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

SixOkay the Gears of War 2 Community Manager - @sixokay

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.

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).

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.

]]> http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/12/06/will-arnett-justin-theroux-and-jon-glaser-stop-by-the-studio/feed/ http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/12/05/ben-heck-makes-iw-stuff-response-time-monitor/ http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/12/05/ben-heck-makes-iw-stuff-response-time-monitor/#comments Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:03:21 +0000 fourzerotwo http://www.fourzerotwo.com/?p=544

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. 

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. 

(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. 

I knew there were a lot of us out there, but just how many? Well, I received the reports this week and it looks like our COD4 online community stands at over 10 million strong (Xbox 360 / PS3)! That’s all unique players too, so 10 million different people have logged on for online multiplayer since buying the game in November. Those stats don’t include people who have never logged into MP, only those apart of the Online Community.

That’s insane. With a little over a million players logging in everyday for multiplayer, I can’t say I’m too surprised. It’s awesome to think that we’re all part of building something so massive, and when I say we, I mean me, you, all of us. Everyone who logs on to play with their friends, reads the blog, contributes on the forums, took part in the beta. You guys shaped this game and what it is today. We have one massive, powerful, community and all of you should be proud because there is honestly no other game community I’d rather be a part of. So when I say this, know that I mean it… THANK YOU!!!

We have some new multiplayer playlists in the works to breath even more life into multiplayer, in addition to that I’m working on a few other things behind the scenes that I can’t talk about just yet (in case they don’t come to fruition).

This really makes me want to have another Community Party (anyone remember the COD2 all night?). If any Los Angeles locals are interested in having a COD4 Community Meet-up / Community Party, let me know and let’s put one together!!

]]> http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/08/22/cod4-online-community-is-10-million-strong/feed/ http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/08/18/mixing-things-up-new-playlist-status/ http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/08/18/mixing-things-up-new-playlist-status/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:31:15 +0000 fourzerotwo http://www.fourzerotwo.com/?p=429

As you know, We’ve been playing around with a lot of different playlist variations for the last several weeks and we’ve got quite a few cool mash-ups and gametype tweaks in the wings. It’s no secret that adding new playlists (or anything to multiplayer) takes a long time. There is a lot of careful planning and consideration that goes into anything new we add to the overall gameplay experience of the game, and nothing is added unless we’re completely convinced it will add to the overall experience. So as you can imagine, we play the hell out of any new addition we even consider before we consider it “good to go”.

That said.

The good news is, we have a few playlists that can be implemented via a playlist update (no patch required) and a few that we’re determining now if they can be added; the bad news is a few of them that can only be implemented via a patch. We’re still in talks to see if a small patch is feasible within our current production schedule, so I’ll let you know as that’s determined.

Remember though, nothing is final until it’s actually released. I don’t want you guys to be disappointed if something doesn’t pass QA, but to give you an idea of what we’re currently testing and where we stand with each playlist:

Hardcore Headquarters - No Patch Required

Testing is completed for Hardcore HQ. This playlist has standard HQ rules w/ Hardcore Settings. Limited HUD, Increased Bullet Damage, and Friendly Fire Enabled.

Hardcore Ricochet Playlist - Currently Testing

We’re currently testing this playlist now to see if a patch will be required for it or not. We should know soon. This is the No Teamkilling playlist. Any damage a teamkiller attempts to do to their team mates is reflected onto themselves only. Therefore, if they attempt to shoot an RPG into the ground at the beginning of the match; the only person who will die, is the Teamkiller. This eliminates the fear of being shot in the back by some asshole, but still encourages players to play tactically and not throw random nades, because if you accidentally hit a teammate, you’re only going to end up killing yourself and they’ll go unharmed. No Teamkilling, No Random Nades. This playlist will include the variant for Hardcore Teamdeathmatch, Hardcore Search and Destroy, and Hardcore HQ.

Sudden Death Sabotage - Currently Testing

Sabotage with no respawns. Fast-paced and intense Sabotage. No more hiding with the bomb until time runs out for sudden death. Increased XP per kills to encourage Team Deathmatch mentality. Defend your objective, while attempting to secure the bomb and plant on theirs. Once you’re dead, you’re dead. No second chances. We’re currently testing to see if this can be implemented without a patch.

Second Chance Search and Destroy - Currently Testing

Search and Destroy with 1 respawn each. This completely revamps your Search and Destroy tactics. No longer will lucky frag or well-placed claymore end your chance of victory. Each player has 1 respawn, creating longer more thoughout attack / defend strategies. Eliminate enemy players, and cut off their reinforcements while you defuse.

——–

If all these get past Quality Assurance (Test) with zero bugs, then we’ll be able to implement these four new playlists rather quickly (once QA and Localization is finished). In addition, we plan on adding Killhouse to more playlists and adjusting the amount of XP you get in certain playlists. (i.e. double XP in hardcore and new playlists).

Hit the jump for the playlists we’d like to do, but would require some code work to implement.

The following gametypes would require code support in order to implement. Which means we’d have to patch. Now anytime you require a patch that’s a much lengthier process than just doing a playlist update because it requires code work, very extensive QA both internally, at Activision, and at Microsoft / Sony. Which is why we want to attempt to get the playlist updates ABOVE out first, and then see what our options are with the ones BELOW. The ones which require additional support include:

Bare-Bones Team Deathmatch - Patch Required

Team Deathmatch with no perks and no air support. Problem: Slot 1 Perks Glitch

Hardcore Free for All - Patch Required

Free For All with Hardcore Settings. Problem: UAV glitch

Team Elimination (Last Man Standing) - Patch Required

3 round Team Deathmatch w/ no respawns. Switch sides each round. Problem: Round Switch Glitch

Multi-Bomb Search and Destroy - Patch Required

Search and Destroy but all attackers spawn with a bomb. Problem: Planting Glitch

]]> http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/08/18/mixing-things-up-new-playlist-status/feed/ http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/08/18/m3-for-august-13th/ http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/08/18/m3-for-august-13th/#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:09:53 +0000 fourzerotwo http://www.fourzerotwo.com/?p=423

(Source: Animatrix - Final Flight of the Osiris)

(Artist: Steven Giesler)

It’s Monday again…. which means we just finished up our Monday Morning Meeting. Excluding the stuff I can’t talk about - this meeting was a rather short one. While short in length, it was big in news related to new faces around Infinity Ward.

Speaking of faces, you’re probably wondering what the bad ass head above this is; so I’ll start off with that news first and move into the smaller (literally) addition later.

As always, each M3 we ask new employees to come up front and introduce themselves. This week we have an awesome new addition to our already amazing art department in the form of a character focused artist by the name of Steven Giesler.

You’ll probably recognize Steven’s work from the animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within from Square, in addition to his work (see: above) from the Animatrix - The Final Flight of the Osiris. You can check out more of Steven’s work via his personal site at www.stevengiesler.com .

I’m so stoked for the future right now, because our art department is seriously all A-team and this new addition is just another strong link in the chain. Welcome aboard Steven!

Our second big (and by big I mean 7 lbs 2oz and 20.5 inches long of all gamer) came unexpectedly last night around 5:19 pm when our video guru Drew McCoy aka DKo5 (and his wife Lauren) let us know that Greg Ryan McCoy aka DKo6 had been birthith into the worldith.

Congrats to Drew and Lauren, the big day has finally arrived, and you have given birth to the local co-op partner you’ve always wanted. You finally have a reason to boost your gamerscore on crappy licensed kid games.

Thats about it for the meeting. Other than that:

Goals for the week: Nail down firm details / schedule for COD4 Playlist Updates

We’ll give a status on our current projects, any new employees will come up and introduce themselves, talk about their favorite games and where they came from, and what they do at IW now. As well as any IW / Call of Duty related news, rumors, updates, etc. that we think should be shared among the company as a whole.

In the case of William, you have to introduce yourself twice. Will originally started in QA as a tester for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Just like I talked about in my last video blog, it was all about being proactive and passionate. Once we ramped down the QA department at the end of the project, William has bigger plans and became an Art Intern and as of this morning, is now a Full-time artist here at Infinity Ward. Congrats!

In addition to Will’s promotion, these past few weeks has been busy for new-hires; Mario, Jordan, Simon, JT, Joe a bit ago. It looks like it’s well over-due for another Employee Spotlight feature. You can check out all the new additions and the full IW here (www.infinityward.com/team).

Other than that, we discussed future project stuff that I can’t go into detail here yet. In addition I snagged our Lead MP Designer Todd for a chat prior to the meeting to discuss the upcoming playlist updates we’re working on as I know you guys are dying for an update.

Essentially, there’s some things we want to do that go above and beyond what a playlist update allows us to. So we’re discussing the options available to us. We’re working on getting it all worked out as soon as we can and as always I’ll keep you in the loop. Trust me though, if we’re able to do what we’d like, the little bit of longer wait for it to happen would be worth it in my opinion. Regardless, if we can and it does cause a delay, I’ll see if we can go ahead and do the playlist update while we wait.