Modern Warfare 2 players feel “manipulated” by real-time XP tokens

Players use every trick in the book to rank up weapons in Modern Warfare 2, but a real-time XP token timer has community members up in arms.

Modern Warfare 2 shook up the formula for unlocking weapons and attachments. Check out our guide for an in-depth guide on how to unlock every weapon. The developers force players outside of their comfort box, requiring the use of every weapon to unlock attachments and other guns.

Using every weapon seems like a great idea on paper, but as is the case with other FPS titles, some guns are just a cut below. MW2 and WZ2 players resorted to using XP glitches for leveling up the game’s less desirable weapons.

As for players trying to grind XP on the straight and narrow, MW2 controversially features a real-time countdown for XP tokens.

Modern Warfare 2 players slam XP token system

Activision

XP tokens are based on a real-time countdown instead of in-game.

Leveling up weapons in MW2 and WZ2 can be an absolute slog, but XP tokens expedite the process, granting double XP for a limited time. Some FPS games like Battlefield base the XP token timer on an in-game time countdown, but tokens in CoD expire based on real-time, even if you close the application.

A Reddit user asked, is there a logical reason behind this?

One person responded, “Let’s say you activate a token for one hour. That means the player is likely to play for the full hour, manipulating them in the sense that they feel they have to stay online to use the whole time.”

Adding insult to injury, players can’t even track how much time they have remaining on activated XP tokens.

A second user claimed, “We don’t even get a time remaining countdown anymore, either.”

Fortuntaley, CharlieINTEL reported the Warzone 2 Trello board was updated to state that double XP for PlayStation players will be live from November 30 through December 1, then all platforms from December 1-2.