It's a great game, but it's hard to argue that it didn't change the genre, and all of multiplayer video games, for the worse. Multiplayer games can no longer be designed to just be fun. They must also be addictive, they must retain players, they must keep them coming back, etc. using every manipulative trick in the book like XP bars and unlocks. You might say MMORPGs did this first, but this was the application of that feedback loop to a competitive action game.

[–] ItalianSkeletonGaming@mastodon.social 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

@ampersandrew @simple Whenever someone says that X ruined Y, I always hypothesize that it may be the opposite case: the reason why so many copied its addictive nature is because the publishers themselves were already searching for ways to maximize player engagement, and therefore increased revenue through monetization.

COD itself didn't ruin multiplayer games, it only showed an easy and replicable way

If you may forgive the metaphor: a weed can only spread if the soil itself is fertile

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Potentially true. Or it was an accident that proved more lucrative than they thought it would. At the very least, it got there first and showed everyone else how to ruin multiplayer games.

[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

The RPG mechanics didn’t ruin the genre although I did prefer the mechanics of earlier CoDs where in multiplayer everything is unlocked and you just use whatever you want.

What ruined the genre was the free-to-play style monetization and season pass paid update model.

Black Ops 2 was the first CoD to have paid skins, but we would have no idea how bad things would become. By the time Fortnite came along the multiplayer FPS genre was already long ruined