Over on Tom’s Hardware I came across this article that Infinity Ward might (and I stress the “might” heavily) be making some sort of Modern Warfare MMO instead of Modern Warfare 3.  Though the author, Marcus Yam, discounts the rumor mostly because he doesn’t think they won’t drop a potentially lucrative MW3, I have to disagree.  We know that they already they brought on a third developer for the series, and it’s possible they could work on either MW3 or the MMO.  Also, it turns out Tom’s is not quite up to date on this story, since bit-tech made mention of it in November. 

Why am I mentioning any of this?  Because it’s a terrible, terrible idea.  The COD franchise appeals to twitch players and people who don’t want to spend a ton of time playing a game.  Rounds are generally short, the action intense, and you don’t really need to worry about much else.  How the hell can you turn a game for ADD-suffering, Rydalin-addicted pre-teens into an MMO?  Who’s going to pay a continuing fee to play it?  The only reason MW2′s multiplayer isn’t completely dead is that it’s free after the initial purchase.  You’re not going to get your target demographic to play an MMO.  I’m sure most of them don’t have the money to spend on a monthly fee, either because they’re too young or they’re in college and booze is more important.  And I sure as hell wouldn’t give my kid any money for either that or microtransactions.  And one more thing: MMOs are PC territory, but Activision shit all over their PC crowd.  You really think we’re gonna take the plunge on something like this based on how you treated the community with your last game?  Nuh uh.  Activision is just looking for another way to suck money out of people’s wallets.  

-Scrim