One of the most controversial and divisive things in Call of Duty right now is Operator skins. As Activision gets more creative and out there with their designs, long-time fans of the series claim they’re ruining the game. Unfortunately for those against them, they aren’t going anywhere.
CoD‘s over-the-top skins have been a conversation topic for years but picked up again on April 24 when Activision revealed the Tracer Pack: Wubz and Friends and the Tracer Pack: Hare-raiser Operators that will arrive as part of MW3 and Warzone Season 3 Reloaded.
Fans were immediately critical, with fans on Reddit asking how they could call the game a military shooter, with another saying Call of Duty is now a “circus with a bunch of clowns running around.”
For many of us, Call of Duty is an arcade shooter that’s at least somewhat based in realism. Yes, there have always been things in the game that are a little out there, but for the main part, it was realistic soldiers engaging in combat. That has definitely changed now though, and for many, seeing these ridiculous characters running around is ruining the experience, and plenty would prefer to never see them again.
Unfortunately, that’s simply not going to happen any time soon. As stated by CharlieIntel on X, formerly Twitter, the reason these types of skins keep getting released is because people keep buying them. In fact, the CoD news account confirmed that the last time they had heard about these Operators, “the anime and crazy skins are some of the best-selling ones in the game. Activision is making skins that people are actually buying.”
No matter how many of us feel that these skins are not what Call of Duty is about, there’s clearly a demand for them from other players. As someone who’s played the game since CoD 4, I’ll never like seeing them, and certainly will never buy one, but I have to accept that I may be in the minority now, and the influx of players that arrived with Warzone prefer the absurdist skins compared to the classic mil-sim looks.
Still, I can’t help but think that the game has lost a little bit of what it once was every time I see a multicolored abomination kill me in multiplayer, and I don’t think that’ll change any time soon either.
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