Because it keeps people of the 21st century playing their videogames. Of course the game itself should offer enough to keep people playing(and I still have phases like twice a year where I play RO constantly for 2 weeks), but customization offers more variety, gives more motivation to keep playing and offers room for small DLC. And of course it should've give anyone huge advantages, but except for cosmetic stuff like maybe uniforms there definitely has to be a small charm to it, like the advanced K98 scopes.
I happen to be feeling really sick then I ust read this....
You sound like the President talking about giving incentives for small businesses or welfare or something like that, this is game and it is supposed to be fun, I shouldn't have to be "motivated" to play, it should already be fun.
Leveling systems are the worst thing to happen to shooters because it makes you feel like a badass when your not, I feel like a badass in Red Orchestra when I nail a guy with a Mauser from 500 yards away, clear out a trench with a PPsh, or take out a T34 with a Panzerfoust, not because I boosted for 8 hours....
The perks in CoD are gimmicks, it gives you extra power or faster reloads for no reason, and the majority of the guns are pretty much the same thing, I mean does it REALLY matter if I'm using an American M4 or a German equavlant G36?
No, Red Orchestra is supposed to be about historical realism, not to the point where your dying of typhus but to the point where the battles themselves are realistic.
Say for example the grain elevator, I know that most of the Russians who defended it were Marines, their commander was young, and they had 2 Maxim machine guns. I want to see that, I want to see their uniforms and appropriate level of "grizzledness", I want to see the platoon commander as a young officer, and I want to see two Maxim machine guns.
Red Orchestra is supposed to portray the Ostfront as realistically as possible while still keeping it a fun and challenging game, CoD and its ripoffs are about living out materialistic, macho fantasies.