COD 4 and Utility

I play video games a lot, but I rarely play a video game a lot; this is especially true of multiplayer. I usually try it out and leave it be. One series though has kept me going a long time: Call of Duty.

At first glance this is a fairly standard FPS (First Person Shooter), but with the reviews its received and the amount of hours people have decimated on its multiplayer, there has to be more. The single player I really have no explanation for having defeated it on Veteran, but the multiplayer I do understand.

In the multiplayer you have to earn it. Yes, this concept has been around since the beginning, but the difference is that the multiplayer forces you to take full advantage of it. Think of it like a test, but at the end of each section you get better ways of destroying each question (i.e. going from the AK-47 to the M4).

The multiplayer is based on utility, and one could argue it is the reason for Call of Duty 4's sucess. Alexis de Toqueville in his famous work, Democracy in America, spoke of Americans' need to find a postive cost/benefit in everything they did. I think this game is a perfect example...

One of the major reasons I bore of multiplayer modes is that they don't really provide anything beyond the multiplayer, just 12 year-old-boys with racist/foul vocabulary. COD 4 forces you to fight through it for simple purpose of getting more. Sure the basic sniper rifle is good, but what does it compare against a .50 cal sniper rifle.

In addition to unlocking items I think the game's other secret is showing your progress. Everytime you get a kill a +5 or +10 pops up, so you are literally seeing yourself moving along. Resistance 2 took this to a new level, counting off the numbers on the screen for each hit. The game literally shows your progression.

I think that in many ways the sucess of Call of Duty 4 and to a lesser extent Call of Duty WOW shows that this system is here to stay and will most likely be copied much more. Now this game has been plenty sucessful, but I think its largest growth has been in the Unites States. It feels less like a game and something worthwhile, something where the progression never ends.

To anyone who has not tried this game, I highly suggest it, it feeds your need for tangible progress.