Modern Warfare 2 Won't Have Dedicated PC Servers, New Footage Emerges

This should be fun. Add to this the slow, creeping efforts of Comcast and other broadband providers to start charging penalties on "unlimited" internet access over a certain "limited" amount, and I see a recipe for good times.

It'll probably also be a gas to have someone who decides it's bedtime just shut his non-dedicated server (AKA his PC) down in the middle of a match. Additionally, I really can't wait to play on a server and suddenly see vicious lag, only to hear someone say "Oh, sorry guys. My virus software is running its scheduled sweep. Should be over in 20 minutes."

I approve this change!

WoW should not have dedicated servers either.

Sooo... By no "server list", they mean no server browser... right? Aw sheeeiiitttt

Unlike most people here, I recognize that there is no sense in the stuck up "we're smart so user friendliness doesn't matter" mentality. I have been a PC gamer for 10 years and I own zero consoles. On the other hand, I think that there are a great many things that the PC could learn from the consoles for much better user experience. PC gamers have long believed the amount of routine headache they put up with is evidence that they are somehow more sophisticated than console gamers. Does anyone actually like to sit there and stare and an installation screen? With consoles, you can begin playing as soon as you put the disk in. This has been how it was from the beginning. Does anyone actually like spending hours on end searching for workarounds to crashes and error messages? Forums all across the internet are a testament to how hard getting a PC game to work can be on occasion. One time, Cod4 MP crashed on me with some obscure error message (dont we all love those) like "IM MP54_x.mp3.dll could not be found" ... Two hours later after trying dozens of solutions, I found that it wanted me to plug in my head phones. Don't we all wish that gaming on the PC was more about playing games and less about getting said games to work? This is something that consoles, beyond a doubt, do better than PCs.

In many ways, the patronizing attitude of many PC gamers towards console gamers is very misplaced. PCs aren't necessarily better than consoles just different. Notice how many PC gamers brag about their platform's superior hardware than get mad at the developers whenever a game comes out that's actually aimed at high end hardware?

That said, I would like to see a server browser. PCs are not necessarily better than consoles, but they are different. Matchmaking is well suited to consoles but it is not the best option for the PC. The mouse's precision and speed makes it easy to browse large lists of servers in a quick and efficient, manor, making server browsers superior (on the PC to) match making. Server browsers give you a high degree of freedom when it comes to choosing your server/game. The PC should have whatever features it's differences warrant, but have you people seen the Infinity Ward boards? The list of all the random, useless crap the PC gamers over there is just astonishing. It's like they think the entire world should drop what they're doing and attend to their every need. There are over 200 things that they want.



While, this is disappointing news, i feel as if it's forecasting a broader trend with the PC adopting the consoles strengths to become a better. There is no (non absurd) reason why PC gaming needs to be more comlpex than console gaming and/or chock full of headaches. And to be honest, now that I think about it, PC gamers are a bit too obsessed with "being different for the sake of it."

Competition? When did IW say that their new IW.net system won't let leagues play MW2?

Mods? How many people played mods for cod4. The game was great. Like many "inferior" console games, you didn't need any mods. The game was already fine. This whole "release a bad game and let the fans fix it" is a terrible idea.

Let's not also forget that mods played a role in enabling cheating. Consoles don't have modding and how much cheating do you see? None?

i'm glad they did this... i bought world at war for the PC a few weeks ago, and 90% of the servers have retarded rules. No jumping? No running? Jesus, you can't even walk while standing without getting banned. No grenades, no cover fire (considered blindfire), and there's a list of about 9 perks that aren't allowed on most servers. within a week i was banned from 20 servers for breaking these rules. if i knew beforehand that the dedicated servers completely watered down and ruined this game for multiplayer, i would have gotten a more dynamic game, like UNO.
i think matchmaking is one of the only things that consoles have on pc's. it's a much more social kind of gaming... i'm sure they'll allow you to add friends and invite them to your lobby, so you can play against other parties of the same size, making matches a little more rewarding. After a while, joining the team with dedicated server regulars and smashing an endless stream of casual, uncoordinated players gets a little old.

This is wonderful. I bet this makes it less expensive for Activison to make the three versions of the same game. Besides, PC gaming is pretty much dead anyway, so why give away things to the smallest market share? I hope in the future that all PC games are $60 for a retail copy. Maybe they could have dedicated servers for people who pay an annual fee. That sounds like a great idea.

4 days after the BASH 123 podcast, 1 day after the fourzerotwo.com article (http://www.fourzerotwo.com/?p=745).

Fourzerotwo.com article comments: 118 pages.
Shacknews.com article: 642 comments
Petitiononline.com petition: 131,526 signatures.

The uprising itself is generating headlines: http://news.google.com/news/story?cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&ncl=dds1D0nI2kRHWuMk8LbGcQeFECYBM

Let me explain why I like the Dedicated servers better:

1. Control - The reason why I prefer dedicated consoles is ease of control. Play L4D on valves servers and you will see huge lag, and a bunch of foul-mouthed 13 yrd olds who join your server (even though you select 'Friends only' - yes I double checked, obviously there is a bug in the code) without your permission and lag the whole time, flaiming, screaming N word through your speakers.

2. Distance - If your friends are local, why not use a dedicated server. Why all of you log into a server in another state, or another country, and have a crappy time.

3. Punted - We have no idea of the IT guy maintained that server or if it will crash every 3 seconds. A dedicated server, you know the condition of your machine, and it runs smoother.

Bottom line, when I run on the developers servers, I have nothing but problems. And I dont know a single PC player on my friends list that prefers developer's servers. But Im sure they are out there.

That's the way you advertise things! Do something people hate you for and triple the sales.
I just wonder why PC community gets more and more titles screwed because of "consoleization"
If I would like to have console experience I would own a console. Well as I don't own one somebody thought I must be mad and made the choice for me. It's really sad but the main reason is money, this is making people forget who they are doing games for and why they are doing them. They won't get a penny from me for this one. Greedy bastards!

No dedicated servers
No server list
Matchmaking
No mods or custom maps
No competitive gaming
Charging for DLC
Raised price

Seriously, what about this game is worth raising the price? If anything the game should be worth $40 retail or less as they're excluding everything that any respectable game includes. Their response to matchmaking is that people can't find a server to play on for various reasons... seriously? There were tens of thousands of servers for CoD4 two weeks after release.

The Cons:


* 5min Matchs! "The match making gets rid of the idea that I can stay on a server for a few hours. With the new system in place Ill have to 1: find a match, 2: wait for it to fill, 3: wait for everyone to vote on a map, 4: wait for everyone to ready up, 5: wait for the 30 seconds before the match starts. Is it me, or is that WAY to much effort and time to play for a 5min match!"


* Ping! "Get ready for a world of hurt when they replace the ping Integer with red/yellow/green bar, green meaning you'll get about 150ping at most. I wouldnt be surprised at all if they removed it all together and just said you where getting a good connection like in Gears of War 2, and yes I love console games, but heaven help us if they think that the matchmaking is smoother gameplay! With this system, the host will always have an advantage. Look at every other game that uses the matchmaking! L4D, Far Cry 2, Operation Flashpoint 2, Gears of War, Gears of War 2, GTA IV, etc... all of these game are impossible to get a good connection with their p2p connection, you will never get around 40ping, which in my opinion, is SMOOTH gameplay!"


* No dedicated server! "Dont tell me that a private match is the same thing! Lets say I treat it like one, Im not about to start a private match and wait for 20 of my friends to get online every time I want to play a custom Hardcore match! And Im pretty sure I wont be able to browse private matches hence the word PRIVATE, not to mention Im pretty sure you wont be about to rank on a private match."


* Charged Map Packs! "For us PC gamers we had to wait a month or two after the release of the map pack on the xbox 360. And Infinity awards response was "were working around technical issues…" In other words they were trying to find a way to charge pc gamers. Finally when the map packs came out for PC the only reason they did was because of support of other companies for their advertising, such as you see in the cornnor of the screen when you load up a map from the map pack on PC. Well thanks to the new system they found a way to charge us, which is ridiculous considering pc gamers have to pay extra up front for a beta of a system that hasnt been tested yet. And coming from a 5 year software engineer, this is NOT a way to test a new system thats going to hold millions of clients over p2p connections!


-LaneMax

This is why they made the pricetag of this game soo high $60 ... soo they can still gave high amounts of money even without the pc community


i have signed and im not buying this game until they sort it out!

Have any of you whiney fucking babies realized that you can just keep playing the original? Yeah, it's a crazy thought to a 12 year old mangina, but being a grown ass man, I realize that I don't have to buy the new version. WOW, right? The server style doesn't matter because you can just not play it.

Or did you dumbasses think that you would die if you didn't buy the new one? Shit kids, when CS: source came out, I didn't like it at all, and just went back to playing CS 1.6. I didn't get on any internet message board and make lists, I didn't whine and make a petition to valve, I didn't even shed a tear.

This all might be strange concepts to you guys, but it's pretty straight forward.

Don't. Buy. It.

Is that really so hard? What, are they taking dedicated servers away from CoD4? No? THEN WHAT THE FUCK IS THE ISSUE? You don't have to like the new one, and they don't have to make it your way. This is not burger king, and you aren't intitled to SHIT, you spoiled little assholes. I hope you all buy it and HATE it and wish you could have your money back but you can't. Then I'll be sitting on my couch, playing CoD4, enjoying the shit out of it on Xbox live, no giving two shits about the new version or it's server setup or any of you whiney little babies.

I would prefer it if you stopped playing games and stopped representing gamers though. If you could leave the US, or just get off my planet, that would be great, because arrogant little pansies like you irk me more than ANY part of ANY video game. I would play nothing but Daikatana for the rest of my life if it caused a black plague to wipe you people out.

I had this game on my list of "Games to follow". I was only planning on getting it because I haven't played COD4 before and figured I may as well get this instead since it will probably be better. Well obviously not getting it now and crossed it off my list. What morons.

Honestly, this game will sell like crazy as it is. No amount of protest is going to change their minds. It's pretty obvious they knew they were making a radical move and they expected blow back. Mount all the protests you want, but as long as the game is making monstrous bank they have no reason to change. It's a business and sometimes you have to piss off some of your customers to make a choice you think will be better overall. Would be nice to make everyone happy, but that's never going to happen. In this age of entitlement you could make the perfect game and give it away and someone would still bitch.

I bet you anything that the producers are as pissed as we are about the whole thing and marketing execs want more control ($$$). I guess they underestimated PC crowd huh?

And piracy? Gimme a fucking break..

This basically kills the game here in Australia. Playing console games online is already a joke and now we are getting the same piece of shit experience with pc games? Ever try matchmaking with someone on the other side of the planet? or trying to host games with our limited bandwidth? its complete and utter fail.

We have a very unique online experience here in aus, as all best dedicated servers are hosted by local ISPs and are run to a very, very high standard for all the popular games. How hard is it to join a freakin dedicated server? click multiplayer, sort by players ingame, then click join? and its especially easy here as you just see the name of a familiair ISP and click join (bigpong, internode, primus etc).

It really shits me, but i guess the more popular a sub culture becomes (gaming) the shittier, more diluted it becomes and the companies just start appealing to the feable mass market which isnt really appealing to anything, its just chucking a bunch of shit out the window and hoping someone pays for the privelidge of having it fall flat on your face.

crosspost from the chatty thread, but i screwed up and i was suposed to post here instead.. so here it goes:

US PC Game Software Sales
1998 - $1.8 billion
1999 - $1.9 billion
2000 - $1.78 billion (84.9 million units)
2001 - $1.75 billion (83.6 million units)
2002 - $1.4 billion (61.5 million units)
2003 - $1.2 billion (52.8 million units)
2004 - $1.1 billion (47 million units)
2005 - $953 million (38 million units)
2006 - $970 million

do you guys understand why now?

(source:http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=15831)

http://www.steampowered.com/status/game_stats.html

I wonder if they ever polled for the number of CoD4 servers.

If MW2 ever takes off, they're going to need a ton of servers....

no dedicated servers = no buy

smart move there IW...

Well, fuck it. I was looking forward to this game. So much for that. Maybe MW:3 won't be crippled.

Seems like CoD4 was just a little too popular, they don't want this one to nab sales from the next like that one did to WaW. That and the drip feed DLC so we end up paying shit loads more over time.
Still, the number of suckers who'll buy this anway is sure to be high enough to offset any loss incurred by those who know that we can have and have had better service in the past.

Unabashed profiteering chaps, they've got you by the short and curlies.

WTF is the point of playing online games if you have no good way to form communities with which to interact and become familiar with? The glory of a dedicated server was that you found a place to play a game with the same people over months/years of time.

Killing or being killed by "random nub player" has no where near the fun factor as killing or being killed by "that bastard I fight against day, after week, after month, after year".

FUCK THEM.

Look guys, this is all about money, it has nothing to do with helping kiddie n00b players, or anti piracy, or preventing cheats or any of the other BS excuses they make, it is about exploiting the market and getting as much money out of you as possible

They have learnt from the console market that if they tie you into a specific network then they can bleed you dry with your purchase. First they get the initial payment from you for your purchase, you think you own the game and can play it online and enjoy, and for about 8 weeks you will, then they release a DLC pack, not much in it, 3 maps maybe a new spec ops map, and that will be $10 please, you don't have to buy it of course but if you dont, then you cant join in on a match making game because the servers wont support you, you don't have the new maps installed, so begrudgingly you pay your ten bucks, then another 8 weeks later and hello another DLC, then another DLC and it goes on and on and on

In the end that over priced game at $60 ends up costing $120 and that is what it is about, nothing more and nothing less, you the customer being screwed over and over and over, so enjoy your new IW.net, the rest of us sensible guys will say FUCK you Activision, IW and Vivendi, we are not blizzard fans, we wont pay for every little thing we do on our game.

Since Blizzard, vevndi merged they have decided to screw customers over completely, you only have to look how WoW is going, want to change your character in that game hey that will be $15 please, fifteen bucks to change your character type in a role playing game, i mean come on. You are all being screwed about time to wake up and realise

"Hey, PC gamers, you don't want to buy our $10 map packs?. Then, no more making new maps for you."

"Hey, we need to monetize IWNet a la Battle.net, but they won't come play on our network!. I have an idea, let's do like Blizz with SC2 and FORCE them to play on our net. No more dedicated servers!".

And that's all there is to this BS. Fucking Kotick everywhere, and another company that sells us for the green.

Way to go, IW. We had respect for you, you had respect for us, and everybody was happy.

Bowling added: "The mentality is making it much more accessible to the PC community as a whole

Looks like he mixed up PC gamers and console gamers. Console games are the ones that would benefit from a simplified system due to the nature of the device and its usage.

They're getting reamed on Slashdot as well right now:

http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/10/20/0745221/No-Dedicated-Servers-For-emCoD-Modern-Warfare-2em?from=rss


I had a completely awesome post here, but the Shacknews page ate it when I somehow went backward on the page. Fuck.

Best example out of all I wrote though is this:

I would write a bunch of reasons about how dedicated servers give pc gamers what they want, if it wasn't going to fall on deaf ears. People want a place to go with people they like and form bonds, camaraderie, companionship, make rivalries, and have a forum to go to that isn't full of asshats where they can be a part of a community.

For those devs that get out. How would you like if your favorite bar or restaurant was randomly changed into something different each time you went there? Devs would reply that this place still serves mexican food or this place still serves cold beer. IT'S NOT THE FUCKING SAME.

Even though we're all anonymous online, people want a place to belong and a place that can feel like a home away from home. YOU'RE TAKING THAT AWAY FROM US.

It's not like I don't have friends IRL or play games with them. I do and even if there are dedicated servers we still hop onto a select few because we know they're worth our time. Even if I didn't play games with friends IRL which 99% of the time I don't because we have different wants and different schedules, I want a place where I can be a part of something and not feel like another nobody.

ModW2 was actually one of the games I was looking forward to buying in the last year, but that isn't really saying a lot. The PC gaming market is full of shitty ports or craptastic reiterations of the same game. I've actually been looking forward to more mods in the past three years (BF2, HL2, CoD4) then I have actual games. Hell I actually bought Crysis for Living Legends. I don't even care about Crysis or wanted to play it! Even after owning a copy I still haven't opened it up and played it cause it just doesn't interest me. It's just a bunch of shiny graphics with nothing good behind it.


I'm not going to say I wont buy another game from Acti-Blizz, because thats likely not true. I would say I'm not going to buy ModW2, but I probably will anyway. However, I can tell you that this is making a trend in the gaming industry and leading to burn out. It's why gamers are quiting and the industry is slowly dieing. We aren't going to magically pick up a console and start playing when we leave either. We will more then likely go watch some TV or go hang with some friends and reminisce about good games and dig SC out of a box and play it for a day before realizing how old and antiquated it is by todays standards.

PC gamers are not console gamers. We're nothing like console gamers and we have completely different standards and likes/dislikes. DO NOT TREAT US THE SAME. We can't be generalized as the bunch that joins a random server when our friends come over and sit around on the couch scratching our balls not really caring about what we're doing before TKing the entire team as a joke and then going out to find some bitches to fuck. We're a upstanding bunch that expect more from games and in doing so also live for them. PC gaming is a actual lifestyle and no matter how much developers flaunt consoles as the most awesomest thing, they aren't.

PC gamers have played consoles before and we choose not to play them because they're simply inferior by our standards and don't give us what we're looking for.


If devs are actually reading this post and are going to release some PR BS statement to help calm us down - SHAME ON YOU! Much like releasing a campaign or another new shiny patch before obsoleting a game. If things keep going the same way they are the PC gaming industry will eventually die out and it will be your denile of a problem and lackluster commitment to development that will be the root of it all. Of course before bailing out you will blame it all on piracy, because piracy is the reason people don't buy games, right?

Fuck. I remember when games were ported from the PC to the console and they were actually good. Thats not just being reminiscent either.

I was going to buy this game on launch day. They can go f*ck themselves now. I won't buy this game on any platform.

Forced Steam integration = no sale. Bye. Adios. Ciao.

Here's an idea: How about selling the Steam version on Steam for people who like to feel that they're renting their games and for people who like to cede control of their games to another entity. And then sell the normal version in stores for the rest of us normal people.

The whole match making , non dedicated server list stuff the online gaming industry has turned to is absolute crap.

I learned to accept it on consoles, even though its a terrible terrible system for online play even on consoles...

But when I saw Valve do it for Left 4 dead, Ugh!

I don't know what person at a game dev studio would raise their hand to vote for a server centric match making option that leaves very little "choice" to the player and dumbs down the server abilities on a pc.

looks like i'll toss this game out the door.

This just in! MW2 will limit the guns you can use based off your performance during the current match. The players in the lead will have access to weaker weapons while the last place player will be able to use super weapons such as the Blue Missile launcher that when fired, seeks out the lead player and kills them and any other nearby players. This new feature will make the game far more intense as now any person of any skill level will have an equal chance of winning.

i honestly can't wait for iwnet and mw2 now on pc... it sounds great

although the "hardcore" are a vocal bunch... i'm sure iw realizes that the vocal minority is the loudest and the masses who are satisfied are nice and quiet because.. well... their satisfied.

i`m sure i dont need to tell them this though... they`ve likely already done their market research and have realized for every retard that likes ``mw2 N0 SNIp3rZ or Nad3s`` and plays exclusively on ``L33T C0D6 ClAn SeRvER`` there are probably many times more that just like playing Modern Warfare 2 by Infinity Ward and now wont have to put up with hunting for servers that arent retarded

I dont feel like going through all the posts here can someone resume me really fast whats wrong with the "no dedicated" server?

I never played this game but I'm just curious why is it a big deal? (no mod obviously but thats not very surprising since they are releasing the game on every console).

Hear ye! Hear ye! All hail King Kotick!
http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/the-destruction-of-blizzard/

lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUpZVnceJx4

im forming a group "Boycott Call of Duty MW2", this might get me a free copy or something