There's a growing number of complaints among the Call of Duty community with the options available in Black Ops 2's Hardcore playlist. As a Hardcore enthusiast, I'm part of that group — mostly because my favorite mode, Kill Confirmed, isn't available unless in the standard multiplayer.
For those unfamiliar with the game type, Hardcore playlists increases the damage and completely removes the HUD. To me, it rewards a slower, more patient playstyle since it really only takes one hit to be killed and you don't know where anyone is unless you have a UAV up. Unfortunately, not everyone is as passionate about this mode as I am, which appears to be the main reasoning behind the lack of game modes available.
Responding in a thread created to address this issue, Treyarch’s David Vonderhaar explained, "The problem here is that not every gamemode playable in a hardcore variant has sufficient enough traffic to warrant having it's own playlist."
"Hardcore Free-For-All, for example, has a very low traffic count," he revealed. "This makes Matchmaking in that playlist more difficult. While I'm sure that the 4000 people in it right now are loving it, I'm just being open with with you when I say that something with less than 1% of the total population barely justifies it's own playlist."
My initial reaction is to just cut Free-For-All then and replace it with a mode I prefer. Of course, then you have another 4,000 fans upset. So why not just make every mode available in Hardcore? Well, then you run the risk of longer matchmaking wait times and many of us aren't the patient type.
"What follows next is a discussion point. It's not a commitment or a guarantee. I am taking feedback as we think about how to provide more hardcore game modes as Public Playlists without fragmenting the small Hardcore community or matchmaking," Vonderhaar said.
"However, Hardcore is not a gamemode. It's a variant on the game rules. One that is popular with a very passionate, but very small crowd of people. Keeping the 80,000 (or so, across 2 platforms) of you together and able to play together has to be a priority over any specific variant. Finally, in case you are just joining us on this game, we go through this every two years with you."
Vonderhaar concluded, "This year is no different. We put out the game. We then figure out what is popular amongst the Hardcore (and other variant, but relatively small communities), and we make adjustments that are in the best interests of the game and the community. This year is no different. Of course we'll make adjustments. We always do."
As it stands right now, Here is the snapshot of the Hardcore modes in order of popularity:
- Hardcore TDM (by a large margin)
- Hardcore CTF
- Hardcore Search
- Hardcore FFA
