Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling explains why Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 weren’t policed as aggressively as Modern Warfare 3.

Laying Down the Law

Some Modern Warfare 3 players have been up in arms since Infinity Ward issued a series of bans over the prestige token glitch. One fan argued that all premium Xbox Live players have the right to play “however they like”, Bowling explained that “no player should ever have the right to ruin the experience for another player. Cheating ruins online gameplay.” Bowling assured that the security team doesn’t ban players by taking “reports simply on their word”, player stats and video are verified first. The gist of Bowling’s argument is that “players have the option to opt-out of our code of conduct, by simply not playing online, always welcome to play offline.”

CoD4 and MW2 vs. MW3

Some fans questioned Bowling on why Infinity Ward wasn’t as strict with its previous titles, Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2. Bowling referenced the technological improvements that Modern Warfare 3 features compared to its predecessors. He stated that Infinity Ward “didn’t have the technology” to ban players for glitching or other offences two and four years ago, and “that was one of the major developments we’ve made in MW3.” Bowling went on to explain that Modern Warfare 3 “was built from the ground up to incorporate and be integrated with this tech.” That’s why the can’t go back to CoD4 and MW2 add banning measures because “it’s not a code agnostic platform.”