Treyarch defined a generation with a new leaderboard event for Zombies called The Master of Grief. The reception has been, to put it mildly, enthusiastic. A grudge-match-style con event, it asks the canopy of players to collect Essence and rise to the top 30-player leaderboard of rewards. But all responses are laden with anger, memes, and outright frustration.
What could possibly be the matter? Well, Treyarch said, fairly gleefully without a hint of irony, “Good luck, and happy Griefing!”; but the poor ungrateful crowd was definitely not in such spirits. Responses were a jumble of comeback calls, outright complaints against the mode, and even random hype for Battlefield 6.
For one thing, the rewards. “There were no rewards whatsoever,” a player thundered to denounce it all. Another one said sarcastically, “Let me guess the reward is gobble gums..” (spoiler alert: it kind of is) What if you were expecting some cool awards? Sorry. One player has already mentioned – and the community agrees – that there’s no unique calling card for the guys that win, and that seems a big missed opportunity.
Then comes Grief. The only PvP Zombie mode that very few actually ever bought into, and this new one didn’t exactly get spectators off their feet. “The worst game mode I ever played,” one player ranted; another flatly declared, “Grief is garbage as f.” Some even questioned the event’s rationale; one baffled gamer asked, “Why are we collecting Essence in a PvP mode?”
The real kicker? Fixes are requested with greater emphasis than new content. “Instead of adding more crap how about fixing all the things that are wrong in the game,” came one pointed response. Others followed up with “okay cool, now fix the game” so many times it began to feel like spam. Packet burst troubles, missing features (RIP Chaos Nuketown), and lack of Most Wanted contracts were among the few that were mentioned-and-occassionally-censored.
Then there’s the Battlefield 6 question. At least a couple of replies trolled Treyarch pretty well with “Sorry I can’t hear you over the Battlefield 6 hype.” Ouch.
So… anyone but there may be one or two that are excited? Well-shy-who-wouldGet-Into-It-If-Treyarch-Dropped-Another-Teaser has one childishly sweet comment that at least the person meant: “I love you, thank you,” so take that for what you will. However, in general? It’s not a good atmosphere. Lukewarm rewards, a polarizing mode, and an ever-growing list of unresolved issues make this one quite a miss.
Will Treyarch curse their way out of this backlash? Hope not. But for now, the Zombies community has laid out a clear priority of a polished game, please, instead of another leaderboard.
