In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the BR mode Warzone, new pay-to-win allegations regarding what are essentially cosmetic items are currently causing a stir.
What allegations are we talking about? Currently, the in-game store of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is under fire. Some players express that the tracer packs available in the shop give the buyer an unfair advantage.
MeinMMO takes a look at the items and tells you why pay-to-win allegations are repeatedly a topic in Call of Duty.
What are tracer packs anyway? You’ve probably noticed that sometimes you are hit by colorful glowing bullets. This special ammunition is a cosmetic feature that is available in the in-game shop. This customization has been available since the launch of Modern Warfare at the end of 2019 and currently comes in several colors:
- red
- green
- blue
- purple
Such a blueprint costs between 1,600 and 2,500 CoD points, which translates to about 15 € to 20 € (depending on the pack).
In Warzone, soldiers have advantages with tracer ammunition
That’s why it’s a problem now: With the tracer blueprints, the damage of the weapons essentially doesn’t change. However, players are now reporting that they can only fire back with difficulty under the neon-colored barrage.
Recently, the tracer pack with a special skin for the Grau was released, one of the most popular and dominant weapons in the battle royale. As a result, the use of tracer ammunition has noticeably increased.
User hamzah10 writes frustrated on reddit:
Now the Grau variant is being used by the entire lobby. It obstructs your vision due to the bright color and the smoke effect. If you use a tree as cover, for example, and they [the tracer users] shoot the tree, you can barely see them right after the shot because of the smoke.
It’s even worse to be shot by two tracers, as the character’s peripheral vision is blinded.
Especially in the battles of Warzone, this is very noticeable. Here, the fights are not over as quickly as in the classic multiplayer mode due to armor and greater distance. Generally, there is time to react – as long as one is not blinded by flashy effects.
According to some statements, aiming through the visual support of the colored bullets may positively affect weapon control.
As more and more weapons are being equipped with special shop skins, the number of users and, at the same time, the number of complaints is increasing.
The annoying issue of the pay-to-win allegations in Call of Duty
That’s why the community is so sensitive: CoD players are battle-scarred when it comes to the pay-to-win topic. In past franchise installments, this topic caused quite a stir, as entire weapons or powerful variants were hidden behind a cash wall.
Recently, a weapon skin caused a stir in Season 2. Because of a shop-exclusive paint job, the sniper EBR-14 became much stronger. The community was outraged – in the end, it turned out to be a bug.
With the current installment, Activision and Infinity Ward actually want to turn their backs on this annoying topic and ensure fairness on the battlefields. Items from the shop or the seasonal battle pass are intended to be purely cosmetic and should not impact gameplay.
Whether and how the developers will respond to the allegations is currently uncertain. However, other concerns are likely to prevail at Call of Duty at the moment, as the developers have suddenly postponed the start of Season 4.
