Man I wish that was an onion post.
this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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Its not pay to win. Its stupid, but it is not pay to win. You get equally as good information from stereo headphones.
If this is pay to win, then having a 7.1 or higher surround sound system is pay to win, and that can be applied to every game.
better hardware has always been an advantage, but this is more in line with bmw charging a subscription for heated seats. it's a new stage of nickel and dime monetization. and just because there's existing ways to use money to gain an advantage doesn't mean we should be inventing new ones. rich people don't need the help, and these companies don't need the money. accepting and enabling them on this will continue to consent to more and worse pay to win features.
this is explicitly and exclusively a feature to improve performance. whether it's effective is irrelevant. they intend to let you pay to gain an advantage natively in game. a non scummy game would instead try to minimize and mitigate the differences created by hardware, not add new ways to widen that gap.
Its more like BMW offering a subscription for your head unit to have radio presets . People can still get the same or very similar results by manually changing the radio station. In this case, players can still use the audio feature. They aren't blocking the entire feature, just the ability to have a custom profile.
It doesn't quantifiably improve anyones gaming performance.
Buying headphones isn't paying to win over people that play with TV speakers. Players could be deaf or hearing impaired, using headphones to win against them isn't pay to win. However, buying an overpowered in-game gun with real money that is locked behind a real world money paywall would be.
I've never used spatial audio in a CoD game - does it really give that much of an advantage in multiplayer? I doubt it but idk
I cant speak to CoD specifically, but being able to locate opponents, shots, activity etc by sound is a massive advantage in many multiplayer shooters. I can personally vouch for its relevance in CS, Apex Legends, Arma 2&3, The Finals, DayZ, and Battlefield.
For your viewing pleasure I leave you with this Viva La Dirt League skit: https://youtu.be/sC8qtyGoGZw
COD is so twitchy I'm not sure it matters that much.
Wouldn't that make it matter more? If your opponent can't hear well and is relying on visual twitch to get an unseen opponent, but the unseen opponent can hear their location and is already aiming near the location of the opponent when they round a corner, the player with superior audio potentially has a much faster time to aim
In theory yes, in practice, as a long time ~~sufferer of Stockholm syndrome~~ Tarkov player (where sound is king), and occasional COD enjoyer, I can say that the level design hinges so much on their "lanes" concept that once you have some basic knowledge of the maps, and pay attention to the radar, knowing that another player in the vicinity is emitting sounds is usually enough to guess where they should be, without needing to rely on directional audio too much.
I can see it being actually important data when playing warzone though. And maybe S&D but that's already pushing it imo.
Is that a multiplayer feature? I only play campaign single player, zero online playtime.
Enhanced Headphone Mode will be available to all players for free.
$20 is for 5 years subscription of Personalized profile for EHM.
If the personalized profile actually provide higher precision audio then yeah it is probably 'worth it' if Cod is the only game you play/or play competitively.
After all a good pair of stereo headphone is more 'pay to win' and also cost way more.
So dumb, just sell me the game, don't nickel and dime parts of it.
Want better graphics? Oh that's 20 bucks a month for Nvidia optimized drivers??
Don't give Nvidia any ideas
I am not defending Activision. The title made it sound like the whole audio system is locked behind paywall but it is actually just the personalized profile that is.
Less shitty but still shit nonetheless. I can't imagine it being worth paying and any improvement should be minimal. But hey I am sure there will be fanboys who swear the difference with and without is night and day.
Yes it is dumb. We are now one step closer to pay to reload and I am glad I don't play modern COD.