mw2 for pc got screwed

In a webcast this morning, Robert Bowling revealed the existence of IWNet, a matchmaking service Infinity Ward will operate beginning with Modern Warfare 2. But it ends dedicated servers, and fundamentally changes the culture of the game's PC community.

Bowling, the Infinity Ward community manager, said IWNet makes multiplayer more accessible to the PC community on Modern Warfare 2, replacing the need for dedicated servers that are hosted and managed by players. But the hardcore PC crowd to whom he was talking, on BASHandSlash.com's webcast, did not take the news in a completely positive light.

"The silence you hear is because we've got a community right now structured in such a way that it relied on having dedicated servers," one of BASHandSlash's moderators told Bowling.

"You're definitely reshaping the way the community has been set up," another said later.

"Definitely," Bowling acknowledged.

Here's the score: by building up its own matchmaking service riding shotgun with Steam, "you can get in and play with players your same rank," Bowling said. However, "You're completely reliant on IWNet and there is no dedicated server or server list. You rely on IW Net for matchmaking and your games, but you still have your private matches."

The level of control over those matches allows players to set a wide array of parameters and rules for the game. But community features such as clans, and the high level of customization available in hosting a modded game or custom map on one's own dedicated server, face an uncertain future, if not their end outright.

"Custom content, after the fact, keeps the game alive for us a lot longer," one of Bowling's questioners said.

"This is the first time we've ever done something like this, obviously," Bowling said, "and I know the team has huge plans for what IWNet develops into, and this is just the beginning. It's hard for me to speak personally towward IWNet, because that is a code heavy project."

Bowling reminded that this method of multiplayer delivery also allows Infinity Ward "a lot more control and structure for the PC version. From a development standpoint, it's very good on how we can access and update the PC community."

But before this is taken as the definitive end of modding and custom maps, Bowling clearly said "I don't have those answers yet," when asked further about how IWNet would affect that aspect of PC Modern Warfare play.

The entire conversation is archived here, and Bowling comes in at the 1:39:00 mark (that's one hour, 39 minutes). If this matters to you I definitely encourage listening to all of what he has to say before reacting.

But the news is not being taken well. The BASHandSlash guys referred to the vehemence in the chatlog running concurrent with the program, and terms such as "Black Saturday" and "a day of infamy" are being thrown around. "They've made Jesus cry," is another reaction, particularly from the competitive PC community whose future also is affected. "The server community is what's made us. It's what defined us," says Josh Pickler of planetmedalofhonor.com "IW.NET is getting the PC community to turn into consoles. You're trying to re-write our history."

Bowling was steadfast in telling BASHandSlash that, for the whole of the community, IWNet will be a benefit.

"It's definitely going to be a change. It's going to be a very different setup than what we're previously used to in the Call of Duty franchise for the PC," In the long term it's going to help the community. It changes the way and how we're able to update and support the PC version."

It definitely bears watching, and keep in mind the story could change as Infinity Ward releases more information on IWNet.




lets just say, dedicated servers is what made pc multi fps great. being able to have 30 people in the server is what was a lot of fun. getting rid of it would basically boil down to "how many friends can you get online at the same time". i think this is one of the worse ideas they could have thought of. being able to join a dedicated server with people you play frequently is what made the pc fps fun. this is going to suck

But your still going to actually pay money for this though right? Even though the only reason there doing this is so they can sell you maps for silly prices rather than allow you to make your own.

It's a case of control. They don't want you buying your game then having fun they want you to buy your game then pay out more if you want extra. Never mind the fact they already tried to raise the price of the game on PC for no reason. That's not enough apparently.

But it's CALL OF TEH DUTY so it can get away with it. Don't see GTA, Halo, FF or any number of massive hitters pulling the same ******* so why people accept it here is beyond me.

I'd say vote with your wallet but people are happy to bow down to idiocy it seems what with there being no outcry from the day one map packs there selling. Still i got a giggle about how he tried spinning it into a good thing.

Servers community>matchmaking any day of the week. If theres one thing i've discovered since i got back into PC games online it's that matchmaking results in a **** load of right twats out to smack talk, glitch, cheat and generally act like assholes if you've got a server you've got a regular bunch of people that come on, have fun and just play a fair, even, fun game.

Never mind though, i wasn't planning on buying it anyway this just makes the decision all the more easier.


edit:

http://kotaku.com/5384290/dice-makes-ha ... d-server-controversy

Heres a guy who's going to get my money. Someone putting gameplay first realizing if you can build a solid online community more people will buy the game over time. Not some cocks more interested in how they can sponge more money out of there customers for a year before selling them the same **** again.

Not having to deal with matchmaking is half of the reason I play PC and they force it on to PC? No fair

yeah these petitions never really work. mostly because people don't care. hell uwn boll is still making movies

http://kotaku.com/5385941/modern-warfar ... ated-servers-says-iw

See when they do things like this. I become more irritated and more stubborn towards the whole matter.
Don't treat people like there morons. The general public sure but not on a website that mostly just gamers are going to be reading over. There the ones in the know who aren't going to just accept your word as fact.

Lets compare the two:
For servers:
Can i jump into a game almost instantly without any hassle? Yes
Can i use Mods? Yes
Can i play an unlimited amount of maps? Yes
Can i play with friends? Yes
Can i join a community, much like this very forum and frequently interact with the people of that community? Yes
Can i be raped silly with premium DLC? Nope, some servers ask for donations and give perks for those donors much like on here.
Do i have to put up with annoying racist, foul mouthed, bigot teenagers/children/jackasses that need to grow up? No.

For matchmaking:
Can i jump into a game almost instantly without any hassle? Most of the time. I've come across a lot of matchmaking services that are **** and slow. I'm looking at you gears 2.
Can i use Mods? No.
Can i play an unlimited amount of maps? No.
Can i play with friends? Yes
Can i join a community, much like this very forum and frequently interact with the people of that community? No.
Can i be raped silly with premium DLC? Yes yes and yes.
Do i have to put up with annoying racist, foul mouthed, bigot teenagers/children/jackasses that need to grow up? Sure do.

Better my ***.

Another game that I'll be ignoring, I wouldn't even get it for another system because that would still show support for this retarded change.

The only advantage a matchmaking system has over dedicated servers is that it has the ability to create even matches. The only problem is, no one knows how to get it right! I've never seen an even match from matchmaking, I've had better games in dedicated servers with auto-team balancing.

Expanding on creepy's disadvantages, here are some more disadvantages to most matchmaking implementations i've seen:

• Long wait times between maps (why do i have to wait for an "intermission"?)
• Arbitrary map is chosen for next map, no ability to choose what is next besides a single veto. If you don't like the map, you have to leave and start the whole matchmaking over possibly getting the same map again.
• No ability to kick retards
• No ability to vote to change the map or anything about the game if for some reason the matchmaking system chose a map you just played
• Can't quit the game without receiving some kind of penalty, even if the teams are unbalanced or your one of your friends was kicked back to main menu unable to connect for an unknown reason.

IW obviously needs a reason to be able to charge PC users for maps and they can give a reason for not including modding tools for making custom maps by having a matchmaking system. Sure, custom content creates a lot of **** maps and mods, but there are a lot of good ones created by the community as well. Quite often you can see maps made by community that are better than stock maps included in the game. I'm not ever going to pay $10 for 3 maps (or $50 for 5 packs of maps which is likely what we'll see for this game). I'll spend my money elsewhere, and support someone who supports the community back.

Edit: I almost forgot about the most important detail, they are charging $10 extra for this PC game to begin with, putting it on par with the same price as console versions. Now what justifies that cost? Console prices are usually higher to account for licensing fees, but there is no such thing for PC. They seem to think they can get away with doing less work by not including modding tools, and making a port of the matchmaking system on consoles, but still charge us more?

And day one map packs.

Which you can guarantee there going to now sell on this new IWNET or whatever there calling it. So your looking at $10 on top if you want the full multiplayer experience.

Blizzard is pulling a similar stunt with there reworking of Bnet you can bet there will be charged DLC from them in that but at least there allowing mods and new maps. There way is far better than this i don't see why they can't include both if Blizzard can..there both apart of Activision anyway. Hell instead of teaming up with steam they could of linked up with Bnet surely.