OPEN LTR #2 to Activision

[Mike Nomad]

OPEN LETTER TO ACTIVISION CORPORATION


January 10, 2009

Activision Incorporated
3100 Ocean Park Boulevard
Santa Monica, California 90405

1-310-255-2000

Attention:
Robert Taylor, Activision Corporation
Grant Collier, Activision Corporation
Mark Lamia, Treyarch Studios
Vince Zampella, Infinity Ward Studios


To whom it may concern;

From the release of Call of Duty:World at War 'till present all users worldwide have been presented with a number of situations needing immediate attention.

The actual game, its basic concept, design and implementation are commendable. However, a number of serious problems have arisen that demand immediate attention:

Server Authentication Failures
Spawn Logic in need of optimization
Optional Head Icons & Name Tags for both Friendly and Enemy Players
HTTP ReDirect FIX
alt+tabbing out, and back you get the black screen
Screenshots Broken - not incremental, they overwrite each other
Adding cg_drawfps feature
Adding /record feature
Players should not be able to put color in their name, like green to look like a teammate
Enter Prestige, server will not say "Primary grenade 0 is invalid. Setting to frag" in red text. Repeatedly
Co-op servers will show up correctly in server browser, many players have difficult joining others as well
Name tags should not show through walls - NO Enemy name tags at all or an Admin option.
Fix for when you quit the game, blue screen pops up and restarts computer
unhandled exception errors need to be fixed
cg_fov resets every round
Areas where they have used a clip or texture that doesn't provide a sound when walked across
The Collision/Blocking brushes should be more detailed..... far too many places that should be accessible are clipped/blocked in every map.
Rooftop access and climbing of trees are a plus thus adding to playability, all the promos showed tree snipers.
Mod Tools also need to be patched too, as most people know all the mp prefabs for each game type (CTF,DS,HQ etc..) are missing also some of the basic csv files.
The DVARS that are not write protected that allow Rank Raping.

While this list has been in existence for more than a month and has been forwarded to Treyarch Community Manager Josh Olin.. the results of such efforts have been less than stellar.

Please allow a reminder, when the game was released a patch was immediately made available to correct "in the box, shipped with errors". Additionally, thousands of users worldwide purchased the "Collectors Edition" of Call of Duty World at War in hopes of obtaining a canteen, the use of an FG42 in game and in particular, double experience points. Needless to say the canteen is a gross disappointment, a plastic facsimile - a toy. The double experience points were made useless by a bug in the program that allowed 1000x experience points be everyone at all times. But to be fair, the FG42 is useful.

Purchasers of the regular release version found that after a week or so, all the above indicated errors were glaringly evident.

Needless to say, a large majority of those who purchased the both editions of Call of Duty:World at War feel they simply did not get their money's worth.

READ MORE (http://forums.raidersmerciless.com/showthread.php?p=51154#post51154)

[Ultra_Violence]

Great letter! I uninstalled this garbage weeks ago, And will never again by a game produced by this company One slight suggestion is that a lot of players can't play Asylum or Dome. Well done, and thanks for the effort with your letter.

[Misnomer]

All good complaints. Though I would question the phrasing. It sounds like one person complaining and claiming the community is behind them. As such, it will likely get the same attention as a forum post. A well worded argument may have been more persuasive.


A few points on the writing. Please don't take offense:

Try to avoid using informal language like " 'till " in a formal letter. Also, thorough descriptions of the bugs instead of phrases like "Rank raping" may have yielded better results from business people who do not dwell in the world of FPS gaming.

The point about the Prestige Error message is worded poorly and becomes confusing. Overall the choice to word the bug list in the form of how it should work instead of listing the errors reads more like a patch log. While this may have been your intent, it is confusing for people who do not know about the bugs.

You go from stating the problem:

"alt+tabbing out, and back you get the black screen"

to stating what should happen:

" Enter Prestige, server will not say "Primary grenade 0 is invalid. Setting to frag" in red text. Repeatedly"

and

" Co-op servers will show up correctly in server browser, many players have difficult joining others as well"

Staying in one form, positive or negative, would have been less confusing.


You have left out why these demand immediate attention as well. Several of them are more important than others, as we all know. I think if you explained how crippling several of the bugs are to our ability to play the game, you might have had more persuasive power.


Either way. I am sure they will care more about statistics than a well worded argument from a member of the community. Still, it is a good list. It is good to have it on the record too.

Maybe we will remember this list when the cry goes up for a COD4.2 patch in December of this year. Maybe we will reconsider giving Activision our money.

[Mike Nomad]

..... <snip>

Maybe we will remember this list when the cry goes up for a COD4.2 patch in December of this year. Maybe we will reconsider giving Activision our money.


I appreciate your comments and suggestions - thank you. In light of the fact this game is dying rapidly, I agree with your final statement. If they don't act quickly, it will all be over.

Your conclusion is of course, the bottom line.

[Snoop912]

They better listen soon or everyone will be gone!