Dedicated communities always react to changes to their favourite games, it’s normal. But threatening someone’s life over a small tweak to a game? That’s a whole other level of ridiculous. Still, that’s exactly what’s happening to David Vonderhaar, design director for Call of Duty: Black Ops II according to One of Swords.
Earlier today, a patch hit Black Ops II. It was full of typical things you might find in a patch: changes, tweaks and fixes. A few tweaks in particular involved reduced damage on the AN-94, and reduced rate of fire on the DSR as well as the Ballista weapons. Not to belittle how much of a difference these things actually makes for players, but in the big picture, we’re talking about a difference of fractions of a second. In a video game. Still, if you take a look at Vonderhaar’s replies on Twitter, where he linked to the patch notes, just in the last hour he’s received a number of death threats over the patch.
“End your f**king life you cancer c**t i will f**k your daughter,” one Tweeter writes. “I hope u die,” writes another. “Haha screw @DavidVonderhaar fuk*n up the DSR and Ballista cant fuk*n hit quad feeds now #KillYourself Vonderhaar!!! SERIOUSLY!!” rages yet another player. That’s a small sample. Even if all of the response aren’t death threats, Vonderhaar is still being inundated with negativity. Responding to the reactions, Vonderhaar Tweeted the following:
Not sure these fractions of seconds are worth the threats of violence. +
— David Vonderhaar (@DavidVonderhaar) July 23, 2013
Guns have powerbands and learning curves. Over time, both change. As one goes up, so does the other. That’s the short answer to “why now.”
— David Vonderhaar (@DavidVonderhaar) July 23, 2013
This type of response might not be surprising. Last year, Robert Bowling resigned as the “creative strategist” of Infinity Ward, the lead Call of Duty development studio. The move was met with much hostility. Not that Call of Duty developers are alone in experiencing death threats over video games, of course.
Although ugly and uncomfortable, the death threats often seem to be empty threats, thankfully.
[via One of Swords]
Comments
21 responses to “Death Threats Follow Small Call Of Duty Tweak”
This is ridiculous, it’s just a game guys and gals. If a game changes due to an update, don’t focus hate, focus on the new learning curve…this is why BF has a more mature community. Maybe twelvies should stick to Viva pinata.
Just putting it out there though, As far as generalisations go, ones involving FPS/COD seems to be fairly accurate on the whole about them being over-reactive basement dweelers/14yr kids. RTS fans aren’t too great when you mess with their build times either :\
I think all gamers needs to recite to themselves; “it is only a game. it is only a game. it is not rea.”
haha
Sounds like great changes. I hate how someone with a Dsr/ballista can kill me after I have got 2-3 hit markers in close range. Really frustrates me to no end
If you’re someone who feels that reacting like this over a patch for a game is justified, then please remove yourself from my planet as soon as humanly possible. The gene-pool would be better off without you.
Man, the COD community is just awful. If there aren’t dudes running around with their custom swastikas they’re making death threats for no good reason. The more recent COD games definitely bring out the worst in people, remember the first Modern Warfare? Seems like a distant warm memory now.
Completely agree. There was no such thing as the ‘COD’ generalisation back in the COD4 days.
it’s got nothing to do with the games themselves. it’s due to the fact that, in 2007 not a great deal of 5-10 year olds had ps3s, x360s. now any little asshole child that can talk has a console. as console prices drop, more asshole kids get one, and all of us suffer. their whiny voices telling us how our mothers are in bed and how in real life they would kill us.
come on next gen. maybe we’ll get a couple of years of normal gaming.
I still jump in for a good ol round of COD4 pretty often, pinnicle of FPS twitch shooters IMO, great community, still lots of hackers but they are usually dealth with swiftly as we still have REAL dedicated servers.
i think the rage from BO2 above comes from the constant fucking over of people playing it, the lies and double talk from activision, the changes that arent needed (personally i beleive this one is needed), but there have been plenty of changes that have made it worse.
I’ve sitched to playing nothing but HC SnD, the people playing it are more mature, and the gameplay relies more on skill than dumb luck or relying on lag switching/lag comp and host advantage.
And before anyone jumps on me about dedictaed servers blah blah, take a look on youtube, or watch a post match game, some people get a full second sometimes 2 sec advantage.
That may be the case but have you seriously heard the things cod players say on a good day? Nothing coming from any creative work should incite anything close to that level of rage for anyone, no matter how much you care for shooting foreigners. If you get that mad at a change to a video game, you’ve flat out failed as a human being.
Nah, if you wear skinny jeans and/or watch jersey shore you have failed as a human being.
If you rage at a change to a game you just have issues.
Basement teens or PS femboys lol
Wow! I’ve had my share of blops rage but wouldn’t have thought to have a go at the developers! I think we can agree that 15 years is the average age of all COD players. For them these messages equate to cussing out and threatening God for spawning them with dud genetics.
As for a solution, Activision, a simple IP trace and probation period (4 weeks) would give these lunatics the cool off period they so clearly need.
Idiots sending death threats because their favourite little videogame weapon had been nerfed so that it now requires a degree of skill to do well. That is sad. While I think developers should try and balance things out properly before release, patches are better than nothing. I really don’t get why people bother going for the same weapons, armour, abilities etc. in any video game. What’s the fun in using what everyone uses or using something that just breaks the balance?
So in keeping with US law, all these people received life sentences with no bail or chance of parole and had their hands and feet cut off… right?
Sounds like a lot of people need a hug
Fuck Call of Duty. It’s a shit franchise made for stupid people. You have to be stupid to pay that much money for the same game over and over again. They even have the same levels with different textures ffs.
Let them make their threats, everyone (other than COD players) knows they’re all morons that would not follow through with any threat they make. I would never take a threat by a 12 year old seriously.
Seriously people, stop buying their crap. End the Call of Duty franchise. It’s a stain on video gaming history.
As far as the internet goes, this isn’t any different from youtube comments, online voice chat in modern shooters, or really any board/site that allows commenting. I’m not sure why this is really an article, especially when this sort of thing is so common? Is it suddenly more important or all the more ‘real’ because it’s aimed at someone who is more in the public eye?
Maybe as a ‘young whipper snapper’ I just don’t take nearly as much offence nor really give those negative comments the time of day. *shrugs*
pretend it’s a game.
“fuk*n”
I’m glad the censorship saved my innocent eyes.
whats the bet all these threats come from under 21 year olds who still live at home and most likely still get there parents to pay for there xbox gold sub.
I think Australia needs to take a bigger stand on selling games to under age kids, and less of what is harmful in the game.
If a game is M or above i dont want no 12 year old kid swearing his mouth off on chat the whole game.
Need a universal gaming Account that’s linked personally to your Governmental details and you have to use on every Online game. where it will only let you play the games your allowed too via cross checking your details with a government data base, and if you get banned or cheat then that’s it, no more gaming of that game for you. They have something similar in South Korea where to play on South Korea Online games you have to have something similar like a taxfile number.
Have this in Australia and i can pretty much say a majority of these online gaming problems will stop. (e.g. Script kiddies using hacks, Underage players and rages, Banned players coming back on a new account just to re do what they did last time to get banned)
This just shows how AWFUL the cod community is.
iLy Erik