Is Call of Duty an "un-game"?

[BreakABone]

This is something been reading this morning, and I really loathe the argument of trying to deter any game as a "lesser" product, but just found this funny since 3 sites are apparently taking part in the debate.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...single-player/
The original article that started it all

Videogames often allow us to live out fantasies, to be who we could never be with our saggy, regular-person frames and lives. A soldier fighting in a near-future war, with access to the finest in military hardware? Maybe I could be the squad leader? Maybe I could be the hero? Maybe I could be the one who’s allowed to open doors? But no, of course not, you are – as ever – the grunt, being barked at throughout, forced to do whatever the game/game characters tell you to, which is usually to sweep up after them and the party they’re having in front.

It fascinates me that this is the successful formula, the secret behind being the biggest FPS series of all time. It turns out people don’t want to be that hero at the forefront, making glorious decisions and bravely leading the way. They want to be the nobody who can only ever do what he’s told, and that’s on the rare occasions when he’s actually able to control himself. This game has the word “follow” on screen almost as often as it doesn’t. It floats above the head of whomever it is you’re with, ensuring you know your place, which is never to be in front, never to pick the direction, never to make a tactical decision. You follow. It says so.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/11/mod...-that-is-okay/
Kotaku/EDGE follow-up

We play videogames by participating with them as equals, not by becoming some god-like master over them. We enjoy entering a game, suspending disbelief, and voluntarily giving in to its limitations and restrictions and doing what is asked of us. This is as true of Modern Warfare 3 as it is of Minecraft.

In this vein, you mention how you are baffled that the Modern Warfare 3 player doesn’t want to be the hero or the leader but merely the follower. In your player-centric critique where freedom is seemingly paramount, you are bewildered that people can get any enjoyment out of following orders. That’s because you were too busy trying to master the game when, really, to enjoy Modern Warfare 3 you need to participate with it. You need to do what it asks you to do, when it asks you to do it.

And if you can bring yourself to do this, Modern Warfare 3 is an absolutely breathtaking experience. Each level is so perfectly, carefully paced and scripted so that you always have just enough control over what is happening to forward the events of the plot. And sure, that plot is absurd, but you feel so engaged in it, you feel so present in it that its absurdity hardly matters while you are playing.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...ns-an-un-game/
The follow-up response from original writer

If spectacle is what you wanted from MW3, then clearly you would have been delighted with the result. Spectacle, as the name suggests, being something you stare at in a non-participatory way. Which, I would suggest, is the very definition of my newly coined term (that I now fully expect to see appearing in one of those end-of-year Times articles that lists the new words in the parlance), un-game.

My issue here has nothing whatsoever to do with having my freedom restricted. In fact, in a narrative FPS the very last thing I want is abundant freedom. While I express my frustration in my review of not being able to choose where next to go (and I concede the word “where” is ambiguous), I do not mean choose from passage A, B or C, nor want to tramp off over the barren countryside, but merely wish to be able to choose to walk forward. Corridor shooters have been one of gaming’s greatest genres in all its lifetime, from the joy of realising it was a possibility in mazes like Wolf 3D, to the spectacular fixed-rail rollercoaster rides of the Half-Life Episodes. Not having a choice about which direction to go in is never a problem when there’s only one direction you want to go in.

And as far as I know, the final article in the series so far from Destructoid
http://www.destructoid.com/call-of-d...l-216580.phtml

This seems to be more of a critique of his article than a defense though.

[Vampyr]

I think this just goes to show that there wasn't enough time to build a proper campaign in Modern Warfare 3. They had to cut corners and do things like have you sitting in a passenger seat shooting a turret for the majority of the campaign. They basically turned it into a rail shooter, from what I hear.

Now, that doesn't make it an "un-game"...rail shooters are still games, but it is different, and not as fun as what we had in the past.

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

I think this just goes to show that there wasn't enough time to build a proper campaign in Modern Warfare 3. They had to cut corners and do things like have you sitting in a passenger seat shooting a turret for the majority of the campaign. They basically turned it into a rail shooter, from what I hear.

Now, that doesn't make it an "un-game"...rail shooters are still games, but it is different, and not as fun as what we had in the past.

As far as I know, they've had 2 years.. and something like 3-4 development teams working on the game.

Seems like more than enough time when you consider already have an engine in place.

[Vampyr]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

As far as I know, they've had 2 years.. and something like 3-4 development teams working on the game.

Seems like more than enough time when you consider already have an engine in place.

yeah, I guess they did have longer to work on it than I thought, it doesn't feel like MW2 came out 2 years ago. Maybe it has more to do with the fall out at Infinity Ward. Or maybe they realized most people buy it for the multiplayer anyway, and didn't put as much work into the campaign.

[KillerGremlin]

How is this anything new? Medal of Honor has been pulling this schtick for many years. These rail sequences and "following commands" are all part of war games.

90% of shooters are linear, so any criticisms about linearity are immediately questionable.

I take offense that reviewers are just now noticing this. All things considered, if you wanted to make this criticism, it would have been more valid 4 or 5 years ago when I started complaining about it.

Also, that Destructoid response doesn't really argue anything overly substantial.

[Vampyr]

I think the big thing about MW3 is that you are in even less control of your character than normal. Evidently you spend the majority of the game sitting behind a turret while the game drives you around.

[gekko]

I sometimes wonder what the purpose is behind writing these articles. Are these simply people playing devil's advocate because hating on anything overly successful is going to make you a cool kid on the internet? Are they simply looking to stir up discussion and draw traffic? Do they honestly believe what they are saying? This article seems like a cry for attention to me.

It's not really a thoughtful critique, just a rant about COD being a linear game, which isn't exactly a negative thing. Games are about fun, and what that means varies for difficult games. In the case of COD, it's pretty necessary for the game to be linear to create the experience they are going for. If there's any doubt to whether it's fun, look at the sales numbers.