An opinion about CoD's developers and the herd

[anonymous]

Ever since CoD's "split" between Infinity Ward and Treyarch, most of the fanbase community seemed to have sided behind Treyarch. For some reason, liking one automatically means disliking or even hating the other one: Infinity Ward seems to be in an everlasting drowning state, drowning in the hate. I remember the trailer of Infinite Warfare being one of the most disliked Youtube videos. Ever. Before launch, that game already had no change of succeeding. 

 

Sledgehammer joined the CoD developers in 2014, being introduced to the fans with their first game: Advanced Warfare. Though it introduced exosuits, an item that would inspire the other developer studios in later games, the game, among with its creator was found to be neutral. Slightly negative maybe. As the newbie, Sledgehammer was never really accepted in the CoD family.

 

Admitted, Treyarch's older creations are fantastic: I absolutely love the Campaign and Multiplayer of World at War and Black Ops. On top of that, they introduced our beloved Zombies Mode. But ever since they threw theirselves in the futuristic theme, I can't find myself to enjoy their games anymore. 

 

Possibly due to their early creations, the fans mostly adore Treyarch, sadly meaning that the other studios are looked down upon. While Infinite Warfare's MP might have been a bit Tom & Jerry-ish, I actually really enjoyed it. Not to speak of the Campaign and Zombies mode. Whether you like it or not, you have to admit that it really was its own thing. Unique. I truly hope the Treyarch/CoD fanbase, as this mostly is the same, will give IW's next installment a genuine chance.

 

Sledgehammers latest game, WWII, is a game I absolutely love. Considering the Campaign, okay, I first wasn't so positive about it. But recently continuing it, I found quite some missions really unique in it's way (for example, S.O.E. and Liberation), not being the usual 'shoot everything and advance' thing. WWII's MP is the only MP ever I really want to play as long as I can. In the early days, I even found myself hooked on it, which never happened before. My opinion of the Nazi Zombies mode is that it is the most underrated zombie mode ever. The gameplay is almost like Outlast and CoD had a baby. The story is just everything I wish Treyarch would do: Based on real events, not too much fantasy/unreal things and including enough empty space for the theorists to theorize about: Not about how the story continues, but rather about what already happened.

 

Now concerning Treyarch... **cracks knuckles**

 

Why is it that it seems that Treyarch is all the CoD fanbase cares about? Okay, people don't only like them: When Youtube and Reddit folks say something bad about Treyarch, humankind, a herd as we are, all follow them saying we have the same opinions. But it is still all about Treyarch's games, like they are the popular kid in the class. Why?

 

I really wish people could set theirselves off of Youtubers and other community folks concerning their opinion. Playing Devil's Advocate. Go against the flow and give Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer a chance, without their opinions being manipulated by the internet. You'll see, you might enjoy their games as well

[83457]

I've had mixed opinions all along.

 

Treyarch: I love these zombies most. I generally dislike Treyarch's way of thinking and doing things. I can't stand and never finish their poorly written, badly functioning Campaigns. WaW MP was meh, BO MP was among the worst cod MP ever made, BO2 MP was surprisingly fun, and I've not played BO3 or BO4 MP, because I'm not into it. My zombie rating: BO3 (buggy as hell, but lots of fun), WaW, BO2, BO1, and BO4's crappy knockoff zombies last. Treyarch MP maps are always trash and repeats of said trash.

 

IW: Their Campaigns were fun and held you in captivity, worthy of replays. I've not played their zombies. I played MW2, MW3, and Ghosts MP, all of which were better, by far, than the Treyarch or Sludgehummer MP (though BO2 MP had enough toys to be fun). Extinction was worthy, but not as enjoyable to me as zombies.

 

Sledgehammer: I had Advanced Wallbreach on 360. It still has wallbreeches in MP. The MP was literally unsynced and unplayable garbage. The campaign was forgettable. Exo zombies was just awful. Burgertown without survivors might have been something, but the flea suits and upgrade system were terrible.

 

I feel like most non-little-children fps players left cod for Battlefield 1, which was much better than cod in every way except bugs (and DICE executives appear as blind and stupid as Treyarch when it comes to understanding their game and players). Children still want CoD's "shoebox formula" of tiny bad maps, gimmickery, and spawn kills; god forbid you go 15 seconds without action...

 

So, in terms of CoD, the zombies were the key to holding the community together, but now Treyarch's new zombies just suck sess. So, who knows?

 

Edit: I'm no "zombies story" guy at all. I have grown familiar with the og4 crew, but I was fine with Marlton, Tits, Russman, and Stuylinger. I am amused by the Chaos crew, except Diego and Bruno sound like the same voice actor, which is confusing.

 

/my view and opinions.

[Guest]

You say Treyarch as if they actually get to decide Zombies only happened because Vodaharhar shared it with the people at Activision. He did not expect the response. Thus Nazi Zombies is born. Call of Duty: W@W 

 

 

[Guest]

8Chaos does not suck it's a new begging. We've been on the same storyline for 10 years my dude! It's unfair for those who couldnt truly be apart of the experience. I was 14-15 when it all began.

 

I'm 25. Kids grew up hearing about it, but never truly being apart of it. That is why Chaos must be recorded "Correctly" now. Jason Blundell and Craig both agree it's a perfect time to be new. The story hasn't had the chance to get confusing yet. 

 

The Comics give us backing on how the crew met. Allistar Rhodes is like our Ludwig Maxis. Jason Blundell religiously states Aether and Chaos are 2 separate storylines.  

 

So why does it suck for people? Well when we forget what we know you'll find that we worked a hell of alot harder to understand in past then we have as of late.

[Lenne]

On 2/6/2019 at 7:41 PM, anonymous said:

Ever since CoD's "split" between Infinity Ward and Treyarch, most of the fanbase community seemed to have sided behind Treyarch.

Nope, CoD3 which was Treyarch's first main CoD game didn't get any praise from the community most of it just stayed in CoD2. Furthermore CoD4 pretty much outlasted WaW as well, cause now let's be honest WAW was mechanically a reskin of CoD4 and the gaming industry just got a taste of a new era in the shooter genre and didn't want to go back to WW2 so soon. Only with Black Ops people did tend to stick with Treyarch.

 

On 2/6/2019 at 7:41 PM, anonymous said:

Sledgehammer joined the CoD developers in 2014

Also nope, Sledgehammer joined the CoD team back in 2011 with MW3. Joining forces with IW. (Edit: They joined before that of course, but MW3 was their first adventure in this show of shit. ^^) 

 

The black ops games up until now also got a good amount of love, but there were also a good chunk of folks who hated those games. Just look at our friend, @83457.

 

Gotta keep in mind that the CoD community is huge and not every fan is an 11 year old sheep. They are just the loudest.

[anonymous]

6 hours ago, Lenne said:

Nope, CoD3 which was Treyarch's first main CoD game didn't get any praise from the community most of it just stayed in CoD2. Furthermore CoD4 pretty much outlasted WaW as well, cause now let's be honest WAW was mechanically a reskin of CoD4 and the gaming industry just got a taste of a new era in the shooter genre and didn't want to go back to WW2 so soon. Only with Black Ops people did tend to stick with Treyarch.

 

Also nope, Sledgehammer joined the CoD team back in 2011 with MW3. Joining forces with IW. (Edit: They joined before that of course, but MW3 was their first adventure in this show of shit. ^^) 

 

The black ops games up until now also got a good amount of love, but there were also a good chunk of folks who hated those games. Just look at our friend, @83457.

 

Gotta keep in mind that the CoD community is huge and not every fan is an 11 year old sheep. They are just the loudest.

Ah, thank you for correcting me. I rolled in here not so long ago and I guess I know less about the old days than I thought I would.

On 2/8/2019 at 11:27 PM, 83457 said:

Children still want CoD's "shoebox formula" of tiny bad maps, gimmickery, and spawn kills; god forbid you go 15 seconds without action...

Haha, yep, so true. I can recognize myself in that latter thing.

[Spider3000]

On 2/9/2019 at 12:51 AM, RequixEclipse said:

8Chaos does not suck it's a new begging. We've been on the same storyline for 10 years my dude! It's unfair for those who couldnt truly be apart of the experience. I was 14-15 when it all began.

 

I'm 25. Kids grew up hearing about it, but never truly being apart of it. That is why Chaos must be recorded "Correctly" now. Jason Blundell and Craig both agree it's a perfect time to be new. The story hasn't had the chance to get confusing yet. 

I was around 12 when I properly got into Zombies and at that point the mode was already a couple years old. I have to say a big part of the fun for me was watching YouTube storyline videos (which looking back were nearly all incorrect), and discovering the events for myself and drawing my own interpretation.

 

Chaos on the other hand is obviously taking a more straight forward approach to storytelling. Which is fine, and is definitely more palatable for most people, but I do have problems with it. I think it was a big mistake to make DLC 1 a prequel to Voyage. It ruined the momentum of having two maps with these new characters, and then dialling it back a bit to have these other characters instead, who were just killed off anyway.

 

Regardless, I agree in that a new storyline is needed and it’ll be good to see Aether get a (hopefully) satisfying conclusion. I just hope with that out of the way they’ll be able to make a new memorable story and cast of characters out of Chaos.

[RadZakpak]

For background, my first CoD game was technically the original on my dad's PC back in the day, where I only played some of the campaign. Later when I had an Xbox 360 I rented CoD 2, 3, 4, and MW2 and played their campaigns some. But Black Ops was my first CoD online on Xbox Live.

 

When I think of CoD I think of Treyarch. The aesthetic of their games and the gameplay are the pinnacle of the series in my opinion. To me Black Ops 4 is no exception, and I feel people are looking at this game with a modern perspective, while Activision controls development the same way they have been for 10 years. I can't fault people for feeling underwhelmed after this many entries in the series and no positive change in the business model. From the perspective of the gaming industry, Activision is way behind and is Anti-Consumer. EA is often hated for their business practices but people often neglect to mention the ways they have changed their games to match the backlash. Remember codes that came with the game that were required to play online? Remember paid DLC/Season Passes in Battlefield? Remember pay-to-win microtransactions in Battlefront 2? The difference between EA and Activision is that Activision has done nothing in response to criticism, but somehow EA gets put over the flames way more. I think too much blame is put on developers when just like a government there are layers to the management of a project, and crappy, anti-consumer business decisions almost always fall on the publisher for video games.

 

Anyway, as for the three main developers, given what power they have, I think they all bring a unique flavor to Call of Duty. With the multitude of modes in Call of Duty from Campaign, Blackout, Zombies, Spec Ops, Extinction... it's kind of hard to compare all these games studios. Also one has to consider how many full Call of Duty games are under each developer's belt. Infinity Ward has 7, not including CoD4 Remastered. Treyarch has 7 if you include the spin off Big Red One. Sledgehammer has only 2, and showed up only recently. Is it fair to compare them all? Probably not.

 

For me Treyarch Zombies has been and will always be my favorite. Setting aside nostalgia, it perfectly blends cheesiness with realism to create a unique universe and aesthetic not present in many video game properties. To me, IW Zombies felt like it tried to hard to go for cheese, but it lacked any substance. WW2 Zombies felt like a bore to me, and I hated the tone. Exo-Zombies actually comes pretty close to this, and I think given more time to flesh out the story and improve the irritating gameplay, Exo-Zombies could have rivaled Treyarch. But alas, we are probably never seeing Oz again...

 

As I said, it feels unfair to compare zombies modes when Treyarch has had ten years to refine it and create good memories, while each other mode has only had one respective game. But speaking in terms of base gameplay mechanics, story, and aesthetics, Treyarch just takes the cake. Unlike a lot of people I liked the direction the Aether story went every step of the way, until about now... But I am giving Blundell the benefit of the doubt in saying I think he can end things in a satisfying way. The Storybook kind of depends on it.

 

But if I had to rank the other modes, it would go something like this:

 

1. Exo-Zombies - A solid mode that actually made me buy the season pass for this game. This was the first non-Treyarch zombies so I had to give it a shot. I actually had some fun in this mode, and I think the first three maps are actually good, but Descent is pretty awful to play. I think Sledgehammer did not get enough time to make the gameplay less annoying and tedious and to better flesh out the story, as this was a late addition, the first DLC being having the first map. I wish they could have stuck with this story and world, but I understand why they didn't.

 

2. Extinction - Not really zombies, but fits a similar niche. I would have told you I hate this mode until about a year ago, and I still kind of never ever want to play it. It is just far too stressful for my taste unlike Black Ops and Black Ops 2 which were probably the most slowed down versions of zombies. But after watching a lot of Jr Rizzo videos on Extinction, I've come to appreciate its design a lot more, and I think I'm just bad at it. It's a truly unique Co-Op mode, and I think without Activison's meddling, IW would have stuck with this is as their Co-Op mode.

 

3. IW Zombies - I had an initial honeymoon period with Zombies in Spaceland where I really enjoyed it. I followed all the marketing and bought Infinite Warfare just for this mode. I liked the idea behind the map, being set in the 80s, with goofy characters as opposed to the somewhat seriousness of Treyarch. I thought it would be a great complement to the series, but after playing it for a month or so I became so incredibly bored and frustrated with the map. It really did not stay on my radar long, and I was never able to pin down why. I was so disillusioned by it, I never bought the season pass. The game still sits on my shelf, maybe I could revisit someday?

 

4. WW2 Zombies - I really hate this mode, and I feel bad that I do. I can see there was a lot of passion put into it, and a lot of people around here and Jr Rizzo seem to love it. But it is just so boring to me. The gameplay is pretty solid, but nothing special. The characters don't feel special. The locations the maps are set in don't feel special. It feels like a knock-off of zombies, thru and thru, without the personality of any of the above modes. I wish I felt the same way about this mode as many others do, but I just don't. I never bought the DLC, only watching videos on them, hoping I would see something interesting but I never did. The grey, washed out look only added to my lack of interest. I disliked this mode, the campaign, and multiplayer so much, that WW2 is the only CoD I traded in at the store. I never do that with games, because I might want to go back someday. But I felt no connection with this game.

 

Am I biased? Yeah. But I'm willing to admit the faults in Treyarch Zombies as well, and there are plenty. I don't think the reason Youtubers and everyone else online only focuses on Treyarch is necessarily because they were the first to do Zombies. I mean, look at Treyarch and Infinity Ward. IW came first in the series and wowed everyone, but Treyarch put out some heavy hitters to change people's perception. I think none of these developers has gotten a chance to take a real, good crack at zombies. But I also think, ten years later, it may be too late. This style of game mode seems to be dying out when back then survival games were all the rage. The other modes may never be able to come out of Treyarch's shadow, and with Treyarch, they may all fade into obscurity given the way things are going.

 

[Spider3000]

On 2/11/2019 at 1:29 AM, RadZakpak said:

2. Extinction - Not really zombies, but fits a similar niche. I would have told you I hate this mode until about a year ago, and I still kind of never ever want to play it. It is just far too stressful for my taste unlike Black Ops and Black Ops 2 which were probably the most slowed down versions of zombies. But after watching a lot of Jr Rizzo videos on Extinction, I've come to appreciate its design a lot more, and I think I'm just bad at it. It's a truly unique Co-Op mode, and I think without Activison's meddling, IW would have stuck with this is as their Co-Op mode.

Extinction is the Dark Souls of CoD (in a good way) and no one can change my mind on that.

 

I think what Zombies needs, and perhaps CoD as a whole too, is a long break. If the rumours are true with IW’s next game being MW4, then I kind of find it hard to believe it’ll launch with Zombies, instead of some Spec Ops mode.

 

And this could very well be my confirmation bias talking, since last I checked CoD is still the best-selling game year after year, but it does feel like a lot more people are beginning to experience burnout. Hell, even the YouTubers are starting to move away from Black Ops 4 onto other games. So yeah, maybe a change in annual releases could be helpful.