Dear Activision, Raven, Treyarch, and Infinity Ward,
I am writing to you today as a lover of the games you have produced for years, and as a representative of the Call of Duty community. As a community, we love and appreciate all the work you do each and every year to produce a new game in the saga we grew up on. For most of us, our start in the Call of Duty franchise came in the late 2000s with titles such as Modern Warfare and Black Ops. We were in awe of these games and many of our childhoods are filled with the late night split screen zombies with friends, and the grind to reach each game’s highest prestige.
As of late, the love for Call of Duty is dwindling in many of us. The community feels as though we are not being listened to, and each new installment is feeling more and more like a cash grab. What happened to the developers who cared more about the community than the money? This problem has spiked as of Modern Warfare 2019 and Cold War. While we appreciate the removal of pay-to-win items, we do not appreciate the fact that the community is being ignored. We have purchased your games and have been your audience long enough to deserve the respect of the developers and the attention of them as well.
Most recently, Call of Duty: Cold War came out with a skill based matchmaking system that has completely crippled the multiplayer experience for most players. The idea is that new players will have a better experience, but if they manage to have a good game, they are immediately rewarded with a game filled with sweats and seemingly pro players. This system was also put into Call of Duty: Warzone. As players, we don’t want to have to try our hardest in every game. We just want to get on and play with our friends. For years CoD has been a way to relax and just have fun but in the recent titles that has been impossible. Along with the skill based matchmaking, it has come out that those who are spending more money for cosmetic items with no in-game effect are getting easier lobbies. That is a complete backhand to those who are spending $60 on your game, and don’t have the funds or feel no need to purchase extra items.
In terms of fairness, there has also been no substantial attempt to curb the insane amount of cheating that is taking place in Warzone lobbies. It has become rare to find a lobby without cheaters. Raven has claimed to have an anti-cheat in place, but if there is it is completely useless. With each new update that is supposedly meant to improve the gameplay experience, comes a large amount of game breaking bugs. These massive updates do almost nothing but introduce bugs and take up ungodly amounts of storage. For example, the February 5th, 2021 update, which finally fixed the never-ending “stim glitch”, has plagued numerous players with bugs such as no weapon XP, loss of hit recognition and hitmarkers, and randomly disappearing optics and crosshairs. You would think that after an update with that many issues, a fix would be the devs’ top priority. As of Sunday, February 7th, it seems no fix is near. It seems as though no time is put into making sure an update is safe before it goes live.
The CoD community demands to be heard. Warzone saved Call of Duty, but if the blatant lack of regard for the community persists, there will be no way to continue the franchise with those who loved it the most. As a member of the community, please take steps to listen. Please put your fanbase above the money. Please fix Warzone and Black Ops so the games can be fun again. Let them thrive like they used to. We’re on your side, but you have to be on ours.
Sincerely,
A lover of the game
