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Black Ops 2: 'I can nerf perks, and I will, mark my words' - Vonderhaar gets tough

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 multiplayer head David Vondehaar has revealed that simplifying perks and nerfing them is the only way to create a fair and balanced playing field online. So pay attention perk-dependent players, because you may need to rethink your strategies.

Speaking with CVG, Vonderhaar said, "Perks were pretty important for us to rethink, because they were getting too complex. You had perks, perk pros, perks that influence you, perks that influence your gun, perks that influence team mates."

"We've simplified that so perks only ever affect your character, and more importantly, Black Ops II's perks aren't absolutes," he continued, "In Black Ops our only balancing options were to remove the perk or keep it - now we can tune any perk by increments to nerf it or improve it."

"I can nerf perks and I will, mark my words," Vonderhaar stated, "A perk should never be something you need just to compete. A perk is 'I got a parking spot,' or 'the soda machine gave me free soda.' Your life shouldn't depend on it. The community helped me understand that, and that's why our new system has no absolutes. We can try to make it the most balanced CoD ever."

Black Ops 2's superb new create-a-class mode also only gives players a perk if they sacrifice something else. It's a neat system, and we've detailed it in full here:

Thanks OXM.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U, PC

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Dave Cook avatar

Dave Cook

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Dave worked on VG247 for an extended period manging much of the site's news output. As well as his experience in games media, he writes for comics, and now specializes in books about gaming history.

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