How Call of Duty is Killing its Community
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 3 июл 2024
- The Call of Duty community was once thriving but in recent years, it seems like things have really started to change and I can't help but think that the franchise is actively killing off many portions of the community. Today, I wanted to share a handful of non-gameplay related reasons that I feel are contributing to this as well as how I feel they could turn some of these issues around. What are your thoughts on the current state of the CoD community?
Twitch: / thexclusiveace
Twitter: / thexclusiveace
Introduction: 0:00
What is the "Core" Community: 0:45
2:08 Massive Fragmentation
5:32 Disjointed Gaming Experience
10:15 "Look What I Earned!" vs "Look What I Bought!"
15:06 Where's the Passion?
18:11 Getting Good Doesn't Feel Good...
22:58 Shutting Down Community Projects
23:55 Wrap Up 
Игры
![Eminem - The Death of Slim Shady [Album Trailer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/X0HIrS6kUYI/mqdefault.jpg)
The absolute worst thing about the disbanding lobbies is that I feel like I'm perpetually joining matches in progress. It's so frustrating to be routinely put in half finished matches on the losing team with full streaks flying around.
Fr its so annoying joining a lobby thats half way over
I've never - not ONCE - joined a game in progress except when initially queuing for the first time. Since MW19. Don't leave games or queues and you won't either.
EDIT: Many angry replies. Fact remains I've played every week of the year since MW19, 1000s of matches total, and have never once gotten into a game in progress UNLESS it's the first match after starting game, or I left a match, or I left the queue then requeued. This is on PC, regular MP matches.
@@starlite_lord4321 have you actually played mw2?
@@starlite_lord4321either A) you’re lying or B) you’ve played a total of one match in this game
@@phonicfrog_it's the same for me, only the first game I join is in progress
As the "slightly above average player" it's not just the dread of the next lobby but also the thought that the only reason I did well in the prior lobby is because the EBMM obviously put me against absolute bots. So not only does it feel bad to get crushed in the next couple lobbies but the previous success feels empty and undeserved.
I hate when I get into a lobby and suddenly get my streaks immediately. I know my next matched are about to be fucked. I got dumped into a shitter lobby and I'm about to suffer for the next hour or so
As a slightly below average player i had the same horrible depressing experience...quit playing a year a go, no fun what so ever!
Just feels like constant manipulation.
Level 151 (me) going up against a team where nobody is below level 400: (i got 4 kills last match)
@@lv9084 What is your K/D?
The thing I hate the most about the current matchmaking is, if i wanna play with a friend who's newer to the game i straight up have to warn them that because of me the sbmm is gonna be super aggressive and its possible that they're gonna have a shitty experience. It should never be like that for any game whatsoever. I just wanna have fun with friends man
I have friends who literally groan when I join their lobby because they know it’s going to be extremely difficult lobbys. So I actually have to nerf myself so I don’t do too well like do a pistol challenge or something.
This man. My friends know that I bring in the sweats 🥲
Just remember Activision's excuse for SBMM is to "ensure that new players don't have a bad time" what a contradiction 😂
My buddy and my older nephews don’t like playing with me anymore cuz of my KD. I’m not even sweaty (1.6 KD). But that’s high enough to bring in people with 2.0+ into my lobbies.
@@jswagpsn2285 yeah, but eff the people who buy the game every year 🤣
I used to really love swapping my calling cards and emblems around because they meant something. I haven't changed a calling card other than initially setting it since 2019, and that feels bad. All of these things feel very real, well thought out, and are definitely pain points. Love your X-Defiant rematch comparison, that actually would be really cool.
I never really cared about the disbanding lobbies, until I lost my shield buddy. We were on opposite teams, stuck in a container realising we could not kill each other and just sat next to each other for the rest of the game, even jumping in front of each other to protect from our own team. And after the game you were gone, and I could not find you to friend you. Wherever you are shield buddy, I hope you are doing well!
:(
\[T]/
You sound like you'd enjoy Team Fortress 2 as it does have a community that does silly stuff more frequently.
Put this in the Craigslist section Missed Encounters
I know the feeling bud
Press F2 for recent players.
one of the coolest things, to me at least, was the team balancing in older cods and how it could put the two really good players in a lobby against each other and to me that was always really fun to watch and to be a part of
It was so fun to look at the lobby leaderboard, see yourself at #2 or #1 stats wise and feel like you had something to prove. Knowing the game would put the other top player in the lobby against you, it was so fun to see if you could do better than them and win. On the flip side, it you knew you were the "best player in the lobby", there was a pressure there to perform and carry your team to a victory. Lobbys used to have 2 or 3 really strong players, 2 or 3 really bad players, and a bunch of middling talent, and it made matches interesting for all but the worst players in a lobby... But it's the catering to those worst players in lobbies which has led us to where we are now.
THIS! Seeing the #2 and #3 players team up against me and a team of scrubs always felt like a challenge.
It was always cool when you finally got teamed with the 2 best player in the lobby! Hope🥲
FACTS
Yeah, there no more “oh shit, that guy is on the other team/our team” moments. All the names and tags blend together.
I think there's a good way of quantifying player interaction across games, which is to look into the amount of friend requests you've received during the life cycle of a game. The majority of friend requests I received were from 2009 to 2014 after which the number has reduced and plummeted to 0 after the disbanding lobbies became a thing. This is of course just my experience.
oh i got waaay more friend requests back in the day too, which sucks because you technically have 3x the people to friend now.
i still would get some every now and again in modern sbmm cod, havent played in months, but its not because we had a good time or shot the shit like old times. its almost always because they want a free carry and i know because it was only on games of snd where i went 20-5 and shit when id get a majority of them, and any that i entertained would wanna leave if we lost a game or two.
the few i get where they just wanna screw around are the best and made me go back to the good days of private lobbies and just jacking off on snd 🤣
My honest opinion is that Activision added fuel to the hackers fire by having such a strong SBMM system. People want to pub stomp like their favorite RUclipsrs and get punished for getting better. So they get tools like Cronus Zen and PC hacks to help them. It’s honestly sad to see them destroy something that was so good for so long.
for every pub stomping player, there are 6 players that had a terrable time. U dont like sbmm personally, but thats selfish, and i understand that its net positive. The "community" will on average be above average at the game, therefore we have a twister view of the game.
Also some people think that sbmm is punishing them, but its actually making things easier, they just have a dificult time getting 1kd
Ace, I'm glad you're being brutally honest and I appreciate you sticking it real with us
i feel this all boils down to shareholders - their main aim is to raise share prices and all they do is focus on transactional items and nothing on gameplay - just what gets their metrics looking good not what plays good
@S S yes, HOWEVER, when you do this at the detriment of "the PLAYER",
ITS UNACCEPTABLE.
@@SS_LFC This is normal, business 101. The ONLY reason why a business exists is to generate profits. Otherwise, there would be no point. Activision has zero faults for wanting to make money. If I were an Activision shareholder, or if you were the CEO of the company, I'd be FURIOUS if they changed business strategies. It's just working so well for them. Make no mistake, this is a business, not a charity. Activision has zero incentive to change. The only way to force them to change is to stop buying the game.
Feelings are not honesty. Feeling go all over the place. Let me know what you really think!
That wasn't brutal in any way, i'd even say that he was easy on the devs.
One of the most memorable gaming experiences I've had was playing MW3 with my brother and finding some drunk hillbilly that we played with for most of the night. I don't remember anything about the gameplay but the community aspect was something I'll never forget
Man, that segment on unlockables and challenges got me really thinking about CoD Ghosts. While yes, Ghosts had it's fair share of issues, I think it had my favorite set of unlock challenges. Challenges for emblems, calling cards, and cosmetic gear for operators was pretty fun in that. Especially for operators. There were a good deal of individual pieces and outfits to unlock through challenges.
To this day I'll still run a class with the ACOG & Akimbo combo on a pistol in honor of the "I Have No Idea What I'm Doing" challenge.
back when they had passion
Ghosts was an amazing game!
This challenge was part of Infinte Warfare, if I remeber correctly?!?
I also have been finding lately that I enjoy games that seem to have been made with a sense of passion. It certainly had its issues, but MW2019 to me felt like the last cod that gave me any sense of that
Exactly but they later let’s us change the FOV and our dumbasses accepted it 🤣😭
I played COD back in it’s “Golden era” I RARELY played Solo. Bc the lobbies didn’t disband. I would go into it solo BUT get invited to join a party and make a stack team and it was HOURS of fun, EXACTLY like Ace said. You adjust play style, guns, kill streaks, etc.
Now I JUST play solo. I don’t care if I win, or loose, or if I just back out due to being put in a loosing game OEMM just assumes I’m going to carry a loosing team on a regular basis.
usually i end up in the top 3 on my team. and the difference between the top 3 and the bottom 3 is pretty large in terms of kd. it frustrates me. especially when they dont ptfo.
@@aneishinobinomono tru, but see there in lies the problems that didn’t really happen with lobbies that stayed together; If the bottom 3 aren’t slayers you could “assign” roles like Anti air/ or having support roles like ammo boxes trophy. It’s gives lower skilled players in the game and HELPING by shooting things down or giving ammo. As it stand IM the one who has to do EVERYTHING! Else my team gets smoked and we loose.
Lose*
@@Dylan1202_ yup that one. I swear iphones and my thumbs don’t get along too well.
I'm stacking a team up
Calling cards - I was thinking about this the other day. I was so proud when I completed all the BO2 TDM calling cards. As an average player getting 20 straight kills in a TDM match was a massive achievement for me. Now, calling card challenges aren't even divided by game type other than MP/WZ/DMZ. They are more focused on time spent rather than skill or objective play. Man, BO2 was such a good game.
doing similar on bo3 was so satisfying to me. i like the badge of honor of completing challenges to compliment my custom emblem. bo2 and 3 was really fun
@@KuroShiiiro and the hunt f8r the mastery calling cards was so satisfying- now half of the time you dont know if someones bought a cool CC or earned it
@@liamblylod5954i dont even know what other people use since you never see them cc's anyway
Man, don't let me start talking about this because me and my friends spent hours on MW3 going for Calling Cards and Emblems. It was so much fun, man, not to mention that brought life to the game. I still have a print from my 1K HS Calling Card with the L118A.
It's such a shame that you can't play casually with your friends anymore. All my friends left the game due to sbmm. In the old days you could just play together and have a lot of fun, no matter how good the individual was. Now if one player is better than the others, they just don't have a good time in the game. However, due to Sbmm, playing as a single player is not a nice experience either. Sad what has become of this once great game series.😢
Yep. I have a 1.2 kd and I can’t even play with my friend because he has a 2 kd (he’s insane on kbm) and the lobbies are so sweaty I can’t even have fun and I’m a fairly decent player.
Pretty much put me off them all. only play cold war zombies with friends occasionally.
My only issue with sbmm is that instead of putting me in a lobby with everyone with my same level, it puts me with maybe 1 good person and the rest absolutely suck while the other team is pretty stacked. I don't want to try so hard for a team of randoms that I won't see again. If I play with my friend with the same skill as me the game is waaaay better and my favorite games are the ones where we barley win or lose.
Disbanding lobbies is one of the biggest missteps they've made. I met lots of friends playing snd in BL2. I'm so close with one of the friends I made that we're moving in together this July. It sucks to know that doesn't happen anymore or nearly as much, at least.
I lost count of how many times I had a wholesome encounter with someone, I'd send them a friend request, and they'd never accept it because games start so rapidly and the social tab isn't well designed. The newer games seemed more social with cross play and a social tab, but disbanding lobbies negate this social experience a lot of the time.
Yeah I’ve had some nice encounters with people and the friend request is a struggle to send. Never been accepted too because they just cannot find it lmao
I missed the times when you would be in a 100% chill lobby with everybody screwing around and would later even come to an agreement to a verbal gamemode in a public match.
Iv'e been saying this for years: Remove calling cards from bundles. They add little value to bundles and they simultaneously kill a huge form of player progression. I miss scrolling through the lobbies and seeing everyone's achievements. Activision can easily replace these with emblems, sprays, charms, emotes, tracers, watches, etc...
I feel that Modern Warfare 2019 was the start of a new series. Infinity Ward had an axe to grind with the community and made a game that would cause most to quit playing. The new player's who benefited from the handholding and SBMM would be the new core audience. We have seen this trend continue with the failure known as MWII22. Another game that caters to a new audience. Infinity ward and Activision have also created a new group of "influencers" to push this game to the unsuspecting audience. They give these high profile streamers special perks and abilities in exchange for promotion of this failed game. The game we love is long gone and will never return. Anyone who cared about gaming has been purged from the industry and replaced with someone who will push an ideology or equity and fairness in gaming. We dont even see new game IP's anymore, we just get remakes of past classics because originality is dead. The fear of offending is too great a risk for game companies to take so they bleed their existing IPs dry. The gaming industry is a baren wasteland devoid of creativity in 2023. Many are to blame.
SBMM is a necessary evil now. Today you have players who have been playing COD for 15 years and have reaction speeds on par with pro players. I'm one of those guys, I refuse to use voip or play ranked. I only pub. Put me in a lobby with new players and they're going to have a horrible experience. It will be non-stop seal clubbing. SBMM is critical for the long term health of multiplayer games.
@@poisonouslead85 It is a never ending cycle of handholding. It's all about money. They want everyone to have a equal experience with some flashes of success. Players will stick around and spend money because of the artificial skill Activision allows them to have. The game worked fine before this type of SBMM. The health of this game is awful. No one enjoys it and I would guess its playerbase is 50% bots maybe more???
Every game that is catered to bad players gets ruined.
Facts
Then why CoD has been successful all this time?
@Aegis cod usually balanced elements that cater to bad players alongside elements that reward skilled players.
If you are willing to engage in good faith I'd be happy to spend the time to point out what some of those are.
@@jugger17 because COD hasn't always been catered to new/bad players.
@@jugger17 because the name Call of Duty. Just like how madden sells every year knowing it’s shit or ppl watching fast and furious. The name holds so much weight. I haven’t played cod heavy since the golden days but still keep up with it to see what’s happening. THEY LITERALLY NAMED IT AFTER THE ORIGINAL MW2 🤣
I'm glad someone is talking about these things because as someone who grew up on Black Ops 1 and MW3, these are the things I remember about those games, years later after; not the guns, not the skins, not the movement, but the people that I met through playing and the rivalries that would happen while playing. Ultimately, I think the elements discussed here are the real reasons those games are regarded so highly, ( not because they were better designed ) and the most sad part of it all is these changes could easily be fixed, though they chose not too.
Facts
the genuine memories! man we ran into a guy 7 months into Ghosts" cycle and his preferred weapon was a C4 xD me and my friends still talk about that guy to this day. hell we talk about that guy more than we even play now
MW3 goated. Love everything about it.
Man, I hadn't thought of that!! I get random friend requests on Rocket League all the time and I never go on mic with randoms
I used to be a dedicated call of duty player years ago but I stepped off for other games. I feel this video as a whole covers how I felt. You put it way better than I could have
Love that you're talking about the disbanding lobbies. Couldn't agree more, thank you for being persistant.
EXCELLENT rant ACE I'm with you on the "Disbanding Lobbies" situation. During the BOII days getting your 6 and jumping in a DOM playlist was golden. We would all run CUAVs & Trophy Systems and it would be so fun hearing the other team complain.
Then you'd come up against another squad of 6 and go back and forth for hours until someone's spirit got broken. Then a friend would have to drop out for whatever reason but you had a friend or a friend of a friend who be right there to jump in to take their place. The good old days....
Dam, I remember making an entire weekend when it was double xp, getting the squad to play together till early morning was one of my best gaming memories
@@XboxNightmare_NM I forgot about DXP weekends. I live in the Midwest so those cold snowy weekends were the best for grinding Gold camo. And also The PRESTIGE System was soooooo much better during that grind. The only CAP was Master Prestige.
Yes. This is gone. Trolling was everything 😂
💯
The biggest problem to me is that basically everything you mentioned was in a previous COD at some point in time. I totally understand that different developers have their own ideas and visions for each iteration of the franchise but it feels like with MW2 that they took every "little thing" away like stats, Hardcore (at first), the arcade style and clean UI, etc..
Activision shutting down community projects matters for more reasons than you mentioned too. Not only is it a smaller, very passionate part of the community that they are killing off, but those community projects for older COD's actually fixed most of the complaints we have with modern day COD.
In most cases those community projects were the only way to enjoy those older COD's at all. Myself and many others were really looking forward to playing the Black Ops 3 client because right now not only is the player base dead for Black Ops 3 on steam, but the game is actually so broken and unplayable, and Treyarch+Activision have no intention of fixing it.
Its so sad to see such passionate parts of the community just being shit on and neglected.
Great video, Ace! Perfectly summed up why I, and many others, have been disenfranchised with the series the last few years!
Your on point with all of your points though I’m surprised you never brought up the bad spawn system. That does hurt the experience.
As I said at the beginning, I wanted to avoid anything gameplay related for this video since I talk about gameplay stuff so much in all of my other videos and this is meant to be more of a big picture look that encompasses several of the recent games and not just MWII. I've talked about the negative impact of this spawn system plenty in the past
Content creators are also killing the community. The majority of the videos are creators talking in circles to extend watch time. Creators used to make videos for the players. Now they make them for advertisers. I appreciate the fact that Ace still makes videos for the players.
The WZ spectating videos I find dumb as hell haha
And don't even get me started with those cringe ass videos that are titled "THE (insert gun name here) IS OVERPOWERED BEST CLASS SETUP" or some shit, and the thumbnail has said gun on it with a fake ass camo with lightning and max stat bars.
@Average Balkaner and the shocked emoji
@@DoodleTheWolf 😯😯😯😯
@@averagebalkaner1317 Dont forget their ugly "amazed" faces (and yes, this comes from an account which doesn't have a real profile pic)
First cod in 10 years I didn’t buy. Playing the beta and seeing how it was a camping sim did it for me. don’t regret it whatsoever.
The beta was the high point of the game. You made a wise decision. Horrible game experience
I haven't bought a new CoD since Cold War, and I think quite literally everything you explained in this video sums up why I haven't, multiplayer and community wise. I also deal a heavy hand in zombies and that's a whole different beast of issues as well. Being an aspiring game developer and watching your videos Ace makes me hope that someday we can get over the hurdle and start leaning back towards what makes CoD great. I really think you have excellent points in this video and others that should be dealt with, if only someone would hire you to give these points directly to Activision or someone who will listen!
For those who are waiting for persistent lobbies to make a return, keep in mind that you sadly might be waiting forever. "Community" just isn't a focus for Activision anymore.
Hit the nail square on the head. Monetisation (you know, the stuff that “matters”) in general feels like it’s been killing many multiplayer titles in the last few years
Ace nails it again. I’ll never forget an FFA lobby where all 8 players were within 5 or 6 kills of the win. We stayed together for what must’ve been a dozen trading wins and talking trash before all 8 of us jumped into a groundwar and got smoked. Turned out that being similar in skill in FFA didn’t translate, but it was so fun and I’ll never forget what could happen when we didn’t disband.
Yup. On BO4 I tried always having a super high win rate on FFA. I remember being in a lobby with a streamer who was ridiculously good at FFA he said he had some wild win-loss record on that mode. I would push him right until the very end but he would just win every time lol eventually after a bunch of games I was able to win one I joined his stream we were just going back and forth with some light hearted trash talk and it was such a fun experience honestly.
SUCH AN IMPRESSIVELY AMAZING VIDEO ACE!!!! So much depth and information and ideas and I love pretty much all of it!! Thank you for all you do and have done for the community, keep it up 🙂
great video ace, I love the longer deep dives like this
Activision: Instructions unclear, more bundles
😅
The COD franchise couldn’t be more dead. They’ve mastered the art of delivering the most boring, no atmospheric games of all time and charging through the roof for them.
the atmosphere is there, but it's different and it's all thanks to the more realistic graphics. Realistic graphics make for bland games.
The hard truth is that the CoD that we all love already died. Today we get little pieces of that game and the nostalgia makes us believe that those times can come back, but it will never be, and this makes me incredible sad...
You are spot on…I am 65, starter playing after my divorce, made some great connections at the time. Went dark for a while, and still see the names of friends from 10 years ago, however we never talk, can’t form teams and rivalries. Miss that
Cod doesnt need to change anything because they have all the content creators in there pockets which they influence millions to buy the game and new skins and stuff. They are making so much money right now because the morale of streamers now is not there. They just for the paycheck at the end of the day even if they have to lie to the people that follow them.
Sadly you're right, people like Ace have this as their job and wouldn't want to lose their job.
So they provided the gun guides and people see them playing the game and get it to feel closer to Ace. For things to stop or change requires not just Ace but others like him to protest. To refuse. If one person refuses everyone goes to them.
@@Dragoonsoul7878 ain't he literally doing that in this video? And like you said, it's basically his job. You'll be insane to outright throw away your livelihood. But he can at least suggest ways to restore the community surrounding his job.
Never really thought about it, but it’s so true what Ace said about the mini-community type feel of lobbies. I rarely feel like talking anymore bc I know I’ll probably never see the people again and now that I think about it, it’s not near as engaging as it was. The rivalry aspect mentioned of playing in the same lobby against the same players over several games made me want to play better, and was more immersive kinda like a sport where the enemy team had more of a face than it does now
I feel like Infinity Ward lost their passion after Infinite Warfare. That was a game they really wanted to make - you could tell just by the Campaign, which was Top 3 best in the series to be honest - but the community threw a hissyfit over it being futuristic because ‘insiders’ said the next game was Modern. Dislike bomb, commercial failure, all for nothing because they got MWR to hold them over. MWR was good but I’d rather play something new instead.
A lot of the community is stuck in the past and unwilling to accept change. MWII is not the change we want, no, but it’s the reason we’ve been getting that sort of game for like 3 years. Infinite Warfare kinda put the nail in the coffin of original ideas and passion projects, and it’s sad because 2014-2016 was like a renaissance period for COD. We probably won’t get another BO3, even though that’s ideally what a person should want, packed with content and enough unlockables to hold even the most dedicated players over for years and years.
Supply Drops sucked, though. We do not need or want those to return.
I just recorded a podcast episode with a couple friends yesterday where I touched on almost all of these points. As someone who has been playing since about 2005, I'm right there with ya bro. Preach it Ace!!
The push to monetize things and restrict what we could earn while expanding what we can buy really grates on me and I know people feel the same way. We've seen a massive increase in the potential total amount of content and items that can be brought to these games, its just that a lot of it (mostly the higher quality stuff imo) is stuff you have to pay money for piecemeal. It also doesn't help when the playable content is so miniscule, which is probably due to the fragmentation you mentioned.
Don't buy COD anymore. Otherwise, there is no reason to complain after being continuously dissatisfied with a product. The goal of a business is to generate profits, and that's what Activision is doing, rightfully so.
@Nuggetz Activision is one of the worst companies that monetize their games. Charge 70 for base game which is 1/3 the game you would have gotten 5 years ago. Then 10 for a battle pass, and max price of 30 on some bundles is pretty crazy when the game can't function. Rocket league used to be a paid game now it's free. Sure you still get micro transactions but there capped in the store at 22 dollars still a lot but it's less. And you get significantly more free stuff as you play through. And the battle pass doesn't stop at level 100 and not giving you anymore content it just starts giving you recolored skins or cars and decals up until the season ends.
@@xxwagyllamabootyxx8554 they do it because they can, and you can't do anything about it no matter how much you complain because you buy the game year after year, filling their pockets and offering them no incentive to change. The only course of action is to stop buying COD.
You basically hit the nail on the head for every point, Ace. It’s a shame that the sense of community in the game is basically nonexistent in practically every mode besides maybe the occasional SnD or ranked match where people more often use mics and party up. And the point about having unique items (calling cards and emblems) that can only be earned through progression and challenges is something that I know I personally really liked in older CoD’s. Even something as simple as the killstreak emblems in the original MW2 made me want to use every killstreak in the game rather than just run the same 3 every match like I do in MW2022. It’s pretty sad that one of the largest franchises with cross platform play to allow everyone to play together has completely and utterly lost all sense of what makes a community a community
The developers seem to believe that implementing a harsh SBMM system is the solution to help lower skilled players improve. However, many players can recall struggling when they first started playing and gradually improving over time through practice and experience. Furthermore, I've noticed that my ping has recently increased from around 10ms to 100-150ms in most lobbies, which doesn't seem to be affecting some of the other players. This has made the game feel unfair at times, as I've shot opponents first only to see in the killcam that they reacted faster due to my ping being higher.
My ping also went up from 10/15 ping to 40 all the time
I think its a corporate decision. Believe Mark, making that ubisoft competitor stipulated this anyway (former IW).
"Getting good doesn't feel good" is 99% of the reason I never picked up a more recent release of CoD.
What you said about getting good before SBMM bs brought back some memories. I remember being a bot with no muscle memory actively thinking that I have to press that button, then becoming better and better.
Getting good now means CDL lobbies and lag to the point where you don't deal damage anymore (ain't saying there is skill based damage, but the lag is there and it affects your gunfights).
Do you mean the lag i get when im on a streak and an enemy is walking around the corner? The lag that makes me an easy target that only appears when im doing good but doesnt when im doing bad?
@@slowdown8at606sounds def like the game does hit reg/skill based damage if that happens
In terms of the matchmaking and lobbies. I remember when I saw a player consistently at the top of the table, I would spectate them to improve. Sometimes it would just be raw talent, but often you could learn from their positioning, the routes they take, the types of flanks they use etc etc. Instead of needing to go to youtube, you could learn as you play within the game.
Some absolutely amazing points made here mate. I stopped playing COD this year because of nearly every point you made. Still watch the content to support people who helped me when i was playing!!! HOW much value would they get from employing you!!!
You nailed it! This community used to be fun. I've been playing since 2008, and it's not the same, not even close. Not mentioning how horrible the new game is. I made some of my best friends on this game! Now? It's a blood bath of pure hate.
Never let a good game go unpunished, if you have a good game SBMM will make sure to ruin your day. I have given up completely, I now only rarely play the older games like cold war.
Be careful with playing Cold War if you’re on PC, people have found exploits to get IP addressed and fuck with your system.
@@xyrolinx3533 Welp, that doesn’t surprise me.
Lol Cold War is absolute ass
@@rolltideroll8458lol thank you, people just talk to get the attention of others sometimes🤣
We won a resugence match within our second try,got 5th the first. After that match making kicked out asses for like the next seven games
It’s nothing new they’ve been killing the community after MW2019 I mean camo grinds now are getting boring and feels like a second job. Like bruh I’m already stressed out from work I don’t need more stress from a video game 💀
If that stresses you out, maybe just don't bother with camos?
@@Slicyful that’s why i uninstalled it
I was playing over the weekend and started to get burned out way to early in my sessions. By the end of Monday night I felt like I was just doing chores instead of having fun.
You hit on all of my thoughts! Hopefully the developers listen. Been definitely thinking of ditching the COD games.
Regarding the disjointed gaming experience, this is part of why I really like Ranked. I’m a solo ranked player but it’s fun getting into a game with a good squad, then partying up and running several games in a row. Playing the same opponents because you guys are fairly evenly matched and having sort of a mini rivalry. It’s such a fun dynamic to ranked.
You’re bronze
People are going to come in here and shout that this is 100% the COD cycle. Like you said though I feel like yes right now that’s part of it but at the same time that COD cycle has been slowly deteriorating in the past few years. Many of the points you mentioned are things I totally feel and miss about older COD (Especially miss the pre BR, and pre loot drop CODs).
I got burnt out at the beginning of season 2. A lot of that burn out was due to what you described here, but I just couldn't place my finger on it at the time. It's just tiring at this point and I don't see myself picking up another COD title any time soon.
After a decade of being in love with COD, the franchise that sparked my love for online gaming, my relationship with COD is absolutely dead. The experience for a top player sucks in multiplayer. I miss the 10th prestige lvl 1000 grind.
i grew up playing call of duty. started at the original MW2 and had so much fun on other older cods. had a blast on zombies as well. since modern warfare 2019 i have slowly stopped playing cod as much and i tried to play MW2 (2022) and i just can’t play it. it’s not fun , feels so boring and just feels like a cash grab with all the bundles. i remember in bo2 you could spend less money on a cool skin for ALL of your weapons. not just a blueprint. I’m definitely not buying the next call of duty because i’ve lost all hope in this franchise.
lol if you grew up on Cod surely you must be aware of how much even the og MW2 and MW3 still got slandered on social media, just like the first mission of MW2 SSDD, only its the same shit year in year out, new Cod comes out, slander it, next one comes out, praise the previous one, rinse repeat
Wow in 11yrs prices have gone up? Glad you pointed that out I never would've noticed.
Good video Ace! Disbanding lobbies, no vote mapping, SBMM or whatever they are using tuned too high. Also, Warzone should be more separate and have a different store as well. The items in that store like skins can be carried Warzone to Warzone year after year.
Its not just COD, man. Its every game. Activision is doing a great job of turning 15+ year veterans of the franchise away from their titles as a whole for one reason or another.
I’ve literally made friends that I’ve traveled to different states to visit because of the OG CoD lobbies. That would never be possible now.
Perfect video. EOMM is why my buddy and I are done as soon as our next game releases (not CoD). It's not even the big boys mentality for us. We play S+D and after a win, we dread the teammates it's going to scrounge around to find for us below the bottom of the barrel. We even got matched with a level 4 and level 27 player (same match) last night. They weren't seasoned players who just picked up this game either.
We combine 30-11 with 2-3 plants and a disarm or two and still end up losing matches because we get 3 players at 0-4 to 0-6 before they inevitably back out. The worst offense to this is when we go up against a group of 4-5 players in a clan together and they don't even get the worst player in the lobby. Instead, we do.
It's no longer fun to get good at the game because you'll just end up getting punished, hard, for it. We have nights where we don't get a single win but never put up less than 20 combined in a match of S+D, while still getting in plants and defuses. If you can't fill a team with your group, then EOMM will punish you to the full extent possible.
We don't expect to win every game, but it's ridiculous to only win 1 in 4 matches while putting up these numbers, especially when the only reason any rounds are close is because we killed 4-5 of the enemy players on that round.
One of those things I remember most for MW2 through BO2 was you could practically name the lobby you were going against and with based on the people you naturally encountered whilw playing certain modes at certain times. You start foguring out what everyones mind game is at, what rheir preferences are, which maps they excel and are weak at, who was toxic, who was just quiet, who liked to talk shit but wanted shit talked back when they got smacked. That's just not possible anymore because of the disbanding lobbies and you can't as a new player really build or get into a community organically theough the game.
That mostly happened when the game was a bit older or you were playing at weird hours but yeah, that is a great point too. There was a chance that you could recognise people from previous sessions as you said and be like “ah, isn’t this the guy running around with a silly WA200 build I played against yesterday? Yeah yeah yeah, it is him, let’s go dude”, now there isn’t even a chance of that
This video spoke so much truth. And I wish the devs would watch and listen. Those of us that played OG cod remember what it used to be like and the experience was 100% better than now. Thank you for making videos like this in hopes it brings awareness 🤜🏻
This is such a real talk video. So well done, well spoken and articulated. I agree 100% on all of it. With monetizing, it’s here to stay but what pisses me off is you don’t keep them and they know that and let you buy stuff right up until next season and a person unaware or just not thinking could spend 30 bucks and it’ll last one day if they bought it the day before new season launches. That is predatory to the max and just completely wrong.
Hidding the lobby leaderboard, player stats in game, and hidding people who are partied up definitely has left a sour taste in my mouth.
I share so many of your sentiments here. Since the introduction of disbanding lobbies in MW 2019 i haven't played COD longer than a month. The spirit of the game died for me. Pair that with the several other major issues and I've quickly played less and less and less each of the following years, to the point where I have not purchased the lastest COD, and will forgo the next release too if it stays the same.
That's where I am. I keep thinking to myself, am I just not into gaming anymore? I keep buying the new consoles so I obviously WANT to play, but why don't I want to pick up the controller? Because the game isn't fun. It just isn't that great. I used to play until 3am and didn't care that I had work the next day. Now, I wrap it up at 10-11pm and its super easy to exit. I used to get FOMO, but that doesn't happen now.
@@justinlowe337 I feel you on that. When i put down COD I wondered if i was just getting old and losing an interest in gaming. Turns out that wasn't the case... I was just burnt out and had no drive to stay on the COD hamster wheel. I started playing single player games again and I literally feel like a kid again, it's been amazing. I'm playing all the games i passed up on to play COD.
@@spikedeagle Yeah that's the spirit. I have friends telling me about all the fun they're having on other games. I am definitely moving on to greener pastures!
Agree 100%. One thing I'd add is that Ranked Play sucks. I gave up after going 30-10 or so with basically all of my teams objectives in several games and getting knocked back because we lost as no one else was playing the objective. It's hard to have the patience to keep grinding with lobbies like this until I'm lucky enough to get teamed with others who are playing for the objectives. I'm sure it's better at higher levels, but I can't be bothered.
Every single thing you’ve said is so on point it’s scary!
To add to the matchmaking issue. When you DO get good and get to a point where you are above average and carrying games, you now HAVE TO carry a game in order to consistently win. You get players on your team well below your skill level while the enemy team is more of a consistent skill level.
He mentioned that
@@Natsumi170 must've missed it. My bad. Point still stands though.
For me as a solo player, team balancing is another MASSIVE issue. I have a solid kd at around 1.3, but my win/loss ratio is a little around 0.6. Games are rarely close and usually complete blow-outs one way or the other. It just means I play selfish and don't care for the team game which is really sad as they aren't competitive. Rarely get that buzz of going clutch in a close game to pull out the win.....its just boring.
Couldn’t agree more most of the time one guy has to carry a whole team vs a team of 4 good players
Your literally around the worst stats for cod. You're going to get bad team mates every game and play people better than you alwqys using meta guns
Out of curiosity, what is your SPM? I have a similar KD at 1.4 but my current W/L ratio is 1.81 with an SPM of 554. Are you playing objectives or just playing TDM every game?
@@nathanh2725 Not really, in old CoDs maybe. The EOMM diluted everything. If you have a consistent 2.0+ KD you are exceptional. The game wants everyone at 1,3. 1,3 is above average in an EOMM scenario.
How? I have a 1.3 as well, but a 5.12 W/L... maybe play obj.
I'm glad you're making this type of video
Unfortunately, this franchise doesn't listen to it's community because they think they are smarter than we are. They change things that NO ONE is asking them change because they think they know what we want.
this is different than the cycle, the casuals are finally realizing what the more advised players have been saying for years.
the game is stale, its all algorithmic and made to push in game skin sales instead of great gameplay.
Excellent, as usual. Disbanding lobbies is the worst, as you say. It was fun to tell 'em "I'm gonna get you next game!" and have a chance at a friendly rivalry. AND, as much as I read doom and gloom on this season's gameplay -- they really have fixed lots and lots of little issues; as Ace says, "the little things add up". Nobody yet has mentioned the music this season, which is Sooooo much better than the previous season. The game is better today vs when it first came out.
I actually like the old maps; I was looking forward to Favela, Quarry, and of course Terminal. But... nope! Seems to me they ought to give us two new maps for every one old map; that would be a good balance. Speaking of maps, I think the new maps are actually pretty great, esp. Himmelmatt Expo. Lighthouse is OK, if a little dark / little too big. "Black Gold" -- the night map -- grows on you with time, as you figure it out. Museum I like a lot. As to the 'originals' --- Hotel, Fortress, Mercado -- excellent.
Not Great: Alboran Hatchery, Santa Sena Border, and, surprisingly, Dome -- I hate the color palette, sun angle, and limited places to put sentries.
I had no idea sbmm was a thing, but I have noticed how inconsistent my performance seems - sometimes I do pretty well, but then other times I get absolutely slaughtered
Wish I could give this two thumbs up, thank you for speaking up for the community.
As a PC player that never joins voice comms (since the amount of toxic people in comms far outweigh the amount of helpful people in comms) disbanding lobbies never concerned me.
That being said, back in the day of dedicated servers - I do miss seeing the same names come into a server - you'd get to know a player and be relieved if they were on your team / scared if they weren't. xD
Everything else you mentioned I very much agree with. 👍
I turned off voip back in BO2 and I haven't looked back. Everyone else is so slow because they're pissing away braincells on listening and talking to people instead of shooting.
"Oh crap, I played way too well that game." I find myself saying that like at least once per day!!!! It's so funny hearing you say that because when it happens to me i go into the next match thinking I'm gonna pay for it being a bullet sponge.
Man you brought up so much nostalgia for me by talking about adjusting your playstyle and getting into these random rivalries with players you come up against in lobbies. If another good player for example was hanging back and sniping or locking down a lane, I would try and adjust and become more of a flanker and use silencers with SMG’s. Or say if a squad liked spamming attack choppers or something I would try and run streaks that prevented/destroyed enemy aerial streaks to try and stop them. Every individual match was fun and had strategy involved when going up against a great player or a squad.
Good points. The fact that I cannot play this game with some of my friends and we all have a semi-enjoyable experience screams anti-community. The fact that I can steam-roll an entire lobby one game and then get a new lobby where my bullets have as much impact as ripe banana's also speaks volumes into the state of this game. So much so that I now only play with a handful of players exclusively in WZ ranked. Sadly the lag/inconsistent issue even in ranked seems to crop up quite a bit, especially when moving between specific tiers (thinking gold into plat especially). I agree on the SBMM point, but imo tone it down by a good 70% would be more than adequate to protect the least skilled. Because at some point the training wheels need to come off.
I’ve been shadowbanned 4 times in the past 2 weeks. I filed 3 complaints through the Better Business Bureau. I even opened a support ticket with Activision to have to review why I’m being targeted. I even explained to them twice that I can’t even play the game for 6 hours with being shadowbanned. I pre-ordered and have been playing since Beta. I’ve played CoD since CoD 4 and have never had this type of experience. Let alone, the worst customer service EVER from a company.
I’m assuming that you aren’t using any 3rd party software but you didn’t explicitly say so which is interesting
Walls and aimbot are against terms of service.
Me and my wz buddies have been shadowbanned 3x in the past weeks as well and cleared afterwards now 1 friend is shadow banned again.. We’ve never had this problem at the start of wz2. Really annoying
Have personally had 6 shadows since march. Finish a game with 10 kills, can't find a game for 8 days.
Get an 11th then get kicked as soon as you ads near someone and gotta wait 8 days.
Your mistake was assuming Activision cares about you (unless you are indeed using 3rd party software that breaks TOS etc)
Yes it is. Ive always been a casual player who just goofs off and talk to my friends with this in the background. You can really feel that you’re nothing but a number to these guys. The way they wait 2 weeks for reviews then add the store. Our friend group dont even play this game anymore and switched to a new one
I've accepted that nothing is going to kill the Monster that is CoD. I just realized that I'll be better off separating myself from the toxic, narcissistic scumbags that defines Activision. I quit back in February, and I can honestly say I'm a lot happier now. So don't quit CoD to boycott; quit CoD for your own happiness, and DEFINITELY don't pay someone money to take that away from you.
@@kunkleeeeeeee77 Nailed it.
The biggest thing that made me not enjoy playing the multiplayer in the past 4 CoD's is SBMM/EOMM. The pattern it forces you on is so exhausting and unenjoyable and I'm just average at the game.
Even knowing just how much of a miracle it was for Treyarch to pick up and fix Sledgehammer's mess that was Cold War, they still managed to implement the Map Voting feature instead of the whole disbanding lobby nonsense we have to deal with. Treyarch still believe in wanting to make a fun game and it sucks that these past 3 CoDs they've been forced to reallocate resources to make to help the other devs instead of being left alone to finish up their next proper CoD.
Going into a lobby and seeing the scoreboard from the prior game was really engaging. I loved trying to target those players with huge scores and get my own name at the top of the board. Good times :’)
I may be in a very small demographic here but what I enjoyed about MW2019 was unlocking camos, guns, operators in multiplayer, and even buying some of the mil-sim operators, etc, then hop into Spec Ops story mode, pick the operator with matching gear and camo that fit the mission along with matching camos for my loadout similar to movie-like scenario. The missions would last about 45 mins to complete and you can choose your choice killstreaks for support. Game would continue if players disconnect or leave, and new players can drop in at anytime so I'll go into survival mode until new players/reinforcements arrive lol. Some missions can be completed solo I would get a good rush of experience once it's done.
With MW2, the spec ops missions are are short and I hate that they removed the option to select two primary weapons for your loadout all of a sudden. I dislike Raid because if one player quits or disconnects - game over. It's bad enough that some people don;t like to get on mic, but it's also worse when they don't know how to adjust their mics so you end up having to hear babies, pets, or even that stupid low battery beeping noise from their smoke detector in the background.
I was hyped for MW2 after coming off of MW2019 and thinking MW2 should be better but boy what HUGE disappointment so far.
Your second point was spot on. There’s no gaming spirit left when the lobbies change after every time, and also the rematch factor! It used to be so fire. It’s such a shame what they’ve done now
This will be the last Call of Duty game I purchase. The nail on the coffin was the refusal to transfer any sort of progress or purchase from MW:2019. Devs in the industry have shown they CAN do it, but I guess corporate greed wins at the end of the day. I appreciate the transparency you give, Ace, and wish you well for future releases.
Anyone remember the heatmaps from BO1's After-Acton Report?
Seeing whereabouts in the previous map you died at and what part of the body you did the most damage to might have been useless information, but damn was it just a neat little aspect of what made the game what it was.
No COD has had it since; the love is gone (especially when it comes to the Calling Card visibility situation Ace brought up when killing others or earning streaks).
Wait, that existed? I played BO1 but I don’t remember it
@@edi0157 Yep, and it worked for all modes. Showed where enemies died on the map in a faint orange and where you died in a deep red. Also had a simulated body that would show you where your shots would hit throughout the match.
It's easy to forget nowadays since it was a one-and-done feature, but it existed and was pretty cool in my opinion.
If it were up to me to bring that back or theatre mode, though, 100% theatre mode.
@@Sir.Lil-NubStubs Damn. At this point they are literally doing the EA thing of banking on us forgetting about old features to make their new games sound better. Didn’t use theater mode too much either but I remember it and yeah, for content creators especially that would be so useful, think Ace spoke about it in older videos too
Yeah I remember heat maps in BO1. Everywhere was faint orange in nuketown. 😂
A big regret in my life was coming back to cod with mw2022. I did becuase 2 year anouncement told me it could Finally be given updates and not abandoned. If i had enough justice bucks i would sue.
I had the 1K Headshot calling cards for the dragunov in MW3 and got a lot of praise for it because most couldn't fathom grinding for it. I loved it and was great at hardscoping and moving about.
CoD is one of the few games that have servers on my country, Chile where i get 20 ping, but i can never use them because the game think i'm better than the average player here. The next servers are situated in Brazil, i get around 60 ping which is manageable but still put me in a disadvantage against the players there. But sometimes, the game just go like ''Nah bro, you are better than the whole region, let me put you in NA'', 100 - 150 ping, or worse, sometimes i get into Europe servers for a very nice 200+ ping.
The matchmaking killed my experience in this game, i haven't played more than a couple matches in months now.
Great video! I agree on all points. I started playing mp with cod2, up until MW2 (original mw2) we ran our own dedicated servers. Cod was great for years. The later years has been dominated by strong sbmm, strong aim assist and micro transactions. It's sapping all the fun out of the game. They need to go back to their roots.
Ace, you’re spot on! Man I couldn’t agree more when you were talking about disbanding lobbies…I can’t STAND the disbanding lobbies. I miss calling cards being a thing too, I often find myself seeking out the calling card challenges, but I quickly remembered no one cares anymore lol. Also, does anyone remember when CoD used to show you who you’re rival was? I think it happened in Advanced Warfare? Then at the end it would show you who won the rivalry, displaying the K/D’s against them…man the good ole days.
Yeah that rivalry was dope. They were a nemesis.
I remember players I friended or hated in the games I played in designated lobbies. Disbanding lobbies is the worst mistake COD has ever made.
*All we can do now is just watch Activision slowly swallow itself*