Black Ops 2’s prestige system is awesome

During his keynote speech at this year’s Eurogamer expo, Treyarch design director David Vonderhaar talked about the prestige system in Black Ops 2 and how it will differ from what we’re used to seeing till now.

“Congratulations. Here’s a new icon. Repeat the entire game. What? What?” he began mockingly. “This is a very simple example of how we are damned if we do and damned if we do not. Looking back at these mechanics, play 55 levels, hit a button, get a new rank icon, start over.”

Then he went on to talk about some stats and mistakes the system had been making earlier: “I’ve been thinking about it non-stop, about how to get people to prestige. We kept going about it the wrong way. We kept saying, here are some more rewards if you do it. Here is this extra stuff if you decide to hit the prestige button.

“Then I looked at a graph of the people who play and what happens to them when they hit level 55 or whatever the max level is, and how they drop off, and how few people actually go to max prestige. I know they could go to max prestige because their time play suggests they could have. I have this data. I know this for a fact.

“They just stopped levelling. Maybe it’s because we keep taking away everything. Maybe. Maybe that’s the reason.”

But how will Blops 2 will be any different, you say? Here’s how. “In Black Ops 2 prestige is not a start over system,” he said. “When you prestige in Black Ops 2 it will not reset your weapon levelling. If you are level four on a gun you will still be level four when you cycle back around to that gun. Same with all your cosmetics, any camo you’ve unlocked or emblem, all the personalisation, all the fancy backgrounds you managed to achieve, all of that will still be there.”

Well, about f*cking time. What do you think of this? Tell us in your comments!

[Eurogamer]