Infinity Ward Responds to Modern Warfare 2 Controversy

[slopeslider]

Here's the thing. The people who have trouble navigating a server browser are people who don't play PC games because the complexity - whether actual or merely just an appearance - is overwhelming and intimidating. It's a barrier that needs to be overcome to start branching out from the "core" crowd - which is something that I think many developers are trying to do.

This argument is baloney. Those who are intimidated by a server browser are more likely to not enter PC gaming because they would also be intimidated by PC's.

The idea that they need to branch out from the core crowd is also baloney. You're looking at such a small piece of the pie and all you do is alienate your core user base. A perfect example of this is L4D. I >still< despise getting a game going because it lacks a functional in game server browser*.

To assume that there is a even a minor demographic just chomping at the bits ready to play MW2 on PC and then choosing not to because there is a server browser is just absurd, especially considering that "PC's are intimidating" to those who are "intimidated by server browsers".

All this is is a slap in the face to your core demographic ~ the ones who DO buy your product. This is the sort of thing that makes me, someone who might have bought it at some point, just not buy it.

you know people that play consoles usually have a computer, right? quit trying to make us look like "derp! computers r bad! derp derp!", whats wrong with a company trying to make money by making a product easier for people to use? also, they are not eliminating their core user base by implementing a better way to get said user base bigger, the core user base will always be there because they like the game, not what features the game has.

your aware that you wont get a rig ready to play mw2 without adding stuff yourself to it right? sure everyone has a pc but few have the required specs to play mw2, those that do are not intimidated by server browsers and such.

 

[slopeslider]

Here's the thing. The people who have trouble navigating a server browser are people who don't play PC games because the complexity - whether actual or merely just an appearance - is overwhelming and intimidating. It's a barrier that needs to be overcome to start branching out from the "core" crowd - which is something that I think many developers are trying to do.

This argument is baloney. Those who are intimidated by a server browser are more likely to not enter PC gaming because they would also be intimidated by PC's.

The idea that they need to branch out from the core crowd is also baloney. You're looking at such a small piece of the pie and all you do is alienate your core user base. A perfect example of this is L4D. I >still< despise getting a game going because it lacks a functional in game server browser*.

To assume that there is a even a minor demographic just chomping at the bits ready to play MW2 on PC and then choosing not to because there is a server browser is just absurd, especially considering that "PC's are intimidating" to those who are "intimidated by server browsers".

All this is is a slap in the face to your core demographic ~ the ones who DO buy your product. This is the sort of thing that makes me, someone who might have bought it at some point, just not buy it.

you know people that play consoles usually have a computer, right? quit trying to make us look like "derp! computers r bad! derp derp!", whats wrong with a company trying to make money by making a product easier for people to use? also, they are not eliminating their core user base by implementing a better way to get said user base bigger, the core user base will always be there because they like the game, not what features the game has.

your aware that you wont get a rig ready to play mw2 without adding stuff yourself to it right? sure everyone has a pc but few have the required specs to play mw2, those that do are not intimidated by server browsers and such.

before you come across as a pc elitist, let me get it right, in order to play a pc game, you need to basically know how to build a computer by yourself?

and really this whole complaint is because IW is dumbing down how you connect to games. that cant be the case due to the thousands of CSS kids that run amok, go ahead and ask them about what their motherboard make is, I dare you.

also, a number of computer stores will install graphics/sound cards for a small fee, so yes even the casual gamer can and would be able to play MW2 on a PC, and also be bewildered by server browsers.

So we should eliminate them? Your argument is a good one for including MM, but a horrible one for ELIMINATING dedicated servers. many games have done p2p, none have done well on pc. Why must you take away what hundreds of thousands prefer?
'I think its hard navigating the escapsit site, they should just make a 'read article' button and let me see a random article. because browsing the forums is difficult for me personally. OH and completely scrap the traditional way of navigating this site in favor of my way.'
That's what this argument sounds like. You want an easy button, sure. you want ONLY an easy button, no way.

Edit: I find it hard to believe that you are a casual gamer if you just spent $1500 on a gaming pc.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

So we should eliminate them? Your argument is a good one for including MM, but a horrible one for ELIMINATING dedicated servers. many games have done p2p, none have done well on pc. Why must you take away what hundreds of thousands prefer?
'I think its hard navigating the escapsit site, they should just make a 'read article' button and let me see a random article. because browsing the forums is difficult for me personally. OH and completely scrap the traditional way of navigating this site in favor of my way.'
That's what this argument sounds like. You want an easy button, sure. you want ONLY an easy button, no way.

Edit: I find it hard to believe that you are a casual gamer if you just spent $1500 on a gaming pc.

to your edit, thats why computers are upgradable, so you dont have to spend $1500 at once.

but I for one would enjoy a "random article" button, thats not a bad idea to be honest. but in a way this fixes grind servers if you think about it, people that would just jump in with people they already know and run round after round getting red tiger, or grinding their 5th prestige. as for private matches for only your friends, there's, well, private match, not only does it block your xp from going up, but its there for you to have fun with your friends. because of this I can almost garantee they will have some sort of friends list in the game.

Steam already has a pretty good set up, even having x-fire could keep you in touch with your friends.

But why would we want to play a private match with just our friends? And that's assuming they can be assed to play when I feel like it. That's a horrible alternative to finding my regular servers, joining one, saying 'Hi guys' to whoever is on and start having griefer, abuser and racist free fun.

 

[slopeslider]

So we should eliminate them? Your argument is a good one for including MM, but a horrible one for ELIMINATING dedicated servers. many games have done p2p, none have done well on pc. Why must you take away what hundreds of thousands prefer?
'I think its hard navigating the escapsit site, they should just make a 'read article' button and let me see a random article. because browsing the forums is difficult for me personally. OH and completely scrap the traditional way of navigating this site in favor of my way.'
That's what this argument sounds like. You want an easy button, sure. you want ONLY an easy button, no way.

Edit: I find it hard to believe that you are a casual gamer if you just spent $1500 on a gaming pc.

to your edit, thats why computers are upgradable, so you dont have to spend $1500 at once.

but I for one would enjoy a "random article" button, thats not a bad idea to be honest. but in a way this fixes grind servers if you think about it, people that would just jump in with people they already know and run round after round getting red tiger, or grinding their 5th prestige. as for private matches for only your friends, there's, well, private match, not only does it block your xp from going up, but its there for you to have fun with your friends. because of this I can almost garantee they will have some sort of friends list in the game.

Steam already has a pretty good set up, even having x-fire could keep you in touch with your friends.

Would you like 'random article' if it was the ONLY way to browse other than doing a search? No browsing the escapist, you must pick a random article, or write your own and invite people to look at it. No browsing to find articles that interest you. random or search. Oh and btw you can only search people's articles for whom you are friends with.
sounds awesome doesnt it?

 

[shadow skill]

So we should eliminate them? Your argument is a good one for including MM, but a horrible one for ELIMINATING dedicated servers. many games have done p2p, none have done well on pc. Why must you take away what hundreds of thousands prefer?
'I think its hard navigating the escapsit site, they should just make a 'read article' button and let me see a random article. because browsing the forums is difficult for me personally. OH and completely scrap the traditional way of navigating this site in favor of my way.'
That's what this argument sounds like. You want an easy button, sure. you want ONLY an easy button, no way.

Edit: I find it hard to believe that you are a casual gamer if you just spent $1500 on a gaming pc.

to your edit, thats why computers are upgradable, so you dont have to spend $1500 at once.

but I for one would enjoy a "random article" button, thats not a bad idea to be honest. but in a way this fixes grind servers if you think about it, people that would just jump in with people they already know and run round after round getting red tiger, or grinding their 5th prestige. as for private matches for only your friends, there's, well, private match, not only does it block your xp from going up, but its there for you to have fun with your friends. because of this I can almost garantee they will have some sort of friends list in the game.

Steam already has a pretty good set up, even having x-fire could keep you in touch with your friends.

Would you like 'random article' if it was the ONLY way to browse other than doing a search? No browsing the escapist, you must pick a random article, or write your own and invite people to look at it. No browsing to find articles that interest you. random or search. Oh and btw you can only search people's articles for whom you are friends with.
sounds awesome doesnt it?

Totally awesome dude.

 

[shadow skill]

So why not provide the same kinds of stuff if possible to the consoles? UT3 already has proven that this can be done. In other words raise the quality of the experience instead of weakening it. It takes less time to simply hard code everything than it does to provide options, should gamers be happy when developers don't give players options like inverting the X and Y axis?

 

[slopeslider]

So why not provide the same kinds of stuff if possible to the consoles? UT3 already has proven that this can be done. In other words raise the quality of the experience instead of weakening it. It takes less time to simply hard code everything than it does to provide options, should gamers be happy when developers don't give players options like inverting the X and Y axis?

Agreed. If IW wanted to make the same game one all 3 why not force PC users to use a joypad and analog sticks? why should they have their 'suprerior' option? Dual sticks works on the consoles, so it must be perfect for pc right?
And if you said you'd rather have a random button only on the escapist, few would agree with you.
dummies.

 

[Wicky_42]

I just don't get the whole 'PC server interfaces are scary' shit - if someone is scared by said interface, but is still interested in online gaming, then THEY PROBABLY GOT A CONSOLE. Christ, it's not complicated. Everyone who plays online on the pc is by now COMPLETELY adjusted to finding a server with as many people as they want to play against, with a suitable ping - unless, of course, the only games they play are DoW2 and L4D, and don't get me started on how awkward those systems can make it just to get into a damn game.

DoW2 will seemingly randomly gain and drop players as it tries to get 6 people together, and when it finally does you seem to be paired with people on the other side of the world, with all the lag-induced death that that implies. I don't play it online any more because of its matchmaking - I'd like to know what's going on behind that little loading symbol - better yet, let me bloody pick the server, Microsoft jackasses :/

I was on the fence for MW2 - the single player looked tantalisingly polished, and the multiplayer could be a good laugh. However, with price hike and a retarded matchmaking system I think I'll wait until it's in the bargain bins, thanks all the same IW. Come back when you remember how to cater for more than just consoles - don't for one second PC gamers need their experience literally 'dumbed down'.

 

[Therumancer]

Is it just me, or does it seem that EVERY big game nowadays needs some kind of controversy? Either it's something technical, over race, or some kind of business battle like with Brutal Legend.

I mean seriously, this is getting to the point where soon I'm going to expect something controversial about every game. I'd imagine marketing people sit around and plan these leaks years in advance... including the timing of this news to get the name "Modern Warfare 2" out there where it wasn't before. People strangely being convinced to buy the game just so they can whine about the multiplayer and find camradarie or whatever.

Truthfully, I've been waiting for Gearbox deciding to do something like patch Roland in Borderlands so he's suddenly a white guy, and then claim (true or not) "well, hardly anyone was playing him online so we decided to make him more appealing to the mainstream" or something similar. The massive resulting outcry from everyone (including those without the game would of course get attention and probably quadruple it's sales overnight. Not to mention providing Gearbox with an everlasting Lolcow that they can squeeze by "apologizing for their previous slight" whenever they need to hype a new game.

At any rate, let's see if they say "psyche" at some point during this whole MW 2 contreversy and shift things now that they have attracted the promotional bliss inherant in nerd rage.

 

[sgrif]

If I had to chose between LAN in SCII or dedicated servers in MW2, I'd take the dedicated servers. Although as long as it's not the system where one player "hosts" the game, I'd probably be ok with neither.

 

[MR T3D]

If I had to chose between LAN in SCII or dedicated servers in MW2, I'd take the dedicated servers. Although as long as it's not the system where one player "hosts" the game, I'd probably be ok with neither.

yeah, its either a dedicated server, or 1 player hosts, there can't be a 3rd option.
**except, maybe, Dev hosting servers for everyone, but that is unlikely.

 

[4RT1LL3RY]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warefare on PC sold 1.88 million copies.
Currently 128 thousand people have signed the petition and is still rising.

So currently about 6.8% of its ales would be gone. You might say it is a small amount, maybe, but the game would make $7.68 million dollars less then it could have.

No matter how small an amount of people, $7.68 million is a lot of money. The amount of money lost will continue to grow, but MW2 will still be a hit on consoles at the very least.

I hope MW2 for PC sells likes the PSPGo in Australia, like a piece of shit.

 

[Baneat]

No.

This is in the release, and I won't get the game.
Seriously.

 

[ratix2]

I really want to meet these people who have trouble navigating a server browser.

Surely natural selection should have done it's thing by now.

Here's the thing. The people who have trouble navigating a server browser are people who don't play PC games because the complexity - whether actual or merely just an appearance - is overwhelming and intimidating. It's a barrier that needs to be overcome to start branching out from the "core" crowd - which is something that I think many developers are trying to do.

You can't, Funk. You cannot make PC gaming a simplistic plug-and-play experience where everything works every single time. There's too many little pieces of a moving puzzle when it comes to PCs. If they have trouble with something as simple as a server browser, they are going to be hopelessly lost in the sauce when something big hits them.

Which is why PC gaming is frustrating to many.

I like TF2. I want to enjoy TF2 with a buddy of mine who now lives on the opposite side of the country, and whose last foray into PC gaming was... uh, possibly the original StarCraft. If we were playing on the 360, it'd be as easy as putting the disc in and playing together. But we don't want to play on the 360, we want to play on the PC. I think IW taking steps to make the PC gaming process as painless as possible is a good thing.

No, they can't fix everything, but that's no excuse to not try to make things easier. It's like saying "Well, my home will never be 100% clean, so I might as well not do the laundry."

sorry, but how is it HARD to play tf2 with friends? its painfully easy in my opinion, just as easy as with xbox live and easier than psn. just go to the friends list and say join game. im sorry, but if more people did things the way valve does them then this "problem of playing with friends" wouldnt exist. but hey, thats what xfires for too, playing games with friends whos developers DONT do things in the painfully easy way's valve does them.

seriously, iw needs to look at left 4 dead. its the best of both worlds that iw seems incapable of giving players. dedicated servers and valve provided servers, mods and easy to find a game with out without friends. now while it doesent have the same kinds of server browsers as with other games it still has somewhat of a server browser.

seriously, if valve and blizzard can do it why can iw? just do that and make everyone happy. its all of this, the fact that not only can other developers do it, but that they DO do it, that makes me believe the primary purpose of this is just so they can sell more dlc.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

It's announcements like these that make me glad I've stopped caring about those franchises ages ago - now instead of getting angry I just view each new story like this as additional evidence that I made the correct choice (ignore them forever).