User blog comment:Callofduty4/Robert Bowling resigns as Infinity Wards Creative Strategist/@comment-72.192.20.216-20120327171739

The online multiplayer is the main selling point for Call of Duty now. In the opinion of myself, several of my friends, the diehard fans of the CoD series and what few true competetors are left in the game (there aren't many) the multiplayer experience of CoD has only taken steps backwards since the release of the first Modern Warfare. If you want details read on if not skip to the last paragraph I get pretty darn wordy.

CoD4 multiplayer was about as good as you could ask for, before it became one huge infected lobby. Sure there were some perks (frag x3, marty, ...) and attachments ('nade launcher) that were easier to use, but for more, er... "experienced" players there are other viable setups that still allow you to be competetive. The same is mostly true for the weapon balance, as no weapon was truly underpowered. The maps for the most part had excellent "flow" to them, you felt comfortable going down the road you chose and any advantageous position often had another position or flanking route to counter it. This game was what an online shooter should be, fast-paced and competetive. Unfortunately due to the excessive amount of hacking on this game, I will never play it again.

WaW multiplayer I have had very little experience with, but from the hour or so I have played I can see the game has some potential with many downsides. I thought the game mode War was exceptional and I'm quite disappointed it never resurfaced in a subsequent CoD title. As for the tanks, I would've liked to see them as a killstreak as dogs could and often would cost you the game in TDM. I feel there was little balance to the weapons, SMGs seemed to run rampant over everything else. As for the maps with one or two exceptions I thought they were horrendous to look at and play. I will never play this game again for reasons mentioned in my CoD4 section.

MW2 multiplayer was the first time I was really sucked into a CoD title and tried going through prestige. Overall I think the weapons (excluding explosives) were very balanced and through a new variety of attachments and pro perks allowed you to be cometetive with anything, even just a knife. The custimazation of killstreaks is both good and bad. It adds depth and variety to gameplay, plus its cool to see stuff blow up. However the game shifted to a point where everyone's style of play revolved around the killstreaks and whatever flying death machine you had in the air could quickly take over whatever game you were playing. I really enjoyed most of the maps in this game and because of that I purchased the stimulus package map DLC which contained two very fun, playable maps. The only gripe I have is the majority of the maps seemed to be a bit too big for the game, there were lots of secluded areas with virtually no foot-traffic spare for boosters. The major downside to this game for me was the perks, they were poorly thought out and abused. Hacking is creeping its way onto this title, but all that really remains playing it are very "unsporting" players and for that reason I will (probably) never play this game again.

Black Ops multiplayer took many steps forward but a huge step back. The perks for the first time are beginning to have some kind of balance with the removal of stopping power and all the one we hated from MW2. The CoD point system was interesting but just didn't really flow properly. You'd begin with very little to customize what you have and towards the end of the prestige you'd have more than you know what to do with. The wager matches were very fun, but had little use and became frustrating when somebody would dashboard a game over 10 CoD points. There were about 3 maps in this game I did not absolutely hate and maybe two more I could tollerate for a whole game. The maps were far too large for the killing power the weapons lacked and players blend into their surroundings far too well. The killstreaks seem to have even more control over the outcome of a game than they did in MW2, as a blackbird can lead someone to 60 kills in a few minutes with the proper streaks set up. As for weapon balance, there is none. You must either use a FAMAS or an AK-74u to compete against "skilled" players. There are other decent weapons in the game, it's just really difficult to tell because they removed dedicated servers from the game, making it feel like everybody had juggernaut on. Despite all my fussing as a pretty well-made and complete multiplayer experience mostly due to the depth of custimazation made possible by this game and was enough to keep me entertained through 15 prestiges. The customer support on this game was also tremendous as shown by new playlists such as express (no ghost/last stand) and firing range 24/7. All that said I will still never play this game again.

MW3 mutiplayer is a disappointment. When 402 was talking about the game in its early stages, commenting it would be similiar to CoD4 and focused around gun-on-gun gameplay I was ecstatic. I've since played through 10 prestiges (no desire to go to 15) and have experienced more frustration at this game than any other title in the series. The maps in MW3 are perfectly sized. Medium maps are comparable to small maps from older games and large maps are actually playable. However, I don't think the maps were well constructed in this game at all. There are no flanking routes, the flow of the maps is very hectic and you always feel like you're under attack from all angles. In addition it seems the only serviceable cover left in the maps are cheesy "head-glitching" spots. The problem with making maps like this and giving the guns the incredible killing power they have is that it gives players a lack of confidence to move around because they just don't know what will be around the corner and they don't want to take the chance that they'll be walking into somebody else off-guard. Weapon (aside from secondaries) and perk balance I feel has hit an all-time high in this game, being about as good as its ever been. You can compete with virtually any setup in the game. This is because stopping power did not return, but the weapons were made powerful to compensate. The effectiveness of explosives has been reduced dramatically, the first time I've seen this done in a CoD title and with the return of blast shield this is a very welcome change. The main problem with the balance as I see it is akimbo machine pistols. An extended magazine machine pistol I would not have a problem with, but there isn't a single primary weapon that can stand up to a barrage of akimbo machine pistol spray of any variety and I'm sure many of you relate when I say this is the single most frustrating part of the game. I mean seriously, I think more players have been crushed by falling care crate than killed by a regular handgun in this game. The work done on killstreaks was genius, but should've been implemented by MW2 because all anybody playing MW3 (myself shamelessly included) seems to care about is their kill/death ratio so you see more assault than anything else. Personally I would prefer if there was a specialist-only playlist. It seems that with the increased power given to death streaks, the support package and akimbo machine pistols the game was sort of tailored towards beginners. Obviosly you want new players to pick up the game so the franchise can grow, the problem is when these things fall into the wrong hands and are abused much like we saw grenade launchers in MW2. While its still a good game and arguably more fun to play than anything else on the market right now I have a difficult time enjoying the game for more than an hour (approx. 4-5 games) before it becomes too frustrating to continue playing. For those inevitable trolls out there it's not because I'm getting demolished either I (barely) manage a 1.76 k/d, 7.00+ w/l with a couple of M.O.A.B.s under my belt so I've experienced the highs and the lows. This game also lacks dedicated servers which is a HUGE downside, although the game seems to run a lot smoother than Black Ops.

What does all this have to do with Bowling's retirement? As you can see it's not the success of the game that we the community focus on, it's the downsides. And in Call of Duty in particular, they don't do much to altar the recipe of their games because they know obediant legions of fans will mindlessly swarm game stores to pick up whatever so-called "new" game their putting on the market this year regardless of what changes have or haven't been made. We've seen what happens with this before, especially under the guise of Activision. We've seen it with Tony Hawk, we've seen it with Guitar Hero and I get the feeling we're going to see something similar happen to Call of Duty. I think Robert Bowling sensed the same thing and jumped ship before he has to take responsibility for whatever the developers put out next year. I feel bad for those of you who purchased an elite subscription with your own money, because I have a feeling the Call of Duty franchise wont be around much longer.