With the latest update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, a new icon has entered the game, causing a lot of excitement in the community. Now the developers at Treyarch have commented on the matter.
What happened? A single icon has driven many fans up the wall after yesterday’s update. Players were astonished when suddenly a multitude of yellow warning triangles with an exclamation mark appeared in the multiplayer lobbies.
This marked every player who does not own the Black Ops Pass, that is the Season Pass for Black Ops 4. Numerous players were upset about this, as they felt Treyarch was trying to exert pressure on players to buy the Black Ops Pass.
On Reddit, fans vented their anger in numerous threads. Many posts received thousands of likes, with one thread even reaching nearly 100,000 upvotes. The discussions there were particularly heated, with the yellow warning triangle icons being condemned as “Shaming Markers”.
Even though this thread has been closed by the moderators for “false information”, the outcry from fans has not gone unheard. Now, the already controversial DLC and Season Pass policy of Black Ops 4 has come back into the spotlight.
This is how the “Shaming Markers” came about – this is what the developers say: The controversial icons have now been removed from the game, and Treyarch has officially addressed the matter on Reddit.
The developers explained that the appearance of the warning icons in public lobbies was not planned and was due to a bug.
These triangles were actually supposed to only appear in private parties, next to the player’s name of a party member. This was to signal to the tight circle that the marked player does not have all the maps, so that the other members would not wonder why some maps do not appear in the map rotation.
This is what the community is discussing: Whether due to a bug or not – it is clear that Treyarch did not do themselves any favors with the icons. The outcry was huge. Additionally, fans are not only expressing their displeasure. Forums and social media are filled with jokes and memes about the “Shaming Markers”.
There are countless images showing fans pointing out that apparently large portions of numerous lobbies are filled with players who do not own the Black Ops Pass. Players are almost gleefully rubbing it in the developers’ faces that the Black Ops Pass is apparently less popular than some had previously thought.
While it is not a direct indicator of how many actually own the Season Pass, a look at the images gives some fans the impression that about 80-90% of players have opted out of the Season Pass. The images seem to have a significant impact. This casts the already criticized Season Pass model in a rather poor light.
