Will they? Won’t they? Following the reveal of Riley, Call of Duty: Ghost’s awesome dog, people couldn’t help but wonder about Call of Duty Dog’s fate — especially when it would be so easy, if not cliche, to off the dog in an attempt to make an emotional powerplay.
When we polled Kotaku readers on it, most of you thought that Riley was dogmeat:
Funnily enough, Infinity Ward itself seems more divided on the issue according to Rock Paper, Shotgun:
“You know what’s funny about that is, we were all watching the Xbox One reveal event in our theatre,” began Infinity Ward’s Tina Palacios. “And after we got the reaction in real-time — we didn’t expect any of this at all, by the way — the studio became divided. Half of them said, ‘OK, the dog absolutely has to die.’ And then the other half — I’m on this half — said, ‘Whoa, no way! People love him.’ It’s a constant debate, but we do have an answer.”
Choices will have to be made, of course. The dog will have to live….or die. Who knows! My bet is that Call of Duty Dog will be fine, and instead the emotional powerplay will be something like “And then Call of Duty Dog had to kill you.”
OK, Seriously, Are They Going To Kill Call Of Duty Dog? [Rock Paper, Shotgun]
Comments
14 responses to “Even Infinity Ward Is Split On Killing Call Of Duty Dog”
From the moment they TOLD us we’ll have an emotional connection to it was the moment that dog was 6 feet under.
The old Disney trick.
As perfected by Joss Whedon.
As revolutionised and mastered by George R.R Martin.
lol people loving him despite having no interaction with him.
I thought people loving him and thinking he’s going to die was a way to mock the CoD series 😛
Being a dog owner (a Labrador Retriever, so the lovable doofus kind of dog, not the small yippy annoying ones with a size complex kind), I would not want the dog to die, but it would strike a very powerful emotional chord with me if done right.
Now, if it was a cat, then I’d just laugh and laugh and laugh….
The internet would not hold with a cat dying. COD would be finished there and then.
one of two things will happen
a- dog will be killed fueling the charachters desire for revenge
b- dog will appear to be killed but will then reappear later either saving the characters life or just showing up at the end
Lol, i don’t know why but when i read the “b” outcome, I imagined the dog’s ghost appearring in front of the player, next to the ghosts of yoda, obi wan and hayden christensen…
help me doggy-wan kenobi you’re my only hope!
Yeah B is exactly what I expect to happen. My guess is one of your squad mates will turn out to be one of the bad guys, appear to kill the dog, but then it’ll turn out the dog survived and he saves you in the penultimate fight.
They talked like they are the first devs to chuck a dog in a game. CoD has zero emotional attachment and this mutt is about as revolutionary as thier showcase of ‘fish that swim away from you’
The fact that they TOLD us we would have an emotional connection to him just means that I will not have an emotional connection with him at all. I think I’d actually be glad when it dies, and I love dogs.
Actually I probably won’t even play the game, so scratch that.
I don’t want Riley to die, but at the same time it will add some emotion to the story if he does. Hopefully they take notes from Black Ops 2 and the campaign ends differently depending on what we do throughout the campaign, so that if he indeed does die, we can at least have another ending where he doesn’t.
The player’s platoon will be the target of an IED or something, and the player will be separated from Riley, with the implication that the dog is dead.
After the game, a year or two into the future, the dog will be found by someone leading to an emotional reunion. Based on multiple true stories, ticks ALL of the boxes.
Way to go, ripping off Wolfenstein 3D.
Twist: The dog is ALREADY dead and is a ghost (Clever name!) and the only reason we’re attacking the enemy is because they have the technology to revive the dead.
all this does is prove that the dog is dead. developer comes out and is like, “ohhhh you think you know the answer? well, let me put it this way, we were split on it and it was 50/50. who knooooows what the decision was….*wink wink*” just to give people a false sense that maybe the dog will survive. but it’s dead. its playing out just like JJ abrams and the whole Star Trek 2 Khan BS story before the movie opened.
Schrodinger’s dog?