The Major League Gaming (MLG) announced their 2008 Pro-Circuit today, announcing that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare would be their first Online-only Pro Circuit title. According to their official announcement:
Call of Duty 4 to be MLG’s First Online-Only Pro Circuit Title!
You asked and we answered: Call of Duty 4 will be featured as an official Online Pro Circuit Title! The Call of Duty 4 Online Pro Circuit season will consist of a series of online qualifying ladders and tournaments in pursuit of the 2008 MLG Season Title, complete with cash prizes, MLG pro players and in-depth editorial coverage on mlgpro.com. The details of the CoD 4 Online Pro Circuit Season are currently being finalized and will be announced soon so stay tuned for more! While we are considering adding CoD 4 to our Live Competitions, the game is not currently structured for competitive LAN play.
Which is awesome news, as it will allow our competitive players an opportunity to compete for cash and press coverage and if the arena’s on GameBattles is any indication we have a fantastic competitive community with the Call of Duty 4 Arena on Gamebattles.com currently holding the #1 spot. It is a little disappointed to see the last part of the quote, that the game won’t be included in the lan events of the circuit as I know Call of Duty 4 can be the #1 online competitive game both online and via LAN.
Keep reading for more ranting…
So how can we make Call of Duty 4 the #1 LAN title for MLG Pro Circuit 2008 as well as the #1 online title?
We currently have it so you can set up a custom game with custom settings, however you’re confined to a set of pre-defined classes. While much more extensive than just your five basic pre-set classes, it seems the most obvious answer would be to add in Create-a-Class for LAN players.
Now say that was an option, how would you set it up? Do you make everything unlocked right out the gate? Do you have your online rank carry over to LAN? So if you’re level 55 online are you Level 55 offline?
Offline / LAN Create-a-Class is something I would love to see in the game personally, maybe your response / suggestions could help drive the internal discussions.
This is just all me ranting / thinking in blog form. We’re currently not planning to add any of this, but it’s something we’re always discussing when sitting around brainstorming on how we can continue to improve the multiplayer portion of the game so your feedback as always is listened to and helpful.
16 responses so far ↓
Bart // February 13, 2008 at 3:07 am
Personally i don’t care whether or not my online rank will carry over into offline play. however, if you guys really care about making CoD4 the #1 Lan title as well as the #1 online title then you definitely do need to allow players to create a class. People won’t care how you guys do it so long as it gets done and that it gets done as soon as possible.
Matt // February 13, 2008 at 3:48 am
LAN IT UP! I say you guys make a lan patch for all the kids of the MLG league, After all, COD4 is the number one game played on gamebattles, as well as all of xbox live, and it already has 3 tournaments on MLG Online at one time ( I believe the most at one time ever) and it would make a big big big step for IW and it will make the game a lot more popular, and less kids will go to RBSV2 and stay here, with the real game, COD4
Nate // February 13, 2008 at 4:08 am
Create a class with everything unlocked would be the only way since you don’t use the same profile at the tournaments. That and a lobby system needs to be implemented so that the “match” is not immediately started before all the players can enter the game.
chrism312 // February 13, 2008 at 4:19 am
Really the only way I could see offline Create-a-Class working would be to have everything unlocked from the get-go. Mostly because, not everyone who would want to play at LANs would have XBL, so doing something like carrying over a rank would mean they basically couldn’t play.
But the more important thing if LAN-ing with CoD4 were to become the #1 thing as you recommended would be to allow splitscreen over LAN games. I understand the logistics of trying to work out how to involve guests in online play, so I understand why that can’t happen. But why not LAN? It’s not like there’s rank gain to worry about. The only limitation would be that all of the offline users would have to share create-a-class slots, but I figure that at least having that feature available is more important.
gwildor // February 13, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I agree.. LAN should be create a class with everything unlocked.. If you were to make your online level match your offline level.. then you would find people wouldn’t go Prestige.. I certainly wouldn’t..
AConcernedScrilla // February 13, 2008 at 1:59 pm
have everything available right up front, have it set up like on xboxlive, but on the LAN instead of the extra default classes just have the create a class with everything unlocked.
kman3k // February 13, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I have to agree with the previous posts. Just have it all unlocked from the jump for LAN. Even though it defeats some of the purpose of “ranking up”, for LAN it’s more about the actual competition than the ranks, guns, or perks unlocked.
You know making team Tactical 4v4 max instead of 3v3 would also aide the online competitive community, as well as adding features to Pvt. Matches to allow certain perks to be turned off (Marty, Last Stand, 3 Frag).
TheBenadrylBandit // February 13, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Personally, I don’t give a flying crap if my rank doesn’t carry over. All I need is my custom slots and I’m set, I don’t need a 55 next to my name to preform I just need my p90 juggernaut with claymores to get that extra nudge.
Fuzzy // February 13, 2008 at 2:51 pm
The only way that LAN create-a-class would work, in my opinion, is for everything to be unlocked from the start. This would give less experienced players the ability to mess around with different weapons before they hop online, and would allow for a much more robust offline experience.
I would also love to see one online playlist dedicated to allowing at least one guest to play splitscreen. To limit complaints, make it an unranked, no experience playlist. The guests could be limited to just the initial pre-set classes, or to whatever custom classes the main account has set.
I have had several occasions where friends have wanted to play online at the same time, and our options are to switch off who plays each game (still very fun), or lug a second system, copy of CoD4, and monitor/TV to the same place (much more fun, but quite a hassle).
Thanks for listening to the community, Robert. Even if nothing gets changed, it is a great change of pace to see this level of communication between developers and the community.
Ryan // February 13, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I don’t see how this is very hard, Create a Class already exists in the game. Couldn’t you just take it from online and attach it for LAN play? I know it’s not as simple as that but it seems like something could be done about it in the near future. MLG is now being endorsed by ESPN, and all of their games are going to be brought up on ESPN numerous amounts of times through out the MLG season, wouldn’t you like to see your game on there?
Crazydew // February 13, 2008 at 4:28 pm
It would be sweet to see offline Create a Class! However, it would be even sweeter if there was Lan Splitscreen like Halo (not to compare this game to Halo, b/c this game rocks!)
Jso // February 13, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Adding the pc popular mod “PAM” would be a real good idea. It basically does what everyone wants(edit class in game, turn of certain perks and guns, class limits, etc) . Also a good spectator mode or viewing a replay would be pretty cool. Add some new “match” play list and you’re good to go.
Jared // February 13, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Hopefully there is a create a class implementedin LAN, but I hope it doesn’t stop there. Split Screen should also get this added as well. I am trying to understand why split screen and LAN don’t ge access to the best features of the game. Offline players who paid the same 60 bucks as online players don’t really get the same product. Online players get more maps, weapons and customizing options. Offline players get pre determined classes less playable areas and can’t even use the games best guns. This is not really “fair”, I mean can’t all the maps and guns at least be available in offline modes??? It would not be hard to let people pick their Primary and secondary weapons along with three perks at the start of split screen game. It makes zero sense as to why this was not available at launch, especially not allowing all the levels to be accessable to offline players.
It is very nice to see DEVs trying to improve their game after launch and I personnally am very thankful to feel as though my opinion matters on the improvment of my favorite game. We the players are the EXPERTs on desired gameplay and it would do developers good to listen to the people who know best about what we the CONSUMERs want.
Scrambled1 // February 13, 2008 at 7:22 pm
It would be nice to have a customizable Create a Class in offline mulitplayer, The guns that are pre-selected are good, but not all that good for what people want to do with certain things.. They should all be usable right off the bat, or if you wanted to have it unlock a certain gun through the story line play after each map/mission..
Clint // February 13, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I think an idea would be to have create-a-class available off-line but have it so you select your weapon selection/perk selection each round. You don’t have 5 slots, just every round you run through and pick your set up.
HoffY // February 15, 2008 at 4:11 am
I appreciate continued support and the admission of listening to your customers and asking for suggestins (and actually taking them on board). That is great! You guys made a killer game. But this could have been so much greater. The ‘engine’ is so close to perfect. There just needs to be MANY more options. Take GRAW2’s multitude of co-op and multiplayer offline / online options. There is no such thing as online and offline any more. There shoudlnt be. What you can do online should be capable of being done offline. Even to the point where you can combine the two (nothing made me so pleased when GRAW1 came out and i started a 4 player LAN game and had ppl join via LIVE on top of it!). These types of options ARE THIS GENERATION. There is no excuse for not having them in games nowadays.
Also as many have said. LAN and Perks etc Simply make it all available. Give the same options as LIVE play. So many slots etc. This should have been the case by default. And so many more settings for LAN play like being able to disable or enable any number of perks and weapons to the host users digression.
Guys, you’ve come this closet to an ultimate Golden Eye 007 / Quake / Mario Kart style historic game. Take it all the way…
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