Call of Duty 2015/Black Ops 3?

Greboth said:
I agree that CoD is easier than other FPS games and has less of a learning curve. My disagreement is that this narrows the skill gap because it can't, the se equipment, attachments, perks etc. are available to everyone so help out noobs as much as the top players. They were talking about RO2 so taking that a bad player in RO2 has, for example, a k/d of 0.5 but in CoD they can get a 1.0 k/d and feel good about themselves. However the gap isn't narrowed because a good player in RO2 has, for example, a 3.0 k/d will if they play CoD have say a 5.0 k/d.

I know K/d isn't everything I am just using it to demonstrate a point.
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Conversely, an average player on CoD can have a K/D of 2+ but in something like RO2 will have a 0.5 (IE they get stomped) because their kill count is reliant on more than lone wolfing for maximum K/D, call ins, perks, 'elite' weapon unlocks with silly ROF:damage ratios or EXO abilities. It's just their basic skill as an FPS player and/or how well they can work in a team.

In other titles you get better or fail. In CoD you can appear to do well without ever really improving because the game manufactures lobbies and adds gameplay elements to ensure even poor/average players are never out of their comfort zone and can go positive K/D and top of the scoreboard in any given lobby.

Given CoD is probably the most popular online FPS game in the world, it poses a problem for newer or more involved FPS titles because the player base is conditioned to expect CoD like mechanics and they are conditioned to expect the same results they get in CoD. When they don't get it, they drop the new game like a hot rock and call it rubbish (in other words they don't do as well and blame the game). I think the below is probably true for 90% of CoD players. Compare your average CoD player to your average QL player to see what I mean.


"Players like Elliot [Cannon, Lead Designer] and I, back in the Quake and Unreal days, you know, we had to get good at aiming. These guys don't have to anymore. The skill gap is so compressed that like, “The game makes me feel that I'm awesome.” These guys, when I actually watch them play, they're actually very poor FPS players. And I don't think it's because they're incapable of getting good, I think it's because they never had to get good. They get enough kills in Call of Duty to feel like they're awesome, but they never really had to develop their FPS skills beyond that."
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I'm confused :confused: It sounds like you're disagreeing with me but what you wrote agrees with me. It is only the reeuction in the skill gap that I disgaree with. It is easier to get kills but the gap between the worst and best is the same or possible larger in CoD.
 
Greboth said:
I'm confused :confused: It sounds like you're disagreeing with me but what you wrote agrees with me. It is only the reeuction in the skill gap that I disgaree with. It is easier to get kills but the gap between the worst and best is the same or possible larger in CoD.
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I apologise, I have a nasty cold and chest infection and I am struggling to be as coherent as I would like.

CoD has been designed to remove a lot of the benefits that positioning and good aim provide (the core skills of CoD), so people can have fun across the board. It provides assistance as well as increases randomness so that every player still gets a crack of the whip and a 3.0 K/D player can be killed just as easily as a 0.5 K/D player if someone spawns behind him as he runs past (which they inevatibly will). This is achieved by random spawns, multi lane maps where you can't move without risk of being shot from 4-5 different angles, aim assist, low TTK, fast respawns, kill cams, streaks that can easily bump up your K/D or offer big assistance (IE the UAV) and other elements as well, such as noob friendly perks. Perks are also a form of randomness because you don't ever know what perks you will be up against and whether you will have the upper hand or not in any given lobby.

These gameplay elements circumvent skill to a degree. Granted, really good players will do better in any given lobby than an average player, but that great big blob in the middle ground is compressed by the above gameplay elements so the skill gap between most casual/average players is reduced significantly and the benefits afforded by being more skillful, in the classical sense, are not as big because of the randomness. In turn the skill gap between good/average players is also reduced. Even the netcode introduces randomness with poor tick rate and lag comp. You can't 'out skill' luck and randomness no matter how good you are.
 
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