User blog:Bovell/Opinion: We don't want Black Ops 2

And we don't want Modern Warfare 4, either.

The oft-forgotten developer of Call of Duty, Treyarch, seems to have become quite reclusive of late, preferring the shadows over daylight. Perhaps a patch or hotfix here, occasionally a tweet or two, but other than that, relatively little action on their part. As day 500 of Treyarch's last Call of Duty project nears, one has to wonder what exactly has been keeping that other Santa Monica developer busy.

So when rumors permeate that there is to be a Black Ops 2, I'll pretend that I didn't hear anything of it.

And while the diehard fans who have bought every game will show up in line to acquire whatever the next Call of Duty installment is, I think there is at least the thought among the community that the sequels aren't cutting it anymore.

Part of the reason why Call of Duty 4 was so successful is because it was new, it was different from the direction the series had originally taken. The idea of putting the franchise in the modern setting was so radical to Infinity Ward's publisher that they were initially averse to the change in setting.

Yet thirteen million copies later, an original idea was the greatest thing that could have ever happened to the series, the developer team, and, of course, the wallets of Activison.

So perhaps it should not come as a surprise that Treyarch could not find the same success when it introduced another World War II game to the Call of Duty community. Worldwide sales of World at War were less than or about equal to those of the previous installment. A step backward, or continuing with the old, was clearly not going to sit well with the fans.

When Treyarch rolled the dice again, they decided that they should be the ones to turn the page and show the community something new. Despite heavy borrowing from the features of Modern Warfare 2, Treyarch made Black Ops at least somewhat unique from the drumbeat that many had expected from the other Call of Duty developer. It was with a more distinctive setting that Treyarch finally had a game that broke both sales records and expectations.

Alas, we return to the present, with yet another sequel and perhaps one soon to follow. The last time there were two Call of Duty sequels in a row, the latter of the two didn't do so well, and Call of Duty 3 remains the lowest scoring main installment in the series on Metracritic.

Perhaps I am wrong, perhaps the latest sensational sequel in a tried and true franchise is a sign that the developers shouldn't fix what isn't broke.

You can only fix something for so long, though, before it falls apart.

Maybe it's time for Treyarch to buy a new bike.