Highlights
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has an opportunity to address two prominent fan complaints: the balance between realistic and outrageous cosmetics, and reworking skill-based matchmaking to make public matches feel more casual.
- While Call of Duty's over-the-top crossovers and colorful skins will likely never go away, more Mil-Sim designs - especially after launch - would please many fans.
- With competitive modes added to each modern Call of Duty, there is no need for such heavy matchmaking in modern Call of Duty, so fans would be happy to see SBMM toned down a bit.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 certainly seems to be aimed at maintaining existing fans instead of attracting newcomers. Alongside the Carry Forward system that lets players keep all their unlocks from 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the campaign is bringing back the villain Makarov from the original Modern Warfare trilogy. Multiplayer will be comprised entirely of remade maps from the original MW2, and the Ninja perk and traditional mini map are both rumored to be returning. At this rate, Sledgehammer should keep the ball rolling and address two prominent fan complaints.
To be clear, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is unlikely to solve every major issue fans have with the wider Call of Duty franchise. For example, Warzone will likely continue to be a priority, much to the dismay of fans who miss each game having its own clear identity. Still, with the mini map situation supposedly being addressed, there is an opportunity for Sledgehammer Games to touch on two long running debates: cosmetics and skill-based matchmaking.
Balancing Call of Duty’s Realistic vs. Outlandish Cosmetics
One of the biggest complaints old school Call of Duty fans will often have is about the newer games' more outrageous cosmetics. Though the series has long since strayed from a fully grounded military aesthetic where the flashiest camo patterns were Gold and Fall, as Bacon camo started the silly cosmetic era all the way back in Black Ops 2, there has been a bigger shift toward outrageous items. After all, a decade ago Call of Duty players were not encountering anime characters, Godzilla, and Homelander in their multiplayer matches.
Considering how profitable major crossovers and over-the-top weapon designs are, the Call of Duty series will likely never return to the days of completely grounded visuals and Operator designs. Still, there is a happy middle ground. Artistic players are designing Call of Duty Mil-Sim bundles because there simply are not enough realistic designs offered in the recent games, indicating a need for change. While players get some standard soldier looks on day one, they almost completely stop appearing in the post-launch seasons. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 can fix this problem by providing an equal amount of serious military getups and funny, flashy designs within the in-game store, keeping the Mil-Sim looks coming long after release.
Finally Reworking Call of Duty’s Skill-Based Matchmaking
While there is a fairly simple way to solve the cosmetic issue, as Activision and Sledgehammer Games simply need to keep more serious weapon and Operator skins in mind, skill-based matchmaking is a much more complex problem. While most Call of Duty fans do seem to agree that skill-based matchmaking has gone too far in recent years, some gamers want it to be maintained, as they feel it gives them a fighting chance and prevents them from getting steamrolled in their matches. For many, though, occasional blowouts are part of what made Call of Duty games such casual fun.
Developers have come out and said that even the golden era of Call of Duty had skill-based matchmaking, but content creators and fans alike have argued that the current system is much too strict. More often than not in games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, players will find themselves in matches where both sides are perfectly even, ensuring they end up close to a 1.0 K/D ratio in most of their games. Many fans miss regularly having matches where they rack up tons of kills and go on long streaks, so adopting skill-based matchmaking closer to what the older Call of Duty games had would likely be preferable. With the game having such a focus on nostalgia, returning to form in this way would make sense.
It could also be time for Call of Duty to lower skill-based matchmaking to a negligible level, or even remove it entirely, from public matches. With Call of Duty’s ranked play existing, players who want intense and competitive matches every single time already have a place to go. If a competitive option exists, it is odd to prevent casual matches from actually feeling casual. Hopefully, some adjustments are made to make skill-based matchmaking less strict in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. If this change happens, and fans of Mil-Sim designs are kept in mind during the post-launch seasons, two common criticisms of modern Call of Duty could fade away.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
