Call of Duty: Modern Warfare remains exceedingly popular months after the game's launch. Yet one criticism has stuck with the game since launch, a criticism that developer Infinity Ward seems averse to address: the game's respawn system. Frustrations with Modern Warfare's respawn game design is mounting, as even professional esports players in the Call of Duty League are now voicing their concerns, like world champion Damon "Karma" Barlow.
Karma isn't pulling back, either. In a couple of anger-driven posts on Twitter, Karma says "Thanks [Infinity Ward] for the most ***** spawn system I've ever played in any game ever." He continues, adding, "but won't ever get fixed in any sort of way because someone thought squad spawn was a good idea." Karma has surprisingly left the tweets up since he posted them Saturday.
The context for Karma's comments isn't exactly clear. The Call of Duty League is between its Atlanta and Los Angeles events, so the Seattle Surge aren't playing. Perhaps Karma had a bad round of practice, perhaps he watched another match that left him frustrated, or perhaps he was simply recalling any of likely several occasions where squad spawns led to his team's defeat.
Several other pros replied to Karma's posts on Twitter and none of them openly disagreed with his sentiment. None went on the record as openly opposing squad spawns either, however. For example, Christopher "Parasite" Duarte" offered to give him advice on how to better work with the spawning system, fellow teammate Trei "Zero" Morris approved of Karma's use of an expletive, and Chance "Maux" Moncivaez pointed out another issue with a "blue screen bug." It was an opportunity for catharsis among the players.
None of the players ask Infinity Ward to fix anything specific or offer any constructive criticism. Neither do they say that they're less interested in continuing to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Infinity Ward continues to update Call of Duty: Modern Warfare nearly every week, dealing with various bugs and fixes as well as offering new content. The game's spawning system has never been a focus for the studio, and isn't likely to become one. While there are certainly valid criticisms of squad spawning, it's a core design element in Modern Warfare. That makes it hard-to-impossible to alter without dramatically changing the pacing and balance of the game in small and large ways. Still, criticisms might still lead to changes for Infinity Ward's next Call of Duty game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.