Posts Tagged ‘infinity ward’
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
With Modern Warfare 2 news officially going from a trickle to a steady stream of content and info, I want to make it clear how to stay up to speed with all the latest news.
The internet is your friend & no matter if you’re looking for up to the minute details on what’s happening behind closed doors at Infinity Ward studios, or looking for the latest video asset for Modern Warfare 2. I’ll keep you connected with every aspect of Modern Warfare 2’s development via my social media geek prowess.
The internet’s a big place, but here are the key places to look for your MW2 news fix.
Choose your poison:
Official Modern Warfare 2 + Infinity Ward Forums
Join the Infinity Ward forums to join in on MW2 discussions with fellow community members, sign-up and get details on upcoming Community Events, and earn badges for both in-game achievements and forum based participation.
Official Infinity Ward YouTube Channel
Subscribe to get the latest videos, official trailers, perk videos, and dev diaries. Help shape future trailers and video content we create by sending us suggestions and ideas on what you’d like to see us make.
Modern Warfare 2 Facebook Page
Become a fan of Modern Warfare 2 on Facebook to connect with fellow MW2 fans and discuss the latest MW2 news shared on Facebook.
Follow Modern Warfare 2 Updates on Twitter
Get up to the minute details on what we’re doing behind closed doors at Infinity Ward studios as well as official updates on Modern Warfare 2. From designing the collectors edition, to a breakdown of what’s happening behind the scenes at E3. Twitter is an information junkies fix.
As many of you know, once your on Twitter you can also participate in the MW2 Live Twitter Feed. Tweet your opinion to the latest questions, vote on other users ideas, and track answers on the leaderboard. Current Question: What kind of videos do you want to see on http://www.youtube.com/infinityward?
Connect into one or all of those, and you’re guaranteed not to miss a single Modern Warfare 2 detail. The Infinity Ward & Modern Warfare 2 community expands much further than just our forums & this blog!
Tags: #MW2, community relations, feedback, infinity ward, Modern Warfare 2, social media
Posted in Modern Warfare 2, community, infinity ward, internetz | Comments
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
www.ModernWarfare2.com is LIVE with the first teaser for MW2.
Post and track trailer discussion at http://twitter.infinityward.com
or
Discuss the teaser at http://www.infinityward.com/forum/
Tags: gdc, infinity ward, Modern Warfare 2, teaser
Posted in GDC 09, Modern Warfare 2, community, infinity ward, twitter, video games | Comments
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
I’ve been advocating the power of Twitter pretty hardcore recently, especially the value in using it as a conversation tool and more importantly tracking those conversations and using the feedback contained within. That philosphy gave birth to http://twitter.infinityward.com . A Twitter web-app for tracking conversations and feedback for Modern Warfare 2 we’ve been developing behind the scenes.
The #MW2 app went live earlier today Yesterday, and within an hour has officially become the #1 most talked about topic on Twitter (just behind American Idol). I was blown away with the response to our first question, “Name one thing you’d like to see in Modern Warfare 2″ .
However, the ability to see real-time feedback and conversations about Modern Warfare 2 feeding through the app is only the beginning. The best part is the ability to vote on suggestions and rise in the ranks on the Leaderboards. Allowing us to quickly check the top rated suggestions, and reach out to the users with the best suggestions to hopefully include them in future events, beta tests, or community days.
How can you participate?
First and foremost, you can follow me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/fourzerotwo) and keep an eye out for the next question. It will also be visible at all times at http://twitter.infinityward.com under CURRENT QUESTION.
When a question is asked, all you have to do is tweet your answer / suggestion along with #MW2 .
What is #MW2?
#MW2 is the official Hashtag for Modern Warfare 2. Which means, anytime I,or anyone else, is talking about Modern Warfare 2 on Twitter, we’ll mark it with #MW2 so it can be tracked and included on the http://twitter.infinityward.com live feed as well as searched for on Twitter.
#MW2 Leaderboards
Once you’ve thrown your suggestion or comment about Modern Warfare 2 into the Live Feed, you can track and vote on other peoples suggestions, and track the top users on the #MW2 Leaderboard. It’s a great way to get recognized in the community and I’ll be using it to identify community members to reach out to in Call of Duty / Infinity Ward future events and projects.
Feedback on the App
This is a fairly unique social media experiment in terms of using it to solicit feedback for game design. So any comments, suggestions, or feedback on how to make the #MW2 app even better is always appreciated. I’m always looking for new ways to reach out to our players and strike up a conversation. Feel free to drop me a line at robert.bowling@fourzerotwo.com with any inquiries about the web app, or how you can help.
Tags: #MW2, app, call of duty, infinity ward, Modern Warfare 2, twitter
Posted in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, IW4, Modern Warfare 2, community, infinity ward, internetz, twitter | Comments
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
If you’re not already addictively twittering, then I’m sure you’ve at least heard about it by now. As it’s hard to miss my personal account @fourzerotwo which is syndicated on the left-side of this blog. Twitter is a micro-blogging (140 character limit to be exact) service, which allows you to make quick and easy updates regarding “What you’re doing”, wherever you are. With the help of web and mobile apps like Twitteriffic on iPhone or TwitPic online, you can also attach photos and GPS coordinates to your updates.
Simple concept that seems to be oddly polarizing for people. Either you totally get it or you are completely boggled by it’s usefulness. I for one, LOVE IT. It was literally my life-line for the 3-something weeks I was on vacation with no access to a computer.
I kept tabs on the Gaza Strip Conflict via CNN’s Breaking News twitter @CNNbrk , stayed in tune with some of my favorite bands as they went through the recording studio, via Bad Religion guitarist and Epitaph Records head-honcho Brett Gurewitz twitter @OblivionPact (which led to the official Epitaph twitter being made @EpitaphRecs), and kept up on Gaming specific news among many site’s Twitter feeds, including @Kotaku.
In short, Twitter has personalized, summerized, and made the internet intimate again. Providing me 140 character bursts of information every minute, straight to my phone / email / other device of my choosing albeit the fact it also helped to further destroy my already limited attention span - but honestly, who needs one of those in this day and age.
While I’ve obviously been using Twitter personally for quite sometime, I’ve finally launched an Official Infinity Ward Twitter @Infinity_Ward this past week. Which I plan to update strictly with PR friendly updates, studio news, job postings, and some free DLC codes every now and again.
(Download a custom Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare twitter background here)
Essentially, if you’re not on Twitter yet, you should be. As it’s quickly becoming THE place to source exclusive and raw news regarding just about anything, as well as giving a voyeurtastic look into the personal lives of just about anyone you could imagine, from @MCHammer to more gaming note-worthy @djaffe .
The big reason I mention it though, is because Twitter (specifically @fourzerotwo and @Infinity_Ward) are going to play a key role in getting quick and raw updates regarding the development of our future games. As I can easily update them with info, news, and even photos from anywhere I am at anytime. While @Infinity_Ward will be focused on top-level news, @fourzerotwo will be chockfull of a more personal look and more in-depth details throughout development of our future games.
So try it out, go to Twitter.com, sign-up, and start tweeting. You’d be surprised by the people who are interested in listening or the amount of people you’d be interested in following. To get you started, here are just a few of the people I find interesting to follow:
CNN Breaking News - @cnnbrk
Brett Guerwitz of Bad Religion / Epitaph Records - @OblivionPact
Felicia Day of The Guild / Dr. Horrible - @Feliciaday
Amazon Game Deal of the Day - @amazongames
Valve Software - @valvesoftware
Naughty Dog for Uncharted 2 updates - @naughty_dog
Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb - @jeffgerstmann
Kotaku - @kotaku
Just to name a few of the 107 I actively follow.
Update: Sam “QforQ” Houston posted a comprehensive list of all the video game companies and people on Twitter for you to follow. Pretty handy resource for those new to twitter. Check it out here.
Tags: blogging, infinity ward, twitter, updates
Posted in IW4, blog, call of duty 4 modern warfare, community, infinity ward, internetz, twitter, video games | Comments
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
We decided to pull some numbers on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare this past week, which Slothy (one of our coders) so graciously put into a perspective we can all relate to.
As of Jan. 3rd we hit 10,006,606 unique users who have ever played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on Xbox 360 and have connected to Xbox Live at least once after playing.
That number got us curious as to how many of those 10 Million+users finished the F.N.G. mission, or beat Airplane on Veteran (among other things). Well, it turns out:
71.1%, or 7,111,508 people have completed F.N.G.
That’s more than the entire population of Hong Kong (which is 7 Million).
68.8%, or 6,886,509 people have completed Cargo Ship.
This is the same number of adults in the US who were morbidly obese in 2005.
46.5%, or 5,654,643 people have beaten the game on any difficulty.
This is more than the current population of Finland!
2.8%, or 283,632 people have completed Airplane on Veteran difficulty.
The population of Stockton, CA is 280,000.
So if you’ve beat Airplane on Veteran difficulty, then congratulations. You’re in a very elite club. Considering less than 3% of players have been able to do it.
Now keep in mind, these are only players on Xbox 360 (who have also connected to Xbox Live at least once). So there are more than this playing Call of Duty 4, we just can’t track them. For PS3, we pulled MP-numbers only, and it looks like theres approximately 4,381,276 unique users playing PSN (not including SP-only players).
Tags: call of duty 4, cod4, fun statistics, infinity ward, modern warfare, stats, xbox live
Posted in call of duty 4 modern warfare, community, xbox 360, xbox live | Comments
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
Will Arnett, Justin Theroux, and Jon Glaser swung by the studio late today to talk games, check out an early sneak peek of the project we have in the works, and to hang out to play a little multiplayer during our weekly Friday Night Fights. Arnett is best known for his role as Gob from Arrested Development while Justin Theroux and Jon Glaser are probably more known for their awesome writing. Justin’s most recent work was the Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. comedy Tropic Thunder, as well as being announced as the writer for Iron Man 2. Jon Glaser was a Conan O’brien writer for 5 years before breaking off to do various other TV shows and projects such as Assy McGee and the Human Giant series recently. Funny guys, but most importantly, fucking hardcore COD4 players.
I started playing MP with Will, Justin and their crew awhile back after a Conan O’brien appearance where Will spent most of the interview talking about playing online in COD4. Ever since, everyone pictured above have been meeting up regularly on COD4 for some RPG + Knife only private matches where we entertain ourselves by jumping off roof tops and attempting to RPG and / or knife each other as they fall (DON’T JUDGE US!) - as well as whatever other drunken rules can be come up with at the time.
Regretfully we all live on separate coasts (IW on West Coast / Will + Justin on East Coast), so this was the first time we all met in one place while they were in Los Angeles on some business. Jon Glaser typically isn’t part of the regular crew, but after today he said he’s going to finally give in and join our 10 pm - 4 am gaming sessions. So hopefully he’ll feed into the COD4 addiction and join in on the fun in future matches.
It was great to finally meet in person after playing online together for so long. We’ll be meeting back up, hopefully late Jan / early Feb, to blow shit up. I’m in the process of planning a weapons shoot for early next year and there is no better reason to get together with friends than to blow up cars, watermelons, and anything else we can talk the range owners into letting us destroy with automatic weapons and explosives.
Tags: infinity ward, IW4, jon glaser, justin theroux, Will Arnett
Posted in IW4, call of duty 4 modern warfare, infinity ward, life, los angeles | Comments
Friday, December 5th, 2008
A few months back we enlisted the help of Ben Heck (Benheck.com) to engineer us a device to help us monitor the response time of when you press a button on the controller, and when the action actually takes place on screen. It didn’t take long for Ben to whip up this awesome controller mod (seen above) that does just that. The device has been a great tool for improving overall controls in the game and to tighten up the response time for the player. The fine details that I feel really define the basic building blocks of the multiplayer experience and makes the difference between a good game and a great game.
Ben posted up a little “making of” guide of the controller mod on his blog as well as a few videos of it in action. Be sure to check it out if you’re interested in grabbing it or something similar for your studio, because everything he does is pretty much gold.
Tags: ben heck, controller, infinity ward, mod
Posted in IW4, infinity ward | Comments
Friday, November 7th, 2008
Friday went by pretty quick today. It kicked off with our standard weekly Leads meeting, where all dept. leads sit down and talk about what’s happening in their individual deprtments; but once that was wrapped, I headed to the lobby to meet up with this years World Series MVP and Phillies pitcher, Cole Hamels. Seen above (on the right) with one of our resident baseball fanboys and animators, Chance Glasco (left).
For being the most highly sought after player in league right now, after securing the MVP award at the World Series recently, he’s an extremely down to earth guy and a most importantly a huge gamer as attested to by his wife who confirmed he’ll disappear for days only to reappear fully bearded from a week of uninterrupted gaming. A life style I can relate to.
Although, from talking to Cole, it seems those game-a-thons are few and far between, especially when preparing for the World Series. He said gaming during the season is typically reserved for the early hours of the morning after games, when him and fellow team mates jump on. So if you’re playing between 11pm - 2:30 am and hear an abnormal amount of baseball talk, then you know why.
We gave him a tour around the studio while he was here, and it was especially interesting when we were showing off some of our Motion Capture. Cole started talking about how he’s done it before, but not for a game. He uses Motion Capture to record and analyze his pitching form, so that they can determine how to further improve his pitching and prevent injuries.
It was a good visit. It’s always nice to meet fans of the game, especially if were fans of theirs. Cole admitted he’s not alone in his COD4 addiction, saying he typically parties up after games with fellow team mates like Adam Eaton or teams they’re facing that day like the legendary Ken Griffey Jr.
Just goes to show, you never know who you’re going up against when you log on.
Tags: call of duty, cod4, cole hamels, infinity ward, modern warfare, mvp, world series
Posted in call of duty 4 modern warfare, community, infinity ward, life, los angeles | Comments
Thursday, September 4th, 2008
(fyi: Cpt Hammer is my PartnerNET gamertag, not my secret XBL account)
Just got finished jumping into some of QA’s playtests of the new gametypes. While they’re ensuring there are no bugs to be found, I wanted to jump in and test out how fun the playlists were. Hardcore HQ is a lot of fun because it’s a lot more fast paced than normal and HQ’s are falling a lot faster. Not a lot of waiting around in this gametype. Not to mention it’s a lot more tactical when you’re not just spamming the HQ with nades. I think I’ll be playing the Hardcore Ricochet version of Hardcore HQ a lot.
We played several games of Second Chance Search and Destroy, which essentially just adds 1 respawn per player. A small addition, but makes a big difference in the tactics you use. Plus, it wasn’t as frustrating to be taken out early in the round because you get a second chance to do some damage. No more dying early and waiting around the entire match. The only problem I can foresee with it is the occassional spawn kill if someone gets past your defenses and gets in a position to kill your second wave of respawns before you get him out. Other than that I actually prefer Second Chance over standard Search and Destroy. I found myself missing the second life when we were playing standard. There were a few UI (user interface) bugs, but those can be taken care of really easily, just need to shorten the name of the gametype.
Still on the fence with Sudden Death Sabotage, what do you guys think of that. It essentially just turns into Team Elimination because no one has any respawns, so everyone starts camping and never goes for the bomb. In a way, I like that, because it’s a sneaky way to get Team Elimination into the game with an extra twist, but on the other hand the rounds end really quickly. I’m worried this one might not make the cut, but we’ll see how the rest of testing goes this week.
Hardcore Ricochet is the answer to my prayers. Team Killing is non-existent and you no longer have to say “my bad” to a team mate you accidently blow to hell with a badly placed grenade. If you fuck up, you’re the only one hurting for it. Not to mention you never have to worry about having a team mate shoot an RPG into the ground at the start and killing everyone in Hardcore Search and Destroy. That alone makes this entire playlist worth it to me.
Things are looking good. I’m still working hard on that upcoming Xbox Live promotion I told you about. Getting some final thoughts from our Art Driector on the Ads I designed for it, and securing the rest of the details.
On a more personal note, I finally got my automatic office defense system online and operating…
… and by that, I mean big ass NERF cannon; Which I have mounted on a mobile defensive position (aka office chair) for maximum effeniency. This battery-operated, belt fed, automatic rapid-fire dart cannon is exactly what I needed to the turn the tide of the war in my favor. You see, there’s been ongoing skirmishes with the radicals in IT for quite some time now…. around the time they covered my Master Chief in Peanut Butter while I was out of town for GDC.
Dare’s a war a’comin… pik yer side!
It was awesome putting together this bad boy late last night after work. I felt like I was 8 years old again, sitting on the floor with one of our producers assembling and test firing it. Some toys you’re never too old to get a kick out of. If the day ever comes I think other wise, kill me…. preferrably death by NERFing.
Tags: call of duty 4, cod 4, game modes, infinity ward, modern warfare, nerf, office, playlists, toys, update
Posted in call of duty 4 modern warfare, infinity ward, life, video games | Comments
