Call of Duty Multiplayer Support

To:  Activision, Infinity Ward, Microsoft

Dear Activision (publisher), Infinity Ward (developer) and Microsoft (developer/owner of Live)

We are writing to you to request that you take immediate action to resolve the technical issues that are plaguing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’s multiplayer on the Xbox 360. We are customers who are experiencing crippling technical difficulties with respect to your product.

We believe that Infinity Ward has created a great game with a very strong multiplayer element and that Microsoft has a very successful online gaming network in ‘Xbox Live’. We urge you to continue to support the products that you supply and we have purchased, so that your consumer base is content and will continue to purchase your games and subscribe to your services in the future.

ON A REGULAR BASIS we have experienced one or more of the following issues with Call of Duty, whilst attempting to play online:

1. We experience terrible ‘lag’ when playing on Xbox Live. This is usually due to a poor host selection with respect to our region. For example, Australian or British players are placed in a game with a US host. Or one of the few US players in a primarily Australian game lobby is assigned to be host.

2. We are dropped (disconnected) from Xbox Live randomly but on regular 10-15 minute intervals whilst playing on Live. This does not occur while playing any other game online. For example: Halo 3 has no such problems.

3. We encounter an error message stating “You must have an active network connection to play online or systemlink matches”. This error message appears despite having an active connection to Xbox Live and being able to chat to friends who are online. This error message does not enable us to play any games until the game is restarted.

The connectivity issues listed above (problems 1 and 2) result in data loss upon disconnection whereby whole sessions of play are wiped from our statistics. This often means that hours of gaming is lost, along with XP, kills and wins gained, challenges unlocked and ranks advanced.

As you can no doubt appreciate from your usage statistics, the vast majority of players utilising Call of Duty multiplayer are motivated by a desire to progress through the prestige levels or otherwise unlock the challenges contained in the game. I am sure that you can appreciate that losing this data on such a regular basis is EXTREMELY frustrating and does not enable us to enjoy the core purpose of the game.

We have undertaken the tests and suggestions offered by Activision and Xbox Live support but none of these tests or suggestions have resolved the problems that we are experiencing. We have come to believe that the problem lies with you and implore you to fix it. Furthermore, many (mainly outside U.S. players) have found that these issues only began or became more prevalent AFTER THE PATCHED WAS RELEASED.

We realise that as purchasers of the Call of Duty 4 software but particularly Xbox Live Gold subscription service, we are afforded certain rights under the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (and the other relevant consumer protection legislation for players in other jurisdictions). We ask that you act immediately to ensure that you are not in breach of your obligations under the aforementioned legislation.

Courtesy of the size of the US population we recognise that we are by no means the majority of players. However, we represent a significant number of your consumers. We ask that you do not forget your international consumers.

Suggestions:
1. Problem 1: The lag issue could be solved by adding the ability to enter a regional search preference so that geographically proximate players are matched together. That is: North Americans would play together, Australians would play with Australians and Europeans would play with other Europeans.
2. The technical problems 2 and 3 we leave in your hands to resolve promptly.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Call of Duty Multiplayer Support Petition to Activision, Infinity Ward, Microsoft was created by Call of Duty 4 community and written by Michael Simon (intransigently@yahoo.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.