Ranks are the ruin of zombies

[BriggzyJ97]

Please don't insult me by saying that it is easy to get a certain rank. And it's not just me you're insulting. You may find it easy to go up or down, but that is not true for anyone. Get me your typical knife or shotgun ranked player and watch me, a skull, wipe the floor with him.

And for the record, having two accounts so one can be for fun and one for prestige is just stupid. A ranking system that encourages that. Is just stupid.

I agree all of zombies should be for fun, we shouldn't have to choose between fun and rank because it spoils so much of what we love.

P.S. Just played grief with a team of shotgunners against a team of skulls and bones. Skulls and bones won, two of them rage quit. That's what I'm talking about ;)

[Dahniska]

I disagree. Those people are arrogant but they are anything BUT the best player. They aren't even close. They're adequate. No better than regular skulls. The only thing they do is save themselves and not revive, generally speaking.

I think you're negatively stereotyping way too much. While as I said earlier, having shotguns does not make you KingJaq, in 98% of the cases I've seen, the shotgun players are indeed better at zombies than the lower ranks. I'll also add to that that while it is good and important to revive downed teammates, in a lot of cases there's no way you can revive someone, so just staying alive is the best option.

For example, I was playing MotD last night and was running outside the Cafeteria. I got downed, revived myself and ran for the gondola. As I got into the gondola, one zombie got in and double slapped me. I told my partner not to worry about it.

There was no way he could have gotten me up and we both knew it.

[BriggzyJ97]

I disagree. Those people are arrogant but they are anything BUT the best player. They aren't even close. They're adequate. No better than regular skulls. The only thing they do is save themselves and not revive, generally speaking.

I think you're negatively stereotyping way too much. While as I said earlier, having shotguns does not make you KingJaq, in 98% of the cards I've seen, the shotgun players are indeed better at zombies than the lower ranks. I'll also add to that that while it is good and important to revive downed teammates, in a lot of cases there's no way you can revive someone, so just staying alive is the best option.

For example, I was playing MotD last night and was running outside the Cafeteria. I got downed, revived myself and ran for the gondola. As I got into the gondola, one zombie got in and double slapped me. I told my partner not to worry about it.

There was no way he could have gotten me up and we both knew it.

98% !! In my experiance it's about 65%, but I suppose it's just luck on who you get.

In that example yes I agree no one would have been able to get you ( not that I really know the map layout due to ps3 (8 days left ) ) But many times I have played and they haven't even tried to get me when I'm in the opposite building on town for example. The most annoying thing is if they have quick revive as well, or monkeys.

[Dahniska]

I'm àlso kind of surprised at how much bitterness I'm seeing here from some people about ranks. Honestly I think BS is right; skull is free to get, knife is easy (got it before I even knew how the ranking system worked), and shotguns is hard.

If you can't get a knife there are only a few reasons for it:

-You play too much Turned.

-You messed up way too much when the game was released.

-You spend too much time getting perma-Jug.

-You're bad at zombies.

On the flip side, if you have a good track record of consistently playing good, long games, you will rank up. Plain and simple. Don't hate on those who do, if you do or don't play that well. Easy.

[The Clay Bird]

I disagree. Those people are arrogant but they are anything BUT the best player. They aren't even close. They're adequate. No better than regular skulls. The only thing they do is save themselves and not revive, generally speaking.

I think you're negatively stereotyping way too much. While as I said earlier, having shotguns does not make you KingJaq, in 98% of the cards I've seen, the shotgun players are indeed better at zombies than the lower ranks. I'll also add to that that while it is good and important to revive downed teammates, in a lot of cases there's no way you can revive someone, so just staying alive is the best option.

For example, I was playing MotD last night and was running outside the Cafeteria. I got downed, revived myself and ran for the gondola. As I got into the gondola, one zombie got in and double slapped me. I told my partner not to worry about it.

There was no way he could have gotten me up and we both knew it.

98% !! In my experiance it's about 65%, but I suppose it's just luck on who you get.

In that example yes I agree no one would have been able to get you ( not that I really know the map layout due to ps3 (8 days left ) ) But many times I have played and they haven't even tried to get me when I'm in the opposite building on town for example. The most annoying thing is if they have quick revive as well, or monkeys.

i think 65% is way low, HOWEVER i do have my suspicions upon playing with some shotgunners that they didnt glitch a stats reset, and then sat in the die rise exploit to falsely acquire that rank. there are some that just are in no way shape or form good enough to have legit acquired the shotties. thank you youtube for allowing easy access to all these exploits and glitches... smh

and @ dahniska: re: messed up to much when the game was released. that is exactly what it seems to be with a lot of people. When experimenting with the "perma" quick revive etc, i let myself go down hundreds of times to help my friends get the what we thought at that time was permanent. but it wasnt. And all the jimmy Z BS about its only how good you've been playing lately. sorry jimmy, since i've actually been working toward ranking up i went from about a 45 k/down to now around 90. throw in there some runs in the 40's solo on die rise and 30's co-op and a 56 and 66 run on mob solo and 30's co-op. there just no way it is only how you've played recently

[Dahniska]

98% !! In my experiance it's about 65%, but I suppose it's just luck on who you get.

In that example yes I agree no one would have been able to get you ( not that I really know the map layout due to ps3 (8 days left ) ) But many times I have played and they haven't even tried to get me when I'm in the opposite building on town for example. The most annoying thing is if they have quick revive as well, or monkeys.

I'm with you there, if they are nearby with monkeys like that, I'd be mad at them for not helping. Those people are indeed annoying but to say that all shotgun players are like that displays a high level of either ignorance or idiocy.

[BriggzyJ97]

@Dahniska

*sigh* first of all I'm going to quote MMX

Please don't insult me by saying that it is easy to get a certain rank. And it's not just me you're insulting. You may find it easy to go up or down, but that is not true for anyone. Get me your typical knife or shotgun ranked player and watch me, a skull, wipe the floor with him.

First of all you should be able to play EVERY game mode without choosing between fun and playing with good people.

Secondly you definitely shouldn't have to choose between searching the map or playing with good people and getting high rounds, especially at the games launch.

Thirdly there should not be a feature that causes you to choose yet again

And finally there should NOT be a punishment for people that are bad so that it is a lot more difficult to play the game

This is what I am talking about, these ranks have segregated the community and players

Also I was NOT saying that EVERY shotgunner does this but there are quite a few that do do this and from my experience MOST (not all but most) shotgunners would rather save themselves then help others at the risk of themselves.

Even if I was saying that all players were like this, which I'm not, I would not appreciate being insulted.

[Dahniska]

This is what I am talking about, these ranks have segregated the community and players

Also I was NOT saying that EVERY shotgunner does this but there are quite a few that do do this and from my experience MOST (not all but most) shotgunners would rather save themselves then help others at the risk of themselves.

Even if I was saying that all players were like this, which I'm not, I would not appreciate being insulted.

I wasn't talking about you, so don't take it personally. But there are players who even the most rank-hating people can't deny show that you can be very good at zombies and have the highest rank while still being both an amazing team player and/or an incredibly good solo player. Some examples right off the top of my head include YouTube monsters RelaxingEnd and ChristianR87, and KingJaq and Steve.

[BriggzyJ97]

This is what I am talking about, these ranks have segregated the community and players

Also I was NOT saying that EVERY shotgunner does this but there are quite a few that do do this and from my experience MOST (not all but most) shotgunners would rather save themselves then help others at the risk of themselves.

Even if I was saying that all players were like this, which I'm not, I would not appreciate being insulted.

I wasn't talking about you, so don't take it personally. But there are players who even the most rank-hating people can't deny show that you can be very good at zombies and have the highest rank while still being both an amazing team player and/or an incredibly good solo player. Some examples right off the top of my head include YouTube monsters RelaxingEnd and ChristianR87, and KingJaq and Steve.

I totally agree, if a player is amazing at zombies , like 50+ rounds every time then they most likely would be shotguns

[TheBSZombie]

all i have to say is get a knife. its not hard AT ALLL. the skill level difference between a knife and a shotgun is huge. But knifes still make you look good.

I am a knife and am better than most shotgunners on my friends list and have much higher rounds recorded than most of them too.

Having shotguns does not necessarily make you better than a knife. To assume we would make you look good is arrogant and laughable.

I also have higher rounds recorded than you aswell.

When I say that the skill level difference between a knife and a shotgun is huge Im saying that assuming that these people are true knifes/shotguners. A true shotgun has a much higher kd then a person with a knife. unless its a border knife guy. Great job at being better than most shotgunners when you only have a knife. I to am much better than my freiends list that have shotguns even though i fluctuate between knife and shotgun because of the amount of kills I have. What are your high rounds in?

@murdah4Hire yeah I agree that it's not just shotgunners but it seems to be mostly them.

@stop mocking me0. Agreed. Don't fix it if its not broken.

@TheBSZombie. But why should we have to. Surely people that just want to play for fun and high rounds can, without ragequitters and the like. Plus as I have done if you have played anough games and then realise that it's pretty much too late to change your rank, then what are you supposed to do. Your stuck with ragequitters and mostly obnoxious Shotgunners

@schittus_d Shotgunners don't like playing with shotgunners either! Who do they want to play with then? Treyarch employees maybe

Its never to late to get the knife. Its soooo easy

The more games that you play the harder it gets to change you Kill/downs ratio. Think of it this way , If I had a 100:1 kd ratio then it would be a number of 100 and to make it go up by 1 unit then all you need to get is one kill. But if I have a 10000:100 the the ratio would still be 100 units, but to raise the units by 1 would mean you having to get 100 more kills. Now imagine if I had even more kills and deaths. It would be even harder. It's the same thing with multiplayer a kd ratio, which is why I've been stuck on 1.84 for the last 2 months.

Don't talk to me about raising kd to get a better emblem. Its not an overnight thing obviously. I spent a month raising my kd from a 150 to the required 265 that I needed for shotguns and i have 1000+ downs. So going from a 25 to a 100 kd isn't hard.

Please don't insult me by saying that it is easy to get a certain rank. And it's not just me you're insulting. You may find it easy to go up or down, but that is not true for anyone. Get me your typical knife or shotgun ranked player and watch me, a skull, wipe the floor with him.

And for the record, having two accounts so one can be for fun and one for prestige is just stupid. A ranking system that encourages that. Is just stupid.

Unless you are bad at zombies and can't get past 20 solo, it is easy to get to a knife. I don't care who you are unless you fall in the category above. If you get to round 20 you usually have 800-1000 kills. 5 downs will give you a 180-200 kd. Playing that will easily give you the knife and if you are lucky the shotguns

and I was also thinking of getting a free trial account for grief tournys. This would allow me to go down infite amount of times without chancing a loss of my shotties. And im not talking about normal grief. im talking round 15 no magic. So basically in there you can't really get any kills and you are going down 1 or 2 times in a 5 minute game.

I'm àlso kind of surprised at how much bitterness I'm seeing here from some people about ranks. Honestly I think BS is right; skull is free to get, knife is easy (got it before I even knew how the ranking system worked), and shotguns is hard.

If you can't get a knife there are only a few reasons for it:

-You play too much Turned.

-You messed up way too much when the game was released.

-You spend too much time getting perma-Jug.

-You're bad at zombies.

On the flip side, if you have a good track record of consistently playing good, long games, you will rank up. Plain and simple. Don't hate on those who do, if you do or don't play that well. Easy.

Thank you for agreeing with me. Skull is free. If you don't have it its probably a new gamertag or someone totally new to zombies. if you have a mic and can explain this to me then il probably stay. But if you are new you should experience zombies just like everyone else. Playing with other new people and dying by round 5 thats what people did in w@w, thats what I did in bo1. and knife is kind of easy to get like explained before. There are exemptions to the rule. Like if you are an ee hunter or a perma qr kind of guy then yea its going to be super hard to get shotties and "hard" to get a knife. Thats why I don't mind playing with a knife.

And let me kind of clear up the stereotype. Yes some of these "shotgunners" only car for themselves. and some of them are glitchers. but there are no true ranking skill that can show a players true skill. In bo1 you can see there revives in the higher rounds, but how do you know if his team didn't go down and thats why he had no revives or if his team went down all the time and he just didn't feel like reviving him. Or how do you know that round 45 wasn't glitched. So this ranking system is good.

And im sorry if i sound like a dick shotgunner that only plays with the greats, but thats how i make myself better. You surround yourself with the best and when you learn things. A competitive call of duty team like optic or fear or nV doesn't play public matches every single minute of the day because it doesn't make them better. They play with/against good players to learn. Im trying to get better so thats what I like to do.

And people that say "hey, im so good I don't even play with shotgun people" is just as bad as a person that is shotgun rank and doesn't play with lower ranked people. You are saying im way to good to deal with their arrogance.

and mmx il accept your challenge of:

Please don't insult me by saying that it is easy to get a certain rank. And it's not just me you're insulting. You may find it easy to go up or down, but that is not true for anyone. Get me your typical knife or shotgun ranked player and watch me, a skull, wipe the floor with him.

And for the record, having two accounts so one can be for fun and one for prestige is just stupid. A ranking system that encourages that. Is just stupid.

but I guess that doesn't apply to me because im not a typical shottie.

Oh and if you want to go by statistics saying that every time you play with a shotgun guy that you do better than them or they usually quit. Im a shotgun guy and most of the time i play with skulls im usually better than them and they usually quit.

[MysteryMachineX]

And for the record, having two accounts so one can be for fun and one for prestige is just stupid. A ranking system that encourages that. Is just stupid.

I hope that wasn't directed at me. I had one as a result of running out of Gold for a month. Once I was able to pay for my online, I switched back to my main account. I play Grief the exact same way I play it now; dirty, but very aggressive.

But yes; if you make another account primarily to only have shotguns, then you are not playing up to par like you should.

No, it wasn't Infest. The topic was brought up, and that's what I had to say on the subject. I mentioned earlier I don't think you guys count as your generic players. I think the generic are rude and arrogant, and you for sure are definitely not that.

Btw, guys, don't get so wrapped up in argument. While our differences in opinion may shine through this discussion, the fact that we are even bothering to discuss it shows our open-mindedness, something not common of the typical gamer. Therefore I think all of us as atypical, which in my eyes is a good thing.

[schittus_d]

I have to agree that the knife is very easy to get. I've had my stats reset twice, and earned the knife emblem 3 times. The longest it took me was just over a week, and that was when the game first came out, and I was getting as many as 43 downs in one game at one point(technically that was someone else playing on my ID, but they still count as my downs) Last time it took me 5 days, my stats were reset the day before I got Die Rise so I was getting loads of early downs then as well.

I am a good zombie player, and a good team player, but I am far, FAR from being amazing at zombies. I am shit without juggernog, for example. I've only seen round 30 twice on public games. But my point is, if I can earn the knife in a few weeks, then any decent player should have already earned it 6 months after the game came out.

I understand that some people like playing challenges, and playing grief games with no magic your k/d is bound to take a hit. But it would seem to me like the rank should be based on the whole zombie mode, not just the easier games. In which case you should be playing every part of zombies, regular solo/public, grief, as well as the more difficult custom games. And if you do that, getting a decent KD and/or rank should be no problem. I admit though that I avoid turned, I know it's pathetic to avoid a game mode to preserve rank but I have played it a few times on another account, and didn't really enjoy it so I know I'm not missing out.

[BriggzyJ97]

And for the record, having two accounts so one can be for fun and one for prestige is just stupid. A ranking system that encourages that. Is just stupid.

I hope that wasn't directed at me. I had one as a result of running out of Gold for a month. Once I was able to pay for my online, I switched back to my main account. I play Grief the exact same way I play it now; dirty, but very aggressive.

But yes; if you make another account primarily to only have shotguns, then you are not playing up to par like you should.

No, it wasn't Infest. The topic was brought up, and that's what I had to say on the subject. I mentioned earlier I don't think you guys count as your generic players. I think the generic are rude and arrogant, and you for sure are definitely not that.

Btw, guys, don't get so wrapped up in argument. While our differences in opinion may shine through this discussion, the fact that we are even bothering to discuss it shows our open-mindedness, something not common of the typical gamer. Therefore I think all of us as atypical, which in my eyes is a good thing.

Agreed , none of codz is typical as we want to learn more and care strongly about zombies

[Flammenwerfer]

Alright, guys, although I admire the amount of discussion in this thread, please try to keep things civil. I don't want to have to lock this thread due to some unneeded behaviour.

[TheBSZombie]

Alright, guys, although I admire the amount of discussion in this thread, please try to keep things civil. I don't want to have to lock this thread due to some unneeded behaviour.

I hope that wasn't directed at my last post i was just trying to explain myself.

[The Clay Bird]

I have to agree that the knife is very easy to get. I've had my stats reset twice, and earned the knife emblem 3 times. The longest it took me was just over a week, and that was when the game first came out, and I was getting as many as 43 downs in one game at one point(technically that was someone else playing on my ID, but they still count as my downs) Last time it took me 5 days, my stats were reset the day before I got Die Rise so I was getting loads of early downs then as well.

I am a good zombie player, and a good team player, but I am far, FAR from being amazing at zombies. I am shit without juggernog, for example. I've only seen round 30 twice on public games. But my point is, if I can earn the knife in a few weeks, then any decent player should have already earned it 6 months after the game came out.

I understand that some people like playing challenges, and playing grief games with no magic your k/d is bound to take a hit. But it would seem to me like the rank should be based on the whole zombie mode, not just the easier games. In which case you should be playing every part of zombies, regular solo/public, grief, as well as the more difficult custom games. And if you do that, getting a decent KD and/or rank should be no problem. I admit though that I avoid turned, I know it's pathetic to avoid a game mode to preserve rank but I have played it a few times on another account, and didn't really enjoy it so I know I'm not missing out.

only time my K/D ever takes much of a hit is playing drunk grief which i do from time to time.

But those saying knives is "easy" maybe if you have the time to play 12 hours a day and amass those amounts of kills to offset downs, but for those of us grownups who have lives, its not so "Easy". Once it was determined that k/d had an affect on rank i tried to limit downs, not get perma QR not get perma jug etc. ive raised my kd from in the 40s to around 90 but still no knives. and now with almost 1200 downs, i would have to play literally for days without going down once to raise it to 100. so quit with the knives is "easy" bulls***, i have had skull since the week the game came out. round 66 on mob solo with multiple runs in the 50s and 30s coop and same with die rise.

the fact of the matter is, I've learned you absolutely can gain no knowledge of a players skill by their rank emblem. the two seem to be completely unrelated after 6 months or so of experience

[king of cold]

Yeah a rank system based on solely a k/d ratio isn't that good(especially for a CO-OP mode). But there are ways to take advantage of it, for example my account, which can not get higher than the a non blue-eyed skull because of some(couple hundred) unfortunate downs back when the game came out. This plus the fact that I always de-rank for no apparent reason means im a dual bones rank with the ability to beat full parties of knife ranks on grief.How am I still such a low rank?

[TheBSZombie]

I have to agree that the knife is very easy to get. I've had my stats reset twice, and earned the knife emblem 3 times. The longest it took me was just over a week, and that was when the game first came out, and I was getting as many as 43 downs in one game at one point(technically that was someone else playing on my ID, but they still count as my downs) Last time it took me 5 days, my stats were reset the day before I got Die Rise so I was getting loads of early downs then as well.

I am a good zombie player, and a good team player, but I am far, FAR from being amazing at zombies. I am shit without juggernog, for example. I've only seen round 30 twice on public games. But my point is, if I can earn the knife in a few weeks, then any decent player should have already earned it 6 months after the game came out.

I understand that some people like playing challenges, and playing grief games with no magic your k/d is bound to take a hit. But it would seem to me like the rank should be based on the whole zombie mode, not just the easier games. In which case you should be playing every part of zombies, regular solo/public, grief, as well as the more difficult custom games. And if you do that, getting a decent KD and/or rank should be no problem. I admit though that I avoid turned, I know it's pathetic to avoid a game mode to preserve rank but I have played it a few times on another account, and didn't really enjoy it so I know I'm not missing out.

only time my K/D ever takes much of a hit is playing drunk grief which i do from time to time.

But those saying knives is "easy" maybe if you have the time to play 12 hours a day and amass those amounts of kills to offset downs, but for those of us grownups who have lives, its not so "Easy". Once it was determined that k/d had an affect on rank i tried to limit downs, not get perma QR not get perma jug etc. ive raised my kd from in the 40s to around 90 but still no knives. and now with almost 1200 downs, i would have to play literally for days without going down once to raise it to 100. so quit with the knives is "easy" bulls***, i have had skull since the week the game came out. round 66 on mob solo with multiple runs in the 50s and 30s coop and same with die rise.

the fact of the matter is, I've learned you absolutely can gain no knowledge of a players skill by their rank emblem. the two seem to be completely unrelated after 6 months or so of experience

Iv had a knife for a loooong time after i lost it when die rise came out and getting jug

Pro. Had to raise my kd over 75 points to get the shotties and i also had 1000+ downs. I dont have all day to play either. I got school.

And round 60 on motd doesnt usually effect your kd. If you want to help your kd go play die rise and get a high round. Getting a knife is easy. Unless you screwed yourself over to badly. And thats your fault. Get perma qr legit.

[schittus_d]

I have to agree that the knife is very easy to get. I've had my stats reset twice, and earned the knife emblem 3 times. The longest it took me was just over a week, and that was when the game first came out, and I was getting as many as 43 downs in one game at one point(technically that was someone else playing on my ID, but they still count as my downs) Last time it took me 5 days, my stats were reset the day before I got Die Rise so I was getting loads of early downs then as well.

I am a good zombie player, and a good team player, but I am far, FAR from being amazing at zombies. I am shit without juggernog, for example. I've only seen round 30 twice on public games. But my point is, if I can earn the knife in a few weeks, then any decent player should have already earned it 6 months after the game came out.

I understand that some people like playing challenges, and playing grief games with no magic your k/d is bound to take a hit. But it would seem to me like the rank should be based on the whole zombie mode, not just the easier games. In which case you should be playing every part of zombies, regular solo/public, grief, as well as the more difficult custom games. And if you do that, getting a decent KD and/or rank should be no problem. I admit though that I avoid turned, I know it's pathetic to avoid a game mode to preserve rank but I have played it a few times on another account, and didn't really enjoy it so I know I'm not missing out.

only time my K/D ever takes much of a hit is playing drunk grief which i do from time to time.

But those saying knives is "easy" maybe if you have the time to play 12 hours a day and amass those amounts of kills to offset downs, but for those of us grownups who have lives, its not so "Easy". Once it was determined that k/d had an affect on rank i tried to limit downs, not get perma QR not get perma jug etc. ive raised my kd from in the 40s to around 90 but still no knives. and now with almost 1200 downs, i would have to play literally for days without going down once to raise it to 100. so quit with the knives is "easy" bulls***, i have had skull since the week the game came out. round 66 on mob solo with multiple runs in the 50s and 30s coop and same with die rise.

the fact of the matter is, I've learned you absolutely can gain no knowledge of a players skill by their rank emblem. the two seem to be completely unrelated after 6 months or so of experience

To be fair I honestly thought that a k/d of around 90 would be a knife rank, I originally got the knife when mine was less than that. I have several friends who still have knifes now with a lower k/d than you. If you don't get the knife rank soon I would be surprised.

I understand that if you got loads of downs early on it won't be easy to recover from, and I'm not saying it would be easy for me to achieve if I had that many downs. I am an adult as well and I don't always have the time to play COD just to boost my kills. But the point I was trying to make is that even when I was getting 43 downs in a game with around 260 kills (still my accounts highest co op on nuketown) I still ranked up to the knife pretty quickly. If you are getting round 50's then, assuming you are playing solo you must be getting around 3k kills a game, that would push up your kd by around 2.5 each time providing you aren't going down. I can see how that would take a while to get your k/d up but you can't be far away from the knife now.

As for rank relating to skill, I'm not sure if i agree with you there or not. While I have friends with knifes and some with just skulls who can out perform me with shotguns, i'd say at least 80-90% of the skull ranks I meet in public lobbies are just ok players. Average at best. Whereas knife players are often as good as or better than myself. Anyone who has shotguns but refuses to work as a team, or even refuse to stay in a lobby with lower ranked players is a dick and doesn't deserve them in the first place. I would rather die on a low round trying to revive 3 1-bone players and rank down than just look at the menu jumping out of lobbies for 4 hours :roll:

[thedinobot]

To be fair I honestly thought that a k/d of around 90 would be a knife rank, I originally got the knife when mine was less than that. I have several friends who still have knifes now with a lower k/d than you. If you don't get the knife rank soon I would be surprised.

I have a friend whose k/d is at 100 give or take and he has shotgun rank, so who knows.

[The Clay Bird]

I have to agree that the knife is very easy to get. I've had my stats reset twice, and earned the knife emblem 3 times. The longest it took me was just over a week, and that was when the game first came out, and I was getting as many as 43 downs in one game at one point(technically that was someone else playing on my ID, but they still count as my downs) Last time it took me 5 days, my stats were reset the day before I got Die Rise so I was getting loads of early downs then as well.

I am a good zombie player, and a good team player, but I am far, FAR from being amazing at zombies. I am shit without juggernog, for example. I've only seen round 30 twice on public games. But my point is, if I can earn the knife in a few weeks, then any decent player should have already earned it 6 months after the game came out.

I understand that some people like playing challenges, and playing grief games with no magic your k/d is bound to take a hit. But it would seem to me like the rank should be based on the whole zombie mode, not just the easier games. In which case you should be playing every part of zombies, regular solo/public, grief, as well as the more difficult custom games. And if you do that, getting a decent KD and/or rank should be no problem. I admit though that I avoid turned, I know it's pathetic to avoid a game mode to preserve rank but I have played it a few times on another account, and didn't really enjoy it so I know I'm not missing out.

only time my K/D ever takes much of a hit is playing drunk grief which i do from time to time.

But those saying knives is "easy" maybe if you have the time to play 12 hours a day and amass those amounts of kills to offset downs, but for those of us grownups who have lives, its not so "Easy". Once it was determined that k/d had an affect on rank i tried to limit downs, not get perma QR not get perma jug etc. ive raised my kd from in the 40s to around 90 but still no knives. and now with almost 1200 downs, i would have to play literally for days without going down once to raise it to 100. so quit with the knives is "easy" bulls***, i have had skull since the week the game came out. round 66 on mob solo with multiple runs in the 50s and 30s coop and same with die rise.

the fact of the matter is, I've learned you absolutely can gain no knowledge of a players skill by their rank emblem. the two seem to be completely unrelated after 6 months or so of experience

To be fair I honestly thought that a k/d of around 90 would be a knife rank, I originally got the knife when mine was less than that. I have several friends who still have knifes now with a lower k/d than you. If you don't get the knife rank soon I would be surprised.

I understand that if you got loads of downs early on it won't be easy to recover from, and I'm not saying it would be easy for me to achieve if I had that many downs. I am an adult as well and I don't always have the time to play COD just to boost my kills. But the point I was trying to make is that even when I was getting 43 downs in a game with around 260 kills (still my accounts highest co op on nuketown) I still ranked up to the knife pretty quickly. If you are getting round 50's then, assuming you are playing solo you must be getting around 3k kills a game, that would push up your kd by around 2.5 each time providing you aren't going down. I can see how that would take a while to get your k/d up but you can't be far away from the knife now.

As for rank relating to skill, I'm not sure if i agree with you there or not. While I have friends with knifes and some with just skulls who can out perform me with shotguns, i'd say at least 80-90% of the skull ranks I meet in public lobbies are just ok players. Average at best. Whereas knife players are often as good as or better than myself. Anyone who has shotguns but refuses to work as a team, or even refuse to stay in a lobby with lower ranked players is a dick and doesn't deserve them in the first place. I would rather die on a low round trying to revive 3 1-bone players and rank down than just look at the menu jumping out of lobbies for 4 hours :roll:

just a thought on this...

approximately what percent of the entire zombies populous is each rank. i would imagine something like:

one bone: bottom 10%

cross bone: 10%-30%

skull: 30%-70%

knife: 70%-90%

shotguns: upper 10%

??

kind of a bell curve scenario?

probably even more skewed to the middle, because seems like at least 9 out of 10 players are just straight skull. maybe top 1% shottys?

the way i always relate this: i know zombies is supposed to be all cryptic and mysterious and what not, but to include a rank system with seemingly a purely arbitrary system that is kept completely secret is just flat out maddening.

imagine if in multiplayer it was some arbitrary system to attribute rank and prestige. people would sell the game immediately because it makes no sense.

I don't see why they are so stubborn about keeping things like this so completely and utterly secret other than if it purely is just rather random...