I was browsing the internet recently, looking at some of the information for the new Call of Duty: Blacks Ops 2 game when I came across this article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/call-of-duty-black-ops-2-halo-4-set-for-a-sales-shootout/2012/11/13/b321dfd4-2d8d-11e2-a99d-5c4203af7b7a_story.html
The article discusses revenue brought in by these two popular games over the last few years. I was honestly blown away. The first call of duty black ops brought in over 650 million dollars in just five days. To me, this was astonishing. It got me to thinking, what are we really paying for in this new video game? Sure, the campaign is different and the graphics have been altered slightly but what about this game is so different that it can generate over a half a billion dollars in revenue in 5 days? It's because it's a materialistic item. I remember growing up, always wanting the new video game. That is what they are doing here. You don't want to be the kid that doesn't have the new video game when everyone else does so you go out and buy the new one. Even though the game is not that different from the other 8 call of duties that you already own, but you buy it anyways. It just blows my mind that we continue to do this, and I am totally guilty of this I will admit. It almost seems like manipulation. They could reprint this same game, exactly the same, just change the name and kids would still buy it. Another way they manipulate this series is through media. Here is a commerical for one of the games that came out a while ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD7WNmpKRW4
This old man basically tells us everyone is doing "it", if you know what the commercial is for, you know its playing call of duty. All the references he makes can be thought of in terms of call of duty. But even the people that do know this game know this old man could be referring about sex. I thought this commercial was wrong. It seems like they wanted to make kids laugh because they were references sex (kids laugh at sex jokes), and then it would let kids know the new game was coming out. This would lead kids to show all their friends how funny the commercial was and then all the other kids would know about the new game. Just seems like one big scheme to get the consumer to buy the next game, or just another materialistic item.
I am definitely in the category of "wanting the new game". Not much changes between game releases but I still buy the latest one to be current. All of my friends get the new game so I have to get it too if I want to keep playing with them. I think MW3 is better than the lastest Black Ops II but I am forced to play Black Ops II because everyone else is. I tried playing MW3 but the servers were close to empty. It really puts a damper on gameplay.
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