Nadeshot believes Black Ops 6 is already “chalked” as endemic CoD issues plague the franchise’s new golden goose.
Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag will be taking more breaks from streaming Call of Duty despite declaring Black Ops 6 one of the best entries in the recent franchise history. He cited the CoD team's inaction over integrity and cheating as his major concern — something that has affected the franchise since its move to multiplayer.
Cheating in the first-person shooter has reached critical mass for Nadeshot. The streamer is now stepping back from streaming as much Black Ops 6 as he has been this past month. He hopes the CoD team explore better solutions to the hacking epidemic, stating once and for all that he is fed up.
Cheating, server tick rates, bugs keeping Nadeshot off BO6
Nadeshot stated he'd be taking longer breaks from streaming Black Ops 6 during a Dec. 16 broadcast. In a response to viewers Nadeshot said he was finding great enjoyment when the game worked right, but that these moments were few and far between thanks to integrity issues.
"There's no integrity," he said. "Somebody's cheating, or the network sucks, or the game is broken. I'm certainly not retiring from BO6, but I definitely will not be playing it every day. I just can't, I don't enjoy it enough."
CoD is bigger and better than ever. The launch of Black Ops 6 was the most successful in the franchise's history, with changes to movement and multiplayer loved by much of the community. However, as time has gone on, many have soured over BO6 as endemic issues with CoD began to rise.
Cheaters are back in great numbers and while Activision has acknowledged anti-cheat system RICOCHET hasn't been as effective as they'd like, nothing solid has been shared past the Season Two update next January.
Between this, the number of ongoing bugs with the Black Ops 6 client, and the lack of updated servers catering to ranked, Nadeshot — and many more CoD die-hards — are finding it difficult to log in and have fun.
"The core mechanics of the game are fun; I enjoy the movement, I enjoy the gunplay, I enjoy some parts of the foundation of the game — but I can't play it, I can't enjoy it," Nadeshot said.
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Nadeshot demands action now before it's too late
Nadeshot wasn't pleased with Activision pushing the problem into further seasons. It's something the company has done in the past; promised enhanced anti-cheat or fixes in future seasons, then ultimately moving on to the next title, leaving the previous devoid of content.
The streamer then took aim at the server team. "[CoD] has served up a pile of s**t from a network performance standpoint," he said, adding that a lack of investment in higher tick rate servers has heavily impacted CoD's competitive scene. "There's no safeguards to make sure players have a fair gaming experience.
"They made a great game but they tried to save money for their shareholders, for the bottom line, they think nobody will notice or care but times have changed. Call of Duty, we've gotta wake up."
He believes that, by the end of Season One, Black Ops 6's player base will have dwindled as those fed up with CoD depart the franchise to await the release of the next game. "This game is going to be a barren wasteland in two months time and all you had to do was make sure that there weren't any hackers in the game [and] make sure we can have fun on a 20-ping server, but we don't have that."
He finished by saying he'll be exploring other titles on-stream like VALORANT and the recently-released Marvel Rivals.
Time will tell whether Activision correct their ways. The next RICOCHET update is still months away, however, so for the holiday season at least expect the same issues to plague the title.
CoD will undoubtedly get a boost in player base over the Christmas period, but whether many players stay on through to Season Two — given the cheaters, poor network conditions, and ongoing bugs — is anyone's guess.
We're covering everything CoD and Black Ops 6 at esports.gg.
