Nuke Nuketown?

Anyone who is familiar with Call of Duty: Black Ops knows about Nuketown. Nuketown is a multiplayer map that is extremely small, it resembles an average american neighborhood complete with two homes, a backyard, school bus, and lots of mock civilians in the guise of mannequins. Players fight each other on what is according to the story, a suburban nuclear testing ground. Personally, I hate this map, it is incredibly small and players basically take turns either gunning each other down in a narrow car filled street, or ceaselessly firing from one house into the other.

While I dislike the map for its lack of tactical versatility, and the constant threat of enemy players spawning directly behind me. I have come to realize that the majority strongly disagrees with me. Every time I play COD and Nuketown is an option, players almost always choose to play it in favor of the other maps offered. Not only do they choose to play it, but after the game is finished, players exercise their option to replay the map. I cannot think of any other map that gets played and replayed with such frustrating frequency. It is lucky for me that the map can't be played indefinitely, for if it was an option, I have no doubt that 90% of games played would be within the confines of everyone's favorite neighborhood warzone.

Now the question is what does this mean and why are players so obsessed with such a small and simplistic map? Ultimately I think it is because Nuketown succeeds in giving COD players what they really want, and that is Action and lots of it. For these players, the score is mere trivia and enemy fire is just that inconvenient factor that forces them to respawn. This doesn't make these players necessarily foolish, it just means that they are playing the game for different reasons than me. To their credit, these players appear to be playing the Game, Purely to have fun. In this case, Fun means pumping round after virtual round into other players and watching them as they Die. Perhaps not the most civilized of activities, nonetheless it tells us what I have already come to suspect. That most players are not terribly interested in complex plots, level design, and proper game balance. Instead, they hands down prefer a reliable instant mindlessly chaotic Action delivering game. In this regard they can count on Nuketown to deliver time and time again.