Good Day To You Fellow Gamers!
‘Call Of Duty’ . Regardless of if you are a die hard gamer or partake in video games as a casual player, the name of the Activison owned and published franchise is one of the most popular and notorious game titles in the world. The wildly popular first-person-shooter debuted in 2003 as a World War 2 FPS followed by sequels also set during the Second World War. With the quickly growing popularity of the game, the next games in the franchise changed following the course of history into the Cold War-era. After that the sequels would soon take place in present day settings and even spin-off into the fantastic an unreal with zombies and aliens being thrown into the mix. With what seemed like no other direction to go, the games soon went from near future settings to games which took place several decades in the future. As of April 2015, the series has sold over 175 million copies with sales that have topped $10 billion US.
The latest upcoming installment of the ‘Call Of Duty’ franchise, ‘Call Of Duty:Infinite Warfare’ will be the 13th installment in the franchise. Once again, this game will take place in a future setting.
Based on a premise that is all to familiar to science fiction fans, in the distant future when the planet has been stripped of its natural resources as a result of overpopulation and industrial expansion, the nations of the Earth unite together and form the United Nations Space Alliance (UNSA), a political organization that tackles issues related to trade, travel, land claims and all endeavors relating to the exploration and colonization outer space. The residents of Earth rely on colonies off planet in the Solar System mining the other planets and asteroids for resources. Like all nations with dwindling resources these outposts, become their weak points making them highly vulnerable which eventually attracts militant radicals who seek to take control them; an action which places the nations of Earth in a very unfavorable position. In response, the UNSA is defended by the Solar Associated Treaty Organization (SATO), a multi-national military force that defends Earth, it’s colonies and the UNSA’s assets. Prior to the events of the game though, a new hostile faction emerges, known as the Settlement Defense Front (SDF), which consists of insurgents that broke away from the United Nations Space Alliance during a war of secession. (Sounds a lot like the premise in Joss Whedon’s ‘FireFly’ between the BrownCoats and The Alliance if you ask me) Following years of a troubled stalemate with the (SDF), relations have broken down to a point where the Solar System is on the verge of war. By the events of the start of the game, the Settlement Defense Front declares war on the UNSA and launches a preemptive strike on Geneva, decimating SATO’s forces on Earth. As the commander of the UNSA Warship Retribution, Captain Nick Reyes, a Special Operations pilot of the Special Combat Air Recon (SCAR), is given the task of leading a crew to defeat the Settlement Defense Front on Earth, as well as venturing into outer space and across other planets in the system using space-based fighter craft, referred to as Jackals, to stop the Front from taking over the entire Solar System.
With a franchise sales like that and a history of successful games using a similar premise (Several of the games took place during WW2), you’d think that the makers of the game could do no wrong yes? Since the release of the ‘Infinite Warfare’ trailer though, it has been bashed and highly criticized for being quote ‘too futuristic’. Perhaps I’m not in ‘the know’ and please excuse me for saying this but what the hellfire kind of excuse is that? Too futuristic? Saying that about a game from this franchise is like saying there too much chocolate icing on that chocolate cake. True, and I said this also earlier, several of the recent games in the franchise had also been set in the future. Perhaps it’s due to nostalgia. “They are many in the online on-line community who have been quite public and vocal about wanting to see the franchise return the ‘boots-on-the-ground’ gameplay” as quoted by ActiVision CEO Eric Hirshberg who later followed with “we also have millions of people in our community who want to have new innovative experiences in the game each year and Infinite Warfare is going to deliver that.”
Well, as of today the release trailer for ‘Infinite Warfare’ is the 2nd most disliked video on YouTube. With over 2 million dislikes to just over 425,000 likes out of 24,000,000 views.
Before everyone completely bashes and destroys this game before its release, you’ve got to take into account a few factors. Example. “Call Of Duty:Black Ops II’ was criticized and bashed with the same kind of hostility that ‘Infinite War’ is receiving and yet went on to the best selling game from the ‘Call Of Duty’ franchise. My guess is that despite the negative reception and with a holiday release date, this game will go onto record breaking sales and become a best seller. Perhaps, the best seller of the year. I agree with the theory that many others have that many of the outspoken critics and fans bashing the game will pre-order and buy the game themselves. Like many things in the world, it seems as though ‘Infinite Warfare’ has fallen victim to what some refer to as ‘fashionable bashing’. You see it everywhere. People bash things like the band ‘Nickleback’ (I legitimately hate the band) and yet they continue to take in millions and millions from online music sales and sold out concerts worldwide. Many of the sane people who rip on the band in public, are the ones going out and spending those millions on their music and their shows. It’s the same thing with pop-country music and franchise coffee shops. Folks bash those everyday and yet millions upon millions are spent on those everyday. Once the chaos from the release of ‘Infinite Warfare’ has subsided maybe the folks in charge of the ‘Call Of Duty’ franchise will take a step back and reexamine their approach. Maybe they will return to the ‘boots-on-the-ground’ gameplay? Perhaps they’ll even take a step back and look at wars prior to World War 2 in history for a premise? You just never know ………
