Warzone 2 proximity chat is confirmed for the upcoming Call of Duty battle royale, potentially presenting a clash with the new code of conduct and online rules revealed by Activision and Infinity Ward for Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer and beyond.
As unveiled at the Call of Duty Next stream, Warzone 2 is set to launch on November 16, two weeks after Modern Warfare 2 on October 28. With a new desert map called Al Mazrah, and a Tarkov-like extraction mode named DMZ, Warzone 2 may also see the eradication of loadout drops, as well as the addition of proximity-based player chat. Essentially, this means that so long as you’re using the in-game voice channels, all Warzone players – friends or enemies – within a certain range will be able to hear you, not just your fellow party members.
Naturally, this presents a few enticing gameplay opportunities. On the one hand, as the battle royale reaches its closing stages, you will need to maintain radio silence where possible and keep background noise to a minimum, especially if you’re trying to hide or play it sneaky.
On the other hand, proximity chat may help you forge temporary alliances with other squads – if one team is dominating the game, and frustrating everyone with camping, vehicles, and sniping, you might use proximity comms to talk to another enemy squad, and convince them to side with you against the greater threat, in-turn catalysing another fun gameplay strand, whereby your uneasy partnership eventually has to end.
However, Activision recently published a new, “unified” code of conduct for Call of Duty players, stating that the first “core value” in the online CoD experience was that players “treat everyone with respect”.
“We do not tolerate bullying or harassment, including derogatory comments based on race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, culture, faith, mental or physical abilities, or country of origin,” the developer and publisher writes. “All members of our community should be treated with dignity and respect. Communication with others, whether using text or voice chat, must be free of offensive or harmful language.”
It is currently unclear as to how Warzone 2 proximity chat might be monitored to ensure it is used in line with Call of Duty’s new online rules, but fans of the battle royale shooter have begun speculating on how the new feature could affect both gameplay and the overall FPS experience.
“Can’t wait to come up behind someone, whisper into their ear, and then execute them,” writes one CoD fan. “The way I swear when I’m about to melee a camper,” says another, “this is going to be my downfall.” Other players are more concerned about the possible content of opponents’ proximity chat.
“What about the new code of conduct?,” writes one CoD player. “It seriously sounds like we can’t say anything that can be twisted into an insult.” “I really don’t know how they’re [Activision] going to manage it,” replies another. “Other than people being disgusting you’re also going to have a lot of losers blasting music into their mic.” “It’s definitely going to be extremely toxic,” says a third. “Hopefully they will ban people so it isn’t out of control.”
Though it remains to be seen how proximity chat might be policed in Warzone 2, as well as launching its unified code of conduct, Activision has also published figures saying that it has so far banned 500,000 accounts in the online shooter, as well as renaming 300,000 accounts via its automated language filtering systems.
If you want to know more about everything coming to the world of CoD, you can check out our guide to the new Modern Warfare 2 gunsmith. We also have all the Modern Warfare 2 PC system requirements, as well as the best loadout drops for Warzone season 5.
