Kotaku's Luke Plunkett recently wrote an opinion piece entitled Why It's Stupid to Hate Call of Duty So Damn Much. Intrigued by the headline (and always a sucker for a well-considered opinion piece to counter the never-ending stream of gaming "list-icles" out there) I decided to see why people were stupid to hate on what is essentially the biggest game franchise in the world at this moment.
Some disclosure before we talk about Mr. Plunkett's article—I have no vested interest one way or the other in Call of Duty. I played a small portion of CoD: Modern Warfare's single player campaign, found it to be decent enough, and never finished it because I had other titles to review. When it comes to CoD I'm largely indifferent. I don't skip the games because I have anything against the series—but solely because I find realistic modern day military shooters that focus on online multiplayer aren't my cup of tea. I like my shooters in fantasy or sci-fi settings with an engaging single-player campaign. I've always felt that if I wanted to do the things CoD or Battlefield or the various Tom Clancy games ask of their players, I'd just enlist instead. The only point of this is to make it clear that I'm not a Call of Duty hater. Truth be told, I mostly don't give a shit about the games one way or the other. I'm too busy playing stuff I like to spend a lot of energy on titles that don't really interest me (so why are you prattling on here, Bracken? I hear you thinking… Patience. All will be clear soon).
With that out of the way, I plunged into the Kotaku editorial. It starts off strong, with Plunkett talking about how CoD inspires some really venomous reactions in gamers—and how CoD haters are quick to take to the Internet to voice their distaste for the game continuously. Having seen it happen, I know what he's talking about.
After that good beginning, it all goes bad. How does one even justify a statement like this:
"Take a look at any comments section on almost any video game site on Earth and you'll see the same thing. People wondering aloud why the series is so popular, complaining about its incremental updates, mocking its design and lambasting those who have the tenacity to actually enjoy it.
Those people are idiots."
So, you're an idiot if you find CoD's annual updates that charge $60 for incremental changes or you don't like the game design? Really? This is where the level of thought and discourse is at on one of the biggest gaming blogs on the entire Internet? I agree that lambasting something others like that you don't is pretty idiotic—but how can you lump people in with legitimate issues? Oh, but wait—it gets worse.
The article then goes on to make the distinction that it's okay to dislike Call of Duty, but that it's stupid to hate it. And why is it stupid to hate it? Because people who hate a mega popular video game are "obnoxious elitists."
Yes, forget for a second any of the real and valid reasons you might have had for hating Call of Duty. They don't matter. You're an obnoxious elitist. It's that simple.
In Mr. Plunkett's defense, he does eventually say that there are valid reasons to criticize the franchise (followed by "there are plenty of reasons to love it as well"—he never bothers to acknowledge what those reasons might be, of course), but that's only after he's assured us that if you hate CoD then its only because you're the type of gamer who longs for the days when gaming was "uncool" and niche or are certain anyone who likes the game (and Madden, the other perennial whipping boy of gaming) is just a casual gamer who doesn't know anything and isn't as "hardcore" as you are. How is painting people who hate CoD with these broad brushstrokes and generalizations any better than the behavior he's attributing to "the haters?" How is it okay for him to talk about millions of people loving Call of Duty? If hating an inanimate object is ridiculous, wouldn't loving it be just as stupid? Shouldn't it only be acceptable to like the franchise by his earlier logic? I'm nitpicking, but I didn't set the rules of this debate in the first place.
I get that Mr. Plunkett is talking about a certain segment of gamers—but he's lumped a whole lot of other people in with bad apples by insinuating that anyone who dares to dislike the game's design or release structure is an idiot. There are very valid reasons to be troubled by what franchises like Call of Duty are doing to the gaming landscape. It's a successful franchise that other franchises will look to emulate—often in the worst ways possible. Just one example is that full priced yearly releases with relatively minor upgrades are not a good business model for publishers or gamers. It's myopic to think that Call of Duty exists in a vacuum where it doesn't affect the rest of the industry. There's been a certain segment of gamers who've always vocally opposed things like yearly releases with little added in terms of features to justify another full price retail purchase. Before this, it was Madden. There was a time it was Tony Hawk. At one point it was Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Fans will say "don't buy it if you don't like it"—and they're right—but that doesn't make it wrong to discuss these issues. It's not wrong to point out why you don't like Call of Duty just because a billion other people do. A billion people love Justin Bieber, too—does that make him above critical reproach? Does that mean those us who don't like his music shouldn't articulate why we don't like it?
And this is where Mr. Plunkett's piece really starts to lose the plot—he says "people don't walk around calling themselves "moviers", and pretend they're the only ones allowed to watch films. Everybody watches movies, some more than others, everyone with their own likes and dislikes. Same with books, same with TV, same with music."
He's right, no one calls themselves "moviers"—they call themselves "cinephiles" or "cineastes" and they very much exist. And while some of my fellow cinephiles can be "obnoxious elitists" who laugh at people listing something like Transformers as the greatest film they've ever seen, and sneer at people who call films "movies," the majority of them are passionate about the artform and interested in sharing their knowledge and perspective not to belittle people, but to help them see things in a broader context. I know firsthand—I've spent the majority of my adult life writing about film.
In the grand scheme of things, this is yet another example of gaming wanting to have its cake and eat it too. Gaming is oh so desperate to be recognized as a form of art—but articles like Mr. Plunkett's demonstrate that gaming isn't really ready to endure the critical analysis required to be taken seriously beyond the confines of mere entertainment. Yes, there's a vocal contingent of "gamers" who hate things for the misguided reasons the editorial points out—but not everyone who hates Call of Duty or Madden or Halo or some other gigantic franchise is doing it solely to be cool, hip, or iconoclastic. If gaming ever hopes to be taken seriously as an artform, if it ever even dreams of rising above the level of disposable culture, it's going to need the gaming equivalent of cineastes and bibliophiles to help get it there. That means people with passionate opinions about things—good or bad—and maybe people not afraid to hate a wildly popular franchise.
There will always be people railing against popular things for no other reason than because it's easy attention and makes them feel better about themselves. Unfortunately, that's just the nature of discourse in the Internet age. However, there's not only room for passionate opinions both positive and negative in the realm of gaming—there's a distinct need. This is particularly true of cogent and thoughtful negative opinions, because "game journalism" has demonstrated that it's mostly just a cheerleader for the industry and only marginally interested in being truly critical. Ignoring or attempting to marginalize dissenting opinions by labeling the opposition as "haters" and "obnoxious elitists" is no better than the trolls on message boards who say little more than "Popular Game X suxxorz." It's okay to hate a game or a franchise. It's perfectly acceptable to be passionate about your hobby. It's all right to stand up and voice your negative opinion about a game or franchise in the face of overwhelming positivity—just make sure you can support that opinion logically and add something to the conversation. That doesn't make you an "obnoxious elitist"—it makes you a fan of gaming. From where I stand, there's nothing wrong with that.
Author's note: After Mr. Plunkett's article went up, I replied to him on Twitter with some questions in hopes of opening up a dialogue. Mr. Plunkett hasn't responded at the time of this writing, but if he chooses to at some point I'd be more than happy to let him clarify his side of the issue.
A film critic by trade, specializing in Euro-horror, cult exploitation, and Asian action cinema, Mike has written reviews for a diverse group of print and online publications. He covers horror news, movies, books, and games at TheHorrorGeek.com and Horrorsquad.com and spent two seasons as The Horror Geek on Comedy Central's pop-culture game show, Beat the Geeks.
Mike's childhood was spent playing videogames any time he got a chance. His parents had a Pong console and his grandmother had an Atari 2600, where Mike cultivated his skills by playing hour upon hour of games like Space Invaders, Berserk, and Asteroids. From those early experiences Mike learned one thing: he loved games.
In 1999, Mike became a staff reviewer at Cinescape Magazine's website where he spent a year learning the craft of game criticism. After internal changes led to Mike leaving Cinescape in late 2000, he joined up with RPGFan in 2001 and spent several years writing reviews for them. Happy, but looking for an opportunity to expound on a wider variety of titles, Mike joined GameCritics.com and hopes to help Chi, Dale, and the rest of the GC staff bring a higher level of respect to the field of game criticism.
- Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Review - July 14, 2015
- Sunset Overdrive Second Opinion - December 8, 2014
- Diablo III: Ulitmate Evil Edition Review - October 8, 2014
This editor, Plunkett, he’s an idiot. Stone cold fact. “Hurr durr, anyone who has a different opinion than me is an idiot”. I don’t even need to explain that. People like that are the REAL idiots. Am I still an idiot while presenting and having valid reasons for hating this franchise? I’ll admit, I am the kind of guy who used to love Call of Duty when it first came out; Finest Hour and Big Red One are my favorites, but it’s just gotten worse and it’s not only affecting the franchise, but the gaming community as well. Here’s why… Read more »
Well played sir. I remember getting COD4 as an early Christmas gift from my wife that year (I believe it was a week after release). I let that game site there till Christmas night however as I didn’t think it would do much for me. I was a Halo man through and through for my multiplayer at the time, and I wasn’t all that jazzed about any COD titles before. They were solid, and entertaining games to be sure, but I like sci-fi and fantasy so much more than WWII themed stuff that there’s no comparison. After finishing playing the… Read more »
Key difference, crackajack, is that Mike reached out to Luke because he seeks to understand Luke’s points even despite fundamental differences. Did Luke extend the same luxury to people who don’t like CoD? No. Also, calling someone wrong is not the same as calling him stupid; unless I’m missing something, no one person is without flaws, and we need people calling out our mistakes (constructively) if we want to improve. All I, and I imagine everyone else, want is for Kotaku, a popular site, TO BE BETTER. We don’t have any hateful agenda to push and no one is deliberately… Read more »
[quote=crackajack]I don’t want to sound like a troll but i smell irony.[/quote] Being a long-time reader/commenter to the site, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and respond. [quote=crackajack]I have no idea how many comments they deleted and how strictly its moderated, but Kotaku allowed a ton of comments disagreeing with their article. Also by ‘COD ruins the industry’-haters. From ‘bullshit article’ to ‘yay, you’re right, too much hate involved’. Every, also endlessly repeated opinions. But here it gets already too far when opinions are iterated, in my case to further investigate why someone can understand it… Read more »
[quote=Chi Kong Lui]…discussion go a little too far without moderating….while respecting the opinions of others…there’s no need for someone to call out…[/quote] I don’t want to sound like a troll but i smell irony. I have no idea how many comments they deleted and how strictly its moderated, but Kotaku allowed a ton of comments disagreeing with their article. Also by ‘COD ruins the industry’-haters. From ‘bullshit article’ to ‘yay, you’re right, too much hate involved’. Every, also endlessly repeated opinions. But here it gets already too far when opinions are iterated, in my case to further investigate why someone… Read more »
It’s hilarious that people are OKAY when Kotaku — a widely read site — uses yellow journalistic headline “Why it’s stupid to hate Call of Duty so damn much” that straight up calls people who don’t like Call of Duty stupid, and then would defend Luke Plunkett for using insulting words like “idiots, obnoxious elitist, and a**holes”. However, they’re offended by Mike Bracken for his audacity to disagree without using a single derogatory term, for using a headline that essentially says it’s okay to feel a certain way about this and other games, and for taking conscious efforts to give… Read more »
The linked piece is a common diatribe against self-appointed elitists who affect a loathing against anything wildly popular based solely on that popularity. Nothing new in the least, although the author apparently thinks it is.
I’d say a lot of the hate comes from gamers who feel the popularity is undeserved because of obvious flaws to the series/games, a lack of evolution in the story-telling and game design, as well as the games omnipresence in the media. Many gamers, I bet, HATE the game because of its overwhelmingly popularity despite having no evolution in both game design and story telling and having flaws among other things. At the end of the day, hatred comes from some deep opposition, and if what you oppose is quantity over quality then that doesn’t make ‘haters’ stupid at all,… Read more »
Hey everyone, we probably let this discussion go a little too far without moderating. I’m going to ask folks to be mindful of the Code of Conduct and try to express yourself while respecting the opinions of others. If you have a differing opinion, that’s great. We love hearing different points of view at GameCritics, but there’s no need for someone to call out Mike or anyone else with “you don’t get it” or “you missed the point” or having some ulterior motive. There’s also no need to beat a dead horse. If you made your point once, making it… Read more »
@anon Exactly. “And” I said that more or less already but thanks for making it obvious. [quote=Nightdreamer]An article published in Kotaku — a widely read gaming site — that is poorly constructed, dismissive and discouraging of critical thought can be just as harmful to the industry as the trends a bestselling series could start. In my opinion, this is actually worse. It enables this lynch mob culture that the internet is already teeming with. To tie this into videogames, look at all the reactions to authors who give low-scoring reviews of high profile games. Just recently, Scott Jones caught flak… Read more »
I think you misread Mr Plunkett’s article. Let me start off with the quote you pulled out… “Take a look at any comments section on almost any video game site on Earth and you’ll see the same thing. People wondering aloud why the series is so popular, complaining about its incremental updates, mocking its design and lambasting those who have the tenacity to actually enjoy it. Those people are idiots.” I think by focusing on what he said before the and, you are missing the whole point of his article. I don’t think Mr Plunkett is insinuating that anyone who… Read more »
[quote=sleeve]I stand by my comments. I’m not a “conspiracy theorist”, I just think that people should say what they’re thinking. If you think MW3 is harmful to the gaming industry for whatever reason, say so. Don’t employ the half-baked rhetorical strategy of imputing your opinion onto someone else under a guise of smug mpartiality, e.g. “some people would argue that MW3 is harmful to the gaming industry.”[/quote] Maybe it’s just me, but people saying what they’re thinking is the most over-glorified attitude of the internet age. An obnoxious person can say the most prejudiced statements because “that’s the thinking”. A… Read more »
Honestly, better to redact “elitist” than “idiot”. Calling people “elitist” as if your faux-populism is some sort of trump card is just about as idiotic as it gets.
If you guys take nothing else from my comments, please understand that I am not saying that all people who dislike CoD or MW3 are “obnoxious elitists”. Got it? Good. I stand by my comments. I’m not a “conspiracy theorist”, I just think that people should say what they’re thinking. If you think MW3 is harmful to the gaming industry for whatever reason, say so. Don’t employ the half-baked rhetorical strategy of imputing your opinion onto someone else under a guise of smug mpartiality, e.g. “some people would argue that MW3 is harmful to the gaming industry.” Mike, if the… Read more »
Or maybe im just an obnoxious elitist?
I think the point is here that surely Mr. Plunkett couldve made his point without resorting to the kind of language and clouded thinking that he claims to be against. Surely trolling trollers is just trolling regardless of the point? For the record I adored the call of duty 4, it felt like a breath of fresh air amid all the second world war shooters, of which I was sick of. And the weight of the weapons, and just how smooth it all was really impressed me. However it didn’t take that long for me to get bored of how… Read more »
Sleeve, I love you to death — but you’re really hardcore reaching here. I have no “stealth agenda” — I simply take exception (as have others) to Plunkett’s assertion that people who don’t like CoD (for completely valid reasons, despite what you might think…) are idiots. It’s like American politics — don’t actually debate an issue — just sling around derogatory terms for people who don’t share your viewpoint and muddy the water instead. The very idea of me having a stealth agenda is so stupidly hilarious that I’m laughing. I go on our podcast and Twitter and everywhere else… Read more »
Mike, don’t forget that we’re talking about an editorial. Plunkett isn’t telling us that this is some investigative breakthrough; it’s just one man’s opinion. I don’t think that Kotaku held this out as anything other than an editorial, and I don’t think that anyone is claiming that the Plunkett piece is anything more than an editorial. So Plunkett is not a “poor journalist” for expressing his opinion, any more than Mike Bracken is a poor journalist for disagreeing with him. Let’s just keep that straight. Distinctions are important. Call of Duty =/ Tony Hawk =/ Madden. These are three separate… Read more »
Sleeve, You can make all these distinctions until the end of time — it doesn’t make the people who don’t agree “idiots”. People who argue that CoD offers up incremental updates for each new game or have a problem with the gameplay or mechanics or any of that are not idiots. To lump them in with people who blindly hate on something is irresponsible, misguided, and poor journalism. How about we worry less about generating article hits and more about talking about something intelligently? I forgot, though — this is gaming, where no one’s interested in anything but having the… Read more »
I agree wholeheartedly with crackajack’s post. First of all, I enjoy Kotaku as a whole, and I disagree with the commenters who describe it as a “tabloid” site or as a purveyor of substandard game journalism. I have read many thoughtful articles on Kotaku over the years. Mike, to the extent you object to the article, you’re missing the point. Plunkett says it right at the beginning: there’s nothing wrong with disliking a game, but there’s something wrong with hating a game, or a franchise, with the burning fury that a lot of people have. Yes, those people are idiots.… Read more »
Have you had any response from Luke Plunkett yet Mike?
Im very interested in what he has to say.
Problem is at the moment, its sad to see an industry which I have such a personal interest in being marred by poorly written articles like his and the industries bad decisions regarding dlcs and the war on the second hand market.
I sometimes think that it makes it hard for me to love this medium.
Unfortunately, that’s not really what he winds up saying, though — he mentions people complaining about the game’s design and incremental updates as being idiots too. Those people aren’t idiots — they’re people expressing an informed opinion about why the game doesn’t work for them. As I said before, if he’d just written an article about people rag on others for liking a game they don’t — with no good reason — that would be one thing. Instead, he comes dangerously close to saying “if you don’t like it, just don’t say anything and let the people who do be… Read more »
3/4 of people in rich countries play video games (mostly on their telephone or browser but who cares) and only a teeny tiny portion of them play CoD (just like only a tiony portin of people who listen to music like Justin Bieber). Most people do not want to pay to play Call of Duty. So this Elitist Niche vs. Majority of Gamers representation is pretty much nonsense. Just because a franchise is the most popular in a certain category (retail console gaming) does not mean it is not, in a sense, niche. Other tastes may be more niche than… Read more »
[quote=Mike Bracken]Your mind was made up as soon as you hit the the reply button anyway.[/quote] I guess yours on the article was made up before you wrote your own article? Isn’t that the natural process when exchanging views? I started my above disagreeing comment already before i read the article in question. So even before i agreed to the Kotaku article in overall i knew that i disagreed on your article, because i think you missed the point. You yourself are perplex by him writing disliking with arguments is okay and at the same time calling them stupid for… Read more »
The logic behind why hating an entire franchise is stupid is: You buy a game. You either love, like, dislike or hate it. Like a simplified scoring system. Once you disliked or hated a single release of a franchise no one is ever forcing you again to buy a game of the series. Initiating hate is the reason why someone should not care about a franchise anymore. Have a passion for your happy. Great. Invest that passion in hate. Stupid. Continue hating the single game where you spent money on, ok, and even though all reviews might suggest that newer… Read more »
Maybe you are correct Zolbrod, but the more thoughtful articles you speak of are the kind I don’t seem to find anywhere else. I always thought it was a site that mixed the more pulpy shallow stuff and the well written articles very well. I certainly rarely get offended in the same way with regards to this call of duty article. Im glad you mentioned leigh alexander though, and I also enjoy reading kirk hamilton. Their final fantasy 7 and deus ex letters were a pure joy to read. Don’t you think that games journalism in general is in a… Read more »
hmm. i’m no fan of plunkett’s writing in general, but it almost feels like you’re looking for conflict where none exists. as he says in the beginning of his article (you even point it out in yours), he has no problem with people NOT LIKING call of duty. his beef is with people working themselves in to a lather because OTHER PEOPLE DO LIKE IT. you’re taking him to task for saying you’re an idiot for ‘hating’ the game, but i’d argue that you’re not using the same definition of the word he is. he lays it out pretty clearly… Read more »
I have to be honest here and admit that what surprised me most about this article and the comments here, is that people actually have expectations of Kotaku. I’ve read the site for years, and it’s always been trashy tabloid “journalism” (I convulse while typing this word), but I enjoyed it for being very easy to skim headlines, and the fact that they pretty much gather all news from other places. Mr. Plunkett and especially Mr. Ashcraft are worthless, arrogant trolls with not a shred of writing talent between them as far as I’m concerned, and that poor excuse of… Read more »
Its all well and good trying to avoid the comments section, but I think its part of a bigger problem. Pieces like the Plunkett article are a reflection of the fanboyism that bleeds through into games journalism. Whilst I enjoy reading viewers comments on here as they seem more reasoned, and I am enjoying posting myself, I definately think that we would all be better off without comments sections. I don’t think games journalism should be in a vacuum by any means, but when second guessing an audience creates poor writing like this is the damage to the credibility of… Read more »
Agreed. I read Kotaku regularly. I don’t always agree with what I read there, but I’ve followed them for a long time. This article surprised me because it’s not the kind of thing I expect to read there — I expect more well-reasoned pieces.
I try to avoid the comment sections — they’re usually either depressing or infuriating.
Whilst I agree this was an article that was quite poor in its reasoning, I think in general its one of the better gaming websites.
However recently when thought provoking articles about sexism and homosexuality in games the commments section became full of comments which equated to “who cares about that stuff, this is a videogame site.”
So it makes you wonder if articles like the one spoken of above are a product of a two way problem.
I don’t really care for racing games for those very reasons… The point is that I tend to enjoy games that take me AWAY from the real world and its duties and obligations, or at least makes them more interesting than they are in reality. Not everyone feels that way, sure — but I do — and since this is my commentary on something, it seems right to point it out. It’s really not there for any other reason than to tell people who don’t know me that I really don’t give a rat’s ass about CoD one way or… Read more »
Thanks for the feedback, guys.
I’m not sure what’s sadder — the fact that Kotaku ran an editorial by a respected editor that basically says that anyone who dares voice a negative opinion about a wildly popular franchise is an “idiot” or the 1500+ comments mostly agreeing with him…
Just a small comment about your disclosure, when you say that if you wanted to do the things that players do in COD or BF then you would just enlist, its like saying i dont like racing games because if i did I would be better off being a real race a car driver or by saying that if u enjoy GTA… who knows. What I did take away from Mr. Plunketts article is that hating on COD is like hating JB, its “cool” to hate on them and to me like Mr. Plunketts does not make any sense. So… Read more »
Disposable culture, I like that. The phrase really tags what I hate most about these every-year sequels that still charge top dollar. We don’t play the first Call of Duty, or the first Modern Warfare. How many games survive ten years, even if it’s just in small cliques as a lan-partyfavor? You have Counter Strike and maybe the first Starcraft. There’s a niche of Ultima Online players still keeping the game going. So many games are so completely forgettable, despite their contemporary greatness. I’m taking an introductory game design class and a lot of the material is history – genres… Read more »
Excellent article Mike. You hit on the reason I like coming on this site. Im one of the cinephiles you mention in your article, and I have the same passion for videogames. But there aren’t many sites that analyze and critique games in the same way movies are. I appreciate being able to come to a site with writers and readers of such passion. The whole “art” aspect is thrown around alot when it comes to videogames, but I tend to feel its just a word that comes across as shallow on most sites. Its only you guys that really… Read more »
God forbid someone has an actual dissenting opinion. Let’s tar and feather that person.