I think it's time people got over the whole, "Call of Duty must die so that I can live a better life" mentality. The problem with hate aimed at the series (which, ironically, is still kicking arse and taking names) is that it's heading into troll territory, where people only hate on it to fit in with the crowd.
And that's not an exaggeration. I find it hard to believe that a game with such an active community across, not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE games, can receive such a consistent barrage of hate, essentially to the point where anyone that likes Call of Duty is made to feel like an idiot.
First and foremost, I do lay much of the blame onto EA. Battlefield 3 didn't need to be hyped up in the capacity that it was, especially considering the two games are nothing alike. The whole "Only in Battlefield" promotional campaign was and is a lot better than anything Activision's done to promote Call of Duty, and yet there was still the obvious PR fluff and unnecessary commentary from EA folk about how the Call of Duty series is dying and people are growing sick of it (oh, but I shall digress!).
Considering how good Battlefield 3 is on its own accord, it didn't need to be associated with Call of Duty in any capacity whatsoever. It was just silly bickering that made a launch that should have been more about Battlefield 3 than about Battlefield 3 vs Modern Warfare, a stupid comparison in its own right.
And then there are the calls from people that don't even play the series for Activision to commission changes and give gamers a new engine. I'll direct you to this article, which sums up that argument very simply. You don't just ditch an engine that is that easy to development with, that easy to offer downloadable content for, that easy to change and that easy to play. Why the hell would the developer want to ditch an engine that works? It's the most ridiculous argument anyone could come up with, fueled only by the series' yearly installments, despite obvious differences between Infinity Ward-developed and Treyarch-developed titles.
It's funny though, because the people I know personally that continually hate on Call of Duty are the ones that play it for 30 minutes, end up with a 0.2 kill-to-death ratio and an average score of <200 per game. So in other words, it's those that suck at it, don't enjoy it, and so therefore find the capacity to hate on it because they can't succeed at it.
That's ultimately what Call of Duty is about: success. Being good at it. Really good. If you're not enjoying Call of Duty the way it should be enjoyed, why are you passing commentary on it? Why are you asking the developers to "balance" weapons when so many people already use the very guns you say need nerfing? As Robert Bowling suggested, it's gotten to a point now where, even though Infinity Ward is on its knees begging the community to tea bag it, gamers still have the capacity to bitch and moan about how it needs to "change" and offer something new.
These cries come after: weapon proficiencies, constant weapon "balancing" and nerfing, matchmaking fixes, community playlists, new modes, point streaks, balanced perks.
They are never, ever going to get it right so as to appease absolutely everyone, so people need to get off their high horse and just give it up on the hate. No one is holding a gun to your head to play it, and there are plenty of other shooters out there to appease your needs, whatever the hell they are.
And if your issues lie with the "milking" of the franchise, Activision would have a hell of a lot to answer for to its investors and, most importantly, literally millions of active gamers, if it were to simply cancel a year's iteration because the internet says it needs to.
inb4 "COD SUX"
By Gaetano Prestia
*goes and plays COD*