Treyarch just dropped a little something on Twitter that really made the Call of Duty community buzz. The Design Director there, Matt Scronce, roughly said, “Hey, if you have questions about how movement is going to work in Black Ops 7, we’ve got answers,” before throwing in the classic 👀 emoji — basically every emoji that means there’s a sneaky bit of something coming soon. Either way, he linked to some video or whatever, but when are the real deets ever really in the reply section?
Let’s get this out of the way. Movement is a big thing in Call of Duty ever since games began to incorporate sliding and vaulting. Remember when Advanced Warfare came out with exo suits, and the community began freaking out? That was indeed a thing. Then came the Black Ops 3 sorts of movement, and some embraced it while others just hated it. So Treyarch saying that they’re talking about movement for the next Black Ops: that is some heavy stuff. Movement can seriously affect how people feel about the entire gameplay.
Now here comes the twist: just as Treyarch is trying to chit-chat about movement mechanics, the players in the replies are like, hold up, we got bigger fish to fry. The number one thing popping off in the comments? SBMM. Skill-based matchmaking. It’s the system that tries to put in lobbies around your skill level, and oh boy, do gamers have feelings about it.
User Prototyp20251 stated “@Treyarch Remove SBMM please 🙏” – basically summarizing the mood of the conversation. Then there’s a whole thread about Brisingr7337 and Todredmi arguing about just how strictly they’ve been enforcing SBMM since Modern Warfare 2019 and maybe hinting at the reasons why some players dipped out after Black Ops 3. Brisingr7337 even said, “Strict SBMM is the primary reason I haven’t played Cod frequently since BO3,” which might as well have been a kiss of death in the community. Then Todredmi argues that it didn’t even exist before MW2019, blaming all the ping-based lobbies back in the day. So the debate is pretty much alive and kicking.
And this isn’t just SBMM-land. Everybody’s throwing in their two cents almost about everything. Anti-cheat is huge; a7iii_addict_ went on a tirade basically saying: “How about anti-cheat. Your game is becoming close to unplayable due to unchecked, blatant, out-of-control cheating.” Fair enough; cheaters spoil games for everyone, and should Treyarch not put an end to that, not even cool movement mechanics will save the player experience.
The keyboard versus controller topic also came up, definitely up for debate, with Msnkiiop asking if they can make it so playing on keyboard and mouse “feels like real skills,” which certainly has never been a thing in any crossplay games. Then, however, there was the classic plea for double XP weekends, from StoneyMindset. Because who doesn’t love to grind those levels faster?
Again, back to movement. Some players are super excited at the possibilities. TommyTecTV is hoping that movement won’t feel “sluggish or feel like we have cement in our boots” and retain some fluidity from Omnimovement. On the other hand, Provyy thinks they should add grapple to 6v6 comp, which sounds a little weird but could be kinda fun, right? Lastly, g_infr goes all in with Jetpacks confirmed in the near future 😈—please, no, not again. The advanced movement era was…ehh, let’s just say, somewhat divisive.
Then there’s your classic crowd of haters. TheGinger0ne came swooping in on fire: “Roll on for battlefield, you are so cooked, Advance warfare, remember back then double jump BS no one liked it and the year cod started dieing and now look its back to put a nail in your coffin,” which is way more than your average Tuesday will see. But it’s true inasmuch as advanced movement games were not for everyone, and if Black Ops 7 indeed goes that route, the community is going to be split hard.
But hey, not everyone is negative. Soupa_7up said, “This is really good communication. Please keep this up.”, which is nice to hear, as developer communication with the community has always been regarded as positive. And awwwwwwwwwwww_ (seriously, that’s a fudge long name) appreciated the transparency but also took the opportunity to ask for faster tick-rate servers and a fairer ranked system. So the players want to hear from the devs, but also want their concerns taken seriously.
Giving away the large nature of the diversion, the talk moved far away from just movement into those big time issues concerning SBMM, anti-cheat, server quality, and ranked play-these are the things that are impacting Call of Duty in the everyday mode of existence. Cool movement is great anyway for you, but when the base isn’t solid, it won’t really matter.
Treyarch’s got lots to do for Black Ops 7. They are working on pushing the movement mechanics forward, maybe seizing some of that Black Ops 3 magic as they are doing this, but the bigger issues have to be heard in the community too. The mere fact that they are having this kind of outreach going on is definitely a good sign; however, the players are going to need much more than just movement clues to go all the way with it.
Seems like, I suppose, is one of those franchises everywhere that has an opinion. You basically have an idea on how it should be-whether you love it or hate it. Obviously, judging by these tweets, the community has never shied away from sharing those ideas with Treyarch. Treyarch will have to balance innovation with listening to feedback if they want Black Ops 7 to be a success. Perhaps that will give them an opportunity to also tackle some of those SBMM questions along the way. But for now, we’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled to see what those movement teasers are really about. The 👀 does not lie-something’s coming.
