I’ve been generally positive about Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Despite what the internet seems to think I should believe, I think it’s a pretty good game, and I’m enjoying it a lot.
But I’m also more than happy to shout up when I see something stupid. And the Baron of the Wasteland event, that’s in its final day as I write this — is stupid.
A leaderboard that rewards no kind of skill
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m more of a challenge completion kind of player than a fully competitive player. But this leaderboard event makes no sense.
Last time out it was based on how much score you accrued, which at least rewarded good play. This time round it’s how many of the Fallout-themed bottle caps you can pick up.
Whether you like the rewards or not, they’re limited. There are a couple of special camos to get, and the ‘winner’ gets a Calling Card calling them the champion.
The champion of what? The most bottle caps does not equal the best player on the leaderboard. Merely the one who has played the most. Whether you use Endgame, Zombies, or the Warzone Casual cheese where you just run around farming crates, it’s literally just rewarding someone for playing more of the game than other people.
There’s that element of FOMO, because once these rewards have gone, they’re gone for good. But it’s FOMO simply being turned into collecting hours played metrics for Treyarch. It’ll look great on their internal numbers, but it doesn’t make it any less ridiculous.
I’ve tried the Warzone method to see how many I can get, and by the time my brain could take no more I’m still 1,000 behind whoever is top of my leaderboard. If I wasn’t simultaneously working on some Prestige Master Titles and the Reticle mastery at the same time, I doubt I’d have lasted even that long.
I want leaderboard events, but for rewarding the best players
As the type of gamer who traditionally plays a lot of looter shooters, I’m well versed in the art of doing the same thing over and over again to farm resources or have a chance at some killer loot.
But this event isn’t like that. It’s rewarding brain rot. What I want to see Treyarch do is set these events up to reward the best players out there while they’re happening. I watched a streamer get their 25 win streak on Verdansk and be only 10th on their leaderboard.
It doesn’t make sense. The other collection event, Quantum Exchange, is fine. Everyone gets all the rewards for, honestly, not a lot of work over its lifespan.
The recently added Warzone win streak rewards are on the right track, and the approach I want to see applied to future events. I’m never getting that Camo, because I don’t deserve it. Those who have it — assuming they’re not cheaters — earned it.
I’m crying out for events that reward people trying to win in Multiplayer, not just pad their own stats and grind the Mastery Camo. That shouldn’t just apply to Ranked Play, which isn’t even here yet and not everyone wants to try.
That’s what I want to see from these leaderboard events. No collection simulators, incentives to actually play the game properly. High rounds in Zombies, boss/world event clears in Endgame, winning matches in Multiplayer, winning matches in Warzone.
Make the “champion” someone who had to work for it by playing the game the best. Not the person who found the best cheese. Let’s get some proper competition back in Call of Duty.
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