Modern Warfare 3's notorious "Groot" skin is being removed temporarily

by Danny Craig  · 
Modern Warfare 3's notorious "Groot" skin is being removed temporarily
Activision

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III developer Sledgehammer Games has announced that the Gaia or “Groot” operator skin is being pulled temporarily as it aims to improve its visibility due to player complaints.

The details:

  • Gaia, a paid Season 6 battle pass skin for the Nova operator in MW2 and MW3, quickly became infamous among players for its ability to blend in with the game's environments due to its dark, tree-like appearance with several holes in its torso. Although it was patched to improve visibility in MW2, the carry forward system meant that when it returned in MW3, the fix hadn't quite worked, resulting in frustrating deaths to players who couldn't see others.

  • In a recent Reddit AMA, Sledgehammer was asked if there were any plans to address the skin's issues shortly by user Deagil_ and many others. Unsurprisingly, the studio has heard the outrage and will disable the skin in an upcoming update while it works on making it more visible. "Adjustments to Gaia and Gaia Blackcell Operator Skins are in the pipeline for Modern Warfare III," said the developer. "In a future game update, we'll disable this item until said changes can be released to all players."

  • Unfortunately, the Gaia skin is far from the only issue that players have had with MW3 so far, with many of the questions in the AMA thread relating to "Skill-based matchmaking," or SBMM for short, going unanswered. The controversial system pits players of similar skill levels against one another based on their recent and overall performance, resulting in challenging lobbies that feel like ranked games.

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