Black Ops: Thoughts on the Prestige System

Well, it's the future now. 2011. Still no flying car. Sure, swinging from vine to vine is okay for local travel. But what about when you want to visit places outside the jungle? What's a monkey to do? Oh, well. At least there are some new things. You're looking at one of them.
Hello and welcome to the first ever blog post from the Sixth Nation of Gamers. What's the purpose of this blog, you ask? Well, it's mainly to give you some opinions on various aspects of games and gaming. Because if we all know one thing, it's that the internet is sorely lacking in opinions. Other than that, I'll be posting various reviews for games I play, as well as anything informative or amusing I happen across in my online wanderings. I've already got a bit of a backlog on reviews for games which you can find here.
I decided to open with a few thoughts about a popular game these days, Call of Duty: Black Ops. Now, I know what you're thinking. "This is just going to be either another list of complaints and whining, or someone telling everyone to stop complaining. If I wanted that, I'd visit the official forums." Well, you're wrong. Mostly.

Let me start by saying, I've played a good bit so far and enjoyed it for the most part. I could babble on complaining about the host migrations, the hit detection issues, trouble with the party system, and other technical problems that can get in the way of the fun, but ultimately I'd just have to admit there's a reason I've put more than 80 hours into it so far.
It's fun.
Yes, I hope these issues get resolved, but that's not what I'm talking about today. No, today's discussion is about the Prestige feature.

God no, not that terrible electro-clone movie. *shudders*

I mean the option to reset to level 1 once you complete level 50. I've done it myself and intend to do it several more times. I probably would have shelved the game by now without this feature. It's a great way to keep the game fresh. It makes me use guns I would otherwise ignore. Grant you, I still usually make my way back to my trusty AK47 because it fits so well with my play style. Still, I wouldn't have even touched LMGs or sniper rifles if I hadn't had my assault rifle security blanket taken away. I would have missed out on trying to learn new ways to play.
So, is there something I take issue with? Well, here's a chart straight from the CoD Wiki:

Prestige Level Unlock
Prestige 1 Prestige Leaderboard, Prestige Team Deathmatch, Custom Class 6, New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 2 New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 3 Custom Class 7, New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 4 New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 5 Custom Class 8, New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 6 New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 7 Custom Class 9, New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 8 New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 9 Custom Class 10, New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 10 New Emblem, New Background, Prestige Hardcore
Prestige 11 Face Paints, New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 12 New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 13 Clan Tag Colors, New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 14 Golden Camouflage, New Emblem, New Background
Prestige 15 Prestige Pure, New Emblem, New Background

You get new emblems and backgrounds each time, other than that you have to prestige 10 times to get anything other than an additional custom class out of it. Now, I'm not exactly the most competitive player, so maybe there's some reason to keep 9 additional classes on hand that I'm unaware of. I only keep two set up myself. One for Run & Gun and one for full on Anti-Air. Now, I can fully understand wanting to keep an extra class for large and small maps specifically, or to just be able to change up what your enemy has to deal with. Even then, how many do you really need? Five or six? So, why do we get ten? They may not be much, but I'd really rather have some of the other stuff earlier, like clan tag colors, or face paint. And really, how many people are going to get to 15 and play Prestige Pure? How hard would it be to actually find a game on there? I'd expect anyone who reaches that level to spend quite a long time searching. And when they did get a game, what are the odds that they'll get it with an acceptable amount of lag?

It occurred to me that the devs already have a solution to this problem. It just isn't applied to this aspect. Like with weapons and perks, why not let the player choose what they unlock? Leave the Emblems and backgrounds be, but let us decide whether or not we want another class or an additional camo option? In my humble opinion, I think giving each person a choice in this matter would make the most players happy. You see, the hardcore players will still fight their way up to prestige 15 no matter what's there, and they still get their emblem to show off. The casuals might only prestige once or twice, but can snag the stuff that makes them happy. You leave an overall positive impression on everyone.

Well, that's it for this fist look at the View from the Treetops. Thanks for reading, and let us know what you think in the comments.