Call of Duty: Warzone continues to evolve with new content, weapons, and game modes. By far, the biggest evolution has been the forced integration of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War into the battle royale. While Call of Duty: Warzone gained weapons, continued support, and other benefits from this arrangement, the community has grown even more frustrated than in prior seasons.
If current trends continue, Call of Duty: Warzone could be headed for even more controversy as the community is not happy with the current state of the game. Streamers, content creators, and angry fans on Reddit are echoing a series of fixes with three main categories of problems appearing time after time. As the problems continue to stack, the game's community only gets more vocal over their experience in the battle royale.
While there are several concerns among the Call of Duty: Warzone community, most can be summarized into three main categories. Ongoing balance issues and bugs, the epidemic of cheaters that continues to persist, and the lack of developer communication are easily the most pressing concerns of the game's community. As a result, for Call of Duty: Warzone to continue to throughout 2021, there are some major changes that need to be made
Call of Duty Warzone: Balance and Bugs
To the Call of Duty: Warzone community, bugs and weapon balance concerns have become a seasonal complaint. From minor bugs that many players thought were fixed months ago to new issues that manifest in ways the exceed fan imaginations, the community feels that the game is becoming more unstable every day. Most Call of Duty: Warzone glitches have a minor impact, yet the community is still haunted by the lingering remnants of the "Demon Gun" glitch and many other "solved" problems that have reappeared in Call of Duty: Warzone's Season 1 content.
Some fans are able to see through the bugs and accept them as part of the game due to its immense size. The developers, no doubt, have trouble finding what causes each error, and fans can forgive that with the promise of an eventual fix. What many Call of Duty: Warzone fans are struggling to understand is the constant balancing problems that occur with every new gun. Some fans border on conspiracy theory levels of justification to explain why every new gun "breaks the meta" and dominates the game. With the DMR still raging on as a powerful weapon, the community feels as if the developers have no concern over whether a released weapon is balanced or not before being added to the game.
Call of Duty: Warzone Cheaters
While bugs and unbalanced guns are one thing, the problem is stretched even further with an active Call of Duty: Warzone cheating problem. Aimbots exploit powerful weapons, wallhacks make cover worthless, and the game's community can not do much about it. Although Activision has improved the report system, the overall impact of cheaters using outside software continues to surge. The fans have been asking since the game's launch for further security, with everyone from actual hackers to web-security professionals speaking out and explaining methods to prevent another wave.
With as much money, the population, and success that Call of Duty: Warzone does not hesitate to celebrate, the community is wondering why hackers are still a thing. On the one hand, the developers are at a losing battle as every fix is simply dodged by the many hack-selling websites. Meanwhile, industry professionals are showcasing easy anti-hack fixes that other battle royales have easily implemented.
Call of Duty: Warzone Communication Or the Lack Thereof
Out of every problem that Call of Duty: Warzone has, only one is the biggest concern among the game's community. Through hackers, cheats, balance problems, and bugs, the community only wishes that the Warzone devs would be more transparent. Fans become frustrated when reports are unanswered, and developers simply continue adding content as if things are fine.
Many fans consider that the lack of communication may have to do with Activision's standard releases. While rotating games only need passive communication with the fans, a lingering title like Call of Duty: Warzone requires an active voice guiding the community through their problems. The game can no longer be handled as if it was simply another Call of Duty title; instead, the developers need to show the fans that they are working on solutions and continue to keep everyone informed. The game is bordering closer to an MMO experience where the community expects to continue playing the same game for years to come.
The lack of communication births a deeper problem as it seems like the developers do not understand their community. Call of Duty: Warzone was created out of the foundations set in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Although the community loved the prospect of continued support, they had not considered that it would mean replacing the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare foundation. As the developers continue to push players away from the previous titles, they are meeting a core resistance as fans in Call of Duty: Warzone is watching the game evolve towards an unfamiliar title.
This creates a bigger problem as what little communication the fans have had is muddled with content updates, cosmetics, and continued advertising of a new product. Call of Duty: Warzone is a different beast when it comes to game management, and it seems that Activision and its many development teams do not understand that. While this is a standing community observation, many of the issues found in this list and within the game could easily be handled by a simple acknowledgment from the communications manager or development team. Until then, fans are left guessing as to whether or not the company cares about their opinion on a growing title that seems to be evolving contrary to its populations needs.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available on multiple platforms.