Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s netcode explanation video went down poorly when developer Infinity Ward was forced to disable comments almost immediately following vocal and frequent fan backlash. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been selling steadily just a few days into its launch week and has already surpassed Black Ops 4 in comparative sales in the UK, but controversy surrounding much of the game’s implementation - from story content to technical execution - has led to some negative responses from fans.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been catching flack from fans after its launch weekend was spoiled by server issues, and has since also found itself the target of review-bombing on MetaCritic thanks to unhappy Russian players who are angry at the developer’s decision to portray the country as a villain in a conflict it historically had no part in. This, compounded by pre-launch concerns over the depiction of violence in war settings that would apparently task players with taking on the role of a child soldier or shooting a civilian, has led to Modern Warfare being one of the most controversial series releases in quite some time. That hasn’t stopped the game from reviewing decently, however, and a commitment from Activision to remove loot boxes from Call of Duty went a long way in generating more excitement for the release of Modern Warfare.
The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare netcode explainer isn’t really much of an explanation video at all - it glosses over a lot of technical stuff, and the devs kind of just talk about the basics without addressing the issues players had with it. Many fans reacted to this quite poorly, feeling that the developers who explained netcode in the video were blaming them for issues that were very clearly part of Modern Warfare’s design, with many familiar with the concept stating that the netcode is much worse than Black Ops 4. Since then, Infinity Ward has disabled comments for the video, resulting in an eerie silence for a video that very clearly seemed to be angled to start a community conversation - just not the one that Infinity Ward got.
It’s yet another example of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare experience being something other than what fans wanted - concerns over Spec Ops missions, for instance, have only been reinforced at launch - and it also shows that Infinity Ward and Activision are reticent to actually engage with the community on its issues.
Whether or not Modern Warfare’s netcode is poor seems besides the point in this instance - the fact that the comments were turned off is a more concerning issue. Not willing to discuss the flaws in a game with its community, especially one as large and as dedicated as the Call of Duty fanbase, is troubling. Hopefully it’s only been done until Infinity Ward can release a more detailed and engaged discussion on the topic of netcode, but until then, fans probably shouldn’t hold their breath.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: Infinity Ward/YouTube (via MP1St)
