Call of Duty Black Ops 2 News: New Patch Causes Developer To Receive Death Threats

Competitive multiplayer games have always been known to cause gamers to get their ire up, but some Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 players have taken this to the extreme. A new patch that changes some of the weapon balance of the game has caused some extreme fans to take out their rage on Treyarch design director David Vonderhaar, who has received death threats and threats of violence against his family over Twitter thanks to the game changes.

The fan backlash first occurred when Activision published their patch notes for the update, and continued when Vonderhaar, who often takes to Twitter to answer fan questions, explained the exact changes to the three weapons that were modified, the AN-94, DSR 50, and Ballista. The changes, most of which involve altering fire rates and reload times by a tenth of a second, were enough to send some Black Ops 2 players in a berserker frenzy. Vonderhaar had this reply for those sick enough to threaten him and his family for the patch:

"Let me put some perspective into your life because I do care about what you say...Not sure these fractions of seconds are worth the threats of violence."

Another Activision employee, community manager Dan Amrich, was so offended by the way some had treated Vonderhaar that he wrote about on in his One of Swords blog:

"If anybody thinks for a second that this is okay, it is not. But if the loudest voices in the Call of Duty "community" act like an angry mob instead, guess how the entire world views Call of Duty? Now consider that these Internet Tough Guy rants and demands are not unique to COD, but exist everywhere, in many gaming communities. This is why the world often does not take gaming seriously; this is why gamers are assumed to be immature, whiny assholes. Because the immature, whiny assholes are louder."

For his part, Vonderhaar has refused to sink to the level of his critics. He has continued to provide people who directly contact him with helpful hints and fixes for Call of Duty. While gamers can be a passionate bunch, especially in Call of Duty and other similar games (video search "Call of Duty rage" to see some truly spectacular examples of players losing their minds), this attack on Vonderhaar is completely unwarranted and those responsible should feel ashamed of themselves.