Call of Duty’s dominance is killing innovation in the industry

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   November 24th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Part 2: every studio is copying Call of Duty’s formula and we take a look at and highlight the various instances as to how.

No matter which game on takes a look at, it has been influenced in one way or the other by Activision’s Call of Duty series. While many of the staple multiplayer features and single-player set pieces have inspired other developers, the formula’s success means a convergence of minds and less emphasis on risk taking and experimentation.

The original Modern Warfare game brought progression in multiplayer to a whole new level, where players were rewarded for levelling up with new unlockables. Perks, weapons and attachments were added which gave the multiplayer an element of RPG in the sense that players could find their own fit and develop it.

The unlocking of new weapons and levelling up became addictive, in a good way though and nearly every other game has tried to emulate the success of Modern Warfare’s blueprint. The game was not the first to introduce these features.

However, on the flip side, the industry has become a sort of ‘conform or die’ market where experimentation brings with it huge risks and very little room for reward. There are a number of success stories with Telltale’s The Walking Dead episodes, That Game Company’s Journey, FlOw and Flower and Yager’s Spec Ops: The Line. However, none of the games have sold as well as Modern Warfare.

While that may not affect the first two developers as much, Yager triumphed with its take on the shooter genre but was not rewarded with the financial success that everyone who played the game, gamer or critic, felt it deserved.

The Line deconstructed the shooter genre and made players look at what shooting games were doing to them and how, when handled properly, a game can emotionally involve a player on a deeper level than just the high of topping a round of multiplayer or feeling invincible in a war.

Civilians died with the blood on the player’s hands, the enemy AI was humanised and acted like real people with lives and families and lastly, the enemy AI was not some foreign threat but rather American soldiers, which really hit home.

The game had a tacked on multiplayer which ruined the overall package but that is exactly how Call of Duty has affected the industry with developers doing whatever they can to get as close to the series as possible.

Spec Ops was not the only IP to fall to this trend as Capcom and many, many others also seemed to have caved to the Call of Duty philosophy.

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