The developers behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 recently revealed that all of the game's campaign missions will be available from the start without having to play them in the intended order. They called the traditional system of the next mission unlocking after you beat the previous one "archaic":

Jason Blundell said:

“The unlocking level system is an archaic mentality we’ve had since we did bedroom development back in the day—you do this, then go on to the next one. Consumers and game players in general are far more mature these days. There are so many things vying for our interests today. It’s about, how do they want to consume it? Maybe they put it down on level two, and then they’re in work the next day, and some guy says, ‘dude, you’ve got to check out level four!’ And he’s like, ‘okay, I’ll have a quick look.’ That’s totally fine. I think it’s their choice.”

This has led some Kotaku guy to argue that all games should be this way. Echoing the comedy bit above (which I took from the post), he points out that no other media gates off content the way that video games have always done. He makes some other points as well that you can read if you'd like.

What do you guys think? Does it go against everything video games stand for, is it a no brainer in the modern age of games, or somewhere in between?

URL to share (right click and copy)

kriswright said:

@Zero
Here's a question for everyone: Would it matter to you if most games had this feature hidden behind a cheat code?

I was actually thinking about cheat codes and how we used to kinda have this option in many games before. The fact that you were "cheating" means the game wasn't built around any level being your first level. And that's my only real problem with this option. I just don't like the idea of games being dumbed down so the game can appeal to a wider audience.

I think everything should be unlockable, it's practically the only reason I continue playing games. :P

But it should be easy. Or, at least, fun.

Example: I think Mario 64 was one of the most brilliant works of gaming ever crafted. If you could go into any area/painting from the start, it would have never, EVER had the same charm (to me).

@gojira

No one is proposing the game be dumbed down though. The question is whether games should allow you to access all levels without otherwise changing anything.

@Jargon

ISN'T that dumbed down, though? Previously you had no choice but to complete X, Y and Z to experience the next part of the game. If everything is unlocked, you don't have to do anything at all to experience all parts. You could just fire up a level, play two seconds of it, then move on to the next. I'd say that's very much dumbed down, personally.

I'm not advocating for or against it, but in terms of just "dumbing down" the experience, I'd say everything-auto-unlocked absolutely does that.

@J.K. Riki

Read gojira's post. He's talking about levels being designed differently because of this feature, as opposed to a cheat code where everything is the same. The whole premise of the question is that everything is the same, and the levels are exactly the same, you can just choose where to start, as if you already beat the game. The same exact thing as a cheat code except you don't have to enter a button combination to unlock it. Call of Duty Black Ops 3 will still have a linear campaign where the story progresses, the only difference is you can choose to jump in in the middle if you want.

Obviously Mario 64 is different from Call of Duty because of its hub world, but suppose that right when Mario says "Hello!" you were given the option of normal, which would be 100% exactly the same as Mario 64 we all know and love, or you could go to a level select screen that had all the levels and stars available from the start. Would you really argue that the game was "dumbed down" because of the existence of that level select screen that no one is required to enter? If so, how is Sonic 1 not dumbed down for having the level select option in its menu when you put in the cheat code?

@Jargon

That's a good point. Yeah, it would pretty much be the same. Though, I suppose at the same time, there's still some part of the old gamer in me left that feels ripped off if that was the case. "I worked hard to unlock everything, and they just walked in and opened whatever level they wanted? Bah!"

I guess that's just human nature. Reminds me of the old parable of the workers in the field. I guess we just have something in us that makes us long for others to have to work as hard as we do to be rewarded the same way! :) But you're right! That shouldn't bug me. I should work on that. :)

@J.K. Riki

Yea, I've been guilty of thinking that way before, but over time I've realized that no one cares about my personal video game accomplishments but me. The difference between giving up on Ghosts n Goblins and using a save state, as I was tempted to do time and time again, and sticking with it to finally prevail was, from an outside perspective, non-existent. But to me, it is a point of pride and that's enough. Given that knowledge, I find it's best to leave those decisions to the individual and not get involved in validating or invalidating other's experiences.