Report: COD Community Is Not Happy That Black Ops 4 Weapon Variants Require About $200 or 250+ Game Hours to Get

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If you’ve stopped playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 since it launched in early October, you might have missed Activision’s re-introduction of the Black Market, and seasonal events that will grant players cosmetic items, gestures, and more. One of the things the Black Market also gives out are the “Reserves” which house random items, and the ever elusive Black Ops 4 weapon variants of the existing guns in the game.

While players can grind to earn Contraband points for their Contraband stream, it’s a painfully slow process. Of course, players can also use COD Points to purchase Tiers that will grant them these additional cosmetic items. COD Points are, of course, purchasable with in-game cash. The process of earning Contraband streams are so slow that a lot of people in the Call of Duty community are up in arms about it.

In a lengthy post by Reddit user Refractives, he does the math that if you want to get that Tier 200 weapon variant, you’ll need to spend $200 in real world money to buy COD Points, or spend 250+ game hours, which is further complicated by these Tiers and events set on a time limit.

Here’s a rundown of some of the key things the community is up in arms about:

  • If you’re looking to own that Tier 200 Weapon Varient you better be prepared to Pay $200 or Grind 250+ In Game Hours. (Oh.. and there’s a time limit)
  • In this new Black Ops 4 System you are now having to put in almost 2 in-game hours to Receive 1 Single Item which consists of: Stickers, Emotes, Sprays, Face Paints and Outfits which you cannot equip or view without owning the full set and you cannot mix outfits and face paints with others.
  • Reserves (Supply Drops) are back and worse than ever before with having zero control of which 1 item you receive, It will be even worse as more items are inevitably brought into the Black Market.
  • They have made the Tier Progression Rate so painfully slow that you are almost penalized for not paying to reach the top tier and then not offering any alternatives to progress other than to pay up or dedicate hundreds upon thousands of hours.
  • The game is already lacking in base core customisation features to begin with, but the fact that all specialist customizations and others are now locked behind a black market system is beyond absurd, Huge step backwards from Black Ops 3 which you was able to obtain unique outfits via Challenges, Gear that should be accessible to everyone who already paid the premium price tag for the game shouldn’t count as additional game content.
  • It baffles me that Activision & Treyarch have come to the conclusion that all these Black Market items are more valuable than the Actual Game Price, it just goes to show that they will continue to use these distasteful anti-consumer practices until there is a mass outrage and we speak up in numbers to show them that this is not okay.
  • There’s a restriction on outfits and gear where you cannot equipt or view them unless you own the full set from Reserves Supply Drops. What is all that about Treyarch? The chances of obtaining 2 matching items are already astronomically slim with the 1 item per supply drop system not to mention all the upcoming items being thrown into the pool.
  • Big improvements are definitely necessary, Anyone with a normal social life is not going to reach the insanely ridiculous requirement you have set towards unlocking the tiers, a huge buff towards the rate of the tier progression and alternate challenges are needed, There should also be a way to earn reserves without the tiers.
  • This is just the beginning, today’s cosmetics and tomorrow’s DLC Weapons with stat changing variations will be locked behind this system with no option to earn other than grind hundreds and thousands of hours or pay the additional price tag, Previous systems such as IW allowed season pass owners to receive all base DLC Weapons and there were challenges that also allowed you to unlock them.
  • Community Challenges & Zombies Black Market Progression is also missing. It is evident that the game was rushed and very unpolished. They have been cutting corners, the overall production design feels cheaper than previous instalments and still feels like it is in the beta stages, You would think that Treyarch would double down and give more incentives to play and ultimately expand over the previous systems that did it much better (WW2), They have opted for quantity over quality and that really hurts the game, It is a shame because at it’s core it can be a fun experience. But it seems that because they are “Treyarch” they’re able to pull off these greedy shenanigans and they wait for everything to blow over (such as the #SayNoToTheBlackOpsPass scenario) and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the consumer.

As of press time, the Reddit post has been upvoted over 13,000 times on the official Black Ops 4 subreddit. It’s also on the r/games subreddit and has been upvoted by over 4,000 people. Treyarch has not posted a response at either subreddits currently.

What makes it worse is, there’s no specific computation on how Contraband is earned in a match since it’s not tied in to how you perform in the game. And as it’s tuned now, it’s very slow to get from one Tier to the next. Case in point? I’ve been playing everyday since the Black Market was launched, and I’m still only at Tier 30+ which means there’s very little chance of me getting to Tier  200 unless I just play Black Ops 4 for the next few weeks for the entire day.

While some might argue that the items in the Black Market and obtainable in via the Contraband streams are just cosmetics, it’s definitely baffling how anyone could reach the final tier unless you’re ready to spend some real world coin…and maybe that’s Activision’s point?

What’s your take on this? Does the Black Ops 4 community have a point? Or are people throwing a tantrum over nothing? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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Just a guy
Just a guy
5 years ago

Who cares? It’s a bunch of weapon skins.

bigevilworldwide
bigevilworldwide
Reply to  Just a guy
5 years ago

Because morons seem to have this autistic notion in their head that you should be able to unlock everything in a game in 5 minutes……Poor turds only get one welfare check once a month so they gotta rip through a game as fast as possible before its time to trade it in for the next “hot release”…..Gotta get every game day one, since IF you wait they might stop making that game 2 months later

Hvd
Hvd
5 years ago

this is what you get for buying a microtransaction Activision’s games.same goes for when you buy ea games.this is what you get.

dran
dran
5 years ago

i miss black ops 1 way of getting items in multiplayer 🙁 was the best system for it so you were not forced to play 100+ hours to get the items you wanted to use in pvp.

Craig
Craig
Reply to  dran
5 years ago

I completely agree. Been playing the series since COD2…. which means I’m old. I don’t have time to grind a thing like an out of work college kid. I bought the game once they announced there would be no supply drops and now they pull this, it’s utterly frustrating. I’d like to see a system to unlock goodies at a rate that rewards the average player. Not a system that tries to manipulate people into spending real money. The premium price on a MP only game and lesser extent, the season Pass, should be the only cost of admission. Where did the ‘Fun’ aspect go?

Ree Boi
Ree Boi
5 years ago

At the end of the day..It’s just a skin.

zero
zero
5 years ago

Ripoff & waste of time

CrowdNex
CrowdNex
5 years ago

This is Activision… they don’t care about the complaining.. their job is to sell you the game.. and it’s done. it’s all words on deaf ears now.

Hates bad writers.
Hates bad writers.
5 years ago

“games” are turning into shallow mechanics with laughably long, RNG based progression or preposterous checklists to artificially increase the length of time you play the game. All to make stockholders happy.

“Gamers” are mad? Casuals bought a crappy game day one and didn’t bother to do any research. The set the bar low, did zero due diligence, and expected it all to work out? Millenials are a joke.

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