Activision Defends Call of Duty Elite

[HentMas]

I think the problem lies with the name itself, it being called Elite, gamers are thinking this is the name of the paid service and not the service overall. They aren't making the distinction that there is a free version of the Elite program, and a paid version of the Elite program which unlocks more features.

yes, i noticed, but why would there be 2 names for a service that hasn't even being announced yet? elite seems a perfectly reasonable name for the features that "are" announced, they haven't even said what they are going to charge for, i would think its obvious they haven't thought of a name to market it, because there is nothing to market!.

 

[Rednog]

I think the problem lies with the name itself, it being called Elite, gamers are thinking this is the name of the paid service and not the service overall. They aren't making the distinction that there is a free version of the Elite program, and a paid version of the Elite program which unlocks more features.

yes, i noticed, but why would there be 2 names for a service that hasn't even being announced yet? elite seems a perfectly reasonable name for the features that "are" announced, they haven't even said what they are going to charge for, i would think its obvious they haven't thought of a name to market it, because there is nothing to market!.

Hell Xbox has 2 names for its service, Gold and Silver. Odds are Activision will just call it something stupid like Elite+ because they are eventually going to realize that some gamers just aren't that bright and if you don't make things insanely apparent to them they just won't get it.

It is kind of ironic that as soon as a lot of gamers (actually people of the digital age in general) with anything longer than a few sentences they stop reading/understanding and reply with the same giant text that they refuse to read in the first place.

 

[HentMas]

I think the problem lies with the name itself, it being called Elite, gamers are thinking this is the name of the paid service and not the service overall. They aren't making the distinction that there is a free version of the Elite program, and a paid version of the Elite program which unlocks more features.

yes, i noticed, but why would there be 2 names for a service that hasn't even being announced yet? elite seems a perfectly reasonable name for the features that "are" announced, they haven't even said what they are going to charge for, i would think its obvious they haven't thought of a name to market it, because there is nothing to market!.

Hell Xbox has 2 names for its service, Gold and Silver. Odds are Activision will just call it something stupid like Elite+ because they are eventually going to realize that some gamers just aren't that bright and if you don't make things insanely apparent to them they just won't get it.

It is kind of ironic that as soon as a lot of gamers (actually people of the digital age in general) with anything longer than a few sentences they stop reading/understanding and reply with the same giant text that they refuse to read in the first place.

well, it does talks a lot about Activision public image that even if activision was giving away free XBOX to sick children people would probably read "ACTIVISION KICKS SICK CHILDREN FOR THEIR MONEY!" and then rant about tax breaks for doing charity XD

what is wrong with companies making money?? if they keep making good games, let them! i personally enjoy the modern warfare series, if anything is what my group of friends gather almost once a week to play, and thats enough for me to play the game.

 

[MrJKapowey]

So... if all of that is free for everybody, why are they calling it part of the Elite pack? Surely it should just be included with standard multiplayer.

After all, I don't like the idea of forking out money for "Elite" features, only to find out that half of them are free anyway.

ok, let me explain it nice and slow, and please READ everything that is written people

you have an XBOX? yeah, i´m sure you do, and with it comes an XBL account, a silver account, that lets you chat with your friends, now, if you want to play online, you need an XBL GOLD account dont you? hehe, its completelly optional of course

you have a PS? then you are familiar with PSN, and how there is a service called PSN+ that you pay for, but is completelly optional?

remember bungie? you can play Halo 3 as much as you want, but if you want your stats taken into account you HAVE to get into "BUNGIE.NET" and create an account, now if you want more space to make videos, maps and all that cool stuff you upload, let us call it "BUNGIE.NET +" you know what? lets call it "BUNGIE.NET GOLD" because its in the XBOX it will cost you 5 bucks a year, but you dont have to pay it if you dont care about space

REMEMBER ELITE!? yeah, its the same as bungie.net, except you CAN pay for more features that we will call "ELITE +", ok, "ELITE GOLD" hell "ELITE THE CHARGED CONTENT,UNLIKE THE OTHER ONE WE DO CHARGE YOU IN HERE, NOT THE OTHER ONE THOUGHT"

now you understand!?!?

I think you need to take a break before continuing or give up all together. It's unlikely you'll get through to the CoD hating crowd on the Escapist that easily.

I still don't see why the venomous hatred towards MW2, or (most of) the hatred towards Black Ops exists. I like the MP on both those games, like Mw's SP, like Zombies, like Spec. Ops., only dislike Black Ops' campaign. And apparrently I'm the person with the irrational thoughts on CoD.

OT:

I'm getting it, it has new features (that were in no way advertised for the game and therefore are not what you payed for in the game but were taken from the game by evil money-grabbing Activision) and the features announced on the PDF chart are *FREE*.

Why not get i?

 

[fragmaster09]

There is still absolutely no way I'm ever going to download it, just because I disagree with Elite in concept. We bought the game, now give us what we paid for.

There's also the problem of: once this starts, where does it end? Will we end up in a situation where we cannot even play online without paying?

I like Call of Duty as much as the next guy (maybe more than the next guy seeing as we're on the CoD-phobic Escapist), but if I'm dishing out £45 for it, I don't want to be given only half the game.

if PS3 has to pay £5 per month and Xbox pays nothing then, i'll be happy, see what they say THEN, seeing as that's what I ALREADY PAY M$... and for each game... but i doubt that will happen

 

[TheRealCJ]

So... if all of that is free for everybody, why are they calling it part of the Elite pack? Surely it should just be included with standard multiplayer.

After all, I don't like the idea of forking out money for "Elite" features, only to find out that half of them are free anyway.

ok, let me explain it nice and slow, and please READ everything that is written people

you have an XBOX? yeah, i´m sure you do, and with it comes an XBL account, a silver account, that lets you chat with your friends, now, if you want to play online, you need an XBL GOLD account dont you? hehe, its completelly optional of course

you have a PS? then you are familiar with PSN, and how there is a service called PSN+ that you pay for, but is completelly optional?

remember bungie? you can play Halo 3 as much as you want, but if you want your stats taken into account you HAVE to get into "BUNGIE.NET" and create an account, now if you want more space to make videos, maps and all that cool stuff you upload, let us call it "BUNGIE.NET +" you know what? lets call it "BUNGIE.NET GOLD" because its in the XBOX it will cost you 5 bucks a year, but you dont have to pay it if you dont care about space

REMEMBER ELITE!? yeah, its the same as bungie.net, except you CAN pay for more features that we will call "ELITE +", ok, "ELITE GOLD" hell "ELITE THE CHARGED CONTENT,UNLIKE THE OTHER ONE WE DO CHARGE YOU IN HERE, NOT THE OTHER ONE THOUGHT"

now you understand!?!?

Buzzz. Wrong. I have neither. PC exclusive gamer here. And since I don't play MMOs, all my online experiences are free through Steam.

Also, please, please stop with the bloody caps lock. All its doing is making you look like you have no reasonable argument.

 

[Gralian]

So let me get this straight. You're paying an extra £5 a month, or whatever the fee is, for a bunch of charts and statistics? Are you fucking kidding me?

I can see how "sponsored tournaments" might be appealing, but leaderboards? Stats? Really? That's ALL?

It disgusts me that not only can companies feel they can get away with such minimal content for things such as this, but that people buy into it as well. This is almost enough to make me not purchase Modern Warfare 3 out of principal, and i enjoy the CoD series.

 

[XT inc]

In before Blizzactivision turns all of their games into true arcade experiences, where buy it costs you 1 dollar to play each game against opponents.

Fan service doesn't mean the fan's service you it means you service them with free entertaining stuff to lengthen your games life. Thanks to sheep who are more than happy to pay whatever the cost is the industry it converting everything you might pay for into stuff you will pay for.

skins, maps, guns, levels, cheats, money, stats and heat maps, forums, clans, tournaments, theater mode etc if you would pay for it, but it would be nice to have in the game at the get go,expect to pay for it.

 

[Spygon]

It abit early for me to jump on the "screw modern warfare elite" band wagon but i am glad to hear they wont charge for online.But i deffinly will not be subscribing to elite as i do not play the game enough.

So i am watching this with intrest but i feel the actual game suffers because of the program i will be the one driving the band wagon into activision headquarters then waiting around for a minute to capture it.

 

[Antari]

Um, I thought Activision had better rep than EA because of EA's marketing department?

In my world they are both equally worthless and incompetant.

 

[HentMas]

So... if all of that is free for everybody, why are they calling it part of the Elite pack? Surely it should just be included with standard multiplayer.

After all, I don't like the idea of forking out money for "Elite" features, only to find out that half of them are free anyway.

ok, let me explain it nice and slow, and please READ everything that is written people

you have an XBOX? yeah, i´m sure you do, and with it comes an XBL account, a silver account, that lets you chat with your friends, now, if you want to play online, you need an XBL GOLD account dont you? hehe, its completelly optional of course

you have a PS? then you are familiar with PSN, and how there is a service called PSN+ that you pay for, but is completelly optional?

remember bungie? you can play Halo 3 as much as you want, but if you want your stats taken into account you HAVE to get into "BUNGIE.NET" and create an account, now if you want more space to make videos, maps and all that cool stuff you upload, let us call it "BUNGIE.NET +" you know what? lets call it "BUNGIE.NET GOLD" because its in the XBOX it will cost you 5 bucks a year, but you dont have to pay it if you dont care about space

REMEMBER ELITE!? yeah, its the same as bungie.net, except you CAN pay for more features that we will call "ELITE +", ok, "ELITE GOLD" hell "ELITE THE CHARGED CONTENT,UNLIKE THE OTHER ONE WE DO CHARGE YOU IN HERE, NOT THE OTHER ONE THOUGHT"

now you understand!?!?

Buzzz. Wrong. I have neither. PC exclusive gamer here. And since I don't play MMOs, all my online experiences are free through Steam.

Also, please, please stop with the bloody caps lock. All its doing is making you look like you have no reasonable argument.

ok, you played Halo 2 PC? and created an account for bungie.net?? its the same thing, they will give you everything you had in Bungie.net

now, there is content that hasn't being announced yet that they will charge you for, like say, access to original series made available trough their system, or the new map packs given to you for free, that would be the theoretical "Elite +" which doesn't have a name jet because there is nothing to market about it

now you understand? or your actually just trying to make me call you names?

 

[HentMas]

So let me get this straight. You're paying an extra £5 a month, or whatever the fee is, for a bunch of charts and statistics? Are you fucking kidding me?

I can see how "sponsored tournaments" might be appealing, but leaderboards? Stats? Really? That's ALL?

It disgusts me that not only can companies feel they can get away with such minimal content for things such as this, but that people buy into it as well. This is almost enough to make me not purchase Modern Warfare 3 out of principal, and i enjoy the CoD series.

aaaah, ok, no, you are not paying anything to get what you just said, nothing, its free

read the FAQ

please just read the FAQ

 

[Puzzlenaut]

There is still absolutely no way I'm ever going to download it, just because I disagree with Elite in concept. We bought the game, now give us what we paid for.

There's also the problem of: once this starts, where does it end? Will we end up in a situation where we cannot even play online without paying?

I like Call of Duty as much as the next guy (maybe more than the next guy seeing as we're on the CoD-phobic Escapist), but if I'm dishing out £45 for it, I don't want to be given only half the game.

"CoD-phobic"? I don't like being kicked in the nuts, either, but that doesn't make me "Kicked-in-the-nuts-phobic."

Bad games are bad. You can have a clearly well-made game that doesn't suit your tastes, but CoD is just bad. The first game in a given arc might be... OK... but then they just stop innovating.

Well I, for one, am sure as hell "kicked-in-the-nuts-phobic" lol

But in seriousness: All you have done here is stated your opinion as fact. It is not a fact that Call of Duty is a load of shite. It is an opinion. I was merely saying that many people on the escapist share this opinion on CoD, and also saying that whilst I don't think CoD is truly amazing, I have never regretted the purchase of a CoD game, lack of innovation or not (admittedly I didn't say that, I am simply elaborating, but w/e)

 

[Awexsome]

So... if all of that is free for everybody, why are they calling it part of the Elite pack? Surely it should just be included with standard multiplayer.

After all, I don't like the idea of forking out money for "Elite" features, only to find out that half of them are free anyway.

ok, let me explain it nice and slow, and please READ everything that is written people

you have an XBOX? yeah, i´m sure you do, and with it comes an XBL account, a silver account, that lets you chat with your friends, now, if you want to play online, you need an XBL GOLD account dont you? hehe, its completelly optional of course

you have a PS? then you are familiar with PSN, and how there is a service called PSN+ that you pay for, but is completelly optional?

remember bungie? you can play Halo 3 as much as you want, but if you want your stats taken into account you HAVE to get into "BUNGIE.NET" and create an account, now if you want more space to make videos, maps and all that cool stuff you upload, let us call it "BUNGIE.NET +" you know what? lets call it "BUNGIE.NET GOLD" because its in the XBOX it will cost you 5 bucks a year, but you dont have to pay it if you dont care about space

REMEMBER ELITE!? yeah, its the same as bungie.net, except you CAN pay for more features that we will call "ELITE +", ok, "ELITE GOLD" hell "ELITE THE CHARGED CONTENT,UNLIKE THE OTHER ONE WE DO CHARGE YOU IN HERE, NOT THE OTHER ONE THOUGHT"

now you understand!?!?

Buzzz. Wrong. I have neither. PC exclusive gamer here. And since I don't play MMOs, all my online experiences are free through Steam.

Also, please, please stop with the bloody caps lock. All its doing is making you look like you have no reasonable argument.

Well that's just your PC gamer elitist side talking because that is exactly what is happening.

I'll wait and see how Elite ends up with what they charge for and what's free but until it's coming across to me like what Bungie.net does along with the Bungie Pro service that lets people have the massive file share space and upload HD videos and the like on Bungie Pro. But still we'll have to see what falls into the "Pro" service part on CoD Elite before I go praising it because I love using B.net

Feel free to continue hating on CoD though since you obviously will never stop no matter what they do.

 

[Antari]

So let me get this straight. You're paying an extra £5 a month, or whatever the fee is, for a bunch of charts and statistics? Are you fucking kidding me?

I can see how "sponsored tournaments" might be appealing, but leaderboards? Stats? Really? That's ALL?

It disgusts me that not only can companies feel they can get away with such minimal content for things such as this, but that people buy into it as well. This is almost enough to make me not purchase Modern Warfare 3 out of principal, and i enjoy the CoD series.

aaaah, ok, no, you are not paying anything to get what you just said, nothing, its free

read the FAQ

please just read the FAQ

The FAQ doesn't include the important word, YET!

 

[Gralian]

So let me get this straight. You're paying an extra £5 a month, or whatever the fee is, for a bunch of charts and statistics? Are you fucking kidding me?

I can see how "sponsored tournaments" might be appealing, but leaderboards? Stats? Really? That's ALL?

It disgusts me that not only can companies feel they can get away with such minimal content for things such as this, but that people buy into it as well. This is almost enough to make me not purchase Modern Warfare 3 out of principal, and i enjoy the CoD series.

aaaah, ok, no, you are not paying anything to get what you just said, nothing, its free

read the FAQ

please just read the FAQ

Okay, i read the FAQ. And from what i could infer from it, the only benefit to a paid subscription is not having to pay for any future DLC. So you either get ripped off with £10 DLC consisting of 3 easily thrown together maps or you get roped into a paid subscription.

The idea of playing with "like minded people" through apps like Facebook might look nice on paper, but i don't talk all that much (if ever) when i play Call of Duty online, so it's a very pointless feature - i doubt many people are going to sit there talking about football, politics, or what kind of beer they like rather than focusing on killing people.

If it's about better regulating multiplayer matches to avoid cheating, then that begs the question - are they just going to let standard multiplayer go to rot and how on earth they'd go about keeping 'paid' matches clean. (This is just pure speculation on my part)

The fact so many people, including myself, are outraged about the very concept of Elite and confused about the nature of it and difference between paid, free and opting out of the service really is a testament to Activision's atrocious marketing and handling of information.

 

[TheRealCJ]

So... if all of that is free for everybody, why are they calling it part of the Elite pack? Surely it should just be included with standard multiplayer.

After all, I don't like the idea of forking out money for "Elite" features, only to find out that half of them are free anyway.

ok, let me explain it nice and slow, and please READ everything that is written people

you have an XBOX? yeah, i´m sure you do, and with it comes an XBL account, a silver account, that lets you chat with your friends, now, if you want to play online, you need an XBL GOLD account dont you? hehe, its completelly optional of course

you have a PS? then you are familiar with PSN, and how there is a service called PSN+ that you pay for, but is completelly optional?

remember bungie? you can play Halo 3 as much as you want, but if you want your stats taken into account you HAVE to get into "BUNGIE.NET" and create an account, now if you want more space to make videos, maps and all that cool stuff you upload, let us call it "BUNGIE.NET +" you know what? lets call it "BUNGIE.NET GOLD" because its in the XBOX it will cost you 5 bucks a year, but you dont have to pay it if you dont care about space

REMEMBER ELITE!? yeah, its the same as bungie.net, except you CAN pay for more features that we will call "ELITE +", ok, "ELITE GOLD" hell "ELITE THE CHARGED CONTENT,UNLIKE THE OTHER ONE WE DO CHARGE YOU IN HERE, NOT THE OTHER ONE THOUGHT"

now you understand!?!?

Buzzz. Wrong. I have neither. PC exclusive gamer here. And since I don't play MMOs, all my online experiences are free through Steam.

Also, please, please stop with the bloody caps lock. All its doing is making you look like you have no reasonable argument.

ok, you played Halo 2 PC? and created an account for bungie.net?? its the same thing, they will give you everything you had in Bungie.net

now, there is content that hasn't being announced yet that they will charge you for, like say, access to original series made available trough their system, or the new map packs given to you for free, that would be the theoretical "Elite +" which doesn't have a name jet because there is nothing to market about it

now you understand? or your actually just trying to make me call you names?

Nope. Never played Halo 2. I only played the first one to see what the duss was about. Didn't much care for it.

And if there is going to be multiple tiers within "Elite", why the hell are they calling the free aspects Elite too? Why not just call the parts you DO have to pay for "Elite"? Oh wait, I know, it's called "wiggle room". T

"well, those previously free features WERE called Elite, so now that you have to pay for them in Call of Duty 7 or whatever, you can't really say that we were giving those features to you consequence free".

Go ahead and call me whatever you want, it can't be any more insulting and annoying to read --->THAN THIS!!!<---

 

[HentMas]

If it's about better regulating multiplayer matches to avoid cheating, then that begs the question - are they just going to let standard multiplayer go to rot and how on earth they'd go about keeping 'paid' matches clean. (This is just pure speculation on my part)

The fact so many people, including myself, are outraged about the very concept of Elite and confused about the nature of it and difference between paid, free and opting out of the service really is a testament to Activision's atrocious marketing and handling of information.

but, activision has said nothing about "Elite" everything that has being placed before US were rumors, supposed things Kotic said, stuff that would be in "ventaneando" (sorry, thats a gossip tv show from México like TMZ), and when finally we have news that actually come out from Activision people are just too blinded with hatred to actually understand, they are reading this news with the idea "They are going to try and rip me off"

Paid matches is not one of them, Elite is a secondary system outside of the box, if you know about BUNGIE.NET then i can tell you its the same system, no one will charge you for playing multi player (except, you know, XBL gold) your idea about "paying to get the maps for free" is more accurate because its the only feature they have confirmed, everything else are just suppositions, the paid matches i imagine are tournaments to win real prizes, like stated in the FAQ

and yes, its an atrocious marketing handling of information on part of activision, but if a company is known to make moves that spike the interest (or in this case hatred) of the people, news outlets will do everything they can to give the people what they want, even if they are just unconfirmed rumors.

 

[TheRealCJ]

So... if all of that is free for everybody, why are they calling it part of the Elite pack? Surely it should just be included with standard multiplayer.

After all, I don't like the idea of forking out money for "Elite" features, only to find out that half of them are free anyway.

ok, let me explain it nice and slow, and please READ everything that is written people

you have an XBOX? yeah, i´m sure you do, and with it comes an XBL account, a silver account, that lets you chat with your friends, now, if you want to play online, you need an XBL GOLD account dont you? hehe, its completelly optional of course

you have a PS? then you are familiar with PSN, and how there is a service called PSN+ that you pay for, but is completelly optional?

remember bungie? you can play Halo 3 as much as you want, but if you want your stats taken into account you HAVE to get into "BUNGIE.NET" and create an account, now if you want more space to make videos, maps and all that cool stuff you upload, let us call it "BUNGIE.NET +" you know what? lets call it "BUNGIE.NET GOLD" because its in the XBOX it will cost you 5 bucks a year, but you dont have to pay it if you dont care about space

REMEMBER ELITE!? yeah, its the same as bungie.net, except you CAN pay for more features that we will call "ELITE +", ok, "ELITE GOLD" hell "ELITE THE CHARGED CONTENT,UNLIKE THE OTHER ONE WE DO CHARGE YOU IN HERE, NOT THE OTHER ONE THOUGHT"

now you understand!?!?

Buzzz. Wrong. I have neither. PC exclusive gamer here. And since I don't play MMOs, all my online experiences are free through Steam.

Also, please, please stop with the bloody caps lock. All its doing is making you look like you have no reasonable argument.

Well that's just your PC gamer elitist side talking because that is exactly what is happening.

I'll wait and see how Elite ends up with what they charge for and what's free but until it's coming across to me like what Bungie.net does along with the Bungie Pro service that lets people have the massive file share space and upload HD videos and the like on Bungie Pro. But still we'll have to see what falls into the "Pro" service part on CoD Elite before I go praising it because I love using B.net

Feel free to continue hating on CoD though since you obviously will never stop no matter what they do.

Oh, right. Sorry. I keep forgetting that because I'm a PC-Exclusive gamer, I'm automatically an elitist who wants nothing more than the downfall of all console gaming.

I also forgot that if I don't like the money-grabbing concept of exclusive multiplayer content, I'm automatically a hardcore hater of the unreleased game. Silly me.

How dare I express my opinion in a public forum. I guess I should just go back to my basement and build rigs designed to exclusively play Crysis while crying and touching myself to criticism of games I don't like. I just get so much sexual pleasure from hating things.