Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 Will Feature In-game Proximity Chat, and It Could Spark Chaos
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During the livestream event Call of Duty Next, we were given our first look at Call of Duty Warzone 2.0. Everything checks out as it looks like a fun time but there's one major feature coming to the game and that's proximity chat, and it's going to be chaos.
For those not familiar, proximity chat is a feature that allows players to hear those with active mics speaking if they are nearby one another. Naturally this goes both ways — if you can hear them speak, it’s likely they can hear you as well if you make any kind of sound . This serves as an opportunity for streamers to do what they do best - entertain. Imagine how different certain situations will be with proximity chat active as you might just get a reaction from the receiving end to whatever insane play or mishap that occurs in-game.
Of course, toxicity with such a feature will be an issue, but simply turning off proximity chat is an easy remedy, which you can do when Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 launches on November 16, as while some will appreciate the new addition, some would prefer a quiet match of Warzone.
Also, there’s a possible issue that could happen if let’s say we do want to hear all the chaos with the new feature toggled on.
Do you remember the early days when Apex Legends suddenly launched in early 2019?
Apex Legends went live with no option to mute players, resulting in automated bots flooding the voice comms with advertisements for various scummy services like boost services for other games or in-game currency purchases from third-party sites. It was so bad that it crippled the game for weeks. With the battle royale shooter designed for teams of three (and thanks to the game’s sudden popularity) it was a prime target for bots as they were everywhere, making most parties likely having at least one bot singing their shady tunes. To make things worse, these unmanned Champions disconnect the moment parties land on Kings Canyon, giving the team a massive disadvantage at the very beginning.
I'm aware this isn’t a proximity chat issue at that time but simply Apex’s voice chat lacking basic features, but when I heard Warzone 2.0 will feature proximity chat, I couldn’t help but get brought back to that time in Apex’s first year and how discouraging it was to play.
Imagine an ad bot roaming certain locations in Warzone 2.0 and just blasting away their nonsense ads, hoping to catch an actual player with proximity chat on. This could happen, especially in Asia and other regions. Definitely a good reason for players to ally for just a few seconds to take out the annoying advert bot nearby, but it doesn’t sound like a distraction you want to encounter every now and then. Hopefully, Warzone 2.0 launches with all the right tools to prevent such experiences to happen, or at the very least the team managing Warzone 2.0 is up to the task in prevent such accounts to populate the game’s servers.
Time will tell but it’s a valid concern. For now, I bet players are excited about how it’s going to feel if you suddenly spot a player’s location simply because a player’s mic picked up them sneezing. It’s going to be quite chaotic, but hopefully mostly fun to a point that it’s safe to have the new feature on, always.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2 will go live on November 16 and will be free-to-play just like the first game. This battle royale will feature a new map called Al Marzah, multi zone closure circles, strongholds, water combat, and more.
