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Windows Central

Technology

Richard Devine

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 seems to have a 'war on XP' and it's incredibly frustrating

Best Buy Prestige Treyarch Windows Central

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 1 screen shots and multiplayer map details.

I'm having a lot of fun in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Even as a somewhat casual, if enthusiastic (but very average) player, I'm over 100 hours in and making my way gradually through the Prestige levels.

It's a grind, for sure. But I'm fine with that. What I'm not fine with is the apparent obsession with making it take as long as possible. It's almost certain a large percentage of the players out there won't hit Prestige Master, and it's even more certain that of those that do, very few will ever hit the level cap after that.

So why in the hell does the development team at Treyarch seem to be obsessed with making the process take as long as possible? It's not a quick process by any stretch, in those 100+ hours I'm almost at Prestige 4. I'm not even halfway to Prestige Master, which, according to my rough math, will probably take close to 400 hours of playtime, if not more, with how fast I'm able to do it at my skill level.

Coupled with the recent controversy over legacy 2XP tokens, a bug that ruined the last day of the double XP event, and the fact it takes so damn long already just doesn't sit right with me.

What's been going on lately with XP in Black Ops 6?

The Prestige grind is long. Really long. (Image credit: Windows Central)

For background, in case you're not fully up to speed on how the Prestige system works, you have 10 levels. Once you hit level 55 for the first time, you complete that, and instead of going to level 56, you can enter Prestige. Then, you do it all over again and progress to the next Prestige level. When you complete Prestige 10, you then enter Prestige Master. So, to get there, you essentially have to have leveled up 560 times.

As you start out in the lower levels, they'll tick by fairly quickly. But as you get closer to 55, you need more XP to hit the next one. Slowing down the process. If you do hit Prestige Master, from there, you have a whopping 1000 levels you can progress through. So, to max out, you've leveled up over 1,500 times with some change. It's a hell of a process, and it'll take so much XP and so much game time that only a lucky few will ever get the currently redacted rewards for hitting the Prestige Master 1,000 cap.

So why this apparent obsession over making it take longer?

XP is a hot topic, not least after the shenanigans around legacy 2XP tokens. (Image credit: Windows Central)

First, we had the inaugural 2XP event, which was great. With some heavier-than-usual play, I was able to cover a full Prestige tier in a weekend. Many others will have benefitted even more. But then a patch came that was supposed to buff XP gains in certain modes but actually reduced it everywhere else in multiplayer. So, the final hours were effectively null and void, and the players got nothing by way of an apology.

Then we had the controversy over legacy 2XP tokens that were carried over when Warzone became integrated into Black Ops 6. At first, they were applied, then they were removed, but there was a workaround to apply them account-wide through Warzone. Treyarch has since walked back on this, no doubt, due to the community feedback, which wasn't pretty. A proper solution is apparently on the way.

Now, even the UAV has been nerfed, giving less score and lasting much less time in the air. Sure, balance the time it's active if need be; after all, if it's giving too much of an advantage, then it's right to make it fairer. But the UAV and Counter UAV are easy ways to passively generate score in-game, and more points means more XP. The score generated has been slashed to a third of what it was originally.

As this report from Dexerto says, it's now more useful to the opposing team to shoot it down than to call one in at all. One player has even declared Treyarch as having a "war on XP." And it certainly feels that way.

Earn more XP if you buy the full game

I pay for Game Pass and that's how I play Black Ops 6, but I'm not eligible for more XP unless I give them another $70. (Image credit: Windows Central)

If there had ever been a mechanic that could have been added to Black Ops 6, which I fully disagreed with, it's this. If you buy the full game, you get a 30% XP boost now in Warzone.

The Warzone battle royale mode is, of course, free to play, so naturally, it's seen as an avenue to squeeze a few extra sales out of players. But $70 if you're primarily playing Warzone is a big ask, especially with all the in-game purchases that they're hoping folks buy over the next year, as well.

What's even more grating is that it literally only applies, it seems, to people who buy a copy of the game. I'm playing on Game Pass, which means I am paying, and I bought the Vault Edition upgrade. And I am not eligible to inflate my Warzone XP. At the very least, paying Game Pass subscribers who play the game should be treated equally. It stinks.

It's a long grind already, players need to feel like they're being rewarded

Progression is slow, and I worry that many will just get bored and give up. (Image credit: Windows Central)

The sheer volume of levels, and as such rewards, that can be unlocked by leveling up in Black Ops 6 is already eye-watering. For a game that will be succeeded by another in 12 months, that most of the more active players will migrate to, it's already a task the overwhelming majority will not complete. I very much doubt I have over 1,000 hours, at least, to dedicate to try and hit Prestige Master 1,000.

There just doesn't feel like there are enough ways in the game for players to be rewarded for actually playing the game. It's already hard enough having a good time in objective-based modes when so many treat them as extended Team Deathmatch and obsess over-inflating their KD ratio.

There has to be a happy medium here, somewhere. Healthy XP rewards for players should not be difficult to make them feel like they earned something from a game.

Instead, it feels to me that Treyarch is trying some kind of ridiculous tactic to keep player retention by making it take so long to progress through the ranks. Or worse, crafting it into a money-making game by charging people to earn more XP. The game is good enough to retain players as it is, and the most dedicated will stick around regardless. Why does it have to be so frustrating? That's how you lose players.