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Acti-Blizz don't want you to enjoy DMZ
I am a long-time game developer, I have worked on titles that FPS fans would be well aware of and probably have engaged with in the past. I recently experimented with WZ after a few people recommended it to me, as they wished me to play it with them. Originally I took a liking to it but after reaching my 100th level, playing entirely in DMZ so I could get my CP back from the pass. I have come to the conclusion that the current "state" of DMZ can only be an intentional choice.
Acti-blizz have done nothing but make the situation worse for all players. I can tell you first of all with my experience, the "bugs" your community are experiencing are easily solved by changing a few variables. They are intentionally not solving these problems for the sake of profits. ( "Oh but wunder, they're a company, they're designed to make profits" excuse isn't applicable here. They're selling a "product", not a "service" despite the corporate buzzwords they're telling you. )
Here I'd like to break down what Acti-Blizz have done and how they're exploiting this situation for profit. It's going to be a long read, so if you're not interested in the finer details, just skip to the part you're interested in.
Shutting down of WZ1 and the Introduction of DMZ
There used to be a way for your community to make XP, which rewards you with in-game items in troves by exploring the map, collecting in-game assets and keeping hold of them till the end of the game. It was called "Plunder", this was something introduced very early on into WZ and was important to the newcomer experience.
This as a game mode, isn't difficult in any capacity to place in the current map, with all 150 players. Any developer from Acti or Infinity Ward telling you otherwise is lying to you. I cannot stress to you how easy it would be, it's as simple as loading a configuration file with respawn settings, cash spawn rates and an internal leader-board. This is as simple as comparing variables and saving them. It's the first thing you need to do to create a game mode and they've already made it for WZ1.
Shutting down WZ1 servers, removing plunder and the harsh forced transition to the MWII engine were intentionally done to create frustration. As both games are exactly the same.
WZ1 and WZ2 are the exact same game with a different HUD. Granted they use new weapon offsets, new variables for the newer items and some graphical differences, the core that makes the game is exactly identical. There is no core difference between the two titles. ( Why do you think players were able to cheat in the early alpha stages? They didn't need to update their cheat software. )
WZ1 wasn't "shut down" like Acti are telling you, YOUR PROGRESS WAS SIMPLY REMOVED. YOUR PAID COSMETICS WERE REMOVED. THEY ARE LYING TO YOU.
Why would they need to shut down servers for WZ1, to "make space" if they can keep servers running for games like Vanguard and Ghosts? It's not player count problems as Acti-Blizz could easily afford to host thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of players for the cost of a few main title purchases. Server hosting is probably one of the easiest and least intensive actions a game company can do. It's a simple as setting up a computer with pre-made software and letting it run. Costs are nominal, one tech guy to make sure nothing is burning and the cost of electricity.
The reason it was shut down is because it NEVER WAS. WZ2 is WZ1 and they're the same game. MWII was simply an UPDATE TO THE GAME, INTENTIONALLY REMOVING ALL PROGRESS YOU HAD MADE.
Internally a discussion was had on how they can DELETE your progress and make YOU PAY FOR IT. WZ2 like OW2 was the answer.
The New Exploitation
Acti's corporate leaders have been made aware of a new refined form of manipulation. They're creating confusing systems, with monetization steps along every step. The more steps they add to further confuse you, the more money they're going to make from you. It's really as simple as that.
They have given up making games, they're making money generation software for their shareholders. YOU as the player are the "product" instead of the "customer". Video games are a PRODUCT not a SERVICE, they always have and will be. WZ2 isn't a video game, it's an interactive live service and the service is moving money from your pocket to theirs. Do not be fooled by a well paid and well experienced marketing team.
With that out the way, let's talk about the new exploitation techniques they have discovered.
1) They've made each space in the pass more expensive to purchase.
2) They've added an extra nodes filled with less content to extend gameplay in the pass.
3) They've made individual consumable XP boosts for Rank, Weapon and Battlepass XP and put those in the pass slots now open.
4) They've dramatically dropped the battlepass progress you receive for a loss.
5) They've made losses happen in 99/100 games.
These are the five main methods of artificially extending how long and how much you need to play. Combine that with a constant ticking clock, shown to you in every menu telling you "that you only have X days left to complete this" has created the most malicious exploitation I have ever seen. This is worse than lootboxes, worse than P2W, this is quite literally the most disgusting state I have ever seen a game in.
With that out the way, let's talk about the "bugs" you guys are experiencing in DMZ and why they're intentionally and specially designed that way.
It's not just you, the AI ARE killing you instantly.
Something that I specifically noticed was the insane difficulty. It's far more difficult than any title before it, almost to the point of parody. I've seen several clips of perfect headshots with RPGs from the AI. Personally more than once, I've been hit with 2 or 3 lethal equipment from the AI at once. Semtex Grenades that seem to perfectly arc and land on your head, Fragmentation grenades that perfectly bounce next to you and explode with professional levels of accuracy.
View: https://twitter.com/HunterKiller321/status/1597367484083945474
"BuT iTs A bEtA..."
It's not a BETA product. If it was, they should be paying each and everyone one of us for doing the job of QA testers and debugging their game for them. That is not an excuse.
Then we have the subject of enemy armor and health. Some AI, specifically a set of blue armor clad third tier armor wearing units, are spawned with shotguns as close to the player as possible. These are used to punish a player for doing well. Now I have said this, you will notice them constantly, with intensity and ramping up in numbers as you make it to the exit. They will spawn one room away from you in the last 10 minutes of your DMZ game. This you will now too notice.
They are simply getting your in-game location finding some point you cannot currently see and spamming spawn requests until you die.
This is currently in line and all according to Acti's current patent for "dynamic difficulty". Originally this was only applied to multiplayer titles, as "Plunder" featured no AI, outside of seasonal events. By "dynamic" they mean as you get closer and closer to the end of the game, they are going to ramp up enemy health, armor and reduce your damage to reduce the number of rewards you can receive with the pass by dividing your XP by 4. You'll notice the massive difference in a loss compared to an exfil and 90% of games end in not exfiling. Compare this to plunder where you would always receive a position and the same level of XP based on your performance.
www.gamespot.com
If you have 30 minutes of your time, after reading all of this, I highly suggest you take a look at this excellent breakdown from YouTube user " Drift0r "
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ob6747TfiE
I am a long-time game developer, I have worked on titles that FPS fans would be well aware of and probably have engaged with in the past. I recently experimented with WZ after a few people recommended it to me, as they wished me to play it with them. Originally I took a liking to it but after reaching my 100th level, playing entirely in DMZ so I could get my CP back from the pass. I have come to the conclusion that the current "state" of DMZ can only be an intentional choice.
Acti-blizz have done nothing but make the situation worse for all players. I can tell you first of all with my experience, the "bugs" your community are experiencing are easily solved by changing a few variables. They are intentionally not solving these problems for the sake of profits. ( "Oh but wunder, they're a company, they're designed to make profits" excuse isn't applicable here. They're selling a "product", not a "service" despite the corporate buzzwords they're telling you. )
Here I'd like to break down what Acti-Blizz have done and how they're exploiting this situation for profit. It's going to be a long read, so if you're not interested in the finer details, just skip to the part you're interested in.
Shutting down of WZ1 and the Introduction of DMZ
There used to be a way for your community to make XP, which rewards you with in-game items in troves by exploring the map, collecting in-game assets and keeping hold of them till the end of the game. It was called "Plunder", this was something introduced very early on into WZ and was important to the newcomer experience.
This as a game mode, isn't difficult in any capacity to place in the current map, with all 150 players. Any developer from Acti or Infinity Ward telling you otherwise is lying to you. I cannot stress to you how easy it would be, it's as simple as loading a configuration file with respawn settings, cash spawn rates and an internal leader-board. This is as simple as comparing variables and saving them. It's the first thing you need to do to create a game mode and they've already made it for WZ1.
Shutting down WZ1 servers, removing plunder and the harsh forced transition to the MWII engine were intentionally done to create frustration. As both games are exactly the same.
WZ1 and WZ2 are the exact same game with a different HUD. Granted they use new weapon offsets, new variables for the newer items and some graphical differences, the core that makes the game is exactly identical. There is no core difference between the two titles. ( Why do you think players were able to cheat in the early alpha stages? They didn't need to update their cheat software. )
WZ1 wasn't "shut down" like Acti are telling you, YOUR PROGRESS WAS SIMPLY REMOVED. YOUR PAID COSMETICS WERE REMOVED. THEY ARE LYING TO YOU.
Why would they need to shut down servers for WZ1, to "make space" if they can keep servers running for games like Vanguard and Ghosts? It's not player count problems as Acti-Blizz could easily afford to host thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of players for the cost of a few main title purchases. Server hosting is probably one of the easiest and least intensive actions a game company can do. It's a simple as setting up a computer with pre-made software and letting it run. Costs are nominal, one tech guy to make sure nothing is burning and the cost of electricity.
The reason it was shut down is because it NEVER WAS. WZ2 is WZ1 and they're the same game. MWII was simply an UPDATE TO THE GAME, INTENTIONALLY REMOVING ALL PROGRESS YOU HAD MADE.
Internally a discussion was had on how they can DELETE your progress and make YOU PAY FOR IT. WZ2 like OW2 was the answer.
The New Exploitation
Acti's corporate leaders have been made aware of a new refined form of manipulation. They're creating confusing systems, with monetization steps along every step. The more steps they add to further confuse you, the more money they're going to make from you. It's really as simple as that.
They have given up making games, they're making money generation software for their shareholders. YOU as the player are the "product" instead of the "customer". Video games are a PRODUCT not a SERVICE, they always have and will be. WZ2 isn't a video game, it's an interactive live service and the service is moving money from your pocket to theirs. Do not be fooled by a well paid and well experienced marketing team.
With that out the way, let's talk about the new exploitation techniques they have discovered.
1) They've made each space in the pass more expensive to purchase.
2) They've added an extra nodes filled with less content to extend gameplay in the pass.
3) They've made individual consumable XP boosts for Rank, Weapon and Battlepass XP and put those in the pass slots now open.
4) They've dramatically dropped the battlepass progress you receive for a loss.
5) They've made losses happen in 99/100 games.
These are the five main methods of artificially extending how long and how much you need to play. Combine that with a constant ticking clock, shown to you in every menu telling you "that you only have X days left to complete this" has created the most malicious exploitation I have ever seen. This is worse than lootboxes, worse than P2W, this is quite literally the most disgusting state I have ever seen a game in.
With that out the way, let's talk about the "bugs" you guys are experiencing in DMZ and why they're intentionally and specially designed that way.
It's not just you, the AI ARE killing you instantly.
Something that I specifically noticed was the insane difficulty. It's far more difficult than any title before it, almost to the point of parody. I've seen several clips of perfect headshots with RPGs from the AI. Personally more than once, I've been hit with 2 or 3 lethal equipment from the AI at once. Semtex Grenades that seem to perfectly arc and land on your head, Fragmentation grenades that perfectly bounce next to you and explode with professional levels of accuracy.
View: https://twitter.com/HunterKiller321/status/1597367484083945474
"BuT iTs A bEtA..."
It's not a BETA product. If it was, they should be paying each and everyone one of us for doing the job of QA testers and debugging their game for them. That is not an excuse.
Then we have the subject of enemy armor and health. Some AI, specifically a set of blue armor clad third tier armor wearing units, are spawned with shotguns as close to the player as possible. These are used to punish a player for doing well. Now I have said this, you will notice them constantly, with intensity and ramping up in numbers as you make it to the exit. They will spawn one room away from you in the last 10 minutes of your DMZ game. This you will now too notice.
They are simply getting your in-game location finding some point you cannot currently see and spamming spawn requests until you die.
This is currently in line and all according to Acti's current patent for "dynamic difficulty". Originally this was only applied to multiplayer titles, as "Plunder" featured no AI, outside of seasonal events. By "dynamic" they mean as you get closer and closer to the end of the game, they are going to ramp up enemy health, armor and reduce your damage to reduce the number of rewards you can receive with the pass by dividing your XP by 4. You'll notice the massive difference in a loss compared to an exfil and 90% of games end in not exfiling. Compare this to plunder where you would always receive a position and the same level of XP based on your performance.
Activision Clarifies Its Patent For Encouraging Microtransactions
The Destiny and Call of Duty publisher says the patent was only "exploratory."
www.gamespot.com
If you have 30 minutes of your time, after reading all of this, I highly suggest you take a look at this excellent breakdown from YouTube user " Drift0r "
I would happily purchase Battle Passes and weapons in WZ1/Plunder... But the Battle Pass setup in WZ2/DMZ is so confusing I haven't even bothered. And I'll be damned if I am going to purchase a weapon that will be taken away from me in 2 and 4 hour stretches...
