A View From the Road: Unreasonably Dedicated

[Unrulyhandbag]

To me this article is all backwards. It's not why are PC gamers whining about a lack of dedicated servers but more why haven't console gamers demanded them yet?

I honestly thought that the large amount of money paid for xbox live was used to maintain game servers until I bought my 360. I wasn't half disappointed.

 

[chieften]

I still don't quite understand their reasoning behind not opening the game up to modding. it seems to be a dick reason on their part by saying that simply they want the player to play the game the way they intended it to play.
Economically it still makes sense for Infinity Ward to put in the extra bit of work to capture the pc gaming community portion of the demand curve. And raising the price for PC gamers while reducing the overall quality of the product in comparison to MW1, reduces incentive for gamers to go out and buy MW2.

 

[Frank_Sinatra_]

After looking through these comments I can't help but think that you guys took the topic "skin" of MW2 and blew up over that instead of thinking about the "meat" that they are a very whiny bunch that needs to seriously take a good long look at how they react to such thing. They have a point with content being removed but they don't need to be so flippant about it.

 

[JeanLuc761]

oh well cant complain thats just the multiplayer game anyway single player is where the real action is
but i am still lamenting the dramatic change in multiplayer though

Yes, but I don't pay full price for a game that's only half good. And judging by how badly the game is bombing on the metacritic user reviews, I'm not the only one who thinks that.

 

[Nazulu]

After looking through these comments I can't help but think that you guys took the topic "skin" of MW2 and blew up over that instead of thinking about the "meat" that they are a very whiny bunch that needs to seriously take a good long look at how they react to such thing. They have a point with content being removed but they don't need to be so flippant about it.

It's not only the last minute changes that pisses 'em off, it's also the fact that there a lot of people who confuse them with 'PC elitists' and tell them to just get over it and let IW walk all over them.

I'm not the slightest bit interested with MW2 but almost the same thing happened with Brawl, so I kinda know the feeling. HAL told us they were going to do this and that and never did it, then they extended the release date by a couple of years and just before it was released, the fans found out all the flaws. Not to mention it was hyped to death!

There shouldn't be that attitude "just get over it" or "I don't care because I just play it for this", everyone should be working together to improve the experience.

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

Good points made in the article. But what I don't understand is how come everytime people mention pirating games, they only talk about PC games? As i've mentioned before, I have a PS3, xbox 360 and a gaming PC. Most of my friends have 360's, im the only one that doesn't have it modded. NONE of my friends have ever bought a legit copy of an xbox game. On the other hand, i've never pirated a PC game. Why? Cause theyre cheap. So can we stop pretending that console games somehow go unpirated?

 

[xscoot]

I'm glad this whole dedicated server thing happened. Otherwise, most of you would be buying MW2 right now. Regardless of whether or not it has dedicated servers, it's still a very poor quality game.

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

To further prove my point, go check mininova for moder warfare 2, the 360 version has the most downloads even if you add all the PC torrents toghether. So, the big problem is pirating in PC games is it?

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I'm sorry but I have to say this article has a bit of bollox and contradictory stuff in it.

Basically you said it is ok to be annoyed about features taken out that are key to PC gaming yet we are not meant to complain about it so we can have what we have said since day 1.

Fair enough if this was a new series and they did this but it isn't you can't do that so I will not get it.

 

[theaceplaya]

I decided a while ago that I would not buy this game for the PC or the Xbox until IW proves to me that IW.net is a significant improvement over dedicated servers. It's not like I hate IW now, I just want to make sure that bringing this system is a step in the right direction.

I totally dig your thinking. I vote we give it a shot and determine it's definitely subpar before writing it off.

 

[MR T3D]

I decided a while ago that I would not buy this game for the PC or the Xbox until IW proves to me that IW.net is a significant improvement over dedicated servers. It's not like I hate IW now, I just want to make sure that bringing this system is a step in the right direction.

I totally dig your thinking. I vote we give it a shot and determine it's definitely subpar before writing it off.

physics and logic dictate that IT CAN'T BE BETTER, is simply a matter of HARDWARE, no SOFTware can overcome that.

 

[luckshot]

I decided a while ago that I would not buy this game for the PC or the Xbox until IW proves to me that IW.net is a significant improvement over dedicated servers. It's not like I hate IW now, I just want to make sure that bringing this system is a step in the right direction.

I totally dig your thinking. I vote we give it a shot and determine it's definitely subpar before writing it off.

physics and logic dictate that IT CAN'T BE BETTER, is simply a matter of HARDWARE, no SOFTware can overcome that.

exactly, i remember the joys of playing halo multiplayer.

get into the proper lobby and wait.
if you are lucky and don't have to restart your search you can be playing a map or mode you don't like within 10 minutes with random people
vs
log on
select server
join

 

[CorpBlitz]

I have mid range dsl and I host matches on halo cod4 16 players perfectly fine. So surely the other millions with 30x faster cable modems would be fine.

You obviously don't live in Australia where our net connections are about as bad as they get due to stupid telco monopolies, trust me our 'high range' DSL connections are horrid. =<256kbit upstream. You might be able to spring for a 'business' style connection and get a 512kbit upstream if you can afford the $150/month fee.

ADSL2 is available in very few area's here but even those connections cap out at 1Mbit upstream generally.

 

[Undercover]

The PC has it's high points and it's low points, some games work better on a PC and some don't it's just a fact that PC gamers are going to have to get use to.

Great way to end the article right there.

I echo your sentiments, Frank but I'd like to make one small addendum to John's closing paragraph and thats this: A refusal to purchase does speak volumes, but a refusal to purchase with an explanation to the developer as to why you're not buying their game all but screams it. I'm a PC gamer, but I also like playing on consoles as well. I don't own a console (yet) but that will probably change soon.

The gaming machine I spent my hypothetical grandchildren's inheritance on will do nicely for now...

 

[SyphonX]

Ah, the obligatory "Piracy is guiding our decisions." statement, because apparently high-horsed and financially bloated gaming companies believe that every single download is a 'lost sale'. This is the belief of the MPAA/RIAA, when in fact, most of the awful pirates wouldn't have ever bought the game in the first place due to the fact that they're broke or don't want to burn 60 bills for a crappy over-hyped game. Considering every "review" is thoroughly padded with endorsements in return for good marks, it would be considerably difficult to get an honest opinion of the game. So, *gasp*.. people download them.

Any business selling digital media Should be "blown away" by high-pirate-numbers for their products, only in a positive "blown away". You see, games are not physical media anymore, at least they don't have to be, so money is not lost when it is downloaded. Instead, it is passed around just as it was in the infantile days of old, when you handed off your floppy or 8-bit cartridge to your friends, instantly creating free and effortless marketing exposure.

I just can't justify paying sixty dollars for a <5 hour experience, however "intense" it may be. I'd prefer to just watch a TV network action-movie marathon..

If gaming companies endorsed integrity and quality in their products more often and stopped bitching about money.. then maybe they will get the respect they deserve. People tire of hearing the fat cats whine, when in fact they are almost wiping their ass with cash reserves.

 

[BenzSmoke]

Good article. Now I can't decide if I'm with the Dedicated Servers on the PC crowd or not.

 

[sneakypenguin]

I have mid range dsl and I host matches on halo cod4 16 players perfectly fine. So surely the other millions with 30x faster cable modems would be fine.

You obviously don't live in Australia where our net connections are about as bad as they get due to stupid telco monopolies, trust me our 'high range' DSL connections are horrid. =<256kbit upstream. You might be able to spring for a 'business' style connection and get a 512kbit upstream if you can afford the $150/month fee.

ADSL2 is available in very few area's here but even those connections cap out at 1Mbit upstream generally.

O wow thats pretty quick, mine tops out at 150kbs dl and maybe 40 upload.

 

[GunFox]

Oh no how dare we, the consumer, want a feature in our product!

Shame on us for choosing to play the game on system which the series has been on since its creation.

Or for choosing to play an FPS with *gasp* a keyboard and mouse!

Or for wanting a feature in previous installments to also be included with the, notably more expensive, sequel.

Silly us, wanting to enjoy a game.

 

[RogNog]

In any large group of enpassioned people there will be representatives from all sides, from reasoned argument to irrational hatred and flaming. I honestly beleive the majority of the group who are boycotting MW2 are doing so for the right reasons. So please do not tar us with the same brush and by doing so further marginalise what I beleive to be a justified boycott

We wont buy this game, because they have effectively removed half of what it was through IWnet. We publically boycott it because of the way we have been treated. Now I dont mean the removal of servers and tools, its IW's game its up to them what they do with it. No, its the deceit and dismissal that have come from IW around this whole issue. Lets be honest IW stated that all the familar features were there from COD4 and then 402 in a podcast a month before release gets cornered into admitting that dedi servers are not coming. IW new people, clans and a large part of the hardcore market were gearing up for dedciated servers by preordering them arranging clans and ladders etc. and yet they choose not tell us. I really beleive that 402 didnt mean to blurt this out and from then they have been trying to convince PC gamers that they have found the holy grail of peer2peer when we know that every single game that has used it has miserably failed to deliver any semblance of game play online akin to dedicated servers. To compound this, what do IW do when they hear of the petition?, do they acknowledge our concerns but put their case forward. no they belittle and dismiss the petition and try to marganilise us.

All we wanted was honesty. You dont want to put in Dedis? fine but tell people and have a strategy to do so. We can then make a reasoned judgement whether to buy your game or not. Your strategy was clear, let them buy it and find out for themselves theres no dedis and by then its to late anyway. Its only because a poorly informed IW employee got cornered and blurted it out that we are where we are.

put simply, to me its half a game and therefore I dont want to buy it. More importantly however, I do not want to give my money to company that deceives and publically belittles its customer base.

 

[Lordmarkus]

Very nice article indeed.

We Pc-gamers should not complain, after all we get the game. But I find IW's hypocrisy very disturbing. I remember back in spring IW bragged about that they'd listen to all of its 10 million online players of ways to improve the multiplayer.

I wonder which one of those 10 million online players suggested to remove Dedicated servers & Mod tools and ad a 18 player limit.