Activision recently provoked anger from many in the Call of Duty community when the publisher revealed that Survival mode, one of the modes available in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Spec Ops, will be a one-year timed exclusive for the PS4. In the wake of that outrage, and responding to recent criticisms based on nothing more than rumours, one of the Modern Warfare devs has published an open letter on Reddit. In it, they request that fans remember that there’s; “a team of human beings,” and that they should focus on fact and not hearsay.
Activision’s decision has proven widely unpopular since its announcement; especially because the studio had previously said that there wouldn’t be earlier release dates on different consoles for post-launch content. However, as so many unpopular announcements unfortunately do, it has resulted in hundreds of attacks towards the developers. In fact, the game’s Narrative Director seemed to suggest that Infinity Ward aren’t exactly happy with the decision. (A decision which may have been made over their heads by Activision.)
Modern Warfare Dev Publishes Open Letter to the Community
The recent attacks on Modern Warfare devs on social media has prompted a member of Infinity Ward to publish an open letter. “Public forums like this sub are part of our process,” they explain, about the need to keep commentary constructive; “Its where we come to gather exterior thoughts and feedback on what we are crafting. […] This sub will be a way for us to keep getting an outside hands on perspective from everyone that plays the game. Everyone benefits from this. Player experiences get better and we get to keep making games.”
“We all have a pretty thick skin here but yeah it can kind of get to you,” they continue; “[…] keep it clean and maybe even a little creative. Get it out of your system but remember there’s a team of human beings here at IW and we have crappy days just like you. […] There are some announcements that have come up this week that are official and some that are rumours. My ask of all of you is to focus on information that is actually fact and not get thrown off by ill informed people that want to make a name for themselves by spreading half baked inflammatory rumours.”
Certainly, that seems like a positive message for gamers online. After all, it’s not uncommon to see extreme vitriol on social media following unpopular announcements. (Or even as a result of badly-informed rumours.) Many of these sorts of decisions are, after all, made by studio executives. Not developers. Indeed, as the letter reads; “Most of us treat every game like its our last so we put everything we have into it. We never hold back.”