It’s a tale as old as time in the Call of Duty community. A few streamers or professional players complain about an aspect of the new Call of Duty they don’t like. Redditors and casuals complain about the complaining. Each accuses the other of viewing old Call of Duty titles through rose-tinted glasses, or of never having played the older games.
We go through this song and dance every single late September to early October, without fail, during each new Call of Duty game’s beta test.
The latest never-ending argument (that really boils down to personal preference) is about the issue of map size. A Reddit thread titled “These complaints about ‘big maps’ are so annoying” appeared on the r/ModernWarfareIII subreddit on Oct. 7, and it perfectly encapsulates this phenomenon: Two conflicting groups of people who rarely interact outside of Twitch talking over each other.
Over the years, the way the average gamer plays games has evolved. In the early 2010s, there was an entire cottage industry on YouTube with tips and tricks videos that substantially helped average players learn to play more optimally.
Combined with more and more people getting into gaming every year, the relative skill floor of the average player is higher than ever. Once Twitch streaming took off, content took a turn, too: It was no longer enough to just be silently good, or to narrate one’s life over a VOD of a game where a player drops a Tactical Nuke. Instead, vocally outspoken players that mostly post reaction videos quickly became the face of gaming in the modern era.
There’s no right way to play Call of Duty, and there’s no correct take on its map design. The flashy, fast-paced style of modern CoD streamers should be just as viable as sitting in a corner with a shotgun for four minutes straight.
Fundamentally, both sides of this never-ending debate need to understand that the two groups will rarely interact, and that this kayfabe debate is incredibly grating for anyone who understands CoD titles are created for everyone, so they’ll ultimately please no one.
