The Definition of Success and Call of Duty

We covered a lot in class on Tuesday, and I'll try and compile my thoughts on some of them in my upcoming blogs.

The Definition of Success 

Personally, I wouldn't say success is only measured on how much money you make.  I define success as how well you achieve what you set out to accomplish. So using this definition, lets take a look the Call of Duty franchise, particularly some of the most recent ones. 

While Activision publishes all the games, there are all made by different developers (Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and the newcomer, Sledgehammer Games) who bring there own nuances to the franchise.

What does each game have to offer? There are three main parts to a current Call of Duty game: the single player campaign, the online/local multiplayer, and the online/local co-op mode. The campaign is usually pretty straight forward, and to most people is really just "training" in a particular game's mechanics to prepare them for multiplayer. Some don't even play it at all.

The co-op mode is for 1 to 2 players locally or 1 to 4 players online, and usually involves surviving hordes of enemies while completing objectives. Treyarch has Zombies, Infinity Ward has had Spec Ops and Extinction, and Sledgehammer has Exo Survival. Each one of these has a slightly different focus and style of gameplay. This mode has a somewhat connected but separate story line from the campaign, and for some people (especially for Zombies) is the only reason they buy the game in the first place. 

The main reason that most people buy Call of Duty is for the online multiplayer. There are many game types, ranging from the kill based games like Team Deathmatch and Free-for-All to objective based ones like Domination and Search and Rescue. There is also a progression and XP system, which rewards playtime and feats of skill by unlocking gameplay items such as guns and attachments as well as cosmetic items.There are also ranking events, such as League Play or Clan Wars. In addition to the online multiplayer, there  are online private matches and local offline multiplayer that allow for the tweaking of gametypes, and even the inclusion of AI controlled opponents (called Bots).

So why is Call of Duty so successful? I think it is because in terms of an arcade-style FPS competitive multiplayer experience, the Call of Duty franchise is what all others are compared to. And in a genre where from the outside observer it appears to be the same thing over and over, the little details matter. 

So using my earlier definition of success, have the last few Call of Duty games been successful? Lets look at 2013's Ghosts by Infinity Ward, which is considered by many COD fans as the worst game in the franchise. Why is that? The campaign was okay, and a lot of people loved Extinction (myself included). However, without going into too much technical detail, they completely flopped on the multiplayer side of things.While somethings were good in theory, including a complete revamp of the perk system, new streak rewards, and a lower TTK (time to kill), in practice the new perk system made everyone have to use the same things in order to be competitive, and poor lag comp and hit detection, combined with the lower TTK made the game unplayable for some.And the new and fun streak rewards caused many players to "camp" in order to keep there streaks going, ruining the flow of the game.  So in the goal of providing the premiere multiplayer experience COD fans expected, they failed, and were not successful. Some have even sworn to never buy an Infinity Ward product ever again.

I haven't played it enough yet, but this year's Advanced Warfare appears to be delivering what they set out to do: A new focus on the campaign, and a completely new and fresh take on the Call of Duty franchise. I'll go into more detail on how in a future blog; right now I gotta run to class!