Goals in MW2: Other Thoughts

A column I wrote a week or so ago for GameSetWatch just went up here. I played a lot of MW2 before I wrote it, but I've played some more since and want to use this post to throw out some other ideas I've had and some things I didn't have room to put in the column.

1. I talked about how stat-tracking creates another goal (k/d ratio, mostly) that can conflict with winning each individual round. I still think that's true - however, there's definitely a lot of positive things about the stat-tracking and ultimately I think the game is better off with it in. For me, stat-tracking's main flaw is also the reason why it helps - it creates a new goal that is more individual than team based. The way that you jump on teams in MW2 feels random enough that the game would be a lot more frustrating if everything was focused on teamplay. Instead, having an average k/d is often what makes me want to play more - it's an individual goal that gives a rough measure of how well I'm playing and whether I'm getting better. To this end, it's much better than a win/loss ratio which is all over the place until you look at it averaging out over 100+ games, which means you have to play 100+ games to even start thinking about how good you are, and even then it's impossible to tell, just by looking at win/loss, whether you're getting better.

2. The advantage that higher-level players have over lower-level players in MW2 is much, much larger than the advantage they had in MW1, for several reasons. First, and most obviously, killstreak unlocks put lower levels at a huge disadvantage - chopper gunner and harrier airstrike are two incredibly important killstreaks to have in this game and you really can't get them both until level 20, and even then you don't have pave low or other important killstreaks until later. There was really nothing comparable to this in MW1. Second, the guns you got initially in MW1 were mostly considered to be the best guns in the game, so while your weaponry wasn't as versatile as other players', you weren't at a huge disadvantage. In MW2, however, the FAMAS and other starting guns are definitely strong, but I think they're much less obviously good than the M16 and MW1's starting weapons. Finally, pro perks! Every perk in MW2 has a "pro" form that you can complete challenges to unlock. The pro form of any perk is always better than the original form, sometimes significantly better. These are another high-level advantage that didn't exist in MW1.

As a result of these advantages, the MMO-levelling part of MW2 is a lot more important than it was in MW1 - one of the reasons why I think that the goal-dissonance it creates is a lot stronger than it was in MW1, where most people didn't care about it nearly as much. That, and titles. Probably mostly titles, actually. I want one of those pony ones so bad.