Call of Duty developers express understanding for player frustration and promise improvements to Warzone and Vanguard soon.
In a tweet, Call of Duty developers have announced improvements to their Warzone, Vanguard and Modern Warfare titles as soon as possible, and also go into more detail about what issues are currently being worked on.
What exactly happened?
The official Call of Duty Twitter account addresses Warzone, Vanguard and Modern Warfare players with the words A message to our community. This is followed by three tweets in which the developers express their understanding for frustration in the player base and explain which fixes and improvements they are currently working on. They also list the most recently implemented changes:
Among other things, the developers promise to implement updates for the three titles as soon as possible. The aim is to enable a seamless gaming experience across all platforms, games and game modes. Feedback is welcome and a critical part of a successful development process.
The tweets then go into more detail about the work on Warzone and Vanguard:
In Call of Duty: Warzone, for example, the performance on the consoles is to be improved next, invisible skins are to be fixed and crashes when using supply stations are to be resolved.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is also working on solving various problems: Here, for example, shotguns are to be weakened and incendiary ammunition will cause less smoke. They are also working on improving map rotation and filters for server selection. You can find all the planned changes in the image.
Why is the statement so important?
The mood in the COD community is pretty much in the basement in view of numerous bugs and problems in Warzone and Vanguard. While the developers have repeatedly tried to improve the situation with patches, the problems that many players consider most important have been disregarded or addressed in a controversial way.
For many fans, this may have given the impression that the developers were acting without consideration for the community and away from any feedback. In order to regain the trust of the player base, the message to the community is an important first step.
How do the fans react?
The comments on the tweet are basically positive about Call of Duty’s open communication. The Warzone streamer (NRG Isaac), for example, is very pleased:
We’ve noticed a huge shift in communication over the past week. Thank you for this 🙏
Obviously the holidays would have slow communication, but this level of transparency and interaction is markedly better than anything we’ve experienced since Warzone’s launch. We love it!
– NRG Isaac (@IceManIsaac) January 13, 2022
We’ve noticed the big changes in communication within the last week. Thank you for that. Understandably, communication was relatively slow during the holidays, but the transparency and interaction is now better than anything we’ve experienced since the launch of Warzone. We love it!
However, some fans still remain cautious or sceptical. Although the tweet itself was well received, it remains to be seen what will actually be delivered. For example, the user (@ItsHunterTV) who is also a YouTuber writes:
thank you for acknowledging Call of Duty is broken but actions speak louder than words
– HunterTV🎄 (@itsHunterTV) January 13, 2022
Thank you for acknowledging how broken Call of Duty is, but actions speak louder than words.
The user (@DANNYonPC), on the other hand, can’t help but take a side swipe, remarking:
Hey @battlefield, you’re up.
Parallels to Battlefield and Rockstar
The laudable communication offensive of the Call of Duty developers could also serve as a model for others. As @DANNYonPC notes, many Battlefield fans are not only disappointed by the latest part of the series, but also by the communication of the developers.
So far in the new year, the focus has only been on Andy McNamara’s clumsy tweet, which has only served to fuel the anger in the community. The Battlefield 2042 subreddit is also sinking further and further into fruitless toxicity because of this.
A more open and regular communication and admission that Battlefield 2042 is not yet what fans expected and the developers promised would certainly not be wrong. Of course, such a statement would also have to be combined with a credible promise to improve the game as quickly as possible.
And Rockstar hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory lately when it comes to communicating with the community either. Fans of Red Dead Online now fear the final death of the game due to the change from weekly to monthly updates.
The way the announcement was made was also a source of anger: The change was announced in a teaser that promised a year of adventure. If Rockstar had honestly communicated that weekly updates were simply no longer worthwhile, more understanding might have been expected.
Of course, clear, honest and regular communication with players is not all it takes to maintain a positive climate in the community. If a game is plagued by bugs or lacks content, that is annoying for fans, communication or not.
But those who know why these flaws exist, whether they are being worked on and when they will be fixed, are more likely to remain patient than those who are kept completely in the dark about what is going on behind the scenes.
