Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's most controversial change lasted all of two days in the beta
It is very clear the vocal members of the Call of Duty community did not appreciate Modern Warfare's lack of minimap.
One of the biggest gameplay changes Infinity Ward revealed for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been dropping the minimap for a PUBG-style compass that sits at the top of the screen.
Although the compass does show approximate location of enemies when they fire unsuppressed weapons, players could only bring back the old minimap when using UAVs and Personal Radars, both of which are killstreaks. Most players had yet to play the game without a minimap at that point, but this changed with the beta.
During the first two days of the Modern Warfare beta, the minimap was off, appearing only when a UAV or Personal Radar were available - as was the initial intention. This caused immense controversy and pushback, with most Call of Duty forums and subreddits discussing the pros and cons of not having an always-on minimap.
The change was so controversial, in fact, Infinity Ward decided to find a compromise. After initially saying it's monitoring feedback without making any changes, the developer turned the minimap back on in the beta's third day.
The compromise in this case was that the minimap won't show enemies unless there's an active UAV or Personal Radar. That way, players could see where their teammates generally are, something that's much harder to do without it, despite friendly player outlines being in the beta since day one.
Whichever side of this debate you may end up on, it's especially strange that such a major gameplay change couldn't even last for the duration of the beta. Changes of this calibre typically require a lot more testing and data gathering, which I doubt Infinity Ward was able to do in just two days.
We'll see what the next beta round is going to bring, though it's likely the compromised minimap will remain. This week's beta is also adding the often teased, but never shown, 64-player Ground War mode.