What Do Private Player Stats Mean For Call of Duty?
You may have noticed recently that you haven’t been able to view your opponent’s stats after you’ve finished a game of Warzone. The recent change made by Activision saw stats being switched so that only friends are able to view your Call of Duty stats by default.
The move has caused concern across the community, with high level and casual players alike asking what benefit the latest move brings to the table. Whether you just enjoy looking at your opponent’s stats or roast your mates for their rubbish kill/death ratio, then the update will affect you in one way or another.
Advantage Hackers
The major problem highlighted by the community is that the stats change now provides better cover for those who choose to use hacks and exploits to chase victories. Previously, you could check other players stats to see if their kill/death ratio alluded to cheating; however, hackers can now keep their dirty tactics largely private, and those of us who choose to play the game as it was intended are left with little evidence to report them.
Cheating in Call of Duty is as prevalent as ever, and with the latest changes making it harder to detect and report those who do cheat, this is where most players are frustrated with Activision. Thankfully, stats can be still be made available by those who choose to do so, but no player using cheats or exploits will willingly put their data online to be looked at by others.
Take a look at the clip below to see just how ridiculous some of the available third-party software can be.
Several content creators have already weighed in on the changes, with popular streamer Nick "NICKMERCS" Kolcheff calling for a total reversal of the changes, citing the fact that it is almost impossible to gather evidence on cheaters now that third party websites such as CODTracker are virtually obsolete.
Hackers and cheaters affect us all on a regular basis; however, the changes cause concern for those who play the game at its highest level.
Worried Pros
Call of Duty tournaments have been around for years, and with the arrival of Warzone last year, they inevitably crossed over into battle royale. To progress through each bracket of the tournament, a team must kill more players than their opposing team. The team with the most combined kills then progresses to the next round.
This is where the K/D ratio aspect of player stats now starts to cause problems. Due to the fact that stats are now private by default, there is nothing to stop high-level players from deliberately tanking their own K/D ratio prior to a tournament beginning so that they can be dropped into a lobby with weaker teams.
The act of reverse boosting was previously easily detectable and could be caught prior to a tournament starting, and it still won’t be a huge problem with those in the top skill bracket having nothing to hide. However, those entering the smaller tournaments can now almost guarantee that they can give themselves easier matches in their pursuit of tournament glory.
Mysterious Matchmaking
The latest Activision move has also left players questioning the secretive skill-based matchmaking feature of Warzone. The game is designed to match you against opponents of a similar skill level. Infinity Ward previously said that SBMM was not present in Warzone; however, the developer later clarified that it was added at Activison’s request despite the initial denial that it existed in the first place.
Activision have confirmed that SBMM is present but have not actually confirmed how it works. The change made to player stats shrouds one of the more controversial aspects of Warzone in further secrecy, as you can no longer view your opponent’s stats and see if they are evenly matched.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Despite making player stats private by default, you can change them back to being available for everyone and here’s how you can do that.
How to make your Call of Duty stats public
To start, head to the Call of Duty website and log into the account that you use when playing the game. Once logged in, click on ‘Profile’ on the top right corner of the page.
On the profile, screen click on ‘Linked Accounts’ on the left-hand side of the page. The two options you will need to change are ‘searchable’ and ‘data visible’. Once these are changed to show ‘all’, then your stats will once again be in the public domain for all to see after you have refreshed the page.
With pressure mounting on Activision to reverse the changes, it remains to be seen if they cave to player demand. However, their reluctance to have discussions about SBMM do not leave Call of Duty players with much hope going forward.
Images via Activision