The Children Who Play It Wrong, or Why Call of Duty Has Left Me Behind

I have to admit that I bought into some of the hype regarding this years’ instalment into the polarising Call of Duty series. For clarification, I don’t purchase Call of Duty every year; WWII was the last one I bought, before that it was Black Ops III. The former I regretted pretty quickly because of the sharp drop off of players on PC, and the latter due to the fact that I simply couldn’t abide those damn exoskeletons.

“Oh, where did I get shot from this time? Above me? Below me? Diagonal?”

That’s why I was excited about the reboot of Modern Warfare. Boots on the ground, DLC map packs a thing of the past, and cross-play, which I recently wrote about how this could make it the biggest PC CoD for a number of years – at least in terms of player retention.

I’m one of those who doesn’t touch the campaign for a few weeks, instead I’ve just been sticking to multiplayer, levelling myself up and earning some of those stronger weapons. Not that you should be using anything other than the M4, really, as during the first few weeks it has been overpowered to all Hell. Or the 725 shotgun, for that matter, but I can’t say I’m one for sprinting around hoping for close quarter combat.

After the initial honeymoon period wore off, and other players have a firm grasp on the maps and playstyle required, I have quickly come to realise though that everyone else is just a camper noob with no skill, I mean what the fuck are you doing just sitting there, how is that even fun? How the fuck did you see me there? WOW three of you all running together how the shit am I supposed to –

Okay, breathe, James, you can do this…

Whether it was Infinity Ward’s vision for this game or not, what most of the game modes have now devolved into is players sat in windows or doorways. Waiting. I’m playing on PC with the text chat, and I began chuckling to myself when some other frustrated teammate simply typed, “f*%$ off camper”, to which the called out player simply wrote: “I’m waiting.”

Trouble is for people like me is that this playstyle is rewarded, and too easy to pull off, because of the incredibly loud footsteps. There’s a perk that lets you deaden the sound of your footsteps for a short time, but no permanent ability as in Call of Duty’s of old that let you run around to your heart's content as if you were nothing more than a ghost. It’s as if it’s encouraging slow play in some respects, however the TTK is so low that it doesn’t marry up whatsoever.

Don’t even get me started on Ground War. Honestly, I think I would give myself a brain haemorrhage if I played it any more. 32 vs 32 sounds great, I love Battlefield and still very much enjoying V (long live Battlefield: Bad Company 2), but again that fast-paced gameplay just ends up as a free for all. I can’t tell you the amount of times I simply spawned, and two seconds later I was dead. Yes, I am still using the M4.

In a sense I would like it if Infinity Ward went the way that DICE did originally for BFV before they backtracked with substantially limiting the amount of ammo players spawn in with. At least then it would force you to run around and pick up more ammunition, either from fallen comrades or some kind of resupply point. Either that or get rid of all the mother-loving windows…

I do remember camping being prevalent 10 years ago, but I never really got hammered as much as I do these days. I even had a positive K/D ratio on Modern Warfare 2 for all that matters in the real world. Prestige 6 as well mate, how rad is that?

All that said I am still going to keep logging in and getting my rank up a little. It’s just definitely not the stress relieving game that I can jump into for 15-20 minutes anymore like I used to 10 years ago.

Am I so out of touch? 

No. It’s the children who are playing it wrong.