Alright, I felt the need to write this after hearing so many people saying "Call of Duty anyone...?" and "Way to rip off Modern Warfare" in relation to so many different games.  The most recent that I've seen is calling the co-op campaign of Splinter Cell: Conviction a rip off of Spec-Ops. That doesn't even make sense. Modern Warfare 2 has separate "challenge" levels for co-op, not a campaign.
 
Call of Duty does have some unique things such as killstreak rewards, said co-op "challenges," and probably some other things I'm not thinking of, but believe it or not, it was not born from the vagina of originality. Below are just some of the things that people are claiming are rip-offs of Call of Duty, listed with games they've appeared in before Modern Warfare. A lot of these probably appeared before even the games I've listed, these are just the ones that come to mind first.

• Modern setting - Ghost Recon (2001) or Battlefield 2 (2005) if you want a popular online shooter
  
• Persistent ranking system - Battlefield 2
  
• Unlockable weapons - Battlefield 2
• UAVs / Shooting down UAVs - Battlefield 2   
• Weapon mods  - SOCOM 3 (2005)
• Customizable kit loadouts - Battlefield 2142 (2006) 
• Seperate co-op "campaign" - Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (2006)
• Perks - Fallout (1997) (Call of Duty did bring them to FPSs)

you sure did school all those kids out there

Goddamn kids these days.
 
The worst was when people say something like "Lol, Medal of Honor is SO TOTALLY RIPPING OFF MW", apparently under the impression that a WW2 franchise moving to a more modern setting means you're ripping off MW. Except that the Battlefield series did that way before CoD did. And, you know, MW is set in unspecifiedistan in the future with Russian bad guys, and MoH is set in the real world Afghanistan war.

So did Battlefield invent the wheel?

" MW is set in unspecifiedistan in the future with Russian bad guys, and MoH is set in the real world Afghanistan war. "

Way to drop the knowledge bomb on those kids.

" you sure did school all those kids out there "

hey don't get me wrong i loved battlefield with all my heart and those other games are cool beans too, but,
 
even if MW2 isn't original they kind of brought it all together, and when a similar game comes out these days they are probably copying MW2, just because of the huge success, even if they are in turn copying someone else. When BF2 came out it was brilliant, but no-one really copied it, then COD4 & now MW2 come out and now if there's a flurry of perk systems, persistent rankings, and modern warfare stuff, it'll be down to COD

Ok i was not aware people were saying the splinter cell co op was ripping off modern warfare 2. I can kinda see where they are coming from with MOH but what the fuck? Splinter cell chaos theroy had co op way before call of duty did. The call of duty fan base seems to get worse each game. Anyway, just ignore them. These are the same 8 year olds who go on xbox live saying "fucking pussy using the duel rangers" They are just for entertainment.

Those aren't major innovations in gaming history either..... 
 
Not my definition of what makes a game "unique and original"

*yawn* Another one of these.

@FireBurgersaid:   

• Weapon mods  - SOCOM 3 (2005)

The problem is, kids are just getting into gaming now who are playing Call Of Duty as one of their first franchises.
 
It's probably like I probably pissed off a ton of old-school gamers (well would have, if I had the Internet back then) in the early 90's when I was getting into Sonic & Mario.

Hmm, if there isn't already, concept pages should be made just to throw them in the face of whiny CoD fanbitches.

I agree entirely and do express a slight level of frustration when people treat MW with such reverance despite it being a good game. However I doubt posting that stuff here on Giant Bomb forums will impact the right sort of people.

" @eclipsesis said:

" you sure did school all those kids out there "

Look, if even one person stops saying that all games with unlockable weapons are a direct rip-off of the Call of Duty, I'm happy. Of course, those people are usually irrational fanboys anyway. ;) "

I completely agree with you, and what you have to say. Though you have to understand that Modern Warfare 2 has become much more of a mainstream game compared to Battlefield 2, and the younger audience of gamers are generally ignorant. (I'd like to think that I am not ignorant.)

The "fucking wheel"?  If someone ever invents a "fucking wheel", they need to tell me right away.  I guess it'd be like a steering wheel, with a dildo attached to the end of it. 
 
I don't feel like doing the homework to find the article for you guys...  But I remember hearing discussion on the Joystiq podcast on an article(I think it was from Yahoo), where the writer said that the game, and I'm paraphrasing, 'had a lot to say about the state of world affairs'. 
 
Really?!  Like what?  The Russians are going to fly over the ocean and attack us?  McCarthiasm was a long time ago.  I was under the impression that great economic and political ties were being made between the two countries.

I'm sorry, but Medal of Honor looks EXACTLY like MW2. The way the gun moves, the way you aim down your sites, I mean, jesus, if i told you to look at a picture of someone shooting down the red dot sight in both games, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I'm not saying Medal of Honor is outright aping their mechanics, but open your damn eyes.
 
But when i'm not flame-baiting...
 
It does seem like a lot of games are incorrectly getting lumped in with the "MW2-clone" thoughts, but what can you expect when people are probably playing exorbitant amounts of CoD and see something coming out that looks like its set in the same setting or using a popular mechanic. Any game with a cover system was considered a "Gears of War-clone" for a while... You can't blame companies for seeing what people enjoy about a AAA game and incorporating it.
 
So, yeah, i'd say the problem i have with labeling stuff "clones" is because people incorporate successful mechanics into games that were popularized by a certain game that are still in the public consciousness. Labeling something a "clone" gets thrown around too much, just like saying you're "addicted" to something, or saying someone is a douche...

http://xkcd.com/386/ 
 
<edit> Sorry. I just could not resist. </edit>

People said that Splinter Cell coop is a rip-off? That's just ignorant, I guess people forgot that Chaos Theory existed.

Call of Duty didn't invent anything, other than pompous and unlikable behavior from it's developer. And that could be traced back to many developers in the 90's.

Remember when Resident Evil 5 was a Gears clone? People are stupid and just give whatever that's currently popular reverence.

Which is why CoD MW2 is such a big hit, it takes all these different features and places them into one game, does it really honestly matter if it ripped off another game? if you care so much about it why are you even complaining? Why don't you just go play the other game.
Most people dislike CoD just because it's popular and they think they're cool just by saying "Oh well, CoD ripped off...etc." or whatever.

Good thread, still it's cool how modern warfare 2 has everything in one game though at the very least.

You make a lot of good points, but I don't think every developer and their dog is out there trying to emulate the success of Battlefield 2 (though granted, it was an awesome game).  Same deal with all the Gears clones - fair enough Kill Switch or whatever did it before, but nobody is out there actively trying to rip off the success of Kill Switch.
 
When people say "LOLOMG they are copying CoD4 / Gears / Whatever", they really mean that publisher x has just looked at the franchises that are selling a zillion copies and decided they need to copy it as closely as possible to get a slice of the action.  Which is exactly what EA are doing with MoH - that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's still undeniably what they're doing.  This is just how it goes in gaming, somebody does something great and then everybody else produces (usually substandard) copies of it for the next 5 years, until the next cool thing comes along. 
 
I agree that the Conviction / Spec Ops comparison is pretty retarded though, they don't seem similar at all.

Who cares? Get over it, people are always going to jump on bandwagons, and games like these are a fantastic way to progress the industry and the user base.  CoD didn't invent the wheel they just have the best goddamn wheel available right now and thats a good thing for everyone.  So if you can't stand the ignorance towards this release, then you should probably divert your attention because there will be a lot more big game releases to come which will attract more attention and spawn more ignorance.  If your aim is to educate then you should probably do some research first, however if you are just trying to say HEY I KNOW MORE THAN YOU then you're just as big a waste of comment space as the CoD fanatics.

thank god for this fireburger
 
i was going nuts aswell

• Modern setting - Ghost Recon (2001) or Battlefield 2 (2005) if you want a popular online shooter

• Persistent ranking system - Battlefield 2
  
• Unlockable weapons - Battlefield 2
• UAVs / Shooting down UAVs - Battlefield 2   
• Weapon mods  - SOCOM 3 (2005)
• Customizable kit loadouts - Battlefield 2142 (2006) 
• Seperate co-op "campaign" - Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (2006)
• Perks - Fallout (1997) (Call of Duty did bring them to FPSs)

 So, please, if you don't know what you're talking about, kindly shut the fuck up already. "

Jack of all trades, master of none.

Modern Warfare 2 is the first first-person shooter ever made. Fact.

MW2 takes alot from all other games just as many other games will take from it,
The battlefield franchise has done alot of things that have influenced pretty much every war based fps around
 
@Arjuna said:

" The "fucking wheel"?  If someone ever invents a "fucking wheel", they need to tell me right away.  I guess it'd be like a steering wheel, with a dildo attached to the end of it. 
 

Damn! Those kids just got educized. Way to bring the knowledge sir!

" Modern Warfare 2 is the first first-person shooter ever made. Fact. "

"MW2 takes alot from all other games just as many other games will take from it,
The battlefield franchise has done alot of things that have influenced pretty much every war based fps around
 
@Arjuna said:

" The "fucking wheel"?  If someone ever invents a "fucking wheel", they need to tell me right away.  I guess it'd be like a steering wheel, with a dildo attached to the end of it. 
 

I do apologize if this offends.....

"

Bravo, Mr FireBurger

 @Arjuna said:

" The "fucking wheel"?  If someone ever invents a "fucking wheel", they need to tell me right away.  I guess it'd be like a steering wheel, with a dildo attached to the end of it. 

What I hate is people calling any game with "iron sights" a Call of Duty rip-off.

Of course Call of Duty did not invent the wheel. The wheel has been around for thousands of years.

CHILL THE FUCK OUT, BRO

Call of Duty did not invent the fucking wheel...

Well now I miss Battlefield 2.
 
Also, remember those hilarious pre-achievement achievements that BF2 had? Kill something like a million enemies as a single faction. They even had them for the expansion too! Here, these guys are on two maps total in the game, now kill 500,000 people for a badge. Madness.

" you sure did school all those kids out there "