Why Is BO6 Dying?

Speculation has been circulating on social media that Black ops 6 is dying, or is already dead. According to sources the game has lost 80% of it's player base. This is definitely lining up with the claims of a dying game. While I cannot, personally, fact check this I do have my theories as to why BO6 has failed to satisfy returning Call of Duty fans. 

One of the most glaring, and returning issues ever to plague the CoD franchise is the presence of unchecked, and unpunished cheaters. Nothing Activision or it's developers has done has corrected the issue of cheating. It has only grown more problematic to the point of killing off the point of competition, itself. As a player invested in a game for competitive bragging rights the lack of a fair competition ruins the experience outright. Anyone can look the part without being the part. Anyone can pretend to be a pro and gain a gullible audience. This defeats the purpose of even trying.

In addition to this cheating problem lies the subpar operators selection, maps, and a crutching on gameplay gimmicks. The operator design, and skins leave a lot to be desired. The maps are hit or miss with rehashed maps from older games, and the game overall looks dated by comparison to MWIII. Leaving the gimmicks to be the only interesting new feature outside of special events like that of the Squid Games collaboration. Sadly new staple gimmicks like omni-movement, and the Zombies mode only serve as a novelty. They are good for a while, but wear thin over time without constant updates, and innovative additions. Leaving events to pick up the slack, and even then those event collaborations will not resonate with all players.

Going into BO6 I immediately thought the game looked like a dated, and possibly scrapped project that was revisited and revived out of desperation. Nothing about it showcased the quality and attention to detail the previous MWIII had. Even with the new mechanics, and the return to formula with the Zombies modes it was not something that looked as polished as it should have been.

This brings me to the technical side of things. Techies in CoD will tell you that gunplay remains unbalanced. That the meta is stale. This kills it for a lot of legit professionals who use the game as a means to share their in-depth knowledge, and who implement the balance or lack thereof in their strategies within the competitive scene. Coupled with the cheating the lack of balance only serves to exhaust any good faith players had in the competitive side of BO6.

In all regards BO6 is failing. It is failing on the competitive front, on the technical front, and on the features or design front. It is a dated, and busted experience that no one, in their right mind, would waste their time on. As a seasoned CoD fan, and return reviewer my interest faded almost immediately. I just did not feel it. It did not click with me. Nothing about it was inviting. It felt like SSDD. All my military buddies will know what I mean by that. You cannot keep on shoveling out the same sh*t each year while only throwing throwaway gimmicks into the mix. Moreover you cannot win over players there for the competitive value if the competition is broken by cheaters and a lack of balance. Activision needs to step it up and deal with these issues ASAP!!!