This game is nothing like call of duty!

"This game is nothing like call of duty!" I am sure we have all heard this at the very least once.  People even say it about puzzle games and RPGs.  Such is humanity I suppose.  When your game is considered the measuring stick for all other games something either really awesome or terribly wrong is going on.

I remember my friend was buying the first Sniper Elite and I kid you not the guy at Shamestop is almost yelling "I don't even want to sell you this game! Dude it is nothing like call of duty!"  My buddy is like "...yeah that's exactly why I am buying it."
"Dude you dont even know this game is SOOO hard-it's nothing like Call of Duty."  Then he goes on to explain how the game incorporates Coriolis effect and bla bla bla.  I thought it funny then...I think of it as hilarious now.
Basically he was saying "You dont want this game because in some ways it is better than the most popular one running"

That's a funny thing to have happen in the marketplace.  A game that is in some ways better than the pop standard is smacked down because it isnt the pop standard.  Damn the gaming market is fickle. but in all honesty when was the last time you heard "this game sucks! it's nothing like Myst!" or "this game is bullcrap-why isn't it like smash bros?" both popular games but never used in ridiculous comparisons.

It's no secret that COD has come to be a dominant if not the dominant player in the FPS market.  It isn't because the game is built amazingly well...even the hardcore fans bitch about certain things.  Usually the bitching is about minor stuff which gets blown out of proportion into "it is unplayable" when they play it everyday.  Hey side note: you want an unplayable game junior?  You wanna know what a REAL bad game is?  How bout one that isnt even designed so that you can beat the first level? It's called squeezebox for atari 2600 and you have to shoot the walls that are closing in on you...problem?  you can't crouch so you cant shoot the bricks at your feet they will close in on you and kill you and you cannot stop it...you cannot beat level one.  Before 5 minutes the game is over.

THAT'S an unplayable game.  This is what I had to bitch about and I had reason to.  But I digress as usual.  When you're popular things will be said both good and bad about you.  Popular does not translate into good though.  I think COD in its early days was pretty damned amazing but now it's impossible to die in single player if you're not an idiot and not only that single player is a way distant fourth thought and the focus is online and how to get you to buy the new map packs.  Which isnt new by the way.  I remember my brother and I playing COD 2 on PC and they were selling maps for online use.  

But I do raise the question when did EVERYTHING become compared to COD?  Is it because it's the only game people know/play or do they really think it's that good?  When I was growing into mature gaming FPS was one of those genres that was unbelievably creative and fun.  Doom-a "super human" trooper slaughters everything and shoots his way out of hell and all the demons in it in order to fight a mechanical spider.  Quake Monsters and secrets a go-go no shortage of badasses to kill with weird weapons like the super nail gun.  You get the point.  So personally to me running around with "realistic" weapons shooting at nothing but human targets is pretty boring.  The fact that you can just regenerate health by hiding is ridiculous in a game that focuses on visual realism a better yet still unrealistic option is health pick ups.

But I want to be clear and say that our experiences shape our likes and dislikes.  I have a dislike for COD because I am used to imagination and surrealism in games.  The fact that it is the measuring stick for anything that comes out or anything that is already out is rather silly and anyone making this comparison probably only has extensive COD play to judge other games with.  I suppose that makes sense but if that's true how come no one is making comparisons that I noted earlier i.e. smash bros. and myst?