Black Ops Designer Regrets "Second Chance" Perk

[Amnestic]

Umm Yeah, Here is a little secret about game design.

it's called Patching.

You do work, change things around so there is no second chance, and then edit what the requirements are for unlocking other perks, since you and the community seem to be on the same page about that. They can leave it in for custom games, but take it out of matchmaking.

Or is it that patches are free and can't be bothered with? To busy with the game coming out in November?

Then everybody who did the BS task will not have what they fought to earn.

I've gamed for many a year now, often with numerous challenges along the way.

Honestly, if I attain something which was cripplingly unfair to get and they nerf the challenge later? Good. I've gone through enough shit that I don't feel bad about not being special. I feel good that no one will have to suffer the way I did to get it.

To take an example, the Honour System back in Vanilla WoW was a horrific grind if you wanted to reach Rank 14 (the highest rank). It often came down to people sharing an account to get there, or ruining your life to do so. One of my friends actually ended up making himself physically ill doing the grind solo. He was one of the first to cheer when the system changed, because he didn't want anyone to have to go through what he did.

That's how I look at it. Challenges are good, but there's a fine line between a challenge and stupid hard.

 

[mjc0961]

Oh for crying out loud, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Second Chance. It took me all of 10 minutes to figure out how to counter it, and I'd never played any Call of Duty multiplayer before (I played #3 on Wii before in campaign, that's it). It's fucking simple:

1. Did you get full kill points when he's going down? No? Keep shooting then, because he has Second Chance.

2. If someone does kill you with Second Chance, you pay attention to what their name is, and next time you kill them, you keep shooting until they die so they don't get killed again.

People who can't handle others using Second Chance are the true noobs of Black Ops, not the ones using it. It's actually a pretty piss-poor perk to take since it's so easy to counter. There are far more beneficial perks out there to use in that perk slot, so I don't know why people bothered using it in the first place. Treyarch should apologize, not for the perk being cheap, but for the perk being shit. It needed a buff to make it useful, but I guess cutting it entirely to make room for better perks is fine too.

But really, saying that Second Chance is cheap is basically a neon sign saying "I SUCK AT BLACK OPS!" or "I'M TOO SLOW TO PICK UP ON THE BLATANTLY OBVIOUS WAYS TO TELL SOMEONE IS USING THIS PERK AND ALSO MY MOM AND DAD STILL WIPE MY ASS FOR ME BECAUSE I'M TOO SLOW TO DO THAT FOR MYSELF AS WELL!"

 

[Retardinator]

Really? You couldn't take a fucking hint from a game that was released three years prior, with everyone whining about the Last Stand perk? And you put it in the last game you developed and pretty much everyone whined about it then, too?

Ohhh right, it had a different name in Call of Duty 4. I guess you are that daft.

 

[Dense_Electric]

Holy crap, a Call of Duty dev who acknowledges Call of Duty is possibly the most unbalanced multiplayer game ever? Mind = blown.

 

[THEoriginalBRIEN]

Second Chance isn't a problem if you just assume everyone has it and keep shooting them as they fall to the ground.
People complain a lot about Black Ops.
Stupid people who don't realize there's an appropriate counter measure to almost everything in the game.
Stupid people who don't realize that if Perk X is their greatest weakness when playing, that maybe they should equip it and learn to use it.
Stupid people that don't realize that you have to apply tactics to a "tactical warfare" game.
The requirements to unlock some of the Pro Perks were really the only problem I had with it. That, and I wish they had included a killstreak reward above 11 kills. Dogs and Gunship just don't do the trick.

 

[loch belthadd]

It's better than MW3 where every map is a close quarters mess.
I've played some matches where I die 20 something times and about 17-19 of my deaths were from people running in from behind me. Plus they messed the spawn system up really bad compared to BlOps.

 

[internetzealot1]

Moral of the story: Threatening developers is a great way to get insight into the game design process. Everyone go threaten your favorite developer, and we'll be able to design masterpieces within weeks.

 

[Krion_Vark]

"Second Chance" perk is, here's the lowdown from StickTwiddlers [http://sticktwiddlers.com/2011/11/14/news-call-of-duty-game-designer-admits-i-fcked-up/]: it's "a tier 3 multiplayer perk that allows players to survive lethal damage and use a pistol for ten seconds while downed before dying.

Its actually the ability to use your primary gun after getting knocked down. Last Stand. Which has been around since MW is the one that only lets you use the pistol.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Second Chance wouldn't have been so bad if they balanced the perks a little better, it was the only good perk to go with any class in the third tier. If it went in tier 1 or 2, people would not have used it as much. Plus they shouldn't have been able to whip out the pistol instantly after going down, a delay would have been nice.

Hang on a minute, Treyarch, employ me, I will help you!

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Actually, I thought being able to have buddies revive you from the "last stand" style perks was one of their better ideas. Encourages teamwork.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Sometimes developers used to patch games. Its called normal aftermarket support. You know, back when everyone wasn't being cheap.

Oh there's plenty though! You can get map packs for $15. God bless Treyarch!!

...yeah it's pretty abysmal, if people complain about something, and those people pay for your game, then pay for extra bits of your game $15 a piece several times post-launch, then you're generally in a spot where you should probably do something to pay those fans back...

 

[RadiusXd]

soooooo, last stand perk?

i remember that and martydom being the annoying perks.

GRENADES.. GRENADES EVERYWHERE.

 

[drthmik]

If it was me I'd have upped it to 25 flags and switched the pistol for an assault rifle with grenade launcher and they become invincible for 30 seconds.

Just to give a giant FU to the people issuing death threats.

 

[SMOKEMNHALO2001]

I like the second chance perk, if there is anything they should apologize for it's their shitty maps. Treyarch sucks at making maps for multiplayer, I love the maps for CoD4, MW 2 and MW3, they just feel right.

 

[Metalrocks]

always hatted this perk. i want them to die and thats it but, these guys still are alive and shoot you. the good thing was, that you can find servers were this perk is not allowed and other stuff.
so far i havent encountered many of them in MW3. actually pretty rare. so at the moment im still fine with it. just a shame you cant chose what server you want. feels weird that you are forced on to a server without any infos really what the server has.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Vonderhaar actually made a Tweet about my Second Chance Song (in which Thunder screams 'VONDERHAAAAR!'), he challenged people to break-dance to it and everything


We (COD players) nagged him about it a lot. Poor fella

That was fucking amazing. The "Now every goddamn corner someone's crawling on their crack leavin' skidmarks on the map, Treyarch I want my money back" bit made me laugh so much.

OT: Yes. Second Chance can park itself on my middle finger and fucking swivel. I hated it so much.

 

[Snowblindblitz]

This is a pretty funny thread. I'm not a fan of second chance simply because I've seen entire clans run it in hardcore...which is not friendly.

Also didn't like when they changed it so the person putting them into second chance got the kill rather then whoever finished them. It wouldn't bother me as much if not for the revival effect.

Finish the job there teammates. Finish the job.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

Personally I'm in the camp that LIKED second chance. Considering black ops OVERLY GENEROUS hit boxes and eager auto-targeting system, not everyone was a super James bond shot and get this, not EVERYONE slumps over dead from being shot in war. In fact, the U.S. armed forces are full of stories of guys (all wearing some sort of body armor mind you) of guys who were shot still returning fire on their enemies and even the enemy (who isn't wearing body armor) doing the same thing.

My thing is, it took the fast paced action of CoD and added something that added a pretty cool dynamic by forcing you to double check your kills and risk trying to get that kill shot only to be out of ammo when their pal comes around the corner. Also, it was a great way for newbie players (you know, the new customers the game was hoping to attract) or casual players to be able to get a few kills in and enjoy the game. I may be in a small minority by saying this, but getting your butt handed to you in map after map after map the first time I step into the multiplayer of a game doesn't encourage me to get better. It only encourages me to avoid the multiplayer altogether and to go play something else.

I'll openly admit to using second chance a lot when I first started, and as I got better I experimented with other perks (eventually I had pro in everything, it was fun to work specifically on the pros until I got them). Eventually I stopped using it altogether, but if it wasn't there I wouldn't have continued playing. Especially with the amount of smack talking in the game, that's a huge hurdle to overcome for new players coming into the game, and second chance kinda leveled the field a little bit.

Besides, the only people I ever heard complaining about second chance is people who were so busy running around trying to rack up kills that they didn't pay attention and got deaded by the guy they just shot and ran by. I actually felt a little bit of joy ruining people's streaks. Sorry that the feature ruined your fun of dominating every single map.

In fact, NOT having it in MW3 is one of the reasons I haven't bought it yet and I probably won't now that it's been out for a week and everyone is probably 100 times more badass than me and it's just going to be a non-stop grief-fest. It's my own personal protest. And luckily with Saints Row, Sky Rim, and soon Assassin's Creed Revelations, I won't miss it at all. And if it doesn't re-emerge in future CoD installments, they've lost me as a customer permanently. A man has to take a stand for what he believes in. I'd rather have a feature in a game and choose not to USE it if I don't like it than take it away from EVERYONE just to enhance my OWN personal experience.

 

[FilipJPhry]

So many times I've fell short of a killstreak thanks to the Mystical-Drop-knife-of-Doom!
Glad to see Treyarch learned from their mistakes. Too bad they get crapped on for changing and improving games.

 

[megapenguinx]

Well, if its not in MW3, the basically its fixed.

It is still in, but as a deathstreak. But due to the more fast pace you will actually see those quite a lot. The worst thing is instead of just their pistol they pull out their whole friggin primary weapon.

Then no, it is not fixed.
Not at all.

Different mechanic.

Second chance activated EVERY.GODDAMN.TIME.

This deathstreak doesn't come up as often and as soon as you get a single kill it goes away until you die another 4-5 times.