The Little American Consumer

Don’t let the title fool you, there is nothing physically small about Americans. We are large and it is unacceptable if the things we eat and buy are not large. If anything is little about the American consumer, it is our brains. Note that I say “our” as I do include myself in that group of mindless consumer. However, I am attempting to be more conscious about how I consume services and products instead of accepting how we consume as status quo. This is not the first time I had the discussion about American consumers in my head, but the topic was re-visited last week with the release of the new Call of Duty game. There is no doubt that Call of Duty is an immense franchise and that it now has international influence. Call of Duty has become one of those media events where if you aren’t on board, you’re just not cool. It’s exactly what its marketers want. However, not all Call of Duty games are made equal.

The Call of Duty franchise started back in 2003 when the game was based off of World War II. The original game, along with the sequel, was developed by Infinity Ward. Call of Duty 3 would be the first game in the series developed by Treyarch. Call of Duty 4 marks a new chapter for the franchise as it was the first game not set in World War II. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the game that elevated the franchise to the next level. The franchise now has become a yearly event that consumers eat up every year. The original Modern Warfare, back in 2007, is the game that hooked me. As mentioned above, not all Call of Duty games are created equally. If you have followed the series closely after the original Modern Warfare, you will have noticed that Infinity Ward and Treyarch have taken turns developing the Call of Duty games. Modern Warfare (2007), Modern Warfare 2 (2009), and Modern Warfare 3 (2011) were developed by Infinity Ward while World at War (2008) and Black Ops (2010) were developed by Treyarch. I don’t know much about the first three Call of Duty games, but I do know that the games since Call of Duty 4 have been immensely successful. My issue with all 5 of these games being equally successful is that they aren’t of equal quality. Most fans of the game would argue that the Treyarch games don’t compare to the games developed by Infinity Ward. Now I don’t want it to sound like the games made by Treyarch are bad, they are at its core still Call of Duty games, but I certainly do feel like they are a step behind their Infinity Ward counterparts. But since the games are still sold under the same Call of Duty banner, they are treated as equal games because the consumers of the games aren’t seeing the whole picture. Let’s say I get into the smart phone making business which would be horrible because I don’t know the first thing about making cell phones. However, I can guarantee you that if I hired people to help me develop a phone that was functional and barely considered a “smart phone,” but I got to sell it under the Apple brand name, my phone would be a hit. My phone would be a complete flop if I didn’t get to sell it as an Apple phone because then consumers would catch on that it’s an absolute piece of crap and an enormous waste of metals. This is what has happened to the Call of Duty games. No one cares if the games are of any quality or if they are breaking the mold and evolving games as long as Call of Duty is printed on the cover.

And I had to use the Apple analogy because the same goes for Apple. Again, I don’t think Apple makes crap products. I think their products are great but it’s the hype created by the mindless consumer that irks me. Call of Duty and Apple have become religions, where any of the mistakes they make are shielded by their army of brainless loyalists. These two names barely have the market anything anymore. All they need to do is mention something and point their zombie followers in the direction they would like the zombies to go. The way Americans consume politics has become this way as well. It is much more dangerous to consume politics this way because of the ramifications. It doesn’t matter if the party you’re loyal to goes against your interests, as long as the politician you want to vote for is wearing the brand you love so much. I think this point is more easily seen in the Republican Party. I consider myself an independent because on some issues I’m conservative, and on some issues I’m liberal. However, it is very hard for me to support the Republican Party because of what the party has become and because of the way their zombies consume politics.