• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Nobody Is Happy With Call Of Duty Right Now

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


How a great idea to merge Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Warzone, and Modern Warfare lead to confusing purchases, overpowered guns, and challenges that didn’t please either audience.

Call Of Duty recently merged progression, a season pass, and some guns across Cold War, Warzone, and Modern Warfare. In theory, it was a great idea that would allow any Call Of Duty player to engage in any mode and carry progress across games. In reality Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a more traditional Call Of Duty title with a different audience from the mil-sim inspired Modern Warfare, so the merger has resulted in Warzone challenges that don’t appeal to Cold War players, erased or made meaningless progress for Modern Warfare players, overpowered guns like the Mac-10 and DMR 14 in Warzone, and created unlocks that some players can’t use unless they purchased the other title.

In this video, we talk about what we feel Activision was trying to achieve, why it’s a good idea in theory, why it isn’t working yet, and what they can focus on next. Call Of Duty titles published by Activision are developed by multiple studios including Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Raven Software, and Sledgehammer Games. This is the first time progress has been linked across two separate games and a standalone free-to-play battle-royale. We have yet to see if this shared ecosystem will be used moving forward for all Call Of Duty titles, but there are lessons to be learned either way.
 

Kerotan

Member
It's actually quite balanced now. Lots of guns worth using. Best it's been in a long time. But until the second dmr nerf it was an abomination and lots of people who don't want to use a dmr just quit the game.

I play about 8 hours of this most days so I'm definitely enjoying it and approaching 500 wins.
 
The funny part is this happens with biz software integrations too. Some customer won't buy unless you can integrate with their CRM, but the CRM's data structure and concepts of receiving and processing data is entirely different than whatever product you work on. But the customer wants it anyway and sales already sold them on it.

So you build the integration between the two systems and it goes extremely poorly because they were never made to interact in the first place and you only had a month to do it. Names are switched around, fatal processing errors happen at 3am because the customer has 10 other systems doing some ass-backwards ETL processing overnight so that it doesn't interrupt whatever their army of data entry slaves is doing during biz hours, and the customer is constantly calling your boss and having a bitch fit because "there are so many bugs and you aren't fixing them fast enough".

The same goes for these COD integrations. Sure the concept of "shoot people with guns" between the games is similar but I guarantee you there's all sorts of funky translation of values from one game governing damage, player movement, and so on that was never planned to be modified to try and be normalized with another COD game's values. Some exec or director had the bright idea to integrate three games that weren't built to be integrated and this is what you get.
 

Kupfer

Member
Warzone was good when it launched, now everybody is playing META and they downgraded it's visuals. I still play it, because it's fun with friends and IMO the best BR, but far from really good.

Edit
MW campaign was fun
Black Ops CW campaign is boring and hollow
I'm not into CoD MP

So I'm unhappy too.
 
Last edited:

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Cold War isnt bad there are several guns that are quite good.

I play a lot of TDM and I have always had a slower more tactical playstyle and this game is more fitting for me.

I am getting older and my reflexes and eyes arent quite what they used to be so I move slow and almost always have my gun raised and the TTk in this game means I win almost every fight against run and gunners which makes them rage.
 

hayesdude

Neo Member
I've been casually playing Cold War since launch and I think it's great. I do find it slightly strange how those 3 games combined into one but I really haven't had any problems with that happening. Either way I'm happy with the way things are.
 

xiseerht

Member
The truth is , millions and millions and millions of people are very happy with Call of Duty. Which is why it is in the top ten games sold every single year for a decade It is just the small vocal minority that complain every single year about it.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
Nobody is happy with it?

I don't know then.. maybe try a different game/series?

No matter what the series is yearly releases generates fatigue.
 

Gamerguy84

Member
What's the best/popular COD with a large player base.

I've been looking to jump back in. Looks like between Cold War and MW 2019?
 
When I don't buy yearly CODS amymore but end up playing Warzone...........
 

Marvel

could never
Cold war integration was borked, there's still stupid bugs but I do love cod still, wz especially.

It's good for my sanity to take breaks tho.
 
Last edited:

Corgi1985

Banned
It's fine. Anything that isn't a derivative hero shooter and is at least competent is welcome in this AAA wasteland.

I miss UT2K4
 
Last edited:

Batiman

Banned
The pop in on my PS4 slim version of warzone is killing it for me. Trying to trace any movement and I think bushes and trees are moving enemies. The pop in kills it for me.

I still can’t launch warzone without my modern warfare in the system. It wouldn’t even let me launch it from Cold War.
 
Last edited:

CitizenZ

Banned
And yet its the most popular casual shooter on the market, with NO competition. None.

Also its funny to me every yr there is none stop crying about this franchise in forums with the "Never played one since MW2" blah blah blah and yet NEVER, EVER has slowed done from being the most sold, most played FPS for over a decade.

So i guess Activision and their fans are not subscribed to Neogaf or other forums worried about sales, circus barkers, and Gamepass. Interesting.
 
Last edited:

THEAP99

Banned
i really fucking hate how zombies is cross-progression with multiplayer.. really takes away the identity of it all
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
In COD cold war you have MP and ZOMBOS
I can max level without playing MP for 1 second.

but if i want certain weapons..

striker shotgun
Samurai sword
Sledgehammer

the game is forcing me to play MP pvp
Fuck pvp don’t force that shit on me when all i want to do is ZOMBOS.

so i guess i kinda get it?

also i think it’s hilarious that they changed the gameicon of modern warfare so it basically looks like .. hey-fuck-head-buy-the-new-cod
 

MadPanda

Banned
If you want to be happy, never bother with Warzone. I'm happy with Cold War and MW in general.

This is so true. Warzone is such a rage inducing mode, it's unbelievable. There's rage to be found in standard mp, but in warzone it is multiplied by 10. But it can also bring thrills which standard mp never could. In the end, I'm glad I stopped playing it. I feel much better.
 

GenericUser

Member
You can only milk a cow for so long. CoD MP is just boring at this point, it's always the same and most people already played these games for years. That means that the skill level of the average joe is ridiculously high. I still have an eye on the franchise, but I think it's probably for the better if the playerbase shrinks to a reasonable size. Maybe then, activision gives the devs a little more creative freedom. Because right now it feels as if Activision is desperately trying to get MW2 sales numbers, avoiding every tiny bit of risk in the process. But only if you take risks, you can move the game forward.
 

//DEVIL//

Member
You can only milk a cow for so long. CoD MP is just boring at this point, it's always the same and most people already played these games for years. That means that the skill level of the average joe is ridiculously high. I still have an eye on the franchise, but I think it's probably for the better if the playerbase shrinks to a reasonable size. Maybe then, activision gives the devs a little more creative freedom. Because right now it feels as if Activision is desperately trying to get MW2 sales numbers, avoiding every tiny bit of risk in the process. But only if you take risks, you can move the game forward.
Umm. Didn’t MW 2019 smash all records for a Cod game ?

also, Activision gave devs freedom, we got flying suits ....
 
Last edited:

GenericUser

Member
Umm. Didn’t MW 2019 smash all records for a Cod game ?

also, Activision gave devs freedom, we got flying suits ....
As far as I'm aware of, no. I think the series peaked with MW2(?). I maybe wrong though, I usually don't follow sales figures that much.
 

//DEVIL//

Member
As far as I'm aware of, no. I think the series peaked with MW2(?). I maybe wrong though, I usually don't follow sales figures that much.

They did break the MW2 sales record back then and then and I am sure it sold even more by now.
 
Last edited:

nemiroff

Gold Member
Here, have one of the best and most popular mp shooters out there undermined and reduced because...corporate contracts... The ONLY good to come out of this has been Rebirth Island, everything else has gone backwards (fuck that scam-y battle pass..). As an older gamer, MW is a good way to keep in contact with my real life friends moving and living in different places, especially since it's one of the few multiplayer games I can tolerate. So seeing the game getting watered down is frustrating. Why couldn't they just couldn't leave both games standing on their own legs and let the customers decide for themselves.

And btw, FUCK CHEATERS, I'm almost at the point of accepting root kits..
 

D.Final

Banned

They did break the MW2 sales record back then and then and I am sure it sold even more by now.
And here's why they chose Battle Royal
 

Gloomnivore

Member
I’m happy with Cold War. As happy as I’ve been with any COD since the MW2/Black Ops days. Not every aspect is great but there’s always something to bring me back every night, even if that thing is Nuketown 24/7.
 
All I know is playing the cold war beta gave me the worst experience I had with CoD ever, even Ghosts wasn't so bad. I really hated cod cow.
 
I dunno Warzone is still good, there is probably too much meta but generally its fine because in "normal" times the meta isn't too overpowered (and there are probably like 5-10 different "meta" guns at any time so in the end it is still fairly varied). The DMR was one of the worst experiences in a multiplayer game I've ever encountered though, absolutely ruined the game entirely.

Honestly some of the complaints seem kind of stupid, I mean complaining that some things you unlock are for a game you don't own? No shit. Obviously they want to give extras to the owners of the newest game, and incentivize others to buy the newest game. And the challenges were always all over the place - I guess it was better with Modern Warfare since they straight up split the challenges into three categories (warzone/MP/coop), but inevitably you will get a daily challenge that is for a mode you don't play. Again, to incentivize you to play other modes.
 

D.Final

Banned
I dunno Warzone is still good, there is probably too much meta but generally its fine because in "normal" times the meta isn't too overpowered (and there are probably like 5-10 different "meta" guns at any time so in the end it is still fairly varied). The DMR was one of the worst experiences in a multiplayer game I've ever encountered though, absolutely ruined the game entirely.

Honestly some of the complaints seem kind of stupid, I mean complaining that some things you unlock are for a game you don't own? No shit. Obviously they want to give extras to the owners of the newest game, and incentivize others to buy the newest game. And the challenges were always all over the place - I guess it was better with Modern Warfare since they straight up split the challenges into three categories (warzone/MP/coop), but inevitably you will get a daily challenge that is for a mode you don't play. Again, to incentivize you to play other modes.
It's only about what you want from it
 

Stuart360

Member
Its pretty crazy really that COD is so popular, and makes so much money, yet they are still stuck on the same Warzone map.
There are Indie BR games on PC with 3 or 4 maps lol.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
After Cold War I'm going on another COD hiatus for awhile, lol. Modern Warfare was really good IMO, Cold War was pretty eh.
 

splattered

Member
Outside of the hackers i'm happy with it... do pretty decent in regular MP and zombies has FINALLY clicked for me. Very much enjoying the game.
 
Top Bottom