Opt out of glorified downloadable content

The marketing blitz has begun for the latest in the “Call of Duty” series, “Black Ops II,” and Activision is spending the big bucks.

“Modern Warfare 3 made $400 million in its first 24 hours when it launched last November, breaking the $360 million record set when “Black Ops” launched the year before. And people are still tripping over themselves to buy new versions year after year.

Some observers have compared the yearly success of the “Call of Duty” franchise to EA’s “Madden NFL” series, which also releases a new title every year.

In both cases, millions of gamers pay full price, $60, for a product that is barely discernible from its predecessors.

EA and Activision must think we are suckers. Worse, customers confirm their suckerdom by turning out in droves.

Although the core “Call of Duty” multiplayer experience is only minutely tweaked with each iteration, every new release features a new single player campaign, thus justifying the full purchase price. This would hold up if people bought “Call of Duty” for the campaign, but they don’t.

Since it’s all about the multiplayer, gamers’ yearly $60 payments only gets them new maps, minor tweaks to gameplay and a smattering of new guns and kill streak rewards. This amount of content is far more appropriate for downloadable content, which rightly costs much less than a full game, usually between $10 and $20. 

Instead of selling this content as DLC, Activision puts out a new game every year, rendering the previous version obsolete because the players all migrate to the new one.

This seems to leave “Call of Duty” devotees with the choice between putting up with dramatically longer match making times and getting ripped off.

I suggest a third option: Don’t buy “Call of Duty” until Activision stops treating you like a sucker.

Instead of seeing “Call of Duty’s” yearly success and comparing it to Madden, compare it to its main competition, “Battlefield 3.” Its DLC costs only $15 or less with Premium and includes everything “Black Ops II” will: new maps, new modes, new guns, etc.

Please, stop rewarding Activision for treating you like you’re stupid. You’re not.

Right?