I am not primarily a Call of Duty gamer. I do like the game, I’ve dabbled with various games in the franchise and I’ve played it online, but I’m not “hardcore” by any means. That said, when I first heard about Call of Duty: Elite, I was a little skeptical about what the service would be offering. After having spent some time with the Elite beta, I now have (mostly positive) impressions of how it works and how it can benefit gamers.

Call of Duty: Elite will undoubtedly give gamers who enjoy playing Call of Duty: Black Ops an opportunity to expand their experiences beyond what they do online. The features of Call of Duty: Elite seem to be targeting gamers that spend a lot of time playing CoD. On the other hand, it also enhances what the current Xbox Live party feature already does by giving casual gamers the opportunity to pinpoint specific people to play with, via location or “group”.

Grouping is much like having a clan except it’s less structured and more informal. It’s organised so that people who enjoy playing with each other can stay together, interact and play games whenever one is organised. While the Xbox Live party system does some of this, the grouping system in Call of Duty Elite allows you to organise games with people who aren’t necessarily on your friends list. For example, you could have a social group such as a band that wants to play Call of Duty Black Ops. Elite will allow you to organise gaming sessions this way by grouping everyone together.

You can also link up your social media accounts such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to organise groups that way. There are many options to interact with other gamers outside of Xbox Live. The current Elite beta only services Xbox Live account users and PlayStation Network account holders but it will be introducing Steam accounts and linking for PC gamers as well.

The other features of the game expand the gaming experience such as giving gamers access to their personal game statistics online. If you’re particularly interested in your K/D ratio, your headshots, weapons used, bullets fired and so-on, Call of Duty Elite is definitely for you. However, casual gamers might not find this particular function of the service useful.

There is also an additional feature that can help gamers who are struggling with their gameplay. The “Improve” section of the site allows you to search for particular maps which then drills down into specifics for each. You can search information such as weapons used, perks added as well as statistics such as how many times you shoot down the spy plane on any particular map. The “Improve” area can be very specific and again, would be very helpful for those gamers who intend to play a lot of Call of Duty but perhaps not so suited to the casual gamer who plays a couple of games every month.

I think Call of Duty: Elite definitely has a place in the community for gamers who dedicate themselves to the franchise. But I disagree with the notion that Call of Duty Elite is a service for both hardcore and casual gamers alike. While the “Grouping” system may be slightly more beneficial to casual gamers than the Xbox Live party system, I don’t think many of the other features would be of significant interest to casual gamers.

As for the price of the service, there has been speculation about what it might cost, but the monthly price for the service is yet to be officially confirmed by Activision.

Call of Duty: Elite is currently in beta and will be officially released with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on the 8th of November, 2011.