Inside Treyarch: My Experience at Treyarch + The Call of Duty ELITE Service

EDIT: The CoD ELITE Beta is now accepting signups. If you're interested: http://www.callofduty.com/elite

EDIT2: Josh Peckler of Planet CoD has posted some screenshots of the service. Check them out here: http://planetcallofduty.gamespy.com/fullstory.php?id=164972

Hello again everyone,

So the community event lasted two days. The first day was the Infinity Ward MW3 event in Encino, CA. The second day we were taken to Treyarch in Santa Monica to check out the a pre-release build of the new Call of Duty ELITE service that will presumably be launching alongside MW3 this fall. The service will also be coming to Black Ops. The service was built and will be maintained by the newly formed Beachhead Studios. Also, anything and everything I saw or heard is subject to change from now until release day.

Following the leak of the ELITE logo and some subtle hints the previous day, I sort of knew what to expect and was frankly quite worried about it. Like many of you, I do not play games with subscription based models and really don't care for the whole P4F model either. However, the guys at Beachhead and Treyarch were very quick to emphasize that neither of these models will exist in MW3. Let me say that again: MW3 multiplayer not require a subscription. Furthermore, the CoD ELITE service will also be free to all players. All features which CoD players currently receive for free will continue to be free with MW3 and CoD ELITE. There will, however, be certain "premium features," one of which will be contests, where paying members can win physical prizes. Also coming with a premium subscription will be map pack redeem codes for each MW3 DLC as they release. Users who choose to pay into the service by subscribing will get some tangible value out of it. Once again, neither MW3 players, Black Ops players, or ELITE members will be required to pay to play or to use the service.

So, now that I've outlined what CoD ELITE isn't, let me give you some info on what it IS. CoD ELITE is a service that exists outside of MW3 but will integrate back into the game. We weren't given details as to how this integration would work or to what extent it would. The service will support Black Ops but will not integrate into the game to the degree that it will with MW3. The service is essentially a stat tracking and social universe for CoD players. It has quite a few features, only some of which I will mention here. It lets players track their stats and and compare with their friends' stats. Based on these stats, it allows players to spot trends in their performance to help them improve. It allows players to view stats on their recent matches. It allows players to view overheads of maps and view weapon stats. It allows users to see their recent matches details and upload clips to YouTube. This particular feature will work on PC, unlike the current Call of Duty website. It allows players to associate their personas on Facebook and Twitter with their identity in the CoD universe. It allows players to form groups and clans with other players. It allows users to compete for real prizes as well as digital ones. It also will have a nifty feature that will predict when a user will hit his or her next prestige level. Yeah, as I said, CoD ELITE is basically an all-encompassing stats tracking and social network built specifically for CoD players.

At the event, we used the service through a laptop's web browser. However, the devs confirmed that the service will be making it's way to more devices such as iOS, Android, etc. With all of the functionality build into CoD ELITE, navigating the site seemed surprisingly simple and intuitive. Overall, the UI was very clean and professional looking and is all in HTML5. With minimal web design experience, it was easy to see that quite a bit of effort was put into making the service work, both on the back end, the technical aspects, as well as on the front end, making it simple and intuitive for the end user.

As far as pricing for a premium subscription to CoD ELITE, no official word has been given by Activision. Any and all figures given by various gaming sites I am assuming are pure speculation. However, one thing that the devs told us regarding pricing was that if you're the type of player that buys all the map packs and plays the MP game extensively, the pricing will be low enough to be a "no-brainer."

That about sums up CoD ELITE. I hope I was able to clear up some of the misinformation surrounding the service as well as alleviating some of the fears that you guys might have had regarding a forced subscription for MW3 MP or CoD ELITE.

Glad I was able to bring this information to you all,

H4WKE

P.S.: I wrote this thing from 3-6 AM my time so please excuse any typos... It think I'm gonna go to bed now... :)

What is "Black" in Black Ops?

As many of you may recall, I was very excited and optimistic about Call of Duty Black Ops leading up to its release. After the release of so many disappointing PC titles recently, I hoped that Black Ops might be that game that could actually revitalize and strengthen our community that has played CoD for so many years. I felt like we might finally have a game that we could rally around and call our game. I drew on the surprising level of support Treyarch offered the PC for World at War as well as the promising comments made by the studio about their plans to continue this support and really crank out a superb PC title. I trusted Treyarch would do just that and I frankly couldn't wait until launch day.

Along with many of you, I played the heck out of the game for about the first month after release. However, around the beginning of December and much to my own surprise, I quickly lost interest in the game. I have spent a fair amount of time asking myself why exactly I don’t enjoy this game as much as I have tried to convince myself I should. Technical problems aside, there was one striking reason that I kept coming up with.

Yes, on the surface, the game seems absolutely packed with content. Zombies, a decent, albeit overly scripted single player, a currency system, theatre mode, wager matches, and character customization all add up to a pretty impressive feature set. Unfortunately, these additions mask the fact that there is next to no innovation on the competitive MP side of things, the real backbone of CoD.

As a comparison, in Modern Warfare 2 and as some of you know almost too well, a game I certainly played my fair share of, you could get in a flipping AC130 or Chopper Gunner and send the opposing team running for their lives or even call in a Tac Nuke and end the game. Arguably, horribly unbalanced game mechanics but the WOW factor was certainly there, it was fantastic. Nothing like this exists in Black Ops. It simply seems like a re-skinned version of the previous IW title. The same thing happened with Treyarch’s previous title, World at War. IW introduced many new game mechanics in Call of Duty 4, weapon customization, killstreaks, perks, ranks. World at War followed much the equation set by IW and it came off as a World War II re-skin of Call of Duty 4. Treyarch removed a lot of things from MW2 deemed "unbalanced" but didn't add anything back in. There isn't anything new in Black Ops that makes me laugh, smile, or cry, it's emotionless, it's boring. It feels like an empty shell that didn’t build on the MW2 equation at all. Unfortunately, simply re-skinning the previous IW title isn’t going to cut it Treyarch.

The game did not meet my expectations, or as it seems, the expectations of many in the community. Hopefully Treyarch continues to patch the game towards a playable state on a wider range of systems. If they can do that, I believe many players will return. However, until I see some real innovation and new ideas coming out of Treyarch, which I know they are capable of, I doubt I will be able to purchase another of their games.

-H4WKE

PS: The other thing that I find constantly gets in the way of my enjoyment of this game is, somewhat surprisingly, the selection of servers itself. No, I don't want to play in a 24/7 Nuketown, or a TDM or DM. I prefer tactical game modes such as DEM, DOM, SD, and CTF. In my opinion, server admins need to consider what types of game modes and maps people who aren’t twelve actually enjoy playing in, not simply what draws instant traffic when setting up their servers. Not pointing any fingers at anyone specifically, just realized that finding a server that isn’t 24/7 Nuketown, TDM, or DM, with a decent ping isn’t as easy as I would think it should be.