Art and Culture # 112: Does Call of Duty Represent the Cultural Zeitgeist for Millenails and Zoomers Anymore?
On November 10th, 2023, a soft reboot of the Modern Warfare 3 is going to come out, and somehow, it’s not that exciting. To state something very clear, before we even begin to tackle this big question, is to state the obvious. Video games, even the most based COD over the top 2012 extravaganza, is a work of art. Even Ghosts, with it’s script heavy story, but failed to reach the mark with gamers, across the board. But you can’t pretend that video games don’t present a modern quandry for a regular movie goer. Why were millennials so fascinated with Call of Duty, up until Black Ops 4. The Guardian’s Keith Stuart had the balls to question Black Ops 4 legitimacy in his August 7th, 2018 article “Call of Duty Black Ops 4 beta: can COD still compete?” as he states, in a criticism, about “strange inconsistency, As many players have pointed out, the health gauge starts at 150 instead of the usual 100, meaning that you live longer under fire than in any other Call of Duty game. This makes engagement more tactical and demanding. You need to land seven or eight bullets on target to score a kill and, as there is no health regeneration (you need to hit R1 to jab yourself with a med injection), you often crawl out of fights barely alive, only to be picked off immediately afterwards. That can be infuriating. What’s more, players can wear body armour that adds an extra 50 health points to the player at the start of a life. Bringing these sneaks down takes an age in CoD time and can tip the scales in the more strategic modes such as Control.”[1]
So the inference of this question does present some moral absolutes. Gamers sometimes might not pay for something they have already seen. It’s why so many Boomers loved Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, because while they had some obvious trademarks, they did relate to the Boomer’s epoch and aesthetic. Muscle bound men, well placed humor, and sometimes even melodramatic tenor that still holds sway over any who watch their films.
But for millennials and zoomers, who are so entrenched with video games, it’s safe to say that Call of Duty, celebrating their 20th anniversary, as all their games on the XBOX and Playstation store are reducing their prices in jubilous celebration. The outcome is that while the price is right, it can often be wrong.
To illustrate this might be a little long in the tooth, but Call of Duty, has somehow been part of the zeitgeist, just as long as Naughty Dog’s the Last of Us, spawning one remaster in 2013 and a remake for PC and PS5 systems, and somehow, Call of Duty will release a game every year. Sometimes games don’t very well need a sequel. Just a remaster or soft reboot.
While many have their personal favorites, all of this means one simple thing. WW II must bear a steady focus on time and period, and come up with an original story that can even match the disturbing heights World at War did for a generation of gamers. Vanguard and WW II were so awful that even talking about them almost feels worse than bringing up Ghosts. All are equally cringe, but other than Ghosts, both failed to deliver a well made product to the fans. While Call of Duty WW II is beautiful, and almost obscenely boring, Vanguard decided to make multiple narratives out of the main characters, including the Russian female sniper mission. What makes Call of Duty relevant is not just the best graphics, but whether great voice acting or even writing help play apart of creating a work of art, a game is an interactive experience that helps define what art is. Video games have their criteria, too, just as novels or films do. But Call of Duty, since 2013’s Ghost, and with only a few hits, like Call of Duty: Cold War and Advanced Warfare, being the exception to the roster.
If I want to pull some major black ops Jason Bourne type of jaunt I play Black Ops 1. If I want a futuristic tale about the past and present, if the journey someone makes with art is to experience gripping characters that move throughout our history, the game needs to remember the period, or create a wonderful sense of play that makes COD a well worth piece of art. I do think nothing we see in art or video games is just as predictable or close to movies. They just aren’t. Last of Us, Sony Play stations smash hit, deserves the title of cinematic games equaling narrative drive and movies.
Call of Duty, even in their misses, do make quality or even entertaining works of art, and it will take COD, in the future, to carry it out beyond the next ten years or so. Hopefully we won’t have to wait until 2034 until Treyarch and Activision can somehow pull a gem out of their ass.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/aug/07/call-of-duty-black-ops-4-beta-can-cod-still-compete.