The world of Call of Duty is ever more in the limelight, ever more in the faces of gamers and yet at this weekends World Cyber Games I talked with many of the games top managers and not one of them would entertain the idea of picking up a CoD team. What am I seeing that they’re not? Valve’s recent acquisition to the rights to distribute CoD2 is going to see the game multiply in size and give it longevity that only CS has known previously and with an active LAN scene surely there’s something for the big boys?
CoD2 has come closer than any team based series to emulating the competitive activity of Counter Strike, it can now boast LAN’s with four figure prize pots each month, not only that but the pots are growing and coming from multiple organizations. However not the organizations from the old gentlemens club that is the foundation of the success of the G7 (the world’s top CS teams). The CPL, WSVG, WCG and ESWC have all shunned Call of Duty, only Clanbase and the GGL who in terms of prestige sit outside of this group have truly embraced the game with their wallet, and even that embrace needs further longevity.
So where does the problem lie? Primarily Call of Duty’s similarity to CS which gives it an enjoyment factor plays against it. Nobody runs CS 1.6 and CS Source at an event, and whilst CoD does separate itself from CS more so than the two variations, its still a bomb defusal game. Most events will just run one team game and that is usually Counter Strike, then they’ll go with a 1 on 1 or if they pick a second team game, its either Warcraft 4vs4 or Team DeathMatch.
Quite whether CoD2 will ever find its place amongst these competitions is hard to say, what is often unreported is that for this massive tournaments the publishers and developers are involved in supporting their games financially. Valve have often been known to be active in driving Source forward in competitive events. Publishers use events of great prestige like they would a trade show, and so the greater the event and more publicity you’ll get, the more you’re likely to see support from the publishers.
Steams new distribution of CoD may certainly be the blessing in disguise, if Valve are to push the game the way they’ve attempted with source (assuming they don’t break CoD like they did Source) then the game may see some major movement. Either way I think the game is destined to grow, whether its growth on public servers correlates to LAN events is unlikely, can it succeed where ET failed in that respect, or can it follow in the footsteps of CounterStrike.
I personally believe that if the current active LAN scene can last into the second Quarter of 2007, paralleled with the launch on Steam then the game may just be destined for bigger and better things. However this is very much unknown territory as very few games have ever broken into “eSports” and stayed a reasonable course.
CoD2 has come closer than any team based series to emulating the competitive activity of Counter Strike, it can now boast LAN’s with four figure prize pots each month, not only that but the pots are growing and coming from multiple organizations. However not the organizations from the old gentlemens club that is the foundation of the success of the G7 (the world’s top CS teams). The CPL, WSVG, WCG and ESWC have all shunned Call of Duty, only Clanbase and the GGL who in terms of prestige sit outside of this group have truly embraced the game with their wallet, and even that embrace needs further longevity.
So where does the problem lie? Primarily Call of Duty’s similarity to CS which gives it an enjoyment factor plays against it. Nobody runs CS 1.6 and CS Source at an event, and whilst CoD does separate itself from CS more so than the two variations, its still a bomb defusal game. Most events will just run one team game and that is usually Counter Strike, then they’ll go with a 1 on 1 or if they pick a second team game, its either Warcraft 4vs4 or Team DeathMatch.
Quite whether CoD2 will ever find its place amongst these competitions is hard to say, what is often unreported is that for this massive tournaments the publishers and developers are involved in supporting their games financially. Valve have often been known to be active in driving Source forward in competitive events. Publishers use events of great prestige like they would a trade show, and so the greater the event and more publicity you’ll get, the more you’re likely to see support from the publishers.
Steams new distribution of CoD may certainly be the blessing in disguise, if Valve are to push the game the way they’ve attempted with source (assuming they don’t break CoD like they did Source) then the game may see some major movement. Either way I think the game is destined to grow, whether its growth on public servers correlates to LAN events is unlikely, can it succeed where ET failed in that respect, or can it follow in the footsteps of CounterStrike.
I personally believe that if the current active LAN scene can last into the second Quarter of 2007, paralleled with the launch on Steam then the game may just be destined for bigger and better things. However this is very much unknown territory as very few games have ever broken into “eSports” and stayed a reasonable course.
Like you said the problem probably is that COD2 and CS are fairly similar, and i think these teams know COD2 is a threat to CS or maybe it could be in the future.
But with the current developement of COD2 and its LAN scene shows a rather bright future with several upcoming LANs with more and more prizemoney in them. I think we can look forward for a good 2007 but it will take a lot to get to the point where you want it to be.
But we have proven we can do the same and we deserve some bigger pots.
Painkiller
Doom 3
Counter Strike
Quake 4
Trackmaina
Gran Turismo 4
Pro Evolution Soccer 5
I mean come on, these events seem so content to stay elitest and "above" the rest of the gaming community its unreal. I mean games like Painkiller/Doom3 which have now been dropped in favour of Quake4, hardly anyone plays multiplyer its a fucking joke. There try to be more diverse with there game selections and yet still as always stay with the same tried and tested cs:1.6 and warcraft3 combination.
I mean even ET has more players playing (according to xfire) than warcaft3 for christ sake >_<
Games like cod2 and battlefield will never hit the "mainstream" of competitive gaming because they are too popular, painful truth.
btw
ET > cod1 > cod2 > * > cs