@mexitalrish

The 3rd indeed sucked, Infinity Ward when did the first 2, told to Activision that they needed more time to bring a new perspective to the Call of Duty series, so Activision did that and they handed Call of Duty 3 to Treyarch, by that time they didn't had the formula down and did a mediocre game... Then Inifinity Ward showed up with CoD4: Modern Warfare, no more WW2, the game is in modern times, and they added the factor to sell: Accessibility to everyone and great Multiplayer... They improved on that with Modern Warfare 2, and Treyarch took over the WW2 setup...

So Call of Duty sells simply because:

1. Infinity Ward knows how to aim at not just the FPS audience, but people outside the genre fans, like Bungie did with Halo...
2. Treyarch learned from IW on how to make a popular FPS, it took one sucky game, but they now can handle the WW2 setup...
3. Infinity Ward did 2 WW2 games, now 2 MW games, i guess it will be one more MW game then they'll move to something new (that's freshness and people love it) and Activision will handle the MW series to another dev, like they did with Treyarch...

i wondered that too.. i always wrote it off as manly macho crap.. until last night XD i played MW2 multiplayer online for AGES at my (male) friend's house, and i was playing using his username.

my first game, i got 3 kills and 18 deaths. my last game of the night, i got 8 kills and 24 deaths.

i was getting headshots against actual people all over the world. and they didn't even realise i was
A) a n00b.
B) a girl.

ha. ha. ha.

OT, though.. its quite addictive, you WANT that next kill, you WANT to shoot things. i'm saying this as someone who played a FPS for the first time ever (excluding bioshock) last night. i am a recent convert.

because it has fun and attictive online, i dont get bored of it like other multiplayer games. also all my friends have it so i can play with them, unlike most other games i get.

So, to summarise your reasons for not liking Call of Duty:

1) You die too quickly... so you have to be careful
2) There's no cover system... so there is some skill required in moving away from bullet paths, etc.
3) You have to aim... so it's not all blindfiring.
4) You can't use a shotgun effectively...THANK GOD.

So basically, it's too difficult for you?
Do yourself a favour and never play Bad Company 2, or even KZ2. CoD4 is just about the easiest FPS in the world to grasp.

I find Resistance 2 and Kz2 more fun than MW2 but the thing MW does is they have so many unlockables and challenges that keep the players interested in coming back for more and you get rewarded very well for doing good in a match. I had a problem with dying quickly in MW2 at first but now I understand the game and you also gotta know the maps very well.

Huh? I thought the auto aim feature takes care of that.

Because it is accessible and fun.

That's another good point: You don't have to aim nearly as much as in other online FPS.

Do people really have to explain why they enjoy something?

two words - instant gratification, as soon as you jump in to play you feel as though you are really doing something important, no skill, time, or dedication is need to be really good, really quick, that's why every thing is on a 10x multiplier and nearly every kill is a challenge. It is super fun and addictive to a lot of people. Not everyone though, i don't like cod personally, I prefer my shooters to bring a challenge, and be a lot more dense and actually meaningful, in gameplay.