It's my theory that the most popular games do not sell out of quality or preference out of the individual, but because other people are going to buy it. It's a feeling I noticed while going out to pre-order Gears of War. No matter what the reviews say, I have to buy this game regardless because everyone else is. If you do not purchase this game, you will be locked out of communication and activity with your friends. In the beginning, I think one of the first games to accomplish this was Counter-Strike.

Counter-strike was not my game at all, I disliked it for many reasons (mainly because it was not Call of Duty esc) such as waiting to respawn and weapons feeling out of your control (something that Call of Duty always got correct). But I played it regardless because it was the game all your freinds had, and it's on the top of my Xfire list for a long time for good reason. Like Halo, everyone had it, you could depend on that one game that 95% of the gamers around you had, and you played it because everyone had it, if you didin't have it, you were left out.

Reccently on a foreign trend, it was probebly with me and the Wii when Super Smash Brothers came out. I could care less about that game in general, but since all my freinds had it, I was seriously tempted to pay 250$ for the console just to be with them, regardless of how I disliked the system itself and the game I was purchasing it for. Thankfully in some ways, that E3 presentation of Nintendo safely backed me out from doing something I might have regretted purchasing.

So what i'm saying here, is that some games, especially multiplayer games get so big, that they are confirmed sales due to its userbase. No matter what, they are going to buy it because everyone else is, and I think this will occur with me and Call of Duty 6 or IW4, I told myself that I would boycott all Activision products because I hate them to the core, but I'm thinking to make an exception of Call of Duty 6, because I already have with Call of Duty 4, and If i don't get Call of Duty 6 i'm going to fall off the wagon that my freinds are on.

(By the way, thankfully none of my freinds were interested in Call of Duty: World at War, in some ways because I convinced them for better or for worse)

Does anyone else have this kind of experience to confirm my theory?