Is Call of Duty a 'Casual Game'?

I've been debating with myself and a writer friend of mine over the course of the last few weeks, whether or not Call of Duty has become a casual series.

It started out as a hardcore PC gamerz only and quickly debunked down to the console generation, its more than fair that MW2 PC gamers feel cheated by the dedicated server brap tings.

Thing is, my real life friends just banter about Call of Duty all year, don't play anything else. They don't buy any other games, and three of them bought 360s just to play COD.

They're all on 'such a tight schedule', that they only game twice a week or whenever their 'busy' lives can take the strain. I imagine this is how casual gaming happens, just a quick buzz of pixelation to soothe the mind after work or on the train to work.

It can be said then that Call of Duty has become hugely accessible. A four hour campaign, short but sweet and a Spec Ops mode you can jump into at any time with a buddy. What really sets it apart is the fact you can get into a multiplayer game in seconds and me shooting bad guys for half an hour or an hour or for as long as you like. There's no connection issues (well...), there's no long loading times, theres no bickering or plugins...

It's the ultimate casual game.

Thoughts?

I would say not.
It does not really seem like a game that you could pick up at the store play the campaign and a little multiplayer then just not play again. If you really want to get a good experience of COD then i would say you would need to complete the game of the hardest setting and play a fair amount of multiplayer online.

Having said that i'm now getting a little fed up with MW2 online.

Nobody plays COD casually, almost everyone takes it too seriously. 'I'm a higher prestige than you', 'haha you don't have this gun'. It's one big competition.

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Originally Posted by Ontario

I would say not.
It does not really seem like a game that you could pick up at the store play the campaign and a little multiplayer then just not play again. If you really want to get a good experience of COD then i would say you would need to complete the game of the hardest setting and play a fair amount of multiplayer online.

Having said that i'm now getting a little fed up with MW2 online.

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Well I know for certain that more people have played just multiplayer and haven't played the campaign at all, in COD4, and this trend is continuing with MW2.

I doubt people want the 'best experience', some of them just want to hop online with peeps.

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Nobody plays COD casually, almost everyone takes it too seriously. 'I'm a higher prestige than you', 'haha you don't have this gun'. It's one big competition.

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I don't, if people quiz me on my level or whatever I'll tell 'em but I don't see any point in bragging about anything really. It's a videogame, we're all hear to have fun and if some people think 'fun' is bragging about how big your e-penis is then they're really just overcompensating.

Call of Duty is a casual game. Modern Warfare 2 is catered to noobs. Deathstreaks, give me a break. I hopped on CoD4 last week and man, it was so fun.

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Originally Posted by PaulMacC

Call of Duty is a casual game. Modern Warfare 2 is catered to noobs. Deathstreaks, give me a break. I hopped on CoD4 last week and man, it was so fun.

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Agreed.. its so much more.. MATURE.

I would have to say yes. I'm probably one of those people you described; I've pretty much only played COD4/MW2 since the Summer holidays. Gone back to COD4 now as the MW2 disc scratched a while back.

Anyway, I'm no hardcore gamer yet I pretty much always do fairly well on COD. Even though MW2 is catered for noobs, I'm somehow a lot better at COD4 I think. Since I've gone back to it I pretty much win most of my games. If you look at other games of the genre like Killzone 2 for example, I've only played that a couple of times and I was OK, but I wasn't winning matches or anything.

I don't know about any others, but COD4 and MW2 are pretty casual games.

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Originally Posted by Kyle

Nobody plays COD casually, almost everyone takes it too seriously. 'I'm a higher prestige than you', 'haha you don't have this gun'. It's one big competition.

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I agree so much there,


I Don't class casual as camping back waiting for 2 people to pass you the hole game, Or saying whats your gb rank..

@The thread title: Depends how you play it. Sometimes I play casual with friends but when you play gamebattles, it becomes serious.

i think its pretty casual as i just hop on it with my mates i cant stand playing it alone as it loses a lot of fun i feel.

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Originally Posted by PaulMacC

Call of Duty is a casual game. Modern Warfare 2 is catered to noobs. Deathstreaks, give me a break. I hopped on CoD4 last week and man, it was so fun.

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ahah yes same, I lost my mw2 a few weeks ago and started playing cod4 again, since I found mw2 again I played one game onlibne and then wen't straight back to cod4. With under 5000 people playing it the competition is a lot funner as it seems it's full of the dedicated cod4 players. Apart from the people who haven't even prestiged who scream down the mic 'MY MUM BOUGHT ME THE WRONG ******* GAME GUYS'.

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Originally Posted by drama

Apart from the people who haven't even prestiged who scream down the mic 'MY MUM BOUGHT ME THE WRONG ******* GAME GUYS'.

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Lmao at those people, mind you they haven't done too badly :P

I think the reason Call of Duty is so successful is because it's casual and hardcore. There's the clans, turtle-beaches, and the option to take it very seriously if you wish. However it's also one of the most casual games how you can just hop on quickly and be light-hearted about it.

It appeals to two very different types of gamers.

It is casual, and not at the same time. Its great for friends, but if you're new and starting out, you'll end up not playing it because everyone else is like "omgz srsly i g2 win thiz game and pwn some noobs with x2 rangers jst 2 shw hw gd i am nd get all ze killz!" You'll end up getting very annoyed. It kind of evens itself out in a wierd way.