Along with the undeniable torrent of Modern Warfare 3 information that will come out of E3 this year, we can also expect to hear more about Activision's newly outlined and rage-inducing Call of Duty Elite subscription plan. The news that Activision would plan to charge a monthly premium in addition to their standard retail release of their newest game sent shock waves of (understandable) protest from the internet. In fact, the news came across so audacious, that non-industry news outlets, such as Entertainment Weekly threw in their two-cents on the plan. Side note, read the Entertainment Weekly article when you get a chance, their take on the video game industry and video games as a whole is laugh-out-loud funny.

As far as the service goes, Activision has kept most of the details on the down low. While many of the pertinent details, such as price, remain withdrawn for now, Activision released an FAQ for those of us with questions they feel are frequently asked. The weighty six pages of marketing can be summed up pretty easily, for those of you who find corporate jargon to be less-than-fun. The main chunk of the document that isn't taken up with FAQs focuses on free content. Activision has chosen not to reveal any of the paid (premium) features at this time, due to their dependency on key Modern Warfare 3 features. Here are the highlights (remember, pretty much all of this information is about the free services):

For starters, put aside any illegitimate fears here. The drive of Elite seems to be providing additional forums of competition for hardcore players who spend the majority of their system time playing. While this doesn't mean you won't be interested if you're a Weekend Warrior like myself, it does mean that nothing actually has to change for the Call of Duty experience. Activision was pretty clear throughout the FAQ that "nothing will be taken away." This whole Elite thing does strike me as a slippery slope for subscription models and paid features in games, but for now, Activision seems like they would rather not receive letterbombs everyday for the next year and plan to leave you alone out of the box if that's what you want.

You can still buy DLC "ala carte (sic)" so no worries about doubling up your Live subscription with some kind of DLC plan.

Remember that three-pronged approach detailed in the Elite press release? It's still there, but now with actual features tied in. On the "Connect" front, Activision outlines some stat-tracking and clan-making features. Among these, the ability to compare your stats with friends via "easy to understand charts and infographics" has me interested. I'm a big nerd for numbers, and the idea of keeping tabs on your friend's performance in a side-by-side comparison seems pretty cool. The service will also provide clan competitions and advanced matchmaking based on interests of playing habits.

"Compete" info was pretty slim, although it's also a little self-explanatory. Activision outlined briefly a feature called "The Program Guide," which will allow players to access various events and tournaments hosted by the service. The competitions will offer "everything from digital trophies and badges to a new Jeep." This seems like it could fall on its face pretty quickly, but who knows?

"Improve" is actually quite an eyebrow-raising area of, well, improvement for the series' multiplayer. Described by Activision as "a personal online coach," these features include heat maps for match-by-match performance tracking (where you got killed, how, etc...), weapons performance (based on different situations), and comparisons to your other friends, allowing you to see areas where they excel and you don't. Once again, I'm an infographic guy, so I like the idea of finding out where and how I'm getting fragged the most.

Also mentioned in the document are some mobile features, only described as "iOS and Android applications." However, tucked away in a large, bullet point list of features is a mention of being able to "customize your loadout...search through all the weapons, attachments and perks, and push them directly into the game menu from the web or your mobile device with the touch of a button." While I wouldn't be too jazzed up for a stat-tracking or clan-based app on my phone, the ability to swap loadouts or fine-tune from an app might be really cool, depending on how it's actually carried out in November.

Last but not least, and I know this is a big concern for you guys since Activision listed it in the FAQ, players "are not able to buy prestige weapons or levels through Elite." Here I was losing sleep about people immorally prestiging.

All in all, the free features sound interesting, and, being free, won't hurt if you don't use them. The real question of course will come when Activision talks about premium features and a price tag. I can't imagine it'll be anything extraordinary, as these features are pretty heavily detailed and will probably be Activision's major drive this fall. I'm not really a big MMO player, so I don't know how I'd feel about a subscription to Call of Duty, but maybe you guys are. How are we feeling about this? If it still has you mad and hating on Kotick and crew, Activision has one piece of (directly quoted) marketing for you: "Even haters can play for free." That's bold, and underlined, so haters, Activision will still gladly let you pay play.