Call of Duty: WW2 Adds Free Coaching And Feedback Through Alexa

Following up on last year's Destiny 2 Ghost Skill, Activision has now introduced an Alexa Skill for Call of Duty: WWII. The Skill is available now, and it supports all platforms for the game.

Speaking with Monte Lutz, SVP of consumer engagement at Activision, he explained, "It's essentially your coach that's there with you in the game. At the end of every match, within milliseconds of the match completing, it analyzes all your gameplay and then it looks at 20 different factors. And it'll make real-time recommendations about things you can adjust to be better."

In a press release, Activision detailed that the Skill has "15 categories of features" including:

• Personalized recommendations to improve your skills
• Match summaries and highlights of your recent gameplay
• Social features, including whether friends are currently playing, and comparing stats and achievements to theirs
• Contract and order status, both during and after a match, so that you see how close you are to completing the contract and earning a reward
• Latest in-game news, including events and game updates
• Game and features descriptions

As for how the coaching will work, Lutz says that the Skill will offer advice such as: "'Based on the fact that you're a sniper in this, you're moving too much, you're taking too many steps.' Or, 'This attachment could help your accuracy,' and whatnot. We noticed when players got that kind of feedback, they could immediately apply it into the game, and they actually played a lot better."

The app is programmed to be more or less aggressive with its feedback based on your playstyle. "You're not going to get the same response every time that you're in there," Lutz explains. "And even based on your skill as a player, that tone of the response is going to be different. We know that if you're a highly skilled player who plays a lot, you can take a little be more gruff; you can take a more direct response, and you're going to want to get back in the game right away. We know that if you're a more casual player, and you need a little extra assistance. If you hear Alexa insulting you about your gameplay, you're probably not going to respond too well. We're going to give you tips that are helpful to you as a player, but it's also in a tone that's much more helpful and motivating."

The voice is computer-generated, but Lutz says, "It's not the standard Alexa voice. It's a voice we selected that's more soldier-like that we think feels more natural with the game. That's gonna give us the flexibility to be able to adapt this more quickly. But also we're launching it in English, but using the Polly voice, we'll be able to develop and iterate more quickly; we're going to launch it in German and French in the near future as well."

How much better does Lutz think the game's coaching will make you? "In the playtests we've done, whether players are really good or whether they have a long way to go, it can help every one of them. I think for those players that have the most to learn, they have the biggest opportunity to improve. What happens is that people will jump into Call of Duty, and they'll play it the same way from game to game. They may have played the last five Call of Duty games, and they've always taken a shotgun or an SMG. They haven't experimented with other things. There are simple things that players can do that will make them much better based on how they play."

The Call of Duty skill is available for free through the Alexa companion app now, and we'll be trying it out in the office today to see if it can actually make K/D ratios a little less embarassing.