Dedicated Servers for Modern Warfare 3

Cynics are saying that it was only a matter of time before Activision capitalized on the thousands of Call of Duty online players.

Cynics were right, but that doesn’t mean that Activision hasn’t entirely stepped up its game to make it worthy of an extra $50 a year from fans. COD fans will still be able to play exactly as they had before, whether it was over the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live or their computer. If they buried their head under the sand and didn’t read anything about the game, life would go on normally. However, taking advantage of the free web portal means they could get access to enough content to keep their experience fresh for another eight years.

Improve:

Call of Duty has become such an establishment in the gaming industry that it’s intimidating for newcomers to pick it up. The Improve section will help new players acclimate to the fast-paced multiplayer version of the game. In a culture that doesn’t exactly cater to players having positive attitudes about new players being on their team, Improve could be the key to getting those noobs progressing up the skill levels.

Connect:

Everything is social these days. If a service isn’t offering you a way to connect with your friends, it’s going to fall behind the pack. Elite is Activision’s answer to the new social paradigm. You can friend your actual friends and online acquaintances and see their achievements. Actually, even if you don’t friend someone you can see their stats.

Connect also lets players create clans, groups of players that will level and compete together, as well as earn bonuses just for being in one if you’re a paid subscriber. If that’s not enough of a social element for them, they can also join different groups denoted by a hashtag and compete to be the best.

Essentially, the Connect portion is just facilitating what has already been happening among friends and extending it to acquaintances, strangers and people with similar interests.

Compete:
The compete feature is the most intriguing for competitive players. Activision will be sponsoring smaller competitions for in-game badges and larger tournaments with prizes as large as an iPad 2 or even a Jeep. The tournaments will be closely monitored by Activision staffers to watch out for cheating and to moderate in general.
The challenges will range from individual ‘Lone Wolf’ competitions to multi-player and clan tournaments. Players can keep track of what’s coming up through the provided calendar and work toward goals with their friends. What is already a massively addictive game is going to have a stronger draw with deadlines and dates for trophies and prizes.
COD isn’t new to competitions. It’s one of few games played professionally in North America, and one of the only FPS games. The new set-up will likely bring more interest into the pro-gaming experience since it will essentially give players an idea of what it’s like to compete for prizes without a dedicated server, endless practices and an organized team.
Elite Pro Only
With most of the features listed being free, a question of what pro members receive becomes pretty pertinent to the discussion. There are some fringe benefits to it, like an enhanced HD experience and access to premium clans and groups. While that’s nice, it’s not going to sway anyone to pay $50 a year on its own.

Luckily, Activision is a smart company with solid product ideas. They’re including DLC every month with a paid subscription. Paid subscribers are essentially getting all the maps from the bundled packages spread out month by month for free instead of paying for them in chunks. With Activision promising new content that frequently, it’s going to be worth a regular COD player’s time and money to sign up for Elite Pro. Casual users won’t miss the added maps, but hardcore fans will save themselves some serious cash throughout the year.