The Depressing Decline of Call of Duty 

If COD was on a 2 year cycle or longer, I would entertain playing again. If COD would decide whether it wants to be Fortnite or a military shooter in regards to cosmetics, I might play again. If COD brought back traditional Zombies, I might play again. If COD wasn't $80 with a $20 battlepass fee, and $20-$30 skins, I might play again. If COD wasn't built around Warzone to the detriment of campaign, multiplayer, and zombies, I might play again. Edit - fixed a few spelling errors.

"too many cooks in the kitchen". Its starting to become a theme among everything. I for a long time would claim the bigger something grows in popularity the more it loses its identity.

All games are getting to complicated. They’re forgetting that we just want to have fun after a long day. Simple games with good stories

As a call of Duty player from 2007-2013, the whole menu UI is almost unrecognisable now. Unnecessarily complex and riddled with loot boxes, puts me off playing almost instantly. That along with boring map design, lack of voice chat/community that used to be and far fetched gun/character customisation. Activision are blind to it all, and it's embarrassing to see their marketing team promote this shit, as those teams are so detached from what the brand once was.

For warzone, I used to love it earlier. Now, it just feels like they are trying to copy Fortnite so bad. They have to understand that Fortnite is a cartoonish themed Battle Royale. COD has military themed designs. Adding Nikki Minaj and Homelander in a game of Military designs does not seem "Cool"

They have a New York pigeon skin for a soldier. What a shit show.

As some dev recently said “ a game for everyone is a game for no one “

I like how the *first* Call of Duty game took place during World War 2 and was made to keep the memory of the soldiers who fought in it alive but now the entire franchise had become an utter abhorrence 😂😂😂

The one boom has been saying this for years that cod community no longer exists because it's far to broad.

the portion of the video that talks about factions and design reminded me about how I used to play OG MW2. The factions were so "cool" and they committed so hard thematically, I used different loadouts based on factions. (Rangers M4 + M9 larp; Spetznaz AK + rpg; SEALs UMP45 and USP .45) Playing in that way helped me get fully immersed in the game itself. Immersion and commitment to a theme is both underrated by devs and very important to gamers who aren't committed to a single IP/franchise

You can’t bring up that DOOM bundle with out mentioning the fact they broke the GUN for the sake of the GAME and MONEY! That Lockwood shotgun was absolutely nothing until they came out with the Double Trigger SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS BUNDLE, THEN LET IT RUN RAMPANT FOR A FEW MONTHS THEN COMPLETELY REMOVED THE ATTACHMENT AFTER THEY SOLD ENOUGH BUNDLES TO NERF THE GUN BACK INTO THE GROUND!

Victor Reznov is one of the best written and voiced CoD character off all time. Anything he said had so much weight in the entire series.

So I'm not crazy. I've been arguing with so many esports wannabes regarding the movement, I've lost count a while ago. No matter how much I argue that COD games shouldn't be speedy, these nerds swear up and down that the cracked out speedy Gonzales movement is somehow good. I was genuinely starting to believe I was in the minority, misremembering COD during my earlier years. So I'm not alone in this then? Because I cannot STAND that movement crap.

Man, I thought that COD was at an all-time low during 2016-2018. But ever since MW19, COD has been the most dry, corporate, and emotionless it’s ever been. Having tried MWII and MWIII, I’ve never thought COD would ever feel this dehumanized and corporate. Even if I can still have some fun every now and then- with BOCW especially -there’s no real sense of excitement with it.

I think it’s so ironic that Warzone and Modern Warfare were initially seen as the games to save cod, but have eventually became the main reason of downfall. The game has no identity and with that no clear player base

You nailed it. Call of Duty’s biggest problem since the jet pack era is MW19, it had a good campaign but its multiplayer split the fanbase. It kept arcadey element with fast movement but tried to incorporate more realistic elements that made the game slower. It created a game that had maps and equipment that wasn’t designed around its fast movement. That split the fanbase again between ‘campers’ and ‘ADHD kids’ and the realistic aspect disappeared. It was worsened by Warzone and the microtransactons. Cold War went back to arcade, Vanguard a MW19 clone, MW22 didn’t know what it was and MW3 is probably the best modern game since but gets deserved hate as it should’ve been a DLC… Hot take: BO3 was the last truly good CoD game and Infinite Warfare was the last CoD game that knew what it wanted to be. The direction and polished product has disappeared since 2017.

The sad thing about the cod players that play cod for the movement is that they refuse to play games actually designed around movement like Team Fortress 2 or Arena shooters.

Besides the souless game with no identity, when the store is the only thing that works fine at launch it leaves so much to desire... I bought HELLDIVERS2 for the price of a macrotransaction in COD.

insane how you never mentioned sbmm like that isn’t what really plagued the game

It's SBMM/EOMM which has ruined it. But also great point about the factions and music etc, I miss that aspect in OG MW2 especially

Personally, I think another reason why their games have been failing is due to the inexcusably MASSIVE game sizes. I would love to play a newer cod but with a game package of 300+ gb with consistent, also giant updates, I’m not installing that. I believe that unnecessary game sizes push people away, especially when other games on the market that are similar, are much smaller

Does anyone remember the broken SBMM where if you did decent in like 2 or 3 games then you’d be put in lobbies with absolute sweats and try hard for 5 games that was crazy fr

Things I’d be okay with. -$5 Battle pass -$15 seasonal DLC’s: maps only, guns are for everybody -cosmetics, emblems, calling card: earned through completing challenges -remove SBMM from public matches -$60 game: stop making warzone free, impossible to deter hackers -2 year releases -COD WORLD: UPDATE 2 games- BO & MW

Personally I was always drawn to the Campaign with Multiplayer being secondary as you said. All those older Call of duties with their stories and the Tone left a lasting impression on me. I remember I used to get to terrified by the sound of the Sirens as a kid because In Call of Duty 1, Sirens were used when and I quote my younger self "Large planes with scary bombs" come.

I'm praying that this channel will take off G. The content you've been putting out here definitely deserves more attention. Keep up the great work 🙌

Ah, yes. The constant conflict between the casuals and the sweats. Sweats always complain when something doesn't "require skill" to do. Casuals on the other hand bitch when something's too hard/complicated. Personally, I am pro-casual. I shouldn't have to slide-cancel just to keep up with everyone else. I shouldn't have to keep so many goddamn things in the back of my mind. I shouldn't have to watch guides and gunsmith videos just to play the fucking game. Just let people write their own stories and make their own loadouts.

I was sick and tired of buying map packs every game where those maps were ones I previously bought in past games. How many times have we had to pay for Nuketown????

Basically, for me, CoD can be divided into multiple “eras” *The Classic Era* 2003 - 2006, CoD 1-3, classic single player focused WW2 shooters, definitely dated by modern standards but amazing for the time and they still hold up well today, especially CoD 2 imo *The Golden Age* 2007 - 2012, CoD 4 - Black Ops 2, the absolute height of the series’ popularity. Back when everyone played these games. A time when everyone was excited to see what would come next. CoD 4 revolutionized the series, WaW gave us zombies and a gritty WW2 campaign, MW2 gave us one of the craziest campaigns of all time and heavily refined and expanded the multiplayer, as well as Spec Ops, the only viable “third mode” competitor to zombies we’ve had so far. Black Ops gave us an incredible campaign that solidified Treyarch’s story telling style, zombies was greatly expanded and the multiplayer was a fun evolution of MW2’s. MW3 was probably the first time in the series’ where things started to slip up a bit. This game came out after all the drama at Infinity Ward and Activision resulted in most of the team leaving, and it shows. Patched together by a lot of back up studios and IW’s remnants, it’s an iterative, uninspired MW2 clone. Especially with Battlefield 3 coming out that year, it was a low point for the series, one where reception was largely negative for the first time and a time when many fans jumped ship for Battlefield. It *was* fun though for what it was and really not nearly as bad as it could be. I would have considered this game the end of the Golden Age and the start of the next era, if not for the Golden Age’s send off - Black Ops II in 2012, one of the finest games in the series. This game was everything MW3 was not - innovative, inspired, amazing changes to multiplayer and zombies, packed with new content, and one of the best campaigns to date. It’s only a shame this was it for the Golden Age… *The Dark Age* 2013 - 2018, CoD Ghosts - Black Ops IIII, people have mixed opinions about all these games so these are my personal views - this was a long era of derivative sequel mill CoD games that made MW3 look not so bad in comparison. A time when both IW and Treyarch were lost with the conclusions of the MW trilogy and the OG mainline Black Ops trilogy. Ghosts was one of the worst games in the series, a bland MW clone with a laughable campaign. Extinction was a desperate failed attempt to have a zombies alternative. 2014 saw Advanced Warfare, Sledgehammer’s first game. This game tried to change things up and innovate, and I guess they definitely did, but AW was so aggressively mediocre and bland in all of its modes that to me, it almost doesn’t matter. This game started the boots off the ground jet pack warfare era of the series, something me and many others disliked heavily. It also marks the first time a non Treyarch studio, attempted zombies, with the other studios giving up on unique co op modes. To date, no one has done zombies well but Treyarch, so I don’t see any good having come from this. AW was followed up by Black Ops III, a game who’s only saving grace was zombies. It was too convoluted for me to really enjoy, but I can’t deny it’s the most expansive and content rich zombies has ever been and people did like it. Beyond that though, the multiplayer was mid and more of the AW exosuit stuff, and the campaign was terrible, barely canon or connected to Black Ops and just an awful story. This was followed by Infinite Warfare in 2016 - this game actually had a very solid campaign I’ll say, but it was overshadowed by terrible multiplayer, meh zombies and one of the worst fan receptions in franchise history - people were just sick of the futuristic setting and exo suits, especially with Battlefield 1 coming out and bringing back a World War setting that year. No surprise then that next year, 2017, saw CoD WW2 released. I do remember the campaign of this game fondly, if only bc it’s a time I’m personally nostalgic for, and because I’m really into World War II. If neither of those things apply, the campaign was mediocre at best, and it’s only downhill from there. Multiplayer was once again garbage, and zombies was serviceable at best. By this point in the series, neck deep into the dark age and sequel fatigue deeply set in, mediocre and serviceable did not cut it. The finally game of the Dark Age came in 2018, with Black Ops 4, the point where they gave up on the campaign, tried to clone Fortnite and Overwatch with multiplayer characters and battle royale. This was one of the worst games in the series in my opinion, the absolute epitome of zero creativity, let’s just poorly copy what the other popular games are doing. *The New Age* 2019 - present, MW2019 onwards - A lot of people might disagree with me, but to me, MW2019 was not only the first time since 2012 CoD noticeably tried, it was also the first time since 2012 they released a game I’d consider a classic. MW2019 was a game I’d had more fun with than any CoD since the Golden Age. The spec ops wasn’t that great, sure, but both the campaign and multiplayer were absolutely incredible. This game was a breath of fresh air that ended the Dark Age and started an era where I could actually be excited about the series. It was followed by Treyarch’s own MW2019, Black Ops Cold War, the first classic style Blops game since 2012. While the multiplayer was not as good as MW2019, it was still a lot of fun, while zombies and the campaign were both great. With these two games, it seemed to me like we were in a new Golden Age. Then Vanguard came out… one of the worst games in the series. Awful campaign, terrible multiplayer, just no redeeming qualities at all. But then we got MW2 2022, which in my opinion, was about on the same level of quality and fun as MW2019 and Black Ops Cold War - only for it to be followed by MW3 2023, one of the most blatant cash grabs in franchise history and an obvious DLC of MW2. Also made by Sledgehammer. So idk, it almost seems like we are in a new Golden Age right now, with a bad game by Sledgehammer every few years. I think the solution is probably to just make Sledge a support studio and have a two year gap between CoDs. Either way, I’m excited for Gulf War. I think if it’s good, it’ll solidify this era of CoD into a new Golden Age. If it’s bad, that’s two fails in a row, one from a mainline studio, at which point I’d call this era a little more of a mess. Time will tell.

If Cod remastered the OG MW2 multiplayer as well as the Black Ops Duology, they would make more money than they would for the next 3 games, and they could use that time to make a new game.

The best way to put it is that Activision sold Call of Duty’s soul.

COD started going downhill when they started to get rid of aggressive sniping

This series needs to return to what matters. Unrestrained grit. No flashy trailers or anything. If they made a title, that played like the old F.E.A.R games, and stood it's ground with a theme, and refused to give in to player demands, focusing solely on a core vision, then they could have something.

The reception to the advanced movement games was the most important event to CoD ever.

They honestly just need to cut down the bloat on everything. cut warzone, cut listening to investors, cut the 3000dev plan they have. It's all ass. Mw2023 was actually pretty fun for the first couple of months but life got in the way and I couldn't play it anymore. I just miss how like older cods felt- perks meant way more, create a class was more grounded instead of over building to appease fudds and shit, kill streaks felt rewarding, and just overall the time to kill was great, but that's wishful thinking

You said it, the problem with CoD is that they started to listen to the community too much and tried to please everyone. The problem is that the community don’t know what they want. I mean, is good to listen to the community to a certain point, so they can take note and improve or fix what needs to be improve or fixed, but activition should have like a goal, a vision on mind for what they want the game to be or feel. I don’t know if I’m making any sense. I have the idea I just don’t know how to explain it

In Team Fortress 2 we also have people playing like it's a platformer; constantly jumping ("bunny hopping"), exploiting weird game engine quirks and gear loadouts.

Here is a thought. Make playlists for each type of player. Crazy movement in one playlist and a classic slower tactical playlist where you can pick what you have the most fun doing. It could be done

The timing of this video Legit i got a speech on why i believe call of duty went down hill in a few minutes for a class and seeing a video posted a day before reflecting the points i aim to answer in my speech is a God send You get my sub man

this dude really took the "never use I in formal writing" to heart

I miss pro perks… they done away with them in favor of balance and split them up. They also made guns way too uniform in the game, or uninteresting to shoot. I also loved the simplicity of the old attachment system vs the new one, where you lose ADS speed for some type of bullshit, in favor of movement or more horizontal recoil control. Like holy fuck… Their map designs are mainly forgettable too. Have you noticed that most maps are JUST remixes nowadays? Not a shred of an original map; even when they make new maps, it doesn’t have the replayability. I think the mantra that Bungie said when making maps for Halo 3 was along the lines of, “You gotta make sure the game is playable the hundredth, thousandth or millionth time.” The matchmaking is also a much stricter issue, trying to match players within your skill bracket & K/D instead of searching for the closest and best connection in a CASUAL game.

When i was young i didn't like cod and even when I play it I'd choose the zombies mod Now i wish I could go back to experience the golden days of multiplayer

I absolutely love how you said “You came for the campaign, and stayed for the multiplayer” which was absolutely true. The elements of multiplayer was built around the games campaign. Now, the game is built around multiplayer/Warzone. I guess I cannot blame activision, those modes are their money makers and the gaming landscape has changed tremendously since.

A COD video without mentioning zombies at all. How dare you…

great vid. so much nostalgia. i miss the oldschool days so much

Call of duty now feels like that guy who peeked in high school trying to chases his old days.

The fanbase don't know what they want. They talk about the golden age but when MWII released with faster movement than those old cods, people bitched and moaned that it was too slow and that they couldn't bunny hop and slide cancel. Do these people even remember what movement in old cod was like? I miss the old school factions but the fans seem to love the goofy skins for some reason. I miss the old cod formula but the fans of today will never let us go back to that. They hate the MWIII maps despite them basically being the MW2 maps they claimed that they adored so much. They're so excited for the rumoured Black Ops 2 remaster but the irony is they'll probably end up hating it.

Call of Duty World at War. One of my many passions on this earth is history. One of the best ways I enjoy escaping and just relaxing, is to immerse my mind in a different world, especially a world rooted in an interesting time period in our world's history. My favourite FPS games of all time are:Call of Duty 1 & 2 and MW 1 + 2 + World at War ,Brothers in Arms, Far Cry 1 + 2, Rising storm 2 Vietnam, Battlefield Vietnam & Battlefield 1. So to have a game that completely immerses your brain in the harsh,brutal,violent, shocking and gripping setting of WW2 , focussing on depicting actual history by means of an engaging, thrilling and yet horrifying story ,with an emphasis on small historical accuracies combined with bloody , unsettling realism, makes CoD WaW truly something special. Sculpted in a more sophisticated time before the rise of the woke feminazi cult, that uses propaganda to alter history and the mindsets of modern citizens , this HISTORICAL shooter is one of the last in cods extensive repertoire and is ,in my opinion , the very climax of the franchise. (Not talking about the repulsive zombies addition that I utterly despise) I am a person that does not care for power fantasy. In reality I appreciate and am thankful for the successes I have achieved and the skills I have and are still learning . Thus in gaming, I have no need to feel like an invincible one man army , I enjoy a challenge wrapped inside a well written atmospheric story ,an immersive ,realistic setting (Superb Pacific theatre + Eastern front) and military hierarchy, where your decisions carry weight and the story/environment hits you with the unexpected harsh reality of war, a truly hostile and immersive world where you have to fight tooth and nail alongside a squad of professional soldiers just to survive in. (Highly similar to the perfection that is BF1) WaW provides this and so much more. From someone whom has visited the concentration camps at Auschwitz , whom has seen the aftermath of the brutal realities of pure evil first hand, WaW captures the essence of WW2 with immaculate effectiveness. Condemning war and the evil that produces it, but showcasing the heroics of the men whom were forced to endure and overcome the hell that is war. Men whom had to suffer through unimaginable carnage , whom had to commit countless selfless acts so we can live in a better world today. The heroic Men/officers/leaders you follow are gritty, believable and relatably human. Victor Reznov …crawling in front of you in the shattered,burning, defiled ruins of Stalingrad … crawling through hell to reach a realistic objective of sniping a 1930s germanic cultist military officer is unrivaled WW2 historical immersion perfection. I can not recommend this game enough, it truly just requires a graphical remaster. (As well as Cod 1(+DLC),2 and to get Cod 3 / Big Red one and Brothers in Arms Remade on PC.) I pray to Yahweh that we might someday return to a society where gems like this will be allowed to be made and appreciated once again. CoD MW. ‘’All Ghillied Up’’ still remains my most memorable mission in any war FPS game. The setting, the use of effective camouflage, the tense/stressful environment it congers when you find yourself is such close proximity to an enemy patrol and you know that being caught will mean certain death , the atmosphere, the gripping ,haunting story, the superb character of Cpt. McMillan and the use of interesting realistic military hardware such as the exquisite M21 and the Brutal Barret .50 cal sniper rifle that you can’t fire unless laying prone … ‘’All Ghillied Up’’ is a war FPS masterpiece.

The thing I dislike the most about cod is the community. You guys really had a good thing going on with mw2 and you guys didn’t appreciate it.

Can you make a video on apex or counter strike next? Really interested in hearing your thoughts on those, since you're mainly a siege player

Another thing to mention is censorship of lobbies. Not saying slurs and such is good, but compared to the wild west early cods came in, everything now has a much more cooperate feel instead of a passionate feel.

I doubt the franchise will be restored to its former glory, any attempt in doing anything at this point will just get backlash. The community is too divided and it being a triple A game isn’t really helping neither the franchise nor the development team themselves which leads to much higher expectations for the end product. I bet if COD were to try and make a new COD game with similar mechanics to the CODs around the 2010s, everyone would get on a hate train because a triple A studio basically made an indie game.

Beautiful video, explained it perfectly. As an old cod player, world at war, it’s wild and ridiculous to see the game become more focused on being a “movement king” than gunplay. Keep it up ❤

I usually don't comment stuff like this but, felt like I wanted to chime in: - The small details, as you pointed out with different music for different factions, along with different uniforms and ESPECIALLY different and unique announcers with their own quirks, made you feel more immersed in the older CODs world. A game doesn't have to be "realistic," it just has to make you feel like everything makes sense for it to be in that particular fictional world. Look, if you played the old COD games, you very clearly remember your announcer screaming at you with the voice line: "ENEMY AC130 ABOVE!!!" Hell, HE sounds scared for HIS life, and he's just observing the "battlefield," that is your multiplayer match. And when you see Nicki Minaj or 21 Savage or Kevin Durant running around alongside your soldier in this fictional version of a Special Operations unit, it just breaks that immersion. I get it, the bundles and collabs make money, but from a design standpoint, it doesn't do you any favors when you want to have a certain atmosphere and tone. I don't think people would mind if this was available as like, some kind of "Meme Mode," where it's COD but just cranked to 11 with nonsensical shit, and in that mode the nonsensical shit is encouraged. I imagine that would be pretty hilarious. But having it all thrown together just feels, admittedly, like they copied Fortnite. Again, I get it, if the money is there, they will take that opportunity but, for the tone and atmosphere they're going for, alot of these choices for skins and bundles feels off. - To go along with the previous point, while I'm not invested in the advanced movement part of COD, I could take it or leave it, I do find it to be a good point where things went from "Jetpack COD," to "modern warfare, boots on the ground, realistic operator COD," and the latter is running around with cracked movement. Personally, I can adapt to pretty much any gameplay mechanics, but again with the point of immersion within the game's setting, it's certainly not immersive to see Price slide cancelling around the map. I don't hate it nor love it, but I can see where that mechanic feels immersion breaking given that these are supposed to be more grounded, "realistic," Special Operations units. At least more "realistic," versus jetpack COD, all things considered. - Warzone definitely changed how COD was developed, handled, and viewed throughout the entire process of creating a new COD game. Personally, I'm not a fan of it. It's just not my style of game mode. But I don't hate it. However I can see how say, level designs for example can be affected because of Warzone. It's simply another change versus what we had during that "Golden Age," of COD which was simply: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies or Spec-Ops type of a mode. - The difference in the companies and gaming's popularity versus 15 years ago. The people working at these studios are not the same people that worked on World at War, the OG Modern Warfare Trilogy, and the Black Ops games of that Golden Era. Most of, if not all of those people that were once at those studios I'd imagine, have moved on and are no longer handling things. Similar issue with Battlefield. Most of the OG developers and people with knowledge for the Frostbite engine for example, have gone. Now you have a new group of developers that didn't come up having a hand or even insight into how these games were made and what made them great. I also would wager alot of newer decision makers at all of these game studios don't play their games actively like they once did. If I developed an FPS game for FPS gamers, and even after release I'm playing it with y'all regularly, interacting with the community, and getting feedback to go along with the vision of what the game is supposed to be, I'm more grounded with the decisions I'm making. And back then there was at least more of that than there is now. Unfortunately now decisions are usually made by those who aren't invested in seeing a game be successful, it's driven by money. And I completely understand wanting to make money, but there comes a point where it's less beneficial to make a decision to try and make more money, at the expense of your community and consumers. But, good luck getting that message across to corporate board members and share holders that only care about, "stock prices go up." - I think the trend of trying to make as many games a "competitive e-sport," is hurting games moreso than it being beneficial. COD is, at it's heart, a fast paced, arcade shooter. That means there's going to be bits of randomness thrown in. Somebody is going to jump around a corner and dropshot you at point blank range with an RPG and you'll both get blown up. It's happened to me. Somebody is going to launch a throwing knife or an axe across the map because, "fuck it," and one of those times it's going to clip your pinkie toe and register as a death for you that match. It's happened to me. I understand that in e-sports you try to set things up to avoid that, but admittedly the fun comes from the randomness of watching the kill cam and seeing some jank set up that this random shitter just got you with. It makes for hilarious and random, "what the FUCK IS THAT?!," moments. - SBMM/EOMM. This is a divisive topic, so let me get my stance on it out of the way first. I do not like it. Now before someone claims I just want an easy lobby against noobs, let me be honest about my experience with the Golden Age of COD games. Out of all my friends, I was typically the worst player and at my peak of playing COD I might, strong MIGHT, have had something like a 1.15 or 1.20 or even 1.10 KD average. I've never gotten a nuke, nor do I think I ever got a chopper gunner. Maybe once. But even with me being a more casual, less skilled player that didn't dump an insane amount of time into COD, do y'all know why I'd rather have my lobbies be like the old lobbies? Because even when I was getting curb stomped and my face kicked in, I learned. I would watch the kill cams and look for what happened. Did I give away my position? Was I in a bad position? Did I simply lose a gunfight because my aim was bad? Was my opponent doing something movement wise that I don't do or wasn't expecting? What route did they take to get to me, and was it different than what I normally do? It was learning the game and picking up bits and pieces of play styles and tactics and ideas from better players. Some of that worked for me, some of it didn't. And eventually I took that, plus the experience of learning the maps, spawn points, and the feel of when and where spawns would happen (I did not have spawn timing and location down to a science like some people did. I had a vague awareness of it that I could generally feel out from experience,) and managed to get pretty decent and serviceable at it. It also made it feel like a real accomplishment when I did win that encounter as a fresh, level 15 versus the guy who prestiged 10 times already. Sure, I won 1 encounter out of say, 15 of them. But it FELT like such an accomplishment. Add into that the fact that lobbies didn't disband and you stayed together with your group until you, or a good chunk of the group left and it was how rivalries developed, people made friends, and it made it feel more like a community. I'm not saying every encounter was great, there were obviously some really wild lobbies with voice chat, but I'd rather have ping based matchmaking with the teams divided up by skill based matchmaking and lobbies that don't disband, versus what we currently have. I'd rather get curb stomped and see what the community on a wider scale is doing; how they play the game, what they run, how they navigate the map, than to basically see people play the game extremely similar to myself in a narrow view of the player pool. I'm sure there's more I can think of but, it's late and this was just stream of consciousness from my tired brain. I think at this point we would need a new developer to develop something akin to an old school COD approach, within the modern age. Throw in an absolutely bat shit ridiculous "Meme Mode," where you have wacky skins and stuff like a banana as an option for a secondary pistol, etc, and I think you'd have a basis for a fun time. Casual multiplayer, Competitive multiplayer, and "Meme Mode," Multiplayer aka the most casual, anything goes, type of mode, and I think that has enough variety to keep people engaged, provided the gameplay is up to par where it needs to be. I would like to be involved in the development of something like this, however I don't have the necessary skillset to undertake such a challenge, and unfortunately my time is usually spent between my job, and drifting. Really though, I should go to bed and stop rambling over a comment no one's gonna read much anyways.

Cod 2-black ops 2 was a great era, while there have been some gems that era can never be replicated again.

To those folks that defend modern CoD by stating "Call of Duty never had a soul anyway. So, it's alright that it doesn't have one now." (yes, I've met individuals that have stated this in various paraphrased forms), you're only gaslighting yourselves and so many others from remembering what Call of Duty used to mean to many gamers. "The campaign was always a side dish." is such an invalid point to those of us that grew up with older, legendary Call of Duty campaigns like World at War's, and it just baffles my brain how they keep using that argument to deflect from the fact that this corporate obsession with monetizing multiplayer has definitely been one of the key factors in killing off what was left of Call of Duty's soul. Ever since CoD turned into an even more bastardized version of Fortnite, I just can't take any of it anymore... either seriously for a singleplayer experience or for the fun of immersing myself into the multiplayer component.

As a lifelong Call of Duty® play, I can tell you MW three is trash

No, you're absolutely right. I couldn't agree more. This is such a great video. I've been saying this for a while, but people would always says "gEt GuD aNd LeArN tO aDaPt". It's sad because the same sweats that ruined Fortnite came over to this game. And guess what? That community transformed COD into a sweat fest with "skill gaps" (idk how using a meta gun = Skill gap). Well done further explaining this terrible status in Call of Duty and I can't wait to see more! 😎

The reason is simple. We do not have time anymore. Gamers who are over 25 with a life and a job, do not have time to upgrade a weapon, let alone the rest of them. If you do not play for a few weeks to a month due to work/life stuff, when you come back, your upgraded guns are nerfed, there are new meta guns, and people who have more time already upgraded them. We simply do not have time, it is not that complicated. Most people wont complain about gameplay, because it is something we are familiar with. Problem is the constant change and the effort you need to put in to keep up with.

We didn’t kill CoD, the developers kept forgetting the content we’d been begging for and chose to increase the prices while giving less content. Plus warzone THATS is what killed duty the developers lack of care when making these games.

shout out to gregor using that soothing voice for gaming essays

For me it's the cheating. I'm not wasting my time to lose to cheaters. Dma cheats, new tvs coming with cheats, cheating glasses even. I thought $300 controllers and headsets were bad.

These have my exact thoughts since 2019 but you perfectly put it into words. CoD is just too big now to have a modest dev team. Milked. Dry.

Skill based matchmaking is what killed COD

What song is at 13:29?? i cant find it anywhere

Nope. I didnt kill it. Not me. I didn't ask nor support these damn furry skins, celebrity skins, or any other popular media on on's. This is a self-inflicted wound, and I'll be damned if you try to hold me accountable.

Call of duty suffers when it's not in the style of CoD4 or BO1, as in the moment they go all out on e-sports or/and goofy pop culture crap it start to waver both campaign, multiplayer and co-op modes. CoD MW2019 was such a refreshing return to form and it's the best CoD to date(and I've played since the original CoD in 2003), they should have just polished it over time and kept going in that direction. Black Ops: Cold War was also a great return to form for Treyarch.

never understood why the same people that mocked the animation slide cancelling were the same ones that worships ultrakill's movement.

For me, it was sliding. At this point the way to sell me an fos is just tell me there is no sliding. I'd take the air dashing exosuits over sliding at this point

i’m calling it this will be a great vid

In general: s-sports ruined a lot of casual games, and CoD was a casual FPS

I feel super patronized by the reboot campaign with diet edge. I feel super exhausted by the constant sweat fest online . Zombies is hit or miss and not enough to justify a purchase from me . I've seemed to outgrow Call of Duty and Call of Duty has outgrown me.

I honestly thought cod MW 2019 was the perfect middle ground but that’s just me…my first cod was call of duty 2 red one btw

I recently re bought cod ww2 2017 on steam. Ngl its the only cod I’ve been playing since January because mw3 is absolutely horrendous and the only decent cod in recent years (Cold War) has become more stale than a 9 year old Pringle

It's gotten stale. Same old killstreaks, same guns, same skins, annoying battle pass progression, etc

I mostly have played COD for zombies most of my life, i would never touch the multiplayer but would play the campaign over and over and the same with the zombies maps. Even though it had a less believable atmosphere it was still grounded and had a distinct style. The sad reality is that COD4 through Black Ops 2 was the peak with some good games rising higher in a rough sea later on. Last game i played regularly was Cold War and im happy i stopped there. I paid 40 bucks for vanguard and only after the campaign i deleted it and didnt look back because it was that bad.

COD MW3 season 3 is a joke. If Dice and Battlefield wasn't a mess, they would have competition.

Honestly the finals has beat them so hard with its gameplay, doubtful COD can hit the new standard

I stopped givin a sht when Activision stopped givin a sht.. To me that was after Black Ops 2

Dude i remember playing COD4 back in the day with my friends... That cybercafé, with over 10 guys screaming at eachother, laughing, disturbing everyone else who wasn't playing.... What keep us playing that shit qll out highschool years?? Like you said, the vibe, that immersion... Miss those days...

Advance Warfare and Infinite Warfare killed CoD period. The downfall started with Ghost

When they removed Nick Mercs’s operator for saying “leave them alone” to groomers pushing their immorality on children and then nicki minaj, who literally admitted to raping someone, gets added as an operator is when I was done with cod.

COD should make a realistisk mode. No 5 feet Jump, no Quicksilver super speed run, no silent running and no quick sniperscope (Al least not quicker than a SMG). I think this kills the game.. Yes I'm older than most players 😄

I still like going back to old CoD games and I don't have a problem play well. You could pick any weapon, choose any style of play and you would still have fun playing it. Nowdays, if you don't have op setup and sweat movement, you quit game pretty much early, because you can't stand a chance. But if I'll comment something like this on a streamer channel, only I'll get are comments, how noob I am and that game is awsome.

Oh it’s that time of the year. Spring. The time where we say that cod is terrible now, the old games were better, and the previous entry was underrated

PC players killed it

As a kid, I used the dark trooper’s pistol, f*ck that shotgun

The wild skins and sliding are the biggest immersion breakers for me. It used to feel like I was a soldier fighting for my life. Now someone in a bunny skin is hopping around a turning people into blocks when they kill them.

I wonder if decline is partly down to an aging player base? When I started CoD in my twenties I was part of a good clan and fast on the trigger. When I got older I found I was going around corners with the sights already up. As the games got faster I could keep up but I have to say it went from fun to stressful. I play overwatch and that game can be insane, I often run a couple of matches and then take a break. Cod seemed more tactical back in the day but it’s kinda broken now and that constant play seems to work for me on overwatch but not in CoD….. I actually miss CoD but I don’t feel compelled to buy it anymore, not really sure on all the reasons why tbh but I’m just not as into it as I used to be.

Well made video 👍 This says everything about the state of CoD at the moment 😢

Gaming in general is in a major decline. In the early 2010s, games had their own identities, were made with passion, had creativity and were endlessly fun even today. Games now all have the same bs looks, live service battle passes, seasons, microtransactions and other factory made bs. Stand out games today like elden ring, god of war and helldivers were the industry standard a decade ago.

been like this the last 15 years brother. Got old after 5 years.

They banned my friend with a .9 kdr for cheating.. the game hasn’t been the same since 😢 yet social media gurus are paid to cheat to garnish excitement but did the opposite.. so idk it’s a mid game and commmunity now 😢

I don't think color is bad, it never is, but it's bad when it's there without reason. Every game in the Warzone era had a strong setting and feel day one, that immediately vanished the moment bundles and battle passes get added. They lose all personality because they care more about the money than the art.

CoD always been sweaty. The popularity and casual voices on social media ruined it for others. Great vid!

Hey Older gamer here, I will never forget the Lan Parties playing CoD United offensive! It was so much fun, and for years i played cod2! It was a really good shooter. The hype with cod4 was real and it was a good game.. the last cod i bought was black ops 2. And then warzone.. but havent touched it since

MW19 did something so powerful it went into their heads. The mechanics, sound design, graphics were to a tea. MW2 (22) felt flat and it annoyed me that it felt like I was playing a game completely different to 2019’s version. I deleted COD and Warzone. It takes up too much space and it’s not worth the effort to even try. Helldivers has been my go to.

I just went back to playing COD 2019 after not having played since about April of 2020. I debated getting MW3 to get back into it, but it just didn’t seem worth spending 70$ for something I perceived to be the same thing. I was very into COD back during MW2, MW3, and Ghost. Then took a break from it. The new games just don’t hold attention long. I miss staying in lobbies and trying to beat teams that were better and trash talking, or making new friends from the game. Simpler maps that I could see on lol. Maybe I’m just getting old, but It was nice when you could stay back and causally snipe(no glint from scope))or decide you wanted to rush and either option would usually be fun. SBMM and lobby dispersement and no map voting def hurts the game especially for people playing since the early days. I’m surprised another franchise doesn’t see these things and take those ideas and create a new game all together.

Modern CoD is inauthentic. Gabe Newell said something along the lines of "What captivates a player is authenticity, not realism. When I get home from work, I'm not looking for a realistic experience, but one that can lead me to believe it's world is authentic" Think of how games used to greet the player, Gears of War had the grim and gritty main theme with the silhouette of a burning city in the background, Halo had the games major battleground in the background with wide, expansive, and mysterious themes playing intermittently, Call of Duty sold itself on the "We know this couldn't have happened... But what if it did?" The Russians wont ever land on American soil, but MW2 portrayed this in a way that we as consumers could suspend our disbelief; it was authentic to it's own narrative. CoD's multiplayer used to feel like an extension of the campaign, like you were one of the un-named bots in the campaign.

Great video keep it up!! I can see this channel going to 1 mil very soon:))

Great video, you hit the nail on the head. I'm going to rant for a bit: Another really big theme that you hinted at a couple times is that the game got so big and profitable that the business side started to impose their will on the dev/creative side decision making process. ActivisionBlizzard is a public company. Public companies have one goal and ONLY one goal, make more money today than you did yesterday. (This is why indie/smaller studios do so well, they want to make good games first and money second. Vice versa for most AAA) How do we make more money? Release a game every year on the year. But that's not enough time to make a proper brand new game, so we use old guns and old maps and we make sequels to our older games so we can reuse stuff and cut development time. Which in theory is fine, however, in practice it leads to what are essentially $80 reskins. How do we make even more money? Microtranscations, again fine in theory. But now my killcam is Spiderman throwing a Pokeball at Naruto while I shoot pink hearts at him. They lost their touch in the pursuit of riches. Hurts my heart :( The last couple releases I have purchased and played the campaign then refunded. The singleplayer is honestly still good, but multiplayer, the thing that "made us stay" as you put it, has completely morphed into an unrecognizable game. It's having a major identity crisis. The E-Sport doesn't do well bc of that identity crisis. Also it has its own problems with GA's and two gun metas and being a friendship league and having quite possibly the worst execution of franchising ever. But that's a story for another video (which you should consider making).