Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Content Collection 1 arrives in the PlayStation Store today, and it brings with it a whole weekend of double XP. This is the biggest DLC collection in franchise history, offering four multiplayer/Survival mode maps – Piazza, Liberation, Overwatch, and Black Box – as well as two all-new Special Ops missions, Black Ice and Negotiator. That kind of content doesn’t just make itself, so I asked Mark Rubin, Executive Producer at Infinity Ward, for some insight into how the studio approaches making add-on content for MW3.

Dan Amrich: Everybody has different tastes in maps. When you put together a collection, are you trying to please different groups of fans with specific maps, or do you try to make every map have something for everyone in it?

Mark Rubin: Any map can come up at any time in any game mode, so we never want to make a map that leaves players thinking “this isn’t for me.” Even when we design a map like Liberation, which snipers enjoy with its long sight-lines, we still create areas for players who enjoy, say, close-quarter combat. The central bridge and underground bunker in Liberation are a great example of this. It’s something for everyone, but we try to really offer something of value to each subset of players.

The locales represented in Collection 1 are literally all over the map – a seaside village in Italy, a swanky neighborhood in California, and the heart of Manhattan. How do you choose where a map will be located, and does that location determine what kind of gameplay works best there?

It’s a brainstorming process. Sometimes we think about the single-player campaign and ask “What’s going on a few blocks over? What’s happening that we aren’t currently seeing?” Other times, it’s dreaming up environments that offer the most tension and danger; it’s hard to beat Overwatch for that in Collection 1 – gun battles on a skyscraper are definitely dangerous. Other times we go for locales we’ve never seen before, or something that the art team wants to try out. I’m really proud of them on this collection; it’s worth stopping and looking around a map like Piazza to appreciate just what a good job all the art teams have been doing. And every now and then, someone will go to a great vacation spot somewhere around the globe and think, “This is gorgeous – and it would be a great CTF arena!”

I know each map goes through a revision process. How long does it take to make a map, generally? And with constant iterations, how do you know when you’re done?

We start a level by prototyping the map geometry. Before we decide on a final theme or setting, it’s more important that we get the level layout locked down – it needs to flow correctly, it needs to offer a lot of interesting engagement points. And that can take several months, with playtesting and polishing. As for how to know when it’s done…it just feels right. When the team agrees, from playing it, that things feel balanced, we know it’s ready.

What makes a map fun?

Player interaction and variety. When you spawn on the map, you want to run into other people – that’s the interaction. Maps with interesting choke points and clear pathways feel very satisfying to most players, because they know they’re going to get into battles in those areas. The tight corridors of Air Force One in Black Box are a good example. Yet elsewhere in Black Box, you have completely different environments – inside fancy mansions, a few construction areas. They look and feel different from the airplane sections, and that’s where variety comes in.

Which map in Collection 1 is your favorite to play, and why?

This is like asking someone to choose between their children, and I won’t fall into that trap. I hope everybody enjoys all four of the multiplayer maps. That’s why we made them.

Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer, and Raven Software all square off in a MW3 lobby. Which studio wins?

Do you even have to ask?

Somehow I knew the answer to that last one. Content Collection 1 is available now in the PlayStation Store for $14.99, and double XP kicks in on Friday – all players, all modes. Enjoy it!

That said, the gap between the masters and the students is not that wide. We’re all playing for the same reason – Call of Duty games are fun, that’s all. I’ll always take an opportunity to learn and improve, but even when I get my ass handed to me online, as long as I enjoy the company of the people I’m playing with, I’m more likely to leave a session laughing, regardless of KDR.

This is where Call of Duty Elite comes in. Not many games have 30 million people playing them, so the idea behind Elite was to give all those players a common ground – a service that would help them connect, compete, and improve. We’re all playing together as it is; let’s play together better.

This summer, some of you may have had a chance to check out the Elite beta, which gave PlayStation 3 players an early taste of the service. The beta only incorporated data from Black Ops, but Elite’s launch date of November 8 – same as Modern Warfare 3 – is no coincidence. The beta was truly just the beginning. Well, before the beginning, if you think about it.

Check your stats. Tweak your loadouts. Analyze heat maps from all the matches you’ve played in the last month and learn what you did right and wrong. See your stats using each weapon in the game and get detailed advice on how to use it better. Track your performance and compare it instantly to that of your friends on custom leaderboards. Create a clan and Join social groups of players with similar interests. I found groups for guitars, juggling, and Ghostbusters; if you don’t see what you’re looking for, you can create your own. (You are hereby invited to join the OneOfSwords group – that one’s mine.)

All that stuff is free. No charge. Thank you for being a Call of Duty player, says Activision. Enjoy this extra stuff.

What’s more, in MW3, Elite is fully integrated into the game. Wanna change your loadout during the day for your big match that night? Just visit the website, change your settings, and it will automatically push to the game, waiting for your next login. Don’t want to use the web? Use your iOS or Android device. Just want to do it all on your console? No problem – there’s a PlayStation 3 downloadable program that you can download and use from directly within MW3. That Elite PS3 application is free. The mobile app is free. The website is free, too.

If you are a dedicated player and you want more from Elite, you can sign up for a premium membership (using the funds in your PlayStation Wallet, of course) to access a ton of extra features – most notably, you’ll get ALL of the MW3 DLC content as soon as it is released on PS3, ready and waiting for you the day it comes out. You’ll also have access to exclusive Elite TV programming to high-stakes competitions for real-world prizes (like iPads, Jeeps, and trips to Paris) to more video storage space to all the MW3 DLC that will be released, ready and waiting for you on the day it’s released. There’s a big chart that goes into all the relevant details here. And if you like what you see, anybody who activates a premium membership before November 13 will receive Founder status, which comes with its own benefits. Plus, you get to say “I was there from the beginning.”

Regardless of how you wind up using Call of Duty Elite, just remember why it’s there: to serve and unite the community of CoD players. Maybe you’re wonderful sniper, maybe you’re terrible flag runner, or maybe you’re simply a work in progress as a player. Call of Duty Elite is here to make your triumphs into celebrations, your losses into educational tools, your performance into prizes, and your opponents into your friends. After all, we all have one big thing in common.

As always, we’re focused on bringing a little something for everyone in the Resurgence Package. Take Carnival, a desolate and large amusement park that’s perfect for objective gametypes and offers some amazing vantage points atop the wooden roller coaster “Dragon’s Den” or the looming sniper spot positioned high above “The World Of Tomorrow.” This place is like nothing you’ve ever seen in multiplayer before, with distinct locations all around the map which are perfect for calling out enemy positions and working tactically with your team.

Fuel is a sniper’s haven in this massive desert oil refinery with wide-open areas and extremely long sightlines. If you’re running and gunning, stick to the buildings in the center or take the underground tunnel route to get out to the snipers in the surrounding rocks and oil pumps. Trailer Park is maze of thin sheet metal fencing, torn up trailer units, and cluttered recreation areas. Trailer Park is ideal for the FMJ mod, and offers some insane Headquarters matches due to the soft cover points and thin walls that surround the objectives. We’ve also brought back two more fan favorite and classic Call of Duty 4 maps; Vacant and Strike. We’ve made some key tactical changes to both maps that veteran Call of Duty 4 players will pick up and start taking advantage of immediately. Such as the opening of the back room by Objective point C in the marketplace on Strike, and the now more accessible top floor of the flower shop overlooking the main street. On Vacant, the back gate of the office complex that leads to the hallway will now be open on specific gametypes like Demolition to give the defending team a faster route to the objective.

That’s just a bit of the new details you’re about to discover when you jump online and start exploring the five new locations the Resurgence Package adds to Modern Warfare 2. You’ll also notice we’ve changed up the playlists to introduce some new game modes and accommodate the new maps. You can now choose to play exclusively on the new Resurgence maps by choosing one of the two Resurgence playlists at the bottom. Just like last time, Resurgence and Hardcore Resurgence offers a variety of game modes to play. We’ve also introduced two completely new mosh-pit style playlists called “Barebones Pro” and “Objective Barebones Pro” which both have Killstreak Rewards disabled. So set up a new create a class, strip off Cold Blooded because you won’t be needing that, and see what it’s like to go head-to-head with no air support to worry about.

Most importantly though, let us know what you think. We’ll continue to change up the playlists based on YOUR feedback. So if there is a gametype variant or cool combination you’d like to see in a future playlist update, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@fourzerotwo) to keep track of those changes and let us know your thoughts!

First and foremost, the first downloadable content for Modern Warfare 2 — The Stimulus Package — will hit the PSN Store for $14.99 and bring with it five new maps to the multiplayer of MW2. Included in those five new maps are two classic Call of Duty 4 maps that we all know and love, and three completely new locations that offer a variety of unique locations for your favorite gametypes. The Stimulus Package includes:

Bailout – An American apartment complex that is amazing for objective gametypes, especially Capture the Flag, but one of those maps that works well regardless of what type of game you’re playing it on. Its long sightlines — like sniping from a blown-out wall of a second-story apartment suite — give it some nice spots for long-range sniping but also has plenty of flanking routes through the bullet-riddled gym, hallways, lobbies, and interconnecting units.

Salvage – A snowy junkyard covered in debris, crushed cars, and my favorite aspect — no place to hide (well, maybe one, but hiding in the dog house isn’t going to win you the game). This aspect of beautiful but simplistic design is what makes Salvage my new favorite map for Hardcore Team Deathmatch; it forces you to rely on your speed, accuracy, and skill. It’s all about offensive, sorry campers! This map is about getting in and STAYING in the fight.

Storm – A rainy warehouse district on the outskirts of a looming thunderstorm with booming lightning and rolling thunder. A massive interconnected warehouse with overhead walkways and plenty of machinery for cover makes this great for big team games. With plenty of surrounding outdoors areas for flanking or cutting through the connected buildings, this is a map that benefits from two teams working together to control their area and lock down domination points. This map has a great atmosphere and always results in some insane HQ games.

Crash – A war-torn urban environment with a crashed helicopter surrounded by several great vantage points. Whether you’re taking pop shots from the three-story building overlooking the map, or covering the center objective point from the second story of the appropriately named “blue room” windows, Crash is the first fan-favorite map to make a return from Call of Duty 4, and is one those multiplayer locations that is perfectly balanced regardless of the gametype you throw on it. Team Deathmatch is king on Crash for me personally and we’ve maintained every cover, sniper vantage, and perfect ‘nade spot you’ve grown to love, but have also filled the map out with even more detail.

Overgrown – A massive and open village divided down the center by a dried-up creekbed. Overgrown is a snipers paradise with its high grass, super-long sightlines, and earns its cred as one of our largest multiplayer maps. It’s back by popular demand from the community, and was one of my personal favorite maps of all time from Call of Duty 4. It’s been updated with some new lightning and atmospheric changes, yet maintains its trademark flow and appeal for big team games.

When you jump online to enjoy the new maps, you’re also going to be greeted with a few new additions to the playlists structure in multiplayer. You’ll notice two new playlists added to the bottom of the list: Stimulus & Stimulus Hardcore. These two playlists will allow you to play your favorite gametypes on ONLY the new maps. That way you get to experience them as much as you like.

Stimulus – This playlist will include all gametypes for 8-12 players and rotating through ONLY the new Stimulus Maps.

Stimulus Hardcore – This playlist will include Hardcore Ricochet Team Deathmatch, Hardcore Ricochet HQ Pro, Hardcore Ricochet Search and Destroy for 8-12 players and rotating through ONLY the new Stimulus Maps.

While these two playlists are reserved for those who download The Stimulus Package, the same day we’ll also be introducing an all new playlist for ALL Modern Warfare 2 players.

Team Tactical – 6-8 Players playing small team based games with Team Deathmatch, Domination, Capture the Flag, and Demolition. (First Person viewpoint)

This playlist is being added by HUGE demand from the community on our forums, Twitter, and other messages you’ve sent in to us; in addition to another requested change of adding the Ranger maps (Terminal, Skidrow, Highrise, Invasion) to the HC HQ Pro playlist.

When I said onslaught, I MEANT onslaught!

That’s not even all. When all these updates hit tomorrow on May 4th, we’ll also be flipping the Double XP switch for the first time, ON ALL PLAYLISTS, FOR ALL PLAYERS! So when you jump online you’ll be earning twice as many XP for your kills and objectives to help you finish off that Prestige you’ve been working on or, for all you level 70s, the deciding factor to take the leap into the next Prestige.

Tomorrow is all about adding even more mileage to your Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer, giving you all new locations to play, new playlists to play them on, and Double XP to make it all that much sweeter. I look forward to seeing all of you online!

You can follow official Modern Warfare 2 updates and news on Twitter by following @fourzerotwo.