When you have a franchise that’s been around for a long time, regardless of whether it’s a TV show, movie, or video game series, staying in a routine can be a bad thing. Creators need to do their best to try to keep things interesting over time so that consumers don’t get the same experience over and over again. TV shows and movies can sometimes get away with formulas found in certain genres playing in their favor where repetition is second nature but in video game series? Not so much. For franchises like Call of Duty, the team needs to keep things fresh to keep players coming back. Sadly, they may have gone too far with the upcoming title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
If you didn’t know, there was a beta that took place for PlayStation gamers and it was their first true chance to try out the new title. With such a familiar name and legacy, these lucky players were excited to see what changes had been made. While many of the standards were present, there were also a few key changes that didn’t resonate with the audience so much. One of the key changes is that if players look on a mini-map now, they won’t be able to see any markers for players. That is, unless they or someone else sends a UAV drone into the air to spot them.
This is a drastic change for the series, and when sending in their feedback, the players noted they didn’t like that at all. However, the team at Infinity Ward when and made a blog post and highlighted some of the complaints, including the mini-map problem. They said that they are going to keep it because of certain balancing they’re attempting to do with the new Perk System, as well as not punishing players for simply unloading some ammo.
“The design reason for this is that we do not want to punish players for firing their weapons. We also want players to actively search out the origin of a gunshot versus just traveling directly to where the dot is on the mini-map.”
While you can see their perspective on things, you can also see the players as well as this isn’t exactly the most fair, balancing be damned.
Another issue that apparently popped up in the beta was that of target tracking. This time around, Infinity Ward was more than happy to admit that things weren’t quite right, and as such, they’ll fix it in time for the next beta.
Another change is along the line of customization, in which players will be able to add some flair to their character in multiplayer to help them stand out more.
While Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is clearly going to be controversial for many reasons, you can’t blame Infinity Ward for trying to keep things fresh.
Source: Infinity Ward
