The free Battle Royale Call of Duty: Warzone regularly changes its playlist. This brings new modes into the game, old ones become available again, and team sizes also change. The developers have now explained in detail why they rotate the modes. The reactions have been clear.
- A part of the content strategy for Call of Duty: Warzone consists of changing modes.
- New game modes with different team sizes come at least weekly, providing a certain variety.
- This regularly generates discussion in the community, especially among players who miss their favorite mode when it drops from the playlist.
- The developers have now thoroughly discussed why the playlist updates exist in their current form.
Developers want to find “the next big experience”
How do Warzone’s playlists come about? The developers at Raven Software have explained in a detailed blog post what considerations lie behind the playlists (via ravensoftware.com).
Basically, it’s about bringing a certain variety into the game and receiving feedback from the community.
With the start of a new season, the Warzone creators consider which modes should be in the game at which time. They take the following influences into account:
- Player motivation
- Surprise and excitement
- Squad sizes
- Communication/feedback
Player motivation: When creating the new playlists, the developers want to please as many players as possible.
They are aware that the tastes of the community differ. However, they always keep in mind that the developers want to appeal to as many players as possible with their playlists.
Surprise and excitement: New modes should bring surprises and are also an opportunity for the developers to experiment. They are always on the lookout for the “next big Warzone experience”.
Changing playlists help with this. If a player’s favorite mode is not available, they are more inclined to check out the new modes.
The Warzone creators are always looking for a balance between “experiment” and “old favorites”.
Squad sizes: The developers admit that the different squad sizes often led to potential conflicts. They have treated team sizes similarly to their own modes and are now realizing how difficult it is to find a balance there.
Because often, the team sizes are less dependent on what one wants to play. It’s more about the player’s social situation.
Here you can expect more stability instead of rotation in the future. Whether this means that the modes will now always come with all team sizes cannot yet be deduced from this. However, squad sizes are expected to cause fewer problems in the future.
Communication/feedback: As another point, the developers state that they would receive less feedback if they always had all modes in the game.
Currently, for example, the mode “Vanguard Royale” is not on the playlist. Players are now demanding that the mode should come back to the game – preferably permanently.
This type of feedback the developers would not have received without a rotating playlist. They can better gauge how important certain modes are to some players, which they can use for future playlist considerations.
Players are not enthusiastic about the announcement
What do players say about it? The playlist information and the blog were shared by Raven Software on Twitter. Under the tweet, the developers also received a wave of “feedback” again. The tweet has already collected more than 900 comments (as of 07.02. – 12:20 PM).
Some CoD fans write that they are happy about the new way of communication and that the developers now share more about why they approach certain things.
However, a large part of the commentators express their dissatisfaction. It is often criticized that the mode “Vanguard Royale” has been missing from the playlist for several weeks. In this mode, only guns and equipment from CoD: Vanguard are allowed, and planes populate the skies over Caldera.
For example, @gypsypickle_ on Twitter writes: “It’s quite clear that you’re not considering community feedback when so many tweets about your new playlists revolve around the absence of Vanguard Royale.”
A third group – and often the largest lately – calls for further bug fixes and points to errors in the game. The developers have already delayed Season 2 to fix the game.
What was not mentioned in the blog post: the splitting of the player base due to too many modes. If there are more modes, players spread out more across the different rulesets.
In the community, this thought long considered one of the main reasons why Call of Duty offers a rotating playlist. If too many players spread out, matchmaking takes longer.
Officially, the splitting of the player base is therefore not a reason for the rotating playlists.
Feel free to leave us a comment and let us know what you think of the playlists. Would you prefer to have all modes available in the game at all times, and do you think it’s right to make us players try out other things with the rotation?
Some players would even wish for more rotation in Warzone: Many do not like the new map of CoD Warzone – A feature from Apex Legends could help
