Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first person shooter game released in 2010 that follows the story of Alex Mason during the Cold War and Vietnam War as he tries to uncover what "the numbers mean" and stop the plans of the antagonist Nikita Dragovich. Donkey Kong is an early platforming game from 1981 where the player controls Jumpman Mario to rescue Lady from the antagonist Donkey Kong by jumping between platforms to reach the top of levels. While very different in terms of graphics, gameplay, and target audiences, both games made important contributions to their genres and the gaming industry during their eras.

1. Understanding the Game Industry
Comparison of Donkey Kong and Call
of Duty: Black Ops

2. Call of Duty: Black Ops
Genre –
The Call of Duty series; ever since its early days without a true story line and simply had the
player running and gunning, destined the series to become one of the gaming world’s more
popular first person shooter (FPS). With its distinguishable pace and amount of action placed on
the screen, the series makes the gamer feel overwhelmed while they look through the
character’s eyes in a first person point of view (POV). Its nature has overtime placed the series
into different subgenres, from a realistic portrayal of what war was like during the World Wars
and what modern warfare is like, to a more fictional approach in the latest games.
Usually these can be put into a list, such as:
- Hero Persona: makes the player the hero of the story
- Linear Narrative: gives the player one goal and they
are made to fight for it, with usually one outcome
and a the same feeling of progression through the game
- Action: guns, explosions, fast pace
- Collectable: the odd intel package which gives the
player the feeling that they are achieving something

3. Narrative / Storyline –
As with every Call of Duty game that has been released after Call of Duty: World at War, there is
one very clear main antagonist who has come up with a diabolical plan. In the case of Call of
Duty: Black Ops, the player is placed in the shoes of
Alex Mason, member of a black ops unit, who is
captured and brain washed by antagonist Nikita Dragovich
and his associates. As the story progresses and the
player goes through the harsh Cold war and the
Vietnam war, the story reveals that Mason’s friend
(Reznov) is actually imaginary and Mason has been living
a double personality life. Finally, the game ends with the
destruction of Dragovich’s plan and
the game ends on a high note.
Although quite slow during its first few levels, Black Ops
picks up the pacing as the player is left with more and more questions, all left un-answered until
the very ending. This in turn ensures that players carry on getting their fix of gameplay.
Call of Duty: Black Ops

4. Characters –
The game follows the story of Alex Mason, who
is played by Sam Worthington, who was
brainwashed after an assassination attempt on
Fidel Castro to kill John F. Kennedy. The brainwashing
fails and he is sent on a series of missions with his allies.
These allies include characters such as Frank Woods,
played by James Burns, and Jason Hudson, played
by Ed Harris, who although not important still serve as
assisting roles leading Mason through his mission to
figure out what ‘the numbers mean’. All of the characters
in Call of Duty: Black Ops have been created through
MoCap in order to capture the shape of the actors and
interpret them into the game itself, allowing the use
of photo realistic graphics as a form of making the
characters alive and believable.
Call of Duty: Black Ops

5. Production Process - Pre-Production and Production –
Call of Duty being part of billionaire company ‘Activision’, produced by the subdivision ‘Treyarch’
(often referred to as 3arc), has become a triple A (AAA) game over time. However, as with every
AAA game, the writers must first pitch their ideas for their next big game, which usually consist of
written documents and demonstrations of their video game idea. Once the pitch has undergone
several greenlights, a concept document is presented containing every aspect that will be
included in the game, such as features, story, platforms, team requirements and a few other
factors. From this, a small crew produce prototypes as a form of demonstrating various features
of the overall game as a form of impressing stakeholders.
Once the final prototype has been produced, the production stage begins, introducing the
designing and programming stages of the game’s life. The design of the game consists of the
removal or addition of level, so as to fit with the vision of the game, sometimes affecting the
backstory of the game. Meanwhile, level creation also goes through various forms of change as
new features are added or removed, making previous levels obsolete causing them to be
scrapped. During this time, motion capture (MoCap) is also done to capture the actor’s
movements. With the overall design sorted, the programming team implements a variety of
features which sometimes require debugging as time goes on. As a final addition, audio is
implemented to fit in with the mood (fast or melancholy) and atmosphere (ambient) of the
game. As a final touch, testers are given the change to play the finished product.
Call of Duty: Black Ops

6. Production Process - Post Production –
Once the game has been completed, companies normally have milestones in which they slowly
prepare the game for its official release. At the start, large companies usually release a pre-alpha
based on the very first prototype and is playable a year before the official code release. This
then opens the stage for Alpha, which incorporates every major feature of the game and allows
programmers to finish the code, making a code freeze stage where programmers use their time
to correct bugs. Followed by the Beta stage, where players are given the opportunity to play a
small section of the game for a period of time, sometimes destroying the game’s future if the
beta portrays a terrible game. However, this allows the company to get opinions from their fans
and possibly improve on this. Eventually, the game reaches its ‘gold master’ stage where the
company has decided that the game is ready for the public to play. Companies must also contact
distributors in order to get their game out into the market, in this case the game was distributed
by Square Enix. After its release, not much is added or tweaked in the game apart from
downloadable content (DLC) or the odd patches to fix bugs, but in some cases a game is often
ported to other platforms or if it is successful enough, the company will begin to work on a
sequel or different project.
Call of Duty: Black Ops

7. Gameplay –
As with all Call of Duties, action has become more and
more fast paced as new games are released, and
Black Ops is another step towards faster pacing. The game
consists of a series of levels following a certain story line,
each level with its own unique events, some more memorable
than the others. Yet, the pacing in each level makes the player
feel as though they are progressing and keeps them intrigued.
With the addition of online multiplayer, the game also offers
countless more hours into the overall gameplay of the usual player.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is played mostly using a controller but
due to its release on PC and the Wii, the game has been changed
to support the gameplay styles of those platforms, to the point
of changing certain aspects in the game to fit with the Wii since
it is played with a hand held motion controller.
Call of Duty: Black Ops

8. Target Audience –
Call of Duty games had been previously given a 15-16 age rating from the first game to the 4th
installation, but have now been given the 18+ age rating ever since Call of Duty: World at War
due to its nature, making Black Ops no exception. For this, the series is targeted at male
audiences who are more specifically students, between 15-25 years of age. Reasoning for this
audience is for the simple fact that the Call of Duty series touch upon some very sensitive
subjects and portray a variety of violence throughout the games, something which only mature
audiences should be allowed to view due to their understanding that it is simply a game.
However, parents normally ignore this ‘warning’ and purchase these games for their children.
Call of Duty: Black Ops

9. Platform –
Since release date, Call of Duty: Black Ops was released onto the following platforms;
- Xbox 360
- OS X
- Wii
- Microsoft Windows
- Nintendo DS
- Playstation 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops

10. Genre –
Donkey Kong was the first main platforming video game produced for Nintendo, intended to
spread to the American market. The platformer genre has a very straight forward goal in itself,
and that involves showing the player a series of stages in which they must jump between
platforms and obstacles to progress. The game adopted this genre as a result of the golden age
of arcades taking place, so the game functioned well with the simplistic controls in arcade
machines.
The game does also fall into a few other subgenres, such as;
- Hero Persona: makes the player the hero of the story,
putting them in the shoes of Jumpman
- Linear Narrative: gives the player one goal and they
are made to fight for it, with the same
outcome throughout the game until the end
in which the player finally rescues the lady in distress
Donkey Kong

11. Donkey Kong
Narrative / Storyline –
The original Donkey Kong game is well known for being one of the first video games with a
storyline, which consists of Lady (Jumpman Mario’s original girlfriend) being kidnapped by a
large ape like creature known as Donkey Kong (DK for short). Although very simplistic, the game
welcomes gamers to the future of Nintendo, in which Mario
would be put through a quest to save a princess. At the same
time, the game became one of the first games to introduce
cut scenes to progress the game’s story, as shown at the
beginning of the game where we see Donkey Kong climbing
up the tower. Even without the use of cut scenes the player
still understands their goal, as they soon notice the ‘Help!’
message coming from the woman and the player being on the
bottom of the screen, telling the player that they have to get to
the top in order to progress.

12. Characters –
The original DK consists of three characters; Jumpman Mario which the player controls
throughout the game, Donkey Kong who is the antagonist and Lady who has been kidnapped by
Donkey Kong. These characters’ sprites are very simplistic and
require no MoCap, especially since technology was not so
advanced during the age of arcades. They all follow a very
cartoony style very much like all other arcade games at the
time, and they all seem to have basic animations, with the
exception of Jumpman whom the player controls.
This is the only character which consists of more complicated
animation to suit the gameplay style of jump, run and climb.
Donkey Kong

13. Production Process –
The very first Donkey Kong of what has now become one of Nintendo’s largest franchise was
originally created by a team of three; Shigeru Miyamoto (Director), Yukio Kaneoka (Composer)
and Gunpei Yokoi (Producer). Although a small number, it was enough for such a game since it
did not need incredible graphics or complex mechanics. However, it did have to go through
pitches to Nintendo, which was gladly accepted as it fit with their goal to spread their games
worldwide. Once accepted and development was in process, the small crew only needed to
ensure the game fit in with the requirements of an arcade (224 x 256 resolution screen).
Although, the game did welcome 256 colours into one game, which at the time was ground
breaking no doubt. Game testing was also most likely done by the crew themselves since it was a
basic game and didn’t require long hours of testing. Finally, once the game had been completed,
Nintendo only had to distribute the game’s arcade to various locations and then wait for the
sales. Of course, posters would have been placed in order to get the image out to everybody
about this new and revolutionary game, which would boost advertisement.
Donkey Kong

14. Gameplay –
Donkey Kong follows a 2D linear style of gameplay, consisting of the player jumping through
each level in order to reach the top where Lady is. However, to keep the game going and the
players paying to continue through the game, every time they reach the top the ape grabs the
woman and continues climbing the tower. This type of gameplay keeps the player wanting more
as they challenge their friends to get to the furthest stage in the game, allowing for replay value.
For such a simplistic game, the arcade provides a simple set of buttons and usually a joystick,
which is enough for the player to move around and jump.
Donkey Kong

15. Target Audience –
As the game was originally released on arcade, children would normally occupy them during
their free time. And since the price to pay was usually cheap, they would use their pocket money
to start up the game. Hence, this hints at the possibility of the game being aimed at children from
the ages of 6 to 16. The nature of the game consisting
no form of violence apart from the ending of the game
where the ape falls, along with the variety of colours
and the cartoony sprites, also suggests that the game
was intended for a younger audience.
Donkey Kong

16. Platform –
The original Donkey Kong was released originally for the arcade system ‘Radar Scope’ which had
a decent CPU, Sound and Display for an arcade machine. The game itself was built for the specific
gameplay style of an arcade machine, however it has now been ported over to various other
platforms such as the Atari, Famicom, NES and various other platforms. Most recently, emulators
have made it possible for those on computers to play with a keyboard.
Donkey Kong

17. Comparison of the Two Games
Call of Duty: Black Ops and Donkey Kong are very different to each other when put into
comparison; one is part of the FPS genre whilst the other is a platformer, one has realistic and
advanced graphics while the other has 8-bit cartoony sprites, one has an elaborate storyline
whilst the other has a clear goal with as little story as possible and so on. Yet, the two games are
unique for their times, Donkey Kong being one of the first games to include cutscenes and have
a simplistic story whilst Black Ops kept raising the bar for the realistic graphics. The production
of each of these games also influenced the outcome, especially seeing as Donkey Kong was
produced by three people where as Black Ops had been worked on by a full team of designers,
programmers and so on. Both games have also completely different audiences with one aimed at
older audiences whilst the other being for the younger ones, yet both audiences share the same
love for the other game as we see children playing Call of Duty and older audiences going back
to the root of their gaming life.
Overall, the two games have played vital roles in the gaming industry and both utilised the
technology they had at the time for their own advantages, providing countless hours of gameplay.