Modern Warfare 3 Wish List

Aug 26, 2011

Never in my life have I played a game series that was as two-faced as Call of Duty.  There are extended sessions of pure joy playing multiplayer, but this fun is ALWAYS brought to a grinding halt, sooner or later, by either terrible design decision, or an error in execution.  Some aspects of the game were great when introduced, but have become stale with age, in need of a overhaul.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel; Modern Warfare 3 is set to come out on November 8th, and Infinity Ward has a history of innovating the franchise while Treyarch only has a history of renovating it.  Currently, we know very little about how the series will be changing with the upcoming installment.  ActiVision is going all out with a big multiplayer reveal the weekend of September 2nd, with a three day event called Call of Duty XP 2011.  This will be the big multiplayer reveal we have all been looking forward to.  Until then, all we have is a few confirmed details to go on, such as the omission of the dive to prone feature as well as the omission of the perks One Man Army, Stopping Power, Commando, and Last Stand.  With so much left to the imagination, I have come up with a list of things I hope to see that will change with MW3.

#10 – A Balanced Knife System
It is already confirmed that the knifing system will be rebalanced in MW3.  Knifing was great at first, giving aggressive players an edge against campers while simultaneously doing away with unrealistic circle-strafe fights.  However, in the years that have followed, it has worn out it’s welcome.  Terrible hit detection due to latency issues (more on that later) can allow one player to come out on top of a knife fight even though the other player had every right to win.  Even more infuriating is how unbalanced it has become.  The player attempting a knife can take several shots, without breaking stride, before dying.  The player who brought a gun to a gun fight can somehow be at a disadvantage.

What I want is a dynamic knife system.  A system that takes into account where the players are and what they are doing.  If two players meet face to face, the person who knifes the other might trigger a quick animation showing the player disarming their opponent before a quick, lethal blow.  This would balance the system by not allowing one player to luckily knife half the other team in a matter of seconds, simply because the knife-lunge/quickness makes them impossible to hit in close quarters.  Imagine the possibilities: a quick throat slice from behind; a tackle when sprinting; a player with a single pistol equipped getting a brief chance to counter certain knifes; the list can go on and on.

#9 – Rage Quit Timer
Rage quitting, we’ve all done it.  Some games you have a bad connection to the host, or joined a game in progress that is laughably one sided.   Maybe the other team is all quick scoping or knifing.  Whatever the reason may be it happens.  But there are some people who habitually quit a minute in, when the result of the game is far from decided; putting their former teammates at a significant disadvantage.  Others are even worse, hopping in and out of lobbies until they find their favorite map or a group of new players to beat up on.  These players make it extremely challenging to get into a game with a party of 5 or more.

World of Warcraft came up with system that would translate over well to CoD.  They instituted a timer for players who just entered a group, and if that player left his group prematurely, he could not find another for a fixed amount of time.  Translated over to CoD, it could mean a brief, forced “time out” from multiplayer to those who are unwilling to commit.  The details would be admittedly hard to iron out, but once instituted, it would mean more games for more people across the board, with less time spent in the lobby.

#8 – Get Rid of the “Win” Option
The killstreaks attack dogs, AC130, MW2 Chopper Gunner, Nuke, and the Black Ops controllable helicopter are all examples of how ambition and creativity can lead to comically overpowered killstreaks.  But these are arguably balanced, requiring the player to stay alive long enough to obtain them.  Their rarity is supposed to go hand-in-hand with their power.  How players get them, is what IW needs to play attention too.  By now we all know the infamous One Man Army/Noob Tube trick in MW2, and what is shocking to me, is that they never fixed it.  That game was only ever patched twice for balancing reasons; the first time was to fix the javelin glitch, and the second time to balance the dual 1887 shotguns.  The ACR and dual G18s were never patched, leading to a clear “best” weapon.  IW and Sledgehammer need to support the game post launch like Treyarch (eventually) did with the FAMAS.  They need to constantly fine tune and balance the game in the background, nerfing over-powered weapons, and creating a level playing field where weapon choice is all about preference instead of statistics.  If they are able to pay this much attention to their own game, they should also be able to pay attention to:

#7 – Cheating and Boosting Penalties
The scum of CoD, these players are a complete waste of an internet connection.  They are an inevitability in the gaming community, and we all know that within weeks (if not days) of it’s release the game will be hacked.  These players ruin lobbies with god-like abilities no legitimate player can hope to match.  Additionally, boosters (players who join games on opposite teams to easily kill each other) present their own problems.  They are not only dead weight when on your team, but can also throw the balance way out off kilter, earning powerful killstreaks far too quickly and often.

To my knowledge, Treyarch has done a great job with both cheaters and booster, actively paying attention to the community.  Adding theater mode was a huge boost too, giving players irrefutable proof to submit.  My worry is that IW does not have this same track record.  I saw ten times the amount of tampering in MW2 as I have in Black Ops and received messages for tenth prestige lobbies every half hour at their peek.  The boosters were even worse, as it took the rest of the community and admins time to realize the immoral implications of the tactical insertion.  IW and Sledgehammer will need to follow Treyarch’s lead, stopping offenders in their tracks with even harsher punishments as a deterrent.  There is a chance that this could happen, as IW recently released patches fr both CoD4 and MW2 to curb cheating.  Let’s hope this is the first sign of IW turning over a new leaf.

#6 – Killstreak Upgrades
Killstreaks and CoD are a match made in heaven.  CoD4 introduced them as three simple bonuses for playing well, and MW2 upped the ante by letting you choose your three killstreaks.  We already know IW is redoing the system for MW3, the question is how?  What I would like to see is a system that branches off a tree of killstreaks.  Using current killstreaks as an example, at three kills you can get a Spy Plane OR an RC-XD.  Your future options will be based on which killstreak you choose.  If you pick the RC-XD, you are now on the path to dogs and other death dealing killstreaks in between.  If you pick the spy plane, you are on the road to the SR-71.  Granted, my idea is rough around the edges but is a new direction killstreaks could go, especially with a plentiful new set of them built around the idea.  This would allow players to tailor their streaks per their teams needs as the game evolves.  Regardless of how the system changes, if you finish all of your killstreaks and are left alive, the cycle should restart itself again.  No player should be penalized for performing exceptionally well.

#5 – More Proprietary Attachments
After a good long while, most of the guns in any CoD start to blend together.  Sure there are favorites but can anyone seriously tell me the FAMAS and AUG are really that different?  My favorite thing about the AUG, is that it does have an ACOG sight that is unique to only it.  This further differentiates it from the other assault rifles, and I would love to see more of this.  The G11 does this to a degree, but I want more.  Ideally, each weapon should have one or two attachments unique to only it in addition to all the ones we have gotten used to.  Individual weapons would take on a life of their own, with otherwise generic weapons being able to garner a following.  In the long run with inevitable weapon balancing, the game could evolve to see more than four different weapons in the kill feed every now and then.  While we are on the topic, how about:

#4 – DLC Guns, Perks, and Killstreaks
I have been waiting and waiting for this since the original CoD.  After the toying around phase is over and each player finds the few guns they love, that’s it.  There is nothing new to discover, no new tricks to learn, just killing and being killed by the same old stuff that was released with the game.  I understand that the developers don’t want us to get too overwhelmed at first, but after those first few months I’m always aching for new weapons, perks, and killstreaks to try.  What’s worse, is that I have a good guess as to why they never do add more to our arsenal, money.  You see, they can’t charge for these things because then only certain players will get them, gaining an unfair competitive advantage.  They also aren’t a big enough draw to attract new players, so there isn’t a viable way to make money off them.  To a business, the gains of offering free DLC to players who are going to keep playing anyway just don’t outweigh the costs of implementing them.  As aggravating as this greedy mindset is for the player, I hope with MW3 will give back to the hardcore community that has made them who they are.  Alternatively, ActiVision could offer these sorts of bonuses only to Elite subscribers, which I pray will never happen.

#3 – Encourage Teamwork
CoD has always been a series that encourages the lone wolf.  It is one of its’ greatest strengths, allowing this type of player the freedom of not relying on others’ abilities to get the job done.  Where this has become a problem is in objective-based game types.  The lone wolf can drag their team down more times than not, unpredictably shifting enemy spawns with little to no regard for the objectives.  I want this next game to change that.  The series has long been known for it’s killstreak system, but this system fails to reward players for objectives.  As the series continues to grow, isn’t it about time we see a point system replace the kill system?  Being an objective minded player will finally have it’s advantages over other players who only care about K/D.  Not only that, but assists will go from being cheated a kill to a legitimate strategy.  But why stop just there?  How about a series of gadgets and perks all geared towards teamwork?  It would be a fantastic addition to the series if players could aid their team in various ways.  Perhaps a player with scavenger could give other players a clip of ammo from their own inventory, or a player with hacker could automatically highlight gadgets within their vicinity for their team.  There would be a whole new world of game play mechanics opened up, and it could be the breath of fresh air the series has needed.

#2 – D/C, Location Fixes
When the host quits a game, there is a system in place that momentarily puts the game on hold to pick a new host.  This works most of the time, but occasionally players will drop from the game entirely.  Players will get sent back to the lobby while others will get sent back to the choose multiplayer screen.  This happens much more than it should,  putting the brakes on any fun as players have to again party up, find a lobby, and hope the same thing doesn’t happen again.  When this was introduced in MW2 it was a definite step in the right direction.  I hope that IW can make this system more dependable, so game lobbies never close at inopportune times.

This leads us to the second connection issue, picking local people to play with!  Now when I say local, I don’t mean state or province local, I mean continent local.  South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Netherlands, Australia, I have nothing against you.  I know your internet is much faster than ours in the states, but it can be difficult to snipe when our XBOXs are six-fucking-thousand miles apart.  It’s neither of our faults, with the blame squarely on the developers.  The technology simply isn’t there yet, and we all suffer for it.  In the future, I would like to see a system that recognizes latancy restrictions and is able to plan accordingly; so no player’s experience is hindered by technical issues out of their control.  Of course, these problems could all be fixed rather easily by ActiVision making the games support dedicated servers.  For a company who made $381 million profit for the 4th quarter of 2010 alone, the only excuse not to do so is pure greed.

#1 – Lobbies That Work
Black Ops players are treated to an unadvertised bonus game every time they (try to) play online.  It’s called “lobby.”  The object of the game is to see if you and up to five of your friends can successfully make it into a game of Black Ops.  It is much harder than it sounds, as players seem to be chosen at random to be left behind, in extreme cases being kicked off momentarily from XBOX Live altogether.  This is inexcusable.  The games sole purpose is to allow players to play it.  When a game fails time and time again for ten months to let us play it, it is broken.  If IW can fix this flaw, it would help all of us actually play the game instead of spending time jumping from lobby to lobby.  It will be a tremendous boon to the franchise and is long overdue.  If only one item on this wish list is granted, I pray that it is this.