To the Call of Duty players ruining this game..here's your wake up call..

OP, it's bad form to copy/paste that much of an article's text. You're shunting page views away from the writer who put the work into writing it. Sure, you put a link at the bottom, but you put so much text in the post the link is pointless.

Please respect a writer's work and just provide a teaser of the article followed by the link.

That said, thank you for posting this. It was a good read, and echoes many of my feelings. At the same time, the PS2 community is way too quick to jump on the CoD accusations bandwagon.

I was playing PS2 a while back and got randomly TKed by somebody. I asked why he did it and he said I ran him over in my magrider. I had been dueling a vanguard and must have accidentally done it, but he was trying to solo an MBT while running in the middle of the road. I didn't even get a chance to apologize - he just TKed me with no warning, then berated me in tells, and eventually pulled the "This isn't CoD, kid, this is PS2 where you have to have awareness of your teammates."

Nevermind that I hate CoD and I'm a PS1 player since day 1 of its release ten years ago, and I take the utmost care to avoid TKing people, and I'm in my thirties. Nope, I did one accidental TK (on an idiot running in the road) and now I'm a "CoD kiddie" and am a selfish player who doesn't care about his teammates.

Agreed. Agreed 100%. But I think from a financial standpoint, a large short term profit made cheaply is better than a slightly larger long term profit which has a higher overhead. I'm not in game design, but if the last few years of AAA gaming are anything to go by, depth costs money. Shallow experiences which give the illusion of depth are less risky and cheaper to make, making them far more attractive investment options.

Actually it runs COUNTER to that ideal. IE: it's sabotaging it's own business model longevity and I pointed this out months ago.

Most F2P's like this one always start out the new players with the "lowest skill required gun" that is ideal in every situation. This is *almost* true with the CARV and mostly true with the VS guns. ...From there, the players is supposed to build up their skill to the point that they want to unlock other guns that have 1 specific upside at the cost of multiple Downsides compared to the Stock gun. Tf2, Blacklight Retr, Tribes & APB all definitely did this very well (with very few exceptions). As you progressed, you'd be directly incentivized to even buy new Semi-Autos and Pistols or grenades as well that required more pin-point accuracy or tactical experience simply because there was always room for situations where you needed to switch to those weapons fairly often. AND WHAT DID THEY JUST DO IN THIS LAST {PATCH?} ....that's right, they increased ammo capacity so that you'll be even less likely to need to switch away from your spray & pray primary.

For some reason... .this game went purely Pay 2 win but not in a way that rewarded skill for unlocking most of those weapons. No it's actually pay to play worse here but still be rewarded the same rate of kills in an even wider array of situations. Esp with the Rocket Launchers. Even the "Longshot" sniping rifles are a good example of this as they also require LESS skill making them easier to use in a wider variety of situations. That's actually BAD because when you gain more skill, the Side-grade unlocks are supposed to increase your KPM in a smaller # of situations they're specifically designed for. KPM HERE actually stays the same or gets worse in those niche situations where skill would have increased it, .... rocket Pods for instance being the Shining example b/c Higby specifically echoed that one fat neckbeard doofus who said: "If they're so good, why don't you Buy them?"

THIS is why so many people raged at his comments. Not because it was pay to win, but because it was pay to be-less-skillful.

You don’t want the elite players to destroy the new players so bad that new players can never get into the game and enjoy it.

This is the crux of it, and as one of those good FPS players it gets frustrating.

Rosanne Bar once had the #1 show in the country.

this. this is why games based on the F2P business model are doomed to fail in the long term. they're the videogame equivalent of pump-and-dump schemes, and the next "shiny" to come along will steal every consumer trained to lap it all up.

CoD is cancer but I don't think it is as popular as people make it out to be. Most of the people who are "hardcore" CoD players are high school age kids and pot smoking adults who work minimum wage jobs. In the world of PC fps games, CoD has never been a huge deal because it has no depth compared to other available PC fps games.

Of course, CoD has been wildly successful as a console game, but that is understandable. Console is CoD's niche from which it will never escape (god willing). In General, I think CoD style games simply don't offer the depth that PC gamers want and developers realize this. Seriously, most people who have made an investment in a computer capable of running decent games aren't going to be satisfied with the autistic **** fest that is CoD. That pile of **** plays like a game from the late 90's.

Anyway, I do agree that CoD is trash but I don't think CoD players are ruining this game. Neither the players or developers have any interest making PS2 more CoD like.

COD4 was the last great online shooter I played.

I frequent PCgamer and read the article yesterday. It is indeed a very truthful look at the gaming community in general, not just FPS. As gaming has become more mainstream, more and more "casuals" are entering into the realm of gaming. These casuals want a game that they can pick up and play and don't have to work at to be good (no skill curve). They want to have their hand held throughout the entire experience so that they can have fun and feel good when they are able to "dominate" other players in these low skill games. This is why games like CoD and LoL are very popular games. The argument for hand holding games is the fact that games are in itself entertainment, so why should you spend a lot of time mastering something. It is a valid argument, but with the more "hardcore" gamer crowd, the ones who grew up on games that were actually hard and took time to get good at refute this argument. I see it as more of a generational gap more than anything. Unfortunately, for the "hardcore" gamer crowd, there are more "casuals" out there. Which in turn drives developers to make these sub par low skill games, since that is what the "casuals" want these days. You cater to the casuals and you make a lot of money, its basic business by the numbers. Cater to the larger base and get rewarded with more profit.

This is why intelligent game developers have developed the saying "easy to learn, hard to master" in order to get both groups interested in their game. I didn't want to get biased with this post, but i'm a part of the "hardcore" crowd and as time goes on I grow increasingly disappointed with how most game developers make games these days. There is a reason why I have only spent 5 bucks on PS2, it is getting better, but it isn't there yet. Maybe i'm getting too old and critical of games, but this is how I feel where things are at with most game developers these days. Tripwire as well as a handful of other devs are still holding on to the "hardcore" days.

The main point that I wanted to bring across from that article is the when players are playing COD it gives the feeling that your doing good which forms the mindset "Hey , Im so pro at this game..." they go into other FPS games or sims like ARMA or Planetside 2 and get steamrolled then they come to these forums and complain and demand for nerfs or crying that things are op when they don't use certain things like common sense or learn to adapt. The past few months all I've seen is cries for nerfs .. I'm not the world's greatest FPS player you can look at my stats I don't care about KDR I play this game to have fun when time permits.

Everyone has their good or bad days in this game, but I will not come to these forums and start demanding something be nerfed just cause I died and that is what is happening , that mentality that COD players have doing well over there doesn't mean you will do well here, no game should have to redesign their game to suit people that don't know how to learn how to counter others. I love this game just like Planetside 1 . I don't want the game dumbed down so much cause of these types of players refuse to learn this is a combined arms game and not COD.

BTW .. Is it CoD's fault or multi format gaming ? When games have to be made to suit platform's such as the Xbox and it's controller then theoretically they have to be made " easier " than their PC counterpart .

Look at the difference between a PC flight sim and a console one

Doesn't mean everyone wants COD in every FPS game ever made though...especially a MMOFPS which is what is happening here.

There isn't much COD in this game though. It's far closer to BF3, since it lacks killstreaks, perks, and has vehicles.

The fundamental dilemna the quoted post overlooks is that people do play games to have fun. And fun for the father of two who works forty hours, comes home, does housework, plays with his kids, and has 50 minutes to himself before he goes to sleep is different from the fun of a college student or basement dweller who has 36 hours to kill. If you want your game to be massive, you have to have a lot of people. If you want a lot of people, your game has to have many levels and forms and broad appeal. And easy entry and some successes that are not too challenging are part of broad appeal. Deeper challenges that emerge later on may retain his interest or not, but there has to be something for casual players if you want massive.

I like hard challenging games, and I share the view that games of every genre seem to be more and more part of an idiot parade. But I remember that this is a game, and the fact that other people like or need their games differently does not make them gibbering morons or morally inferior to me, the hardcore gamer. The interviewee is of the opinion that the dominance of one game has established a taste for similar mechanics of that game. He can sneer at those people or lament their inadequacy to play his game, he can focus on a different market and be satisfied with it, or he can offer something which is innovative enough, rather than just different, that it attracts their attention anyway.

Games are defined as activities of no moral consequence. Failing at a game, or preferring one to another, is not a litmus test of character, worth, or even intellect. The interviewer here seems to think so, and I think he has lost track of real life. People who make art movies understand not everyone will like their movie. People who write niche books realize not everyone likes their books. Welcome to niche artistic work, Mr. RO2. It'll be easier to breathe if you stop sneering at the market.

Planetside is no where near ARMA in term's of being a sim or even a hardcore game .. Planetside 2 as it stands is an arcade shooter which takes no more skill to play than 99% of other's arcade FPS including games such as CoD / BF

It all begun with Halo, FPS games on a console are so sad to the point they build aimbots in order to fit the current demographic of players, I don't blame them, playing an FPS game with a controller is like watching TV with binoculars.

But yeah, consoles are about using a wrench to hammer nails, blame the dumb ***** in the suits who did not care to bring proper tools, now they are stuck with a generation of gamers that cannot play with a mouse and keyboard and will never get past the limited boundaries of their controller.

Generation ruined?

Obviously your reading comprehension is not up to par. Considering its easier to sit in tanks and rack up large kill streaks in this game it would be the other way around. Vehicle drivers are the CoD players and infantry players are the hardcore players. Now depending on what type of gun your using this could be looked at differently. A good example of that is the pump action shotgun right now. If you would make an argument that pump action shotgun players were CoD kids I would agree with you. Since it is an "easy" weapon to get kills with.

it's missing a few token mechanics from call of duty, but the core gunplay is similar enough. TTKs are generally under 2 seconds for infantry weapons and the new SMGs/pump shotguns are bringing the averages even lower.

These guys wont read it mate, most of the "COD" gen dont have the attention span .

I wished "CoD" would be referred to as "Modern Warfare". It always pains me to see one of my favorite all-time games (CoD 1) share the same "tag" as it's offspring and thus soiling the name. Not to sound overly attached to the game but it's like watching your lovable kid grow up into something that's resented around the world. I loved call of duty 1 to death during it's prime and would buy a remastered version of it in a heartbeat but I'll be damned to ever buy anything else in the series that came later down the road.

Are there any new shooters that aren't like that though? Blacklight Retribution and BF3 are the same way, but very different games.