What's 'so good' about Call of Duty?

I wanted to put this in the general discussion forums because I was hoping for discussion about not only CoD but other games as well. 
 
So here's the thing about Call of Duty (MW2, Black Ops, and now MW3) I don't understand, what is it that keeps people coming back to it? I thought they were all really great games, but they get old after about a week, even with friends. 
 
I had first thought maybe because I grew up with Counterstrike, I feel like it really doesn't add anything outstandingly new to the Team Deathmatch formula. But then Starcraft 2 came along which was pretty much the same game as Starcraft and I've ended up playing that on and off since it's release last July. 
 
So I was wondering, from people who love Call of Duty - what does this series do for you that no other games do? Is it just because it's 'the happening' thing right now or is there something about this series that I'm missing? Because I head over to any CoD forum and it's 'man this game is shit' or 'man this game is super imbalanced.' Where as most other multiplayer games I know of - you'll find all this love and praise thrown at it - the only way I really know that people seem to love CoD is because of sales figures. 
 
Teach me, community! What does this game do that other competitive multiplayer games don't?
 
Also, I want to add - I'd prefer to hear from people who consider themselves competitive CoD players or other FPS's or just multiplayer games in general rather than 'OH HEY BRO, Y'KNOW I DON'T REALLY HAVE TIME TO PLAY UR NERDY GAMES CUZ I'M 2 BUSY GETTING LAID, YA DIG???'

It's casual and it has a decent multiplayer.

I can turn off my brain for 5 hours and play a michael bay film

The main appeal of cod to me is that it is quick and easy to jump in to with no messing about. It's fast paced, pretty fun and absorbing.

There has been a bit of a hate bandwagon against cod on these forums recently, not sure if it's a hipster thing, but there is no denying that it's a fun, easily accessible franchise, and ultimately it's why the series is so damn popular.

I'm not a fan but I know why people love it. 
The multiplayer, unlike most other multiplayer shooters, is actually just a challenge to see who can get the highest score. Think of it like playing pinball in the arcades. Anyway, the better you do you unlock multipliers, perks, which help you build on the score. If you use your multipliers and powerups well your score gets higher and higher and hopefully you end up as the player with the highest score at the end of the match. That's the appeal of it.

Easy to pick up the controller and just go 
There's always a ton of people playing at all times of the day and night 
Not to much of a learning curve. 
 
It's the type of game that the casual and the hardcore can both get into. What's to hate about it?

Call of Duty gets it right, first of all. You can put in the disc, start it up, and be in a game in less than a minute. Every other game is like "OH HEY SO WE GOT THIS THING WHERE YOU HAVE TO CAPTURE THIS POINT AND GET IN A TANK AND", no. Me, and 20 million other people just want to get into a game and shoot people in the face.
 
There's no BS in the way. It's a game that you can come home from work, shut your brain off, and play. Not, "OKAY, so I have to find a clan filled with dedicated and likeminded people who can use stealth to maximize their performance and sneak behind enemy lines, all the while using teamwork and communications to kill the enemy".
 
Other games are just too extreme in the sense that sometimes, you NEED a clan. Or, you NEED a team that uses communication and whatnot. I mean, Christ. It got to a point in Bad Company 2 that I couldn't join a single game without going against what seemed to be multiple clans on the opposite team just locking it down and camping everywhere we need to be. That's too much for some people. I'm not here to play out a "WHAT IF I WAS A BATTALION COMMANDER AND LIVES WERE ON THE LINE" simulator. I want a game where I can start it up and shoot guys in the face, with or without my friends. And so does 20 million other people, apparently.
 
I just don't get where this concept of "There can only be one good shooter" comes from. Battlefield 3 is going to be awesome. And so will MW3, and every other shooter coming out, like R3 and U3 and whatever Halo or Hitman comes out too.

Framerate, 'splosions, persistence.

The main appeal of cod to me is that it is quick and easy to jump in to with no messing about. It's fast paced, pretty fun and absorbing. There has been a bit of a hate bandwagon against cod on these forums recently, not sure if it's a hipster thing, but there is no denying that it's a fun, easily accessible franchise, and ultimately it's why the series is so damn popular.

It's pretty fun to play with friends.

For a sec I thought this was a Klepek article.

I like them because I can just shut my brain off and run around and shoot people and constantly be rewarded for doing so. The continuous xp and levelling system and upgrades and unlocks are what keeps me at it. Even better when I'm playing with friends because we can play CoD and talk about whatever we want while playing with everyone else on Mute. It's just a fun, mindless group activity that shouldn't be thought about too much. I don't see any difference wasting time unlocking and levelling up dudes in CoD or WoW. It's all just mindless entertainment and a good way to kill time and shut out the joys of work and other stresses life brings.
 
That and I'm a complete sucker for new shiny games, even ones that bring in some minor changes on a yearly basis and charge me $70 to upgrade. The CoD & NHL series are perfect examples. Each year they bring in just enough, that make me say "Oh that looks awesome, damn now I need to buy this years version." I hate doing it, but cannot resist, because I know the core gameplay I love and know so it's going to be a winner for me , that the new additions usually make the original better and move it forward ever so slightly.

They're fun.

@The_Grindilow said:

The main appeal of cod to me is that it is quick and easy to jump in to with no messing about. It's fast paced, pretty fun and absorbing. There has been a bit of a hate bandwagon against cod on these forums recently, not sure if it's a hipster thing, but there is no denying that it's a fun, easily accessible franchise, and ultimately it's why the series is so damn popular.

It's not a hipster thing at all, it's the fact that activision is milking what was a good franchise and essentially forcing developer companies to crank out a new CoD game every year. Eventually they're going to milk it so bad that people get tired of it and they'll kill the franchise just like they did guitar hero. Also I'm sure people are tired of the fact that a new CoD game comes out every year and it's essentially the same game they released last year and people just keep buying it like they put something new in it.

they're easy to get into. you just jump right in and bam you can play something. the part of playing with friends also adds to it. you and your friends can call out places where there enemies. there are bunch of other things also to the game.

Michael Bay, Michael Bay.

I think it's just the new cool thing to do that all the casuals that are not soccer moms picked up, and it's become their thing. The same kind of people that own a console and only ever bought Madden/Halo every year, or the odd shooter from the bargain bin when they walked past the video game isle at Walmart, started buying this as well, and it's become their yearly video game purchase.

I'm not as sick of Call of Duty as I am of threads about Call of Duty.

Easy to pick up and play, doesn't require as much skill as other multiplayer games.

shoot a man  

Same for me. Its a quick game on occasion and just lets me unwind after a long workday. I enjoy the competition in it. I don't hear much whining like others do but that may be cause I find some of it either humorous or I mute people. I started playing FPS during Halo 3 admittedly so I'm not very good but I've gotten better and keep coming back the the MW games. I did hate Black Ops though. Just so buggy on my PS3. I play MW2 on the 360 a lot lately. A lot of Team Match games. I'm also a fan of BC2 but haven't played too much of that lately. Some days I suck at the game and some days I'm a decent player. I keep coming back cause ultimately I have fun with it.  

1. Easy to comprehend and play shooter.
2. Great story and characters. 
3. Runs well on old rigs.
 
I can keep going but I'm too lazy today...

I would love to see an editorial about this from Jeff Gerstmann. 
 
Also, I've never really gotten into the multiplayer, though it is generally well designed, but the single player is pretty compelling. 

This is only about the 700th thread on this.  

For me its just fun to play with friends and I can do pretty good while just messing around having fun

I'm with you but when I ask other people, they say that it is fun to play with friends. There are a lot of games that fun to play with friends so I don't see their point. 
In my eyes, it's just a cheap and easy way to have fun and pretend to be cooler than you are.

This is only about the 700th thread on this. It is easy to pick up and play, there are a ton of people playing it, getting a few friends together and getting a good team on the go can result in hours of enjoyment.

I absolutely love the responses in this thread.  The people who know what is going on have said:

*  Piss easy fun with your friends because as soon as you bang in it's just shoot the other guys and you can chat in a party with others playing different games and still do pretty well because unlike Battlefield you don't need to communicate as much.
*  The single player is shitting wow.  I don't care what anybody says about the story not making sense when I crawled through 100 men dressed as a pineapple or snowmobiled over a crevasse after shooting down a helicopter with a pistol - I feel good in a way that only illegal things can make make happen.  Infinity Ward have the magic, Treyarch have have the.... yaaawn, where was I?
*  The hipster thing is true because more people are playing Black Ops online, but barely more than Modern Warfare 2. which if you had to put your hand on your heart is more fun.  Screw balance, fun is what matters.

So, sometimes stupid and unbalanced is more fun.  CODBLOPS bought and sold quickly because the campaign was so boring and the multiplayer didn't add anything over MW2.  The beautiful riduculous madness of MW2's campaign and multiplayer means it stays.  I never knew my heart would race when I scrambled up an ice face and shot 'fools' while being ordered around by a Scot.   I never knew I'd get a second loving father called Price who'd tell me to shoot dogs in the snow...  Treyarch - where's  your charm?

Its really good game to just play in spurts. So when my minds not into it blops is an easy pick up and play.

Dat Moustache

You said it precisely. It lasts about a week. If all games lasted seven days or less, I could get onto the next one sooner. I would be very happy. 
 
Instead I get stuck on games like The Witcher that take forever to beat.

accessibility motherfucker!
 
 
a 10 year old and a 65 year old can play this game at the same level

They're damn good podcast games.

I'm not as sick of Call of Duty as I am of threads about Call of Duty.

I don't even like CoD but I just gotta pop in to throw one up for all the CoD fans who have to put up with this non-stop stream of bullshit hate.

I'm not as sick of Call of Duty as I am of threads about Call of Duty.

I DON'T HAVE TIME TO GET LAID, I'M TOO BUSY PLAYING GAMES!

I played the first Call of Duty on PC. I remember enjoying it because it felt like I was part of an army and not just some lone hero. That drove me to buy Call of Duty 2, which was also great but more of the same. When Modern Warfare 1 came out it looked pretty awesome with the unlockables in multiplayer, and since I enjoyed the previous Infinity Ward titles I gave it a chance. Me and my friends played it for a long time, so When MW2 was coming out and seemed like a chance for more fun, that became purchased as well. 
 
So there, nothing too complicated, just a thirst for a good simple FPS every once and a while. Solid framerate, responsive movement and shooting, and simple well designed mechanics.

Easy to pick up, very casual, fast respawn time, can jump right back into action after death and the persistent leveling system works (since its one of the first games to make it really popular).

Tight gunplay and fast gameplay. Just because you can sprint and can't jump 10 feet in the air, doesn't mean it's shitty.

Its a nice place to unwind and take some stress of your shoulders by bitching about how things in it are "so cheap" and how your bullet "didn't register"

Also when you get bored with the game showing off and killing the guy who wont shut up on the other team with a quick scope keeps it pretty fun

It's like.. how do I put this? It's the sort of game that's great if you go to your friends house, take your own controller and just play casually but the fact it's so mainstream means the devs are too scared to take risks which might annoy and confuse the community. As a lot of people have said: It's good to jump in and relax for an hour or two but when people like NaDeShOt and all the other tryhard 'pros' get their hands on it, it just ruins the game. It makes it look like the dull, overrated game it's so frequently labelled.

Oh yeah the community is crap. We need a good campaign so we don't have to interact with screaming 12 year olds.