Previous iterations of Call of Duty let players vote on the map they want. This is notably absent in Modern Warfare 2. Because of it, players leave lobbies en masse when they end up on a map they don’t like, such as Taraq and Border Crossing. Voting doesn’t guarantee that players will get their preferred map, but it does give them a choice. To be honest, we’re surprised that Activision Blizzard and Infinity Ward didn’t implement this feature at launch. The developers could use it to refine if not remove the maps players don’t like based on which maps get the least votes. Of course, if Infinity Ward does bring map voting back, there’s the question of how it will implement the feature. Call of Duty has had multiple iterations of map voting over the years. The original Modern Warfare 2 lets players vote to skip a particular map. Meanwhile, Treyarch’s Black Ops games let you pick between the next map, the previous map, or a random map. Finally, Modern Warfare 3 and Ghosts let you choose between two maps. Given the popularity of Modern Warfare 2 - it set a new weekend Call of Duty launch record - Infinity Ward needs to find a way to solve the problem of players dropping out of lobbies because they don’t like the map. It doesn’t matter if Modern Warfare 2 uses the same map voting system from older Call of Duty games or a new one. At this point, any vote mechanic is better than none. Infinity Ward shouldn’t wait for players to stop seeing Modern Warfare 2 as the next shiny thing, especially with Warzone 2.0 just right around the corner. Speaking of Call of Duty, ranked play is coming to Modern Warfare 2 next year. Hopefully, Infinity Ward will implement the map voting system in Modern Warfare 2 by then.
