Activision: Call of Duty Elite "The Difference Between Social Gaming and a Community"

There's an article about Call of Duty Elite on Gamasutra based on discussing the upcoming Call of Duty multiplayer service with Activision digital VP Jamie Berger during the recent Call of Duty XP event. Much of this covers the justification for charging for a premium multiplayer service, as Jamie notes the audience is "very justifiably leery of these changes as something that's not intended to make the experience any better, but is simply to make them pay more for it. There's a lot of natural cynicism and we understand that." Besides access to all the game's DLC, he explains an advantage a premium $49.99 annual subscription will provide is insulation from the notorious hostility found in multiplayer play. "One of the most interesting things to me is how positive people are in the service. I'm most excited that within it, people are being supportive; they're actually talking to each other, and amongst each other," he says. "They're so happy to actually have a place to be part of a community, not a message board... they're actually behaving very much like people who just want to be social and have fun, not people who want to flame each other." He explains this seems to be more of a community: "It creates a social contract. How can we start behaving as if we live in a neighborhood? You try to treat your neighbors with respect. When you create a true community, that, to me, is the difference between 'social gaming' and a community."