The large percentage of people reading this are those who like to read gaming articles on the internet, they like to stay informed and be a part of a conversation on varying topics within the industry. They tend to seed through all information provided and look for all the latest news and trends, so I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the people reading this article don’t like Modern Warfare 3.

I am quite impressed by the turn of general feelings from the gaming audience from the release of Black Ops to Modern Warfare 3. Not that I didn’t enjoy Black Ops or find some pleasure in Modern Warfare 3, but seriously, it is about time that a portion of the online community finally got fed-up with some of the new gaming conventions and really spoke up on the issues. At this point, it is near impossible to go into a review on IGN and not see a “> MW3” comment. That alone has become its own meme, and it is often the top comment. The meme is really easy actually, you can put anything in front of it, be it a good game, a bad game, a bad movie, getting diagnosed with cancer, anything! “Landing crotch first into a cactus > MW3.” See!

Now, I have defended MW3 to some extent to try and remind people that it isn’t awful, that the game itself is a solid FPS with no real inherent faults. The idea of the franchise and Activision‘s business plan with it however, is something worth going after, and if Call of Duty has to fall under unfair scrutiny for the market to get the hint that the annual release is bad for gaming in the long rung, then so be it. The annual game release is nothing but a cash grab, and when a series is successful and they are able to provide a base for that production, then it is all the better financially. Gaming can become something of an assembly line.

The annual game release is a bane to the creativity and originality within the gaming market, we’ve stopped receiving sequels and have instead been given glorified expansion packs that are sold to us as sequels. It is becoming increasingly frustrating to watch and observe. Innovations are becoming a thing of the past as it becomes more important to drive the next sequel to market as fast as possible to make sure the title stays fresh on everyone’s mind. EA is talking about doing it with the Battlefield franchise, Ubisoft is doing it now with Assassin’s Creed. EA and Activision have both done it with Guitar Hero and Rockband; that was until that entire genre stagnated and went the way of the interactive movie. The only exception to all of this is probably the sports franchises, they are the only games that make a remote amount of sense within the annual release plan in the long run.

Bonus Round: Is this Assassin's Creed 2, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, or Assassin's Creed: Revelations?

The biggest issue with the annual release is that a year simply isn’t enough time between releases to really innovate and change, this is a market that is all about innovating and changing. Look at how far we’ve come since the SNES with each consecutive platform generation. Gaming is an ever evolving and changing medium of entertainment, because it relies heavily on the evolving and ever changing technology of computer hardware and software. The second we lose grasp of that is the second we watch the empire crumble. A year, or even two years (I realize CoD is made by two different companies and actually gets a two year development cycle) is not enough time to build and change a game to really capitalize on the idea of a sequel.

Games separate themselves from cinema in many ways, yet one of those ways that is the most interesting is the fact that more often than not, a video game sequel usually sales better and is better than the original. That is because developers release an original IP, and if it is critically successful and sales well, they can then work on a sequel and take what people liked and improve upon it and then take what people didn’t like and change it. They craft and they work until they are ready to deliver something new to the market that is truly better than the original game released the last time. This will often mean overhauling the game engine to completely rebuilding the game engine. Look at Assassin’s Creed 1 and Assassin’s Creed 2, the changes between the two are stunning and well realized. Then, after that it went to a yearly release, nothing much has changed besides a few gaming mechanics here and there. Brotherhood and Revelations look like Assassin’s Creed 2, they play like Assassin’s Creed 2, and they are essentially an expansion to Assassin’s Creed 2 (not that any of that makes them a bad game, they have good reviews for a reason. They are just the same game). That is the problem now, developers are rushing out sequels to market because they sell, and aren’t spending that extra bit of time and money to innovate, because what is the point?  And that’s the thing, what is the point? us gamers are at fault for this trend.

The thing all of us -need- to understand at this point is that gaming has gone mainstream. We can blame Halo, Call of Duty, GTA, and all those other franchises that came out and sold like never before seen in the industry. Whatever it is that caused this change, it did, and our hobby has forever evolved because of it. With how far technology has come and how far the boundaries of what is possible have been pushed, a video game costs a lot of money to make. While before in the golden age of gaming a game could be made by a small team for a small amount, these days a game takes a team the size of a blockbuster Hollywood production team and costs millions upon millions of dollars to make (have you ever watched the credits at the end of your favorite 360 or PS3 game? They go on forever). Yet, it is also making more money now as an industry then ever before. There is a high risk, high reward aspect to this business, and it wasn’t quite like that back when many of us held our SNES or Genesis controllers with pride and reveled in our hobby despite the disdain from our peers.

Bonus Round 2: Is this Modern Warfare, MW2, Battlefield 2, Bad Company 2, Medal of Honor, or Call of Medal: Brothers at Arms?

The gaming industry is now a business, more so then ever before. It also a business that has just now come into understanding how much of a business it really is, and we are now just starting to see what that means with money making strategies such as DLC, online passes, DRM, and of course the annual release. All of these strategies have come with their share of ire from the online community, but you see, here is the issue. What we as gamers say and we as gamers do is at complete odds with each other. DLC sales are high, we buy games despite online passes, same goes for DRM, and the annual release plan makes a ton of money.

This is a business, I’ve said that many times because I want to emphasize it. The power of change is in our wallets and as long as we bitch about how much something sucks while that something that sucks goes out and breaks sells records, nothing is going to change. I hope that we see a decline to CoD sales come this next release given all the backlash from the internet community, but I also realize that the internet community is the minority of the gaming world. We are the most vocal, but we are also so very small in the grand scheme of things. Also, we tend to be the most volatile and annoying. Either way, I hope that this turn against CoD is felt as much by the general public, and that 2012′s release sees a drop in sales. I actually hope it takes a drastic drop in sales, that way… maybe, these talented teams at Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer, and Treyarch can be given the chance to really shine by being allowed the freedom and the time to do something different.

Our wallets speak more than our voices, we all need to come to terms with this and realize that no matter how much we speak out against something, nothing will change if that problem we speak out against is profitable.

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