Advanced Warfare Is Built Equally For Casual and Competitive Gamers,

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Call of Duty’s community is often seen as a two-sided coin — you’ve got your casual gamers on one side and competitive gamers on the other, and it can be tricky balancing act attempting pleasing the two.

Treyarch’s Black Ops 2 was the first to publicly push eSports features in a Call of Duty title, leaving casual audiences feeling uncared for, according to more vocal members of that community. Infinity Ward’s Ghosts seemingly took a few steps back in the eSports department, leaving the competitive crowd starving for more support.

According to Sledgehammer Games lead multiplayer designer Greg Reisdorf, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is built equally for both audiences.

“Casual gamers are the majority of our audience, and the game is built for them. But the game is also built for eSports,” Reisdorf told Gamasutra in an interview.

“A lot of it is making sure we know what the eSports community is interested in, so we can build features to help them,” he continued. “We listen to their feedback and want to provide them with support, but just as much as anybody else.”

Reisdorf believes that a more competitive shooter, however, leads to a more balanced experience for all parties involved. He says that, “at the end of the day, it has to be a competitive game – if it’s not competitive, that means it’s not balanced. That means no-one’s having fun, and it’s not going to be around for very long.”

Do you agree with Reisdorf’s thoughts? Do you think Sledgehammer can strike a balance between the two sometimes conflicting crowds?

Posted: Aug 25, 2014 8:58 pm
Related Forum: Call of Duty Forum

Source: http://mp1st.com/2014/08/23/advanced-warfare-built-equally-casual-competitive-gamers-says-lead-mp-designer/

Comments

AR15Posted: Tue. Aug 26, 2014

NBC Why can't we just go back to CoD4 it was perfect.

Because the population within the community that wants to see that game again is very small compared to the amount of people that want to see something "new" from CoD.

TridentialXPosted: Tue. Aug 26, 2014

I think they'll be able to do that, the game looks so good.

NaviLliciousPosted: Tue. Aug 26, 2014

Bankshot
NaviLlicious
d0xy I never post comments on articles on TTG, IGN, or even on YouTube but I've been playing Call of Duty competitively for years and I feel like I should voice my opinion for once.

Being able to please both the casual and competitive CoD players is going to be tough, sure, but I think it can be done. I felt like Black Ops 2 did it well, and I don't understand why casual gamers felt neglected in that game. League Play and CoD casting didn't interfere with the public playlists and for casual players to feel "uncared for" doesn't make sense to me. There was plenty to do in BO2 for the casual community: pubstomping, quickscoping, zombies, search, and other random **** that casual CoD players enjoy doing. The only viewpoint I can sort of understand is that League Play wasn't welcoming to casual players, as they would usually get destroyed by the players that play League Play frequently in their first few matches, discouraging them from playing competitively. Even if they had trouble at League Play, if they were dedicated enough, they would rise from being Bronze Ranks to Gold and even Master ranks after enough practice. This allowed new casual players to join the competitive community of Call of Duty.

Ghosts, on the other hand, left the competitive community feeling "uncared for." There wasn't any form of League Play for months and even when the competitive playlist did come out, the only form of ranks similar to that of Black Ops 2 was attainable through playing with a clan, versus the solo ranks that were attainable in BO2. Without ranks, the competitive playlist was unbalanced, setting up pro players against newer players, almost certainly discouraging casual players from playing competitively.

For Advanced Warfare to please both types of players, I'd have to assume they're going to have their own form of League Play, CoD Casting, ranks, seasons, and hopefully in game tournaments. I still don't fully comprehend how casual players felt neglected in Black Ops 2 but if there was some way to introduce players into a competitive playstyle, perhaps it'll be easier for casual players to begin playing competitively. Perhaps if they were to show a quick tutorial video on how play like a pro (callouts, pre-nades, class loadouts, jumpshots vs dropshots).

I can only hope that this new Call of Duty makes competitive play more exciting with their exo-suits and jetpacks.

-Fullmetal Guts

The thing Is pubstomping and quickscoping are not what casual gamers are going to be doing, the casual gamer gets on there to play as any average gamer Is expected to so the constant pubstomping and quickscoping discourages the casual gamer to continue playing, who wants to join a game and get spawn trapped by "try hards" or play search and destroy and have the team mate In the back that waits for everyone to be dead so he can set up for some quickscopers? The maps In BO2 were designed for the competitive players and esports not for the casual gamer and with each map pack they designed maps for esports and expected the casual gamers to be alright with It

That is incorrect. No DLC ever goes into the pro league(MLG,UMG) if you want get ranked up with people your skill go play Halo,it has a 1 to 50 ranking system.

All DLC maps In Black Ops 2 were designed for esports but the casual player could download them It's not about getting matched up with someone In your skill level It's about getting on there and playing without any kind of trouble or stress and the casual player could not do that In Black Ops 2 because of all the pub stomping, see League play wasn't where all the competitive players were they were all over the public play lists too

GaryPosted: Tue. Aug 26, 2014

I don't mind it tending to casual gamers since it should increase the population of the game at this point.

SwiftPosted: Tue. Aug 26, 2014

As much as I've seen SH Games interact with CoD eSports, I doubt this game will be competitive. Can't wait for the MCC.

vWatsoncPosted: Tue. Aug 26, 2014

My favourite cod for playing competitive was black ops 2 or MW2

VeroPosted: Tue. Aug 26, 2014

MikuPosted: Tue. Aug 26, 2014

Inq
NBC Why can't we just go back to CoD4 it was perfect.

I wish they bring back a remake of the old cods

C'mon as much as I like Cod 4 MW2 etc an actual remake would be terrible, Just playing the original reminds me of the old days and could actually enjoy a game without getting called bad lol.

1989Posted: Tue. Aug 26, 2014

NBC Why can't we just go back to CoD4 it was perfect.

I wish they bring back a remake of the old cods