Modern Warfare 2 - The Boycott and You

**oniell121** · 10-27-2009, 08:45 PM

Modern Warfare 2 - The Boycott and You

What? There is a boycott going on? Yes that is correct, another boycott is afoot; this one with more substance and more PC gamer outrage than the last one that the PC gaming crowd saw. Before diving into the specifics and how this affects TG as a community, let me first share a little story.

On Sunday the 25th, I trudged in to my local Gamestop. Instead of doing the usual poking through the boxes of old used games and peeking at the store's dwindling number of PC games and marched straight up to the counter.
"I want to cancel my Modern Warfare 2 PC game." I placed the pre-order receipt on the counter and waited for the money back.

"You know," he said, poking at his display, "I've had more PC copies canceled then the copies I pre-ordered today. Even those have all been for 360s and PS3s.

The guy clearly knew what all the hubbub was about; I'm sure he heard the PC cancel rant a quite a few times today, I wasn't about to tell him again. I left the store, a few bucks richer, but still upset at this turn of events.

Bad News First

Not to be confused with earlier anger about price, those boycotting MW2 cite the absence of dedicated servers. These servers run 24/7, the location can be chosen and in turn the ping from certain areas, and have various other advantages. In MW2, this system will be replaced with IWnet, a match making service. All games will be hosted on the IWnet servers. For those who game on consoles, the idea of a finely tuned match making service is a dream come true. But those on the PC see it as a large departure from a system that works. With match making, the gamer is unable to choose their server and ping as well as choosing to play on a server with the kind of tactical game play that TG offers.

Infinity Ward and Activision seem to be bring the "console" way of play to the PC. TG is a PC driven community. TG members play on PC for a variety of reasons, may it be the ability to customize hardware, controller preference, or simply a liking to PC.

Apart from match making, downloadable content (DLC) will be charged for, and mods will essentially be eliminated, and perhaps even custom content along with it. Let me put this into perspective: without mods, TG would never have Project Reality; a mod so popular here, more people play it than Battlefield 2 vanilla.

This means that the individual player cannot choose a server on their own. The player doesn't even know where they are connecting too.

Even though this sounds all well an good, this is the same as local hosting. An individual's computer cannot provide the business class internet service to run a "server" that provides a good and stable connection to all those playing.

VAC doesn't need IWnet to function properly. Besides that, server admins do much more then just taking care of aim-bots and other such players. Being an effective server admin on TG calls for the watching of conduct, general maturity, and teamwork. VAC doesn't take care of that "team killer" or "bunny hopper" that one encounters quite often.

But that doesn't mean that the announcements were all bad. Right?

Good News Next

MW2 will be fully integrated with Steam along with the Valve Anti-Cheat System (VAC). Steam is integrated with a variety of games played here at TG, including (but not limited to): ARMA II, Counter-Strike: Source, Call of Duty 4, Left 4 Dead, and Team Fortress 2. Steam also comes with a great chat program as well as a great way to stay connected to friends playing a whole variety of games. Steam is a solid program; PC gamers can easily welcome this aspect of MW2. The use of VAC over Punkbuster; it may just be the "2142 experience" but Punkbuster has given me numerous problems requiring a variety of re-installs and odd fixes. These two additions can be seen as two true upgrades to the CoD franchise.

What Does this Mean for TG?

Dedicated servers allow for communities to spring upon the stationary games. Without dedicated servers, the large scale community we know as "TG" would be nearly impossible to exist. Without control of servers team-play could not be enforced, thus robbing TG and other fans of tactics of the ability to have a "home" for tactical gameplay. Whether you play Call of Duty or not, this development could possibility be a large turning point: if MW2 becomes the "blockbuster" game that it is made (and priced) to be, the concept of matchmaking on the PC could become a more common facet in the future. It still remains to be seen if the boycott will have enough people abstaining from the game to truly change and remove IWnet from the game. Over 164,000 people have already signed the petition pledging not to buy the game.

Outraged? Content? Participate!

Dedicated Servers for CoD:MW2 Petition
Dedicated Server Discussion - CoD:MW2 Forums
Infinity Ward Responds To PC Fanboys' Dedicated Server Woes - CoD:MW2 Forum
ack of dedicated servers and gaming

**oniell121** · 10-29-2009, 12:18 PM

I forgot to place it in, and I cannot edit this now, but this article was completely written by DrBeat. Thanks for your hard work!

Ivan_the_bad · 10-29-2009, 12:59 PM

Its the decline of civilization when Developers start getting rid of dedicated servers. So far this year its OFP dragon rising, and now COD MW2 what is happening with the gaming industry.

They seem to be taking two steps forward and ten steps back.

FLooDY · 10-29-2009, 01:08 PM

That was how they killed the Tom Clancy Rainbow Six games worried more about console players then PC players ....

**YdoUwant2know** · 10-29-2009, 01:48 PM

Penny Arcade sums it up. NSFW

**markolh** · 10-29-2009, 03:08 PM

i don't understand why they keep on trying to [screw] up what is a Perfect platform for gaming that is a PC.... sure... "might" be harder to pirates games on the consoles but PC games have like 20x the life expectancy of the consoles one.... Mods, internet communities, Clans to name a few.... i've been a fan of the COD series ever since the first one.... but if they do enforce that no dedicated servers?.... i might break that little tradition i have going

csxgamerz · 10-29-2009, 03:30 PM

This is gonna suck... If only the world revolved around PC gaming instead of console gaming... I want to see them put down the Halo Franchise and make it more arma like lol... then see how people like people screwing up others.

I preordered MW2 already but I never liked the multiplayer. I just like the story lines of games like those. Multiplayer kinda went fail when they gave players the ability to reload a P90 in .33359645 seconds and when people drop grenades when they die. Also, this will be lame without zombie mods and what not.

Honestly I don't know what games have gone to today. WTF??

They are turning good games into crap...
BF1942 ~ awesome
Vietnam ~ mehhh...
BF2 ~ rar idk... wait PR SAVED IT!!!!
BFBC ~ ok... please stay away from halo crap
BF2142 ~ stop making these games your only...
BF1943 ~ WTF? no no stop ok... you have officially killed the franchise?

its gone down the drain... same goes for the Tom clancy franchise and the CoD games...

Arma was the industry saying... "sorry were halofying everything... ill give something back"

gamerz...
not happy gamerz..

Eavy Gunner · 10-29-2009, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by csxgamerz

BF2142 ~ stop making these games your only...

They did a good job with 2142. It has loads of new features and engine improvements. And BFBC is using a new engine, so it's a totally different game, just same setting.

**Asta85** · 10-29-2009, 04:15 PM

I was actually considering buying it, but the server issue took care of that. Honestly, I would not have stumbled across such a great bunch of people, had the TG-BF2142 server not been just the way I like it, almost full, with great latency.

**MiamiHeat87** · 10-29-2009, 05:25 PM

Wow,

No dedicated servers for MW2 either? That is not good. You know I bought Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising for the purpose of having more action in my game. I like Project Reality but a game like ArmA is just too complicated for me for the simple fact I have to invest so much time in it to become proficient at it.

While I can do that, I don't have the time to do so. So when I bought OF

R, I was surprised there were no dedicated servers. I was ignorant about the game features available and assumed it would be apart of the game. It just makes SENSE. So after I had a good time on the single-player for a few hours, I hopped on multiplayer. When I found this out, my new $40 dollar game was taken out of my STEAM list immediately.

I refuse to play a game without dedicated server support for the fact of lag and the extreme issue of being able to play with a large player base in a single server. I will not buy MW2 at all.

**DrBeat** · 10-29-2009, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiamiHeat87

Wow,

No dedicated servers for MW2 either? That is not good. You know I bought Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising for the purpose of having more action in my game. I like Project Reality but a game like ArmA is just too complicated for me for the simple fact I have to invest so much time in it to become proficient at it.

While I can do that, I don't have the time to do so. So when I bought OF

R, I was surprised there were no dedicated servers. I was ignorant about the game features available and assumed it would be apart of the game. It just makes SENSE. So after I had a good time on the single-player for a few hours, I hopped on multiplayer. When I found this out, my new $40 dollar game was taken out of my STEAM list immediately.

I refuse to play a game without dedicated server support for the fact of lag and the extreme issue of being able to play with a large player base in a single server. I will not buy MW2 at all.

OPFP should be getting a patch to add servers I believe.

**Ferris Bueller** · 10-29-2009, 07:45 PM

OFPDR devs have said theyre considering opening up dedicated servers, but they dont know when its going to happen. IW is being stupid. With the release of newer and faster processors, faster RAM in larger quantities, and almost unlimited hard drive space, all for far cheaper than the cost of your average console, I really do believe that consoles are going to become laregely obsolete in a the next decade or so.

The reason? They cant keep up. The 360 is a 5 year old system. New developments in graphics and gaming, like CryEngine3 and DX11, are going to render that system useless for games that utilize said technology. So thats going to leave console developers with a choice: put out a new and ridiculously overpriced console that can handle it NOW but will rapidly get outdated by compuers, or suffer a mass-market failure.

Computer technology is accelerating, its science, and unless they start releasing consoles every year or two that can keep up with current technology, theyre going to be come dinosaurs really fast.

As far as the battlefield franchise goes, sure, it may be like beating a dead horse at this point to make new titles for it, but you also have to remember that BF2 alone is 6 years old and its still got thousands upon thousands of people playing it. So if DICE/EA stand alone (which they wont) as the people who are going to support dedicated servers for their titles, who do you think gamers are going to stick with?

**Bamboo** · 10-30-2009, 12:17 AM

Don't forget we have a really good thread on this topic going in the General TG forum
Lack of dedicated servers and gaming

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**INSUNABULA** · 10-30-2009, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markolh

PC games have like 20x the life expectancy of the consoles ones....

Game developers don't give a crap about you until they want you to buy the next game on their list - they are a buisness and once they have your money then any position you might have had in influencing their direction vanishes like a fart in the wind.

BigGaayAl · 10-30-2009, 03:39 PM

Just don't buy the game. The only mil shooters I am interested in is those made for only pc, and only multiplayer. Most of BF2's good points came from focussing on MP and PC only. In that sense, the BF2 engine to me is still the best one in its genre, ARMA2 in its genre. All the other shooters are just new skins and new titles for the console noobs. Even if they add dedicated servers, it will always be an afterthought. It just doesn't work well for online play if the game isn't designed around it from the start.

No problem though ppl. If they ditch PC gaming, that only means that the mods will last longer and evolve to be even better. We don't need the big publishers. They will come back to pc games sooner or later, because the market is still there. For now though only Valve and Blizzard have enough brains to make games that pc gamers will pay for. Next thing I buy would therefore probably be starcraft 2.

Remember, only buy mil sim if it is MP first and PC only!