evo played off each other over the years, where Konami put forward a far more arcade-style with EA consistently playing the Simulation card. Konami were consistent to a point, but realised that they needed to change their design somewhat to keep up with the sales of the ever-growing popularity of Fifa. At one point, they actually performed better in ratings than Fifa, which then forced Fifa to become more accessible much like the Pro Evo series; this is how I understood it based on forums, ratings and hearsay. The same thing happened to sandbox games, between Grand Theft Auto and the Saints Row series; it is a battle of wits that transpires over a matter of years.

More than $20m has been pledged already since the end of 2012.

But it is not something that developers alone have to consider, and there is some undeniable evidence that they have not suffered alone in the battle of corporate business suffocating the creative ingenuity. Kickstarter last year allowed nearly $85,000,000 worth of investment go towards the video game industry, funding consoles, art work, comics, books and of course independent companies to build, design and publish their very own concepts. True gamers understand the vast potential of constant originality in the games world, and thus put their own money forward to encourage it. The market in which the article is regarding is not for these gamers, but for the 'generic' gamers. Call of Duty, Fifa, Halo, Gears of War; they are some of the big budget, "Hollywood" titles that not only play to new gamers, but old as well, and thus they hit a broader group, and become a challenge to those developers trying to break into the same reach.

From where I sit, while my utter disdain for the CoD series holds strong, it is a simple case of 'fair play' in the game development world. If a company have stumbled on an idea or design that has rocked gamers to their core on a grand scale, then they are deserving of a standing ovation and a heavy collection of awards to boot; after all you cannot argue with the sales figures. Nor can you really argue the motive of a video game - to entertain. Developers should not fret that they are not hitting the same grand fanbase that others are, unless of course it is causing severe unpopularity or lack of funds, but instead should understand that not everyone can be on top at once, and not everyone will appreciate it when they ignore what they have done well and been rewarded for, for the sake of an extra buck.

If you have anything you wish to share with me or indeed the readers, feel freeto comment or e-mail me at twentyfiveand0@hotmail.co.uk - Don't forget to check out the What Have I Been Playing pages found on the right! OR Check out my channel at www.youtube.com/ike1luv