Call of Duty players complaining about the state of the current game is not a new phenomenon, but it sure does seem like the player base has been a bit louder than usual in recent weeks and months.
Despite Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 boasting high sales numbers and consistently being around the top five most-played games on Steam at any given time, players and content creators are just as consistently speaking out about their displeasure with the newest titles in the franchise.
A recent Reddit thread focused on one specific pain point in the game, which is its skill-based matchmaking, and how it makes the game “unenjoyable” for those who are looking to have fun.
Related: What is SBMM? Skill-based matchmaking explained
“This game is engineered so that you will never have fun,” the Reddit thread poster said. “The game decides rather or not you will have a laughably easy match or a tryhard sweat fest at the flip of a coin. Neither of the two extremes are even remotely fun to play. Most of the time I either feel like I’m way better than these player or feel like I’m way worse. No in between.”
Skill-based matchmaking, while never outright confirmed by Activision, is a system that places players into matchmaking with those of similar skill. In theory, it punishes stronger players and rewards weaker players in terms of who they’re matched up against.
For some, the only response to avoid such a system is to move on.
“There’s a solution to this problem that I and many others discovered,” one commenter replied. “You stop playing it.”
The discourse around MW2 and Warzone 2 has gotten louder since season three launched earlier this month. The update included a new set of bugs that led to the removal of a new mode, a bug that has caused Warzone wins and losses to stop tracking, and things got so bad that Dr Disrespect described his thoughts on the new season with nothing but disgusting flatulence.
Related: A new Call of Duty game is coming, but it’s not what you expect
“Very happy for everyone still having a great time – all power to them,” said another commenter. “Personally, I had my fun with MW2, but ended up bouncing off it – the longer I played, the more glaring the issues with it became. Gave it one more chance for season three after skipping most of season two, got killed by an actual rabbit first game back, and decided that I have better things to be doing with my time.”
In the end, there are plenty of other games to play if CoD is not scratching that multiplayer itch anymore. And it seems like that’s where the original author of the above thread settled.
“I will just play Splatoon 3 instead,” they said. “Call of Duty is an overrated piece of trash.”
MW2 and Warzone 2 likely won’t receive any substantial content until the “reloaded” update of season three, which should be coming to the game sometime in mid-May.
