MW3 Experimental Playlist Differences Explained

Sledgehammer Games has added an Experimental Playlist to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to test out tweaks and changes to the established multiplayer formula. If you aren’t already in the loop, though, it can be hard to tell what exactly has been changed in this mode.

MW3’s Experimental Playlist is a place for Sledgehammer to deploy risky changes to Modern Warfare 3’s gameplay without affecting the entire game. Not every change will be super meaningful, but the Experimental Playlist is home to tweaks that are much more substantial than simple stat buffs.

What’s Different in MW3’s Experimental Playlist?

The Experimental Playlist will have various changes from standard Multiplayer depending on what Sledgehammer Games is testing. The first iteration of the Experimental Playlist, live now in Modern Warfare 3 alongside Terminal 24/7, features outlines around players to help with visibility.

All allied Operators will have blue outlines, while enemy combatants are highlighted in red. Everything else in the Experimental Playlist is exactly the same as it is in standard Multiplayer gameplay. These outlines are intended to help players more easily tell friend from foe, and they should hopefully remedy some of the issues that the community has been having with problematic skins like Gaia and prevent future skin-related visibility issues from popping up in the future.

Related: MW3 Mission List: How Long is the Modern Warfare 3 Campaign?

Since the Experimental Playlist is, well, experimental, it’s not a guarantee that these player outlines will make it into Modern Warfare 3’s Multiplayer modes. Sledgehammer will issue an official survey in the coming days to gather player feedback on the outlines — a process that will surely be repeated for future Experimental Playlist changes — so be sure to let them know how you feel about these changes if you want to see them permanently adopted.

The Experimental Playlist is a great idea that will hopefully lead to great changes for MW3 Multiplayer. The community is already asking for more Experimental Playlist changes like faster health regeneration, movement changes, and other tweaks, so expect to see further Experimental Playlist testing throughout Modern Warfare 3’s life cycle.