The madness over game features of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has just reached a new level, and the information has just come out of the ordinary sources. The most impressive thing? It is the first time a Call of Duty game enables the players to obtain a total of 17—incredible 17—mastery camos. This is not limited to one mode only but spread throughout the game. The numbers that we are talking about are: 4 for the co-op campaign, 4 for standard multiplayer, 4 for Zombies mode, 4 for Warzone, and 1, the ultimate global mastery camouflage, as the grand prize for getting all the others. That’s a lot of virtual paint jobs.
For the gamers who just want to get the gist: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has a grand total of 17 mastery camouflage rewards which are smoothly integrated among the different modes like campaign, multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone, eventually leading to a final global reward. This means that a huge amount of grinding is required from the players which is completely contrary to the previous games’ trend.
Coming to the reactions now and wow, the community is… split. I mean, they are really divided. CharlieINTEL’s initial tweet got a massive number of replies and it perfectly mirrors the present-day CoD player base. Some of them are just happy because there is so much to do. A gamer named Cuban even went so far as to say that, ‘This should be the minimum expectation. You want players to stick around and do fun stuff? This is the way to do it.’ So, it’s pretty obvious that there is a group that sees the grind as a positive, a way of keeping the game fresh and rewarding for months, maybe even the whole year.
But then as you continue to scroll down the comments, the general sentiment changes pretty rapidly. There are a lot of players who are just… bored with it. User daveinit mentioned the term ‘quantity over quality’ and it really gets to the core of one of the main criticisms. Another user, AEIDOLONE, exploded with a rant, ‘I am so sick of camo discussions in COD. This is nothing but their debating. The most inexpensive way to keep the game hooked with people grinding the game to the max playing. They are not enjoyable, just a pain.’ Ouch. That is a sentiment you often hear—the grinds for camos are nothing but artificial inflation, a means to entice the players to the max without enhancing the core gameplay.
Moreover, the whole practicality issue should be considered. One more sharp reply pointed out how these live-service games are temporary: ‘All this effort just to restart Less than a year from now.’ That’s the enormity of the situation, right? With a new Call of Duty almost every year, and with the next one already being rumored (MW4, who knows?), investing hundreds of hours into Black Ops 7 just to unlock everything may seem pointless to some. The question of “why grind so hard when the next shiny thing is already on the horizon?” is raised. One user, Ghost, actually replied to another comment that he would rather just play BO7 for ‘2 – 3 years’ instead of moving on, which shows a completely different mindset.
The discussion also touched upon the game state. It wasn’t just about camos. A lot of replies took the opportunity to express other complaints. Giovani made a plaintive cry with ‘FIX THE SPAWNS FFS.’ Another one simply stated, ‘The game is bad unfortunately.’ Someone described the feel as ‘very clunky.’ Also, there was a whole thread dealing with sound bugs that made it hard for friends to communicate. Thus, for a good number of players, this major camo announcement is just a distraction from the issues they want resolved.
But wait! We have not yet talked about the most dedicated players—the completionists! One user, Almiighty, without any fuss declared, ‘What’s outrageous is that I already know a few people who have single and one who has all camos.’ Morning already!? The game isn’t that old yet and there are players who almost surely have no-lifed it just to snatch those started off. That’s either a lot of commitment or a plaintive cry for help. Who can know? Another player, Chris Bryant, ridiculed the ‘serpentine camo’ while laughing, indicating it would be a real tough one to get. This is the other side of the story; for some, this mountain of camos is a peak they are really excited to conquer, just for the bragging rights.
Thus, what is the key statement of all this fuss? Black Ops 7 is definitely more than ever before pushing the ‘games as a service’ concept through its unprecedented cosmetic grind. It is a player retention tactic that is aimed directly at the gamers who play on PlayStation and Xbox in this popular first-person shooter.
