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The Supply Drop Controversy in Infinite Warfare (and Why It Sucks)

The Supply Drop Controversy in Infinite Warfare (and Why It Sucks)

Call of Duty is no stranger to microtransactions that make people mad. For the last three years, Activision has made sure these extra purchases appear in games. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Black Ops III both implemented Supply Drops, which offered up an array of items that enhanced the game. It would be possible to earn these extras, provided you played enough, but it happened to be far easier to spend some real cash instead.

The problem with Supply Drops is that they offer items that are not only cosmetically different, but also have different stats. People with these may play differently than others. And now, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has brought them back in full force, which brings on a new wave of displeasure.

This time, the outcry seems greater than before. Which may seem odd at first, because the Supply Drops in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare are similar to the ones in Black Ops III . You pay 10 to 30 keys to earn a Supply Drop or pay for one. Perhaps this time, things have provoked a greater reaction because of the depth of the money-grabbing and disparity offered by such things. People are reacting, legitimately so, because things are so unfair in this installment. We have every right to be upset.

Part of this outrage is the expected part of microtransactions. Call of Duty has a history of giving people things in Supply Drops that don’t just look different. They can influence gameplay. Statistical differences can appear after ranking up these exclusive weapons from Black Ops III ‘s Supply Drops, especially when coupled with attachments that are also found in Supply Drops. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare does the same thing again. There’s a whole QR-M5TR Collection of variant guns locked in Supply Drops. A screenshot posted by Charlie Intel shows 12 weapons ranging from common to rare, each with their own stats and abilities. You can’t get these unless you’re getting Supply Drops, which is a horrible way to do things.

The one Epic level gun highlighted, a Volk Corruption, has a Mo’ Money ability that gives extra experience for kills and a Sharpshooter skill that stacks with Particle Amps to increase damage range. All of its stats, from things like range to mobility, are quite high. And ordinary people who don’t invest greatly in Supply Drops, notably the more expensive 30 key/$1.99 one that ups the chances of acquiring Legendary and Epic weapons, won’t see it. Go ahead and be mad about probably not having a chance of equipping that gun when you reach player level 42. You’ll probably have to make do with something else because of microtransactions.

What might make things even worse is Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare ‘s salvage crafting component. If you compulsively compete, you’ll earn salvage. Salvage can be used on weapons to make variants. That’s for people who decide they want to earn things on their own and not buy their way to glory. Except it takes thousands of salvage points to get every variant for a gun. Well, every not-Supply-Drop-exclusive variant. You aren’t earning thousands of salvage points from matches each day. Depending on how much you play, it could be a hundred or so. Which is a great way to frustrate and upset your most loyal players.

The Supply Drop Controversy in Infinite Warfare (and Why It Sucks)

Even worse, there are launch issues with Supply Drops. If you’ll check places like the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare official forums and reddit , you’ll see people are experiencing Supply Drop key issues. Mostly, people on PCs. Bugs are keeping them from earning keys legitimately, putting them even further behind people who are on consoles or paying for these perks. It’s outrageous.

We know microtransactions can be unfair. We’ve seen it happen over and over again. Activision knows there’ve been issues with Call of Duty games. Why then, couldn’t Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare have been different? Why couldn’t things have been adjusted so only cosmetic items were in those Supply Drops? Why aren’t things working properly? If you’re mad, you’re entitled to that anger. Things aren’t going the way they should, and we’re suffering for it.

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