I was thinking how everyone is talking about how Call of Duty is going to slowly die because of it's lack of innovation over the past few titles. 

I thought of just a hand-full of ways to  reinvigorate the series and make it feel like it did when COD 4 came out, new and fresh!  Here are some of my ideas.

1) More engaging story-  The story in Cod games are pretty abysmal at best, they need to come out with something that keeps players engaged.  I don't know what this is, but I'm really tired of these "plot twists are      awesome" stories.  It's fine to have terrorists or weapon dealers be the bad guy.  But make us feel like we

2) Character Development- Another thing missing from this franchise.  Yes, we do have awesome characters like Price, Gaz, and Reznov.  But honestly they're pretty much broad character archetypes with little personality.  With Blops they took a step in the right direction by giving the main character a voice, unfortunately the weak story and weaker voice actor made bland addition.   We need some real characters here, people that we really love and cheer for, that we watch grow.  Solid characterization and dialogue could make this game that much stronger.

3) Character Deaths- This series has something of a penchant for killing off main characters.  I'm tired of all these characters being killed off for "shock value."  Yes being killed by a nuclear explosion in COD4 was cool, but after everyone dying in MW2 it's really old. IF they're going to kill off characters anymore, make their deaths mean something.

4) Game Length- These games are short and getting shorter!  Is it too much to ask for a 12 hour campaign now days?

5) Multiplayer- No doubt this the portion that needs the most work, but I'm not really sure how to fixt this one.  Perks and killstreaks are awesome.  I'm not denying that, but something has to be done or changed to this stale formula.   BUT one thing for sure is that they need to have the bugs ironed out before they ship this time (im looking at you MW2).  But one thing they have to do is make it so that the maps are designed to get campers killed.  NO more campers for the love of GOD.  Blops has addressed this for the most part, but as a result many of the maps are unusable with sniper rifles


What do YOU guys think are some good ways to keep this type of shooter alive?

 What do YOU guys think are some good ways to keep this type of shooter alive? "

who cares if COD survives, eventually something better will take its place

Okay...some real haters in here...

blops is a mess IMO the hit detection is plain broken and the frame rate just isn't smooth like MW2s newer engine. The fact that it's going to be on the newer mw2 engine is half the battle IMO.  Take the balancing that blops did and apply it to faster paced mw2 gameplay. no commando,  danger close one man n00b tubes. They have to add some new inventive game modes there hasn't been any in a long time. Wager modes are cool but not new game modes you can competitively play as a team. Me and my friends play mw2 every weeknight even with the unbalanced gameplay and have a blast. Honestly it wouldn't take much to please me just don't give me another buggy mess that is blops. 

If battlefield 3 doesn't dethrone cod then Respawns game will... nothing lasts forever.

" Let it die, bring back shooters that don't suck major ass. I just want my shooters to have a skill gap again, not this auto aim bullshit. I would be fine with never playing a COD again. "

@Bangarang182:

Completly rational response and I hear you. I actually don't mind Blops I play it everyday actually. It's just not so much that the game sucks, it's just that it isn't that great. I will never get the same feeling from COD as I did from Rainbow Six. There's too much auto aim, and the game holds your hand too much. You remove the skill gap and it just makes competitve games not fun or competitive.

What's wrong with CoD is that they're using gameplay from 2003 on a graphics engine from 1998. It's successful for the same reason that Angry Birds is: low barrier of entry and marketing. Needing to improve or "keep things fresh" is its lowest priority right now, since its current model sells like hotcakes. On the contrary, most other games are trying to emulate CoD, which is why the industry is currently stagnating and dumbing everything down. 

Wow. This thread is surprisingly unanimous so far. Thank you @Bangarang182 for throwing me for a loop.

I believe the consensus is to take a break and spectate/reformulate. See what BF3 has in store and react to that since COD4 was pretty much a perfect balance between BF2, BF2142 and Quake 3.

edit: Not to ignore what Respawn Ent. has in its back pocket.

" @xaLieNxGrEyx: im 22, my first game was Wing Commander 2 back on the pc, I loved playing that puppy.  Online shooters never really were my thing though, when I was growing up  games like Unreal were just too fast paced and crazy for any real enjoyment (at least for me).   But if I had to peg it down, the game I really got into the online multiplayer for was Jedi Outcast for the PC, that game was so cool.  But then again that was part fps part third person light saber combat... I mainly played games for the campaign.  And rarely if ever did online play.  I mean lets face it games today are about 1000 times better then they were back in the day.  The only thing that fuels our love for the games of old is our nostalgia.  And I DO understand why you guys say COD sucks, I can see why.  The bugs, the over popularity, the kids, the fanboys/ fratboys blah blah blah.   I personally hate MW2.  But something about Blops just does it for me, call me crazy but just running around with and smg hip firing and getting a head shot on a guy is so satisfying.All I was doing was trying to start a post on ideas on how to improve on the formula of this style of game.  I'm not saying it's the best game out there, but it's one that I can pick up when I have some spare time and just play a few rounds of tdm. "

You can't freshen a corpse by spraying it with aftershave. 

Stop releasing 1 every year, and take some time to develop an amazing one. I know the single player campaign isn't the biggest draw, but a better single player campaign with tighter controls would improve the cod franchise a lot. As for the multi-player... I don't like the blops model

" You can't freshen a corpse by spraying it with aftershave.  "

I think it gets old for a lot of people because they run around using the same perks/guns every game. I personally switch things up between each prestige. I'm almost 10 prestige right now and haven't got tired of it yet. Some guns I have barely even touched. I still haven't tried out any of the classified weapons!

" @Bangarang182 said:

 What do YOU guys think are some good ways to keep this type of shooter alive? "

You can't. "

I don't think they'll take the risk of messing with the tried and tested formula they have going right now.. they don't need to.

I for one don't think it's gotten stale really... i still love playing it (even though i haven't played Black ops yet because my university accommodation has awful internet). And I'm 20 and have loved games like BF 1942, BF2 and the like, to the rather silly question of age earlier in this thread.

" It's successful for the same reason that Angry Birds is: low barrier of entry and marketing. Needing to improve or "keep things fresh" is its lowest priority right now, since its current model sells like hotcakes. On the contrary, most other games are trying to emulate CoD, which is why the industry is currently stagnating and dumbing everything down.  "

COD isnt the problem, the entire genre is dying

I don't think COD sucks it just became the basic style.  The setting needs a serious change.  It would probably force some change in the style.

stop releasing the game every year. infinity ward releases the game and then treyarch copies would they did and add to what they did. i think they should give it a break for now. but i'm sure that they are just going to keep on releasing the same game over and over.

Personally I would like it when I shoot a man running at me or away from me or in my general area for him to die. 
I'm burnt out on the whole part of "Shot the guy in the face and then he turned around and A) Run directly at me knifed, sawed, smacked ETC. B) Kept running away even though there was a clip in his anal cavity C) Flew through the air, walls, tables, or other objects to come kill me D) Magically turned around and shot me in the face" because of moar lag.
My personal favorite is CQC. GoW2 is the best example of blasting 6-8 rounds of lead into a guys back and have him turn around and B button you to death or just shoot you once and win.
Fix the part where the shooting people works and sure Ill play.

I love COD series . It's the best game series I've ever played . I just love it the way it is . It's a great fun . 

" But one thing they have to do is make it so that the maps are designed to get campers killed.  NO more campers for the love of GOD. "

"   And I DO understand why you guys say COD sucks, I can see why.  The bugs, the over popularity, the kids, the fanboys/ fratboys blah blah blah.   

Use more development on the game, making a 10+ hours long campaign instead of 4-6. More time on tweaking and balancing and give it a new graphics engine, instead of a cheap overhaul each year like Fifa or Madden. And after that, continue to support the same game with updates and "reasonable" priced DLC's.

Less propaganda please. 

The best way to keep the series fresh is for people to stop buying it. There is no reason for them to try anything new when they can sell 8 million+ copies every year using the same formula. 

I think when the new guys take over from Infinity Wards COD they may try to push it in a new direction to make their name (at least I would hope so). Mabye make some more team based objective matches where you have multiple things to achieve in a more sandbox style map layout.

if your not enjoying the game anymore, stop playing it... simple as that, im not really a COD player, but iv dabbled in that past and i play a lot of other FPS's, this goes for all games really, but if your getting bored or frustrated with it take a break. in FPS's all you essentially do is the same thing over and over again in 15-20 minute segments, the only thing that really keeps most people playing is the positive reinforcement loop that the game creates; whether thats scoring well and winning rounds or just earning XP and unlocking things,  just because you CAN play these games for 100's of hours doesn't mean you have to or should do, you essentially "get your moneys worth" out of a game by playing the campaign and having a few rounds in the multiplayer, 

you fix COD by switching to this game 

"What do YOU guys think are some good ways to keep this type of shooter alive? "

What could keep COD fresh? How about some competion. This could be the year where COD sees a big downturn in sales now that there is a way more interesting, better looking shooter coming out at the same. COD hasn't had competition like this in years and it could make Activision step their game up a bit. 

Wow....CoD just came off of 2 bestselling titles that made UNBELIEVABLE amounts of mayonnaise and people on here have the audacity to call it "washed up" and say "let it die"?

Save those comments for when CoD 13 comes out and sells 11,000 copies. Then write your blogs about how it's "the best one yet"...

I don't want revolution, I want perfection. Blops was like MW2+nerfbat+shitty netcode, and ended up less fun overall. Also, they STILL didn't fix quicksniping, because you can quicksnipe by pulling the trigger before the scope kicks.

The series needs to take a 2 to 3 year break while they build a new CoD from scratch. Old tech is old, the series needs to be competitive in more areas than just rabid fan base.

They need to introduce some new mechanics or something. They need something to reinvent the genre again. CoD4 reinvented what an online FPS should be by introducing the RPG leveling mechanic. They need to find a creative solution to freshen up that stale franchise.

I dont see why people say wait for BF3.. it's another modern military shooter... but prettier?