Call of Duty: Ghosts might be a best selling title—one boasting among some of the highest pre-order numbers of all time, right up there with its predecessors Black Ops 2 and Modern Warfare 3. Needless to say, it's one hell of a popular game, and popular games—like all popular things—are low-hanging fruit for easy criticism and mockery.
Ever since Call of Duty: Ghosts was announced, gamers the world around took to making fun of its inclusion of the dog, Riley, calling the game "Collar Duty", among other mean-spirited terms. Beyond its name, its inclusion of a dog, and other more amusing things tom ake fun of the game of, such as its "intelligent fish AI which swim out of the way," which surfaced during the game's first presentation, gamers have taken towards making fun of its players just as well, denigrating its defenders as fanboys and children.
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Today, GameStop put up a simple screenshot of Call of Duty: Ghosts depicting the game's main protagonist and his dog Riley, with a request for players to provide a caption and "Like" the screenshot.
Most, if not all of the responses to the picture were snarky, ranging from mildly critical of the game, to outright hostile.
"Find me a way to Battlefield 4, Spike! I hear they can destroy buildings there," wrote one user.
Another comment was far more cutting: "It's okay boy, [GTA 5's] Chop doesn't have body armor like you, and yes, I know [Medal of Honor] Warfighter and BF3 have done what we're claiming to bring to the table already. It'll be okay, we'll still thrive on careless parents and immature 12 year olds on [Xbox] Live."
Et cetera, et cetera.
Can't we just sit back and enjoy the Call of Duty series for what it is, without comparing it to the likes of other popular games and denigrating it all in the same beat? The games are popular for a reason—and that's because they're fun.
I know that it's cool to hate popular games for being popular, but does gaming culture really have to be so ugly and competitive?
