Raven Software finally gave disgruntled Warzone community members a look behind the curtain on how controversial weekly playlist rotations are selected today.
Warzone cycles through different game modes, maps, and squad sizes every Thursday. Community members have criticized the practice, as there is always the possibility of going one week or longer without their preferred play style of choice. In response to complaints, Raven made solos, duos, trios, and quads on Al Mazrah available throughout all of season one, but it’s a much different story in season two.
At time of writing, players aren’t able to play duos on Al Mazrah, can only play Quads on Vondel, and Ashika Island isn’t available as a playable map. On top of that, the popular game mode Plunder constantly gets cycled in and out of the rotation.
Warzone devs open up on controversial weekly playlist rotation
On Feb. 22, Raven Software revealed the upcoming Warzone playlist rotations for the next two weeks. “As a team, we review a wealth of internal data, alongside social sentiment and engagement to make decisions,” the devs said. “Our goal is to always appeal to the widest group of players possible across the entire season so that there is something for everyone to play.”
Taking that into account, solos, trios, and quads are available on Urzikstan during the first week, but duo fans can only play Mini Royale. Meanwhile, Plunder makes a long-awaited return to the rotation and BR Preview comes back for another week. Battle Royale Preview provides an opportunity for players to test potential upcoming features before they officially get introduced. This iteration will test Covert Exfil and Weapon Cases, and also test to see if Zombie Power Ups should get added into Al Mazrah from Resurgence.
Ironically, Raven Software claimed social engagement plays a pivotal role in playlist decision making, yet there are a few controversial cases with playlists that have caught flack in the past. On Jan. 11, the devs included Orlov Military Base Trios as a Resurgence option, and said the decision was based on a vote, but there wasn’t actually a public poll including Orlov Military Base, confusing community members.
Most recently, the devs claimed Zombie Power Ups will be tested on Urzikstan because of positive reactions to Resurgence, and cited a “recent poll” as reason they wanted to test out the abilities in battle royale. However, if you go back and look at the poll if players wanted Zombie Power Ups in Urzikstan, nearly 70 percent of 20,000 votes wanted the feature to stay on Fortune’s Keep. It’s clear there is still a disconnect between what the players want, and what the devs ultimately decide on.
