I'm a COD-hater but I don't begrudge people their fun, I'm just no good at it and find it a bit grim and wearying.

A few years ago a guy at work said to me "What you've got to understand is I only like games where it's something that's like real life and easy to get what's going on. It's gotta be Fifa or driving or COD, sports ones are good too - but I don't like anything weird or confusing, like, stuff that's not in the real world just isn't for me."

I realised at that point that I believe the exact opposite of this statement. He wasn't a bad guy or anything but he did not have good taste in games imo. These are the people that have directed the change in gaming trends and the reason that many of us feel a vague disappointment with many of today's offerings and get a bit "out of synch". These guys were first brought into gaming when Sony pushed the 'lifestyle' angle with the ps1 and made it trendy, bringing in more of the masses - and what do the masses like to eat - Mcdonalds; it's safe, it's easy, you know what you're getting.

Most of today's games seem to be lacking a certain quirkiness which was inherent in the more japanese influenced games prevalent in the 8 and 16 bit era. It's as if everything has to be over explained with lengthy cutscenes these days and the theme has to be obviously marketable.

I'm grateful for the advent of Xbox live because it gives me access to all sorts of downloadable games, many of which show incredible creativity and originality - qualities that you will rarely see in the charts or in many COD/Fifa enthusiast's collections today.

Let me say this: It is presumptive, highly presumptive, to assume that if X is gone, that the people into X will migrate elsewhere.  It is very possible they wouldn't do any console stuff at all, or their interest is just into FPS stuff.  It doesn't translate that people into FPS titles will suddenly play sandbox games or any sorts, or even the infernal Dante's Inferno, or even God of War.  You can't presume that.  A form of this presumption is also done with the software industry presuming every piece of pirated software will translate into a sale if people couldn't access it for free, and then reports it the pirated versions as lost revenue.

You can't flat out presume that the people migrate over, or won't migrate over now.  If you can't get them now, what makes you think it would be easier to get them, when they aren't playing a console at all?

The market consisted of Halo, before Call of Duty came out.  Without Call of Duty, it is likely Halo in a larger degree.  Also, you have to realize that the success of Call of Duty has driven other FPS titles to be produced, because investors see a market.  Without Call of Duty being a big success, you are less likely to see others come over, particularly on consoles.  You wouldn't likely see Crysis ported over, or others.  It would of been mainly PC fare for FPS titles.

At this point, people are criticising Call of Duty because they feel that they have to. This is the first time since 2007 that they have actually tried to change the formula, and people STILL refuse to accept that it might be good.

And, of course, when I say "people", I mean "the internet". It will still break sales records, no matter what the internet thinks of it, and quite a few of the people complaining about it will still be first in line to buy it in November.

All the live long day! Goddamn i feel ya man!

Its so damn true

So thats why you used that phrase. 

Y U NO MAKE UR OWN PHRASES?

Of course I can assume, just like you did but in the other direction.

There's two forces at play, one driving casuals and new people into hardcore gaming thanks to the phenomenon of Call of Duty (the one you describe above), the other force being all these existing hardcore gamers being hooked to Call of Duty and simply not having time or urge to discover other games.
(Dante's Inferno is not one of those games, I just mentioned it because it's a personal favorite. I love Dante's Inferno and got the Platinum trophy for it, which I am very proud of. But there is no one to play it with online, the servers to Dante's Inferno on PSN are always empty Anyway, I am happy a sequel to Dante's Inferno is in the making).

Anything you can say I presume here, is that there is no guarantee of a market materializing elsewhere, if it currently exists somewhere.  I can't presume that players will end up doing something, just because something else is gone.  People are drawn to something, because it has certain attributes.  Other things may not have those.  And to end up going towards another category that is missing some of the attributes of the likes of Call of Duty (since Modern Warfare), it is hard to project that the audience would show up for it.

The thing I will differ with you on about hardcore gamers who play Call of Duty, suddenly getting exposure is that I believe hardcore gamers don't only play one game.  They play a range of games and own a number of them.  The thing you have with Call of Duty, since Modern Warfare is an RPG leveling up framework, that drives people to play online, but also has them play without needing to worry about others.

What I said, for a franchise as large as Call of Duty is now, is the base tends to just play that.  It is like core players into Madden.  Make NFL football disappear and you have no guarantee they go on to other games.  It is folly to presume taking something away means a market moves elsewhere.  It could just end up disappearing.  For all you know, players might find other things better than videogames to do.  You know, there are enemies of the videogame industry that would love nothing more for it just go away, so people would be forced to do other things with their lives.

By the way, kudos to you for enjoying Dante's Inferno.  As much as I wanted to try to like it, I found it an abysmal knockoff of God of War, that so infuriated me, I am very happy it went away.  This from someone who so much wanted to end up liking it, because I would be a fan of the game world, and the base story.

Does nobody else think that the reason COD sells so well is because it's an exceptionally crafted and fun FPS? I don't even play COD but I can certainly recognize the appeal. People will play what's fun for them. Why is that so bad?

You are new here, so I can forgive your innocence. Here at vgc we look down on the casualness that is CoD. We make fun of those who enjoy playing for long periods of time. We praise the borderline games that come out of Japan, JRPGs are what real gamers play, boy. Until you realize that you shall be labeled as a casual.