Call of Duty | Are Skins & Seasonal Updates Good Enough?

At the time of typing up this article I am waist deep in the current season's battle pass. The season was themed around "The Walking Dead", but also included guest characters from Dune as well as Warhammer 40K. The skin economy as such is one of the game's best achievements to date, especially in MWIII. The animated effects, tiers of skins, and the tracers all bring to the player a way to showcase their vested dominance/interest. That they are true supporting fans of the series willing to pay upwards of $20 a bundle to look cool in the heat of battle. Mind you I too have amassed quite the collection of skins, and could easily be considered a whale at this point. So this is not a dig at big spenders, nor is it a dig at the store offerings.

Beyond the store there have been lucrative timed events tied to certain skins that have given even more reason for players to grind. These events often come with free cosmetics, and a final weapon blueprint so long as you complete it. Not only do these events keep attention through required mode specific feats, but it also bleeds into the Zombie modes getting players to try something other than Warzone or Multiplayer. Needless to say there's a lot to get into with each season's multiple balances and updates making CoD a satisfying and rewarding grind for the time spent playing. 

That having been said ... There's something that greatly overshadows the good points of MWIII and pretty much every entry before it, and that something is cheaters. Cheaters in late game MWIII have become so commonplace that you will always encounter multiple cheaters per match regardless of whether or not you have crossplay turned on or off. It is growing plague of a problem that has yet to be properly addressed. 

No matter how many people Activision claim they have banned it's never enough to put even a dent in the issue. What we are dealing with are millions of cheaters who have ways of bypassing the anti-cheat using means that are undetectable. This has been proven, and still most legit CoD players can tell you when they encounter a cheater. We've been conditioned through committed years worth of gameplay over several entries to be able to spot something that is questionable. Be it aimbots, wall hacks, or something more nefarious. I personally can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt who is cheating in a lobby and what it is they are doing. 

Like gangs with signs and signals cheaters in Call of Duty also operate with their own identifying traits in-game. Through banners, avatars, clan tags, and even username extensions it's easy to spot them if you know what you're looking for. Even easier when paired with how they are getting kills. 

Like any gang or hacker community often times these bad actors will target people for matchmaking and appear in their lobbies despite having been blocked. Through network manipulation and the right router they can single out your IP address, and target it for matchmaking. That's why often times when you encounter your first hacker/cheater all matches that follow are increasingly bad with returning players targeting you more than anyone else. They basically tag you for harassment, and get their network of buddies to join in the campaign. I've seen it happen since the dawn of competitive online console gaming.

The question begging to be asked, in light of all this, is that if cheating is this prevalent is CoD still in a good enough state to continue to impress seasoned players. I feel most of us who have stuck with the franchise over the years are reaching a point of fatigue, myself included. We've explained the problems, and the problems continue to not be fixed. The developers, and publishers focus mostly on bandaid level patches, and the skin economy to appease people enough to return so they don't miss out. It is this fear of missing out that draws in a lot of return players, but for how long that will be sustainable is yet to be seen. 

My fear is that eventually the cheating problem will get so out of hand it will lead to serious hacking incidents where player information is compromised, and the player affected is put in a position to be harmed financially or physically. If it becomes so commonplace that it puts the fear in all players no one in their right mind will keep buying into it or playing it. 

At some point something serious has to be done about the cheater problem. Activision must put the fear into the hacking/cheating community so intensely that they fear even trying to hack or cheat. This would best be done with multiple big money lawsuits, and criminal charges being pressed to the point of serious jail time. While it might deter a good portion of the player base from playing Call of Duty, Activision will still get their money through legal actions and will be more than set to release more CoD games in the future. That's my two cents worth on it, anyways. What do you think? Will CoD last for much longer in the state that it is in?