Community Responds To Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 PC Decisions

You may have read an interesting little article we ran about Infinity Ward’s decision to exclude dedicated servers from the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 and their response to a disappointed community. That very same community has responded again in spades, and we’ve highlighted some of these opinions to give both sides of the fence a voice.

The first is an e-mail we received regarding yesterday’s news. Everything that follows is copied from e-mails and comments without edits:

Dear Game Informer

I couldnt help but notice an unsettling lack of perspective on the following article. http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2009/10/20/modern-warfare-2-dedicated-server-response.aspx

If you sincerely dont have the time to read what I took the time to write please make an effort to digest the intro at least. I realize that on one level this is "just a video game" but on a whole different level this embodies the ethically shiftless state of the industry. Whether or not gaming in and of itself is worth civil unrest is irrelevant. However what "gaming" does provide is a front row seat to the transitional growth of an industry and how politics subtly disrupt and eventually usurp the foundational elements that made it great. If Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 successfully sets a precedent with its marketed "improvements" to the pc community , you're overlooking a very significant cultural shift within the original community of the collective gaming industry. Regardless of whether of not they do succeed, the implications of Infinity Ward's intent are far reaching and is an excellent platform on which to address issues of centrality, pirating, politics, and corporate influence. Of course these issues aren't immediately new but Modern Warfare 2 reignites the scenario with unmatched publicity. Robert Bowling has baited and switched the gaming community with deliberate marketing drivel to receive only an uninspired footnote of a response by your team. My reply to the immediate topic is as follows...

Its about the integrity and maintenence of an invested community experience...

To make this explicity clear regardless of what gaming experience you prefer, here is the issue. Until Infinity Ward can replicate the quality, community experience, and investment poured into mods and dedicated servers that are funded independently and have been built over years of operation, they need to take the time to analyze just how out of touch they are with the demographic, or simply admit to their greed. Infinity Ward is blatantly trying to forcefeed the pc community a bastardized port with the audacity to thinly guise their deceptive efforts as benefits. The ploy is simply insulting.  The livelihood of the pc community speaks for itself in COD4 multi-player which is still boasting over 15,000 active servers as I write this. If you cannot find a suitable fit out of 15,000 you clearly lack competence. People looking for a console experience on a pc are clearly looking in the wrong place as there are two "casual/average joe" options for those that feed off of quick-fix gaming (reference ps3/xbox 360.) If you havent noticed there have been no pc users in favor of this "development." The only advocates have been console fanboys in heat over a new soap box to spout their uninformed rhetoric. Feel free to read any comment thread of any associated article (yours has 2.5 stars for a reason.) I own and have played cod4 on both the 360 and pc and switched permanently to the pc becuase of the experience and I dont even consider myself a hardcore gamer. Why is this option being removed for the consumer in MW2 when its predecessor was clearly a runaway success? At the very least why cant both options coexist? Concern of a "bifurcated" community is as unsupported as the remaining premise and should be scrutinized.

My personal opinion is that Infinity Ward has either lost touch or has lost a few vertebrae to greed and is trying to strongarm an entire culture without realizing it's populated with individuals that are able to think for themselves. This isnt just another segment of the mindless consumer masses. Robert Bowling is clearly a political puppet with scripted intent as he continues to completely and awkwardly sidestep addressing the core issue.

If its about piracy,  punishing the supporters for the sake of pirates only accentuates the problem. Those willing to pay to begin with are now paying more to have their community destroyed while the pirate still plays the only remaining portion of the game for free. These misguided and backwards efforts are what perpetuates the problem to begin with and clearly show where the loyalty of the developers lies. Clearly its not with the paying customer.

To address Bowling's four bullsh*t highlights individually as quickly as possible

Bowling says...
Matchmaking & Smoother Gameplay: Bowling says IWNET matchmaking allows players to find and join games much easer than scrolling through lists of servers, each with their own rule and mod sets. This new IWNET infrastructure will "automatically find you a game with the best performance, ping, and preferences based on your location and individual connection as well as matching you with players of your same SKILL.'

My Response
There is nothing, NOTHING faster than booting up COD4, switching to my favorites, and selecting my desired server. Matchmaking systems cant even dream of coming close to connecting me to any game that fast.  Also why should you decide what my skill level is and what I want to match it against!?

Bowling says...
Playlists and Private Matches: Bowling says the new playlist will allow for easier use to finding the type of game you want to play. "This now allows you to play custom games out of the box without the need to install mods, find a modded server with the rules you like, or worry about not being in control of the match," Bowling explains.
   
My Response
Gametypes on the current Modern Warfare servers are very easily filtered and organized, not to mention also by map and server name. The beauty of developed and well maintained servers is that you dont have to worry about control at all!! Its a collective effort of the members that can be relied on 24/7.

Bowling says
Party System and Friendslist: IWNET's friendlist system allows players to see when your friends are online, and makes it easy to invite them into your party and move from game to game. Bowling highlights the fact this is great for Clan use.

My Response
Somehow I highly doubt MW2 will allow me to "easily" invite 30 of my community friends to join me for round after round of fun. One reason I left cod4 on xbox live was for its pathetically stifling 8 vs 8 limitations. Also, checking to see if your friends are online is a simple as clicking on the server where you all play as a COMMUNITY.

Bowling Says
Cheat / Hack Free Games: "The biggest benefit of using IWnet by far is the fact that you don't have to worry about joining a server full of aim-bots, wallhacks, or cheaters," Bowling writes. He says this will allow them to control the quality of the game as well as utilizing the VAC (Valve-Anti-Cheat) system. 

If this is the biggest benefit "by far" Infinity Ward needs to close its doors and seriously analyze what data they're working with and what magical unicorn is injecting it through their a$$. Who asked you to control anything!? The 15 or so servers I play do an excellent job moderating the language, cheating, namecalling, hacking, and every other concern I have as an honest consumer that looks to play some frenetic deathmatches to round out my day. There is an invested pride in being able to moderate your playing environment independently without being spoonfed a crippled corporate f*ckfest. You're literally taking one of the most hated elements of institutionalized console gaming and injecting it in the one place we can escape from it.

Congratulations Infinity Ward youve managed to sell your soul. Try to employ a little more class the next time you bend over for your own ego.

Please excuse the satire for the sake of the greater argument. Thanks for your time and I look forward to more impassioned stances in your articles.

Best,
Josh M


The following statements stood out from the crowd in the comments sections:

by Psykomanta Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 12:37 PM

This arguments are OK for the short term view - but for a long-time motivation to play a game, it needs mod-support I think. Probably not in the eyes of the devs - DLC is quite easy on steam.
I'll wait until I read a objective, solid review to decide whether I buy MW2 or BattleField BadCompany 2..

Nevertheless, it is a kick in the Arsch for modders and hardcore gamers. And these are PC players, which get higher prizes and no collectors editions toghether with no mod-support. For sure they will still gonna be pissed. ;)


by Alfred Chinard Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 03:07 PM

I'm a gamer that plays mostly on PC and mostly in pubs. I do have consoles, and I like them. My concern is for for the quality of experience for the majority of users, which are people like me.

Dedicated servers provide and environment with smooth reliable low ping gameplay, something I have not come across or very rarely in games with P2P. With dedicate servers there is no host advantage, I do not have to worry if someones PC chugs, or the host alt-tabs out of the game, or needs to turn of his PC, or someone else needs to use it, or if someone is using the internet heavily.

For a game like CoD where you need a lot of precision, where small differences mean the difference between life and death a good stable host means a lot.
I have canceled my pre-order, not out of spite or elitism. I just wanna wait and see how it works out and then decide weather or not I want to buy it.

Also the response from console player near me has been very different then on the Net, many of them feel, and rightly so, that they should also get dedicated servers, since they have to deal with the problems of p2p daily.


by Tlaon Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 04:17 AM

What's with the hostility against people who want dedicated servers?  It makes sense to allow players be involved in the administration of their own game: they're the party that's still going to be interested in keeping everything working a few years down the line.

More importantly, it saddens me to see modding support treated as a minor issue.  It isn't.  Mods add longevity (and massive amounts of content) to a game at little to no cost to the developer.  If it's true that the "vast majority" of players don't benefit from modding support, I think the solution is to provide the modding community more support, not less.  If it was easier for people to discover and obtain mods, more players could benefit from it.

"Bifurcat[ing] the community" should be the last of Infinity Ward's worries.  A community isn't going to divide itself into dedicated servers only and matchmaking only sectors that never interact with each other.  What's so scary about giving players the choice?


by HappyCamper Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 05:19 PM

Whilst Modern Warfare 2 does look like a fun and well made game (I feel most of us will not disagree about this) the aspect of a lack of dedicated servers is IW simply shooting itself in the foot. Whilst this may satisfy some people and bring them into the game, it will remove a large amount of hardcore gamers from the fold. The hardcore gamers are the ones who are still playing CoD-MW now. In essence IW as I previously stated is shortening the life of their game.