Well, he doesn't look like a hardcore gamer and she looks like a soccer mom to me!

That is clearly an assumption on your part seeing as how I have backed up Call of Duty and EA in previous weeks which as you can see are both in the list ;)  This is not just one thing that has brought up this thread but the general behavior of forums that I have seen for the last 7 months.  Not just today.

Popular among forums, yes I know.  As I said, JRPG genre would be selling like Call of Duty if the real world thought like forums did.  Doesn't make forum gamers real gamers and call of duty gamers casuals though.  Really it just means you like different games.  They just arent as vocal about it.

I'm not really sure what the hell your point is. Call of Duty is the McDonald's of the video games industry. It's a step up from Farmville on Facebook. People buy it because it IS a trend, and because "dude-bros" and people who aren't even that into games on the whole, like to shoot people online.

Saying that Wii and Motion controls wouldn't have succeeded is a bit much. Not ALL "hardcorez" kids hated/hate motion controls. It just so happens the actual APPLICATION of a lot of Wii motion games, and a vast majority of Move/Kinect games, was horrible and tacked on. There were motion games on Wii that worked very well, usually made by Nintendo themselves. It was a nice, different style to play a game. But by and large, yes, for MOST types of games buttons are just more responsive.

But when it comes to Madden/CoD/Battlefield/Halo, etc, is it REALLY that people just buy them because they're good? Or is it that they are franchises that have extreme visibility, even in the casual (meaning don't play games constantly) market's eyes, and it gets the shit promoted out of it. They even have CoD ads before movies in the theater for fuck's sake. So OF COURSE those games are going to sell more than something that didn't get promoted much and only dedicated gamers have ever heard of. It's called simple common sense.

While I hardly count myself among the "hardcore" gamers, in fact most of them fucking annoy me, I also fail to see what your whole deal was in making this thread. I play games that I like, because I like to enjoy them. Period. I'm not sure if you're trying to sound super smart, or hip, or what. But it kind of falls flat. McDonald's sells more than a quality local restaurant, because it's more visibile, better advertised, it's quick and easy, everyone knows about it. That described something like CoD perfectly. So why NOT criticize it? That's like scolding an avid movie goer, because he prefers movies with real substance over the shitty Transformers and GI Joe and Fast & The Furious sequels that come out year after year. I guess maybe those movies sell better than, say, a Wes Anderson film, because they ARE just better, and "maybe people just like them because they're good", eh?

See how that logic kind fo fails? Nice try though..........

No i'm not kidding at all. I think it's you guys who are the ones telling jokes. The FF brand name has been pretty damaged this gen, which is the gen most associated with bringing in casual gamers. The prestigious name of the FF brand was at it's heights in the late 90's and early 2000's. Since it's been damaged and has even left a bitter taste in the mouths of the fanbase itself. Nevermind the fact that you can't play FF games online (well besides those mmos lol) which is a gigantic reason CoD appeals with many.

I'm going to make an unpopular call here and say FFX started it, agree? disagree?

It was just way to easy........ That was before the celestial(?) weapons too.

See my earlier post about the brand being damaged. Also, take not of the character in my avatar being from FFVIII. I'm sorry, but you are trying way too hard to insult me. *Hint* it's not working.

I can agree with where you're coming from then. As I said above, for me FFX kicked off the casual Final Fantasys.

I can name one instance where real life and the forum will agree though.

I'll bet a year of sig control on it, even. Perhaps even money.

Wow... I guess I was young back then so it just "seemed" harder than what it was at the time. FFX was the last full Final Fantasy title I played.