SeasonSix

Great interview

I don't like Origins. Shame, considering the amount of aesthetic value it holds. It's a gorgeous map ... reminds me of the WaW days. Zombies should be gritty -- and I think Treyarch's come to that realization. Good. But with much of Origins (and Black Ops II zombies), they've pushed the complexity too far. Way too far. To the point of requiring YouTube instructions! From a business standpoint: doesn't it make sense to keep your game accessible? Not "dumbed-down", accessible. Why make some of your map's biggest features (ex: the staffs) unattainable to new players? Or to anyone uninterested in watching YouTube tutorials? This isn't exclusive to Origins, either. Buildables - some of which are practically required for gameplay - would be made unreasonably difficult to achieve without the aid of online location walkthroughs. And you know what? I don't want to build an airplane every 15 minutes. I don't want to go scurrying around for sliquifier parts every Die Rise playthrough. It's tedious and utterly inaccessible. This isn't a "back to basics" request; I just wanna have fun, man. And most of Black Ops II zombies is way too damn complicated. Black Ops 1 managed to introduce tons of new features without alienating me ... can we please get back to that? Back to the "olden days"? Looking forward to November.

Muse hasn't had more than a handful of good tracks since BHAR. New single is cringeworthy, too. I think I'd rather they keep their distance.

Started browsing the forum in... '09, I think? Been a while. Over the years, I've seen CoDz thrive -- and I've seen it decay. This declination in quality came directly from Treyarch -- and started with the release of Ascension (early 2011). Overly grandiose easter eggs are not what lured me in - I liked the small stuff. So did the rest of the adult community. When the focus shifted from small hints (radios, notes) to story quests of large proportions, the adult community started tuning out -- and the kiddies arrived. CoDz used to be centered around analyzing radios/images/codes, and that's what built up an adult community. That's what kept the site active from Der Riese to Kino. Unfortunately, Treyarch's continuous release of massive easter eggs meant that maps would be milked dry of content within 4-5 days; what's that gonna do for CoDz? No point in discussing theories when there isn't anything to ponder -- starting with Shangri-La, we were spoonfed entire story-beats in 10-12 step quests. The difference between early/late Black Ops is vast. In terms of subtlety, it's like comparing Kubrick to Michael Bay, Pynchon to JK Rowling. I liked researching for story info; I liked the actual effort that was built into analysis. I mentioned 'kiddies', earlier. To avoid the incoming wave of slander, I'd like to clarify that I'm not judging anyone by age -- I'm judging by mindset. Maturity. Before the realities/responsibilities of adulthood arrived, Carbonfibah was (in my opinion) the gold standard for zombie research. He went to incredible lengths to analyze loading screens, handwritten notes, radios, etc -- and so did a multitude of others. From what I gathered, those members started losing interest mid-Black Ops. I saw less and less analysis, more and more 'easter egg quest' threads (which died down 3-5 days from release, as mentioned earlier). These 'easter egg quest' threads were largely populated with immature, lazy children, working solely to draw attention to themselves. While there was a strong sense of community, it wasn't nearly as intellectual as before -- and that's largely because of Treyarch's failure to deliver smart, well-written content. For their 2015 release, this needs to change. If it were up to me, I'd scrap the original story - start out fresh. I'd completely trash the giant easter eggs, replace 'em with small ones. Stuff that'd take much longer than 3-5 days for CoDz to figure out. Codes that'd require much more brainpower to deduce. CoDz fell from an adult community to a children's community -- and that's because most intelligent individuals aren't interested in wasting their efforts on corny, unimaginative, incredibly easy-to-discover content. Anyone with me?