No Dedicated Servers, No COD: Modern Warfare 2 For Me – Boycott it

(Author’s Note: This was originally posted on the Old IGN Blogs back in October 2009 and was even featured on IGN’s homepage when the site used to promote user-generated content.)

So the announcement by Infinity Ward, about Modern Warfare 2 not having dedicated server support, has the PC community up in arms. Originally I wasn’t planning to buy the game since it was going to be released for $60. Why, you ask? Because, personally, $60 is too high of a price for me and there is no justification for a price hike. I would eventually have bought the game when the price had gone down after a given amount of time. But when IW made the announcement that there would be no dedicated servers, well, now I’m not interested at all.

For those of you who are unaware of what a dedicated server is I’ll try and explain it to you. Essentially it is a single person, group, and/or organization that runs their own server in which they have total control over everything and can run it as they see fit without relying on the developer to provide servers. Imagine being able to create a server for your favorite game in which you can control everything. Don’t like normal gravity? Change it so that you are fighting in zero grav conditions. Have a player who is being obnoxious? Ban him/her from your server forever and never have to see him/her again. You only like one map? Have your server play that one map over and over till the end of time. The possibilities are endless.

With that said dedicated servers are the lifeblood of the PC Community. Being able to browse through a list of servers, until you find the one that meets your personal criteria, is great because you have control and decide where you want to play. Once you find a server that fits your needs then you have the atmosphere of the server itself. The possibilities are good that you will end up joining a server that has a friendly and mature atmosphere not to mention an already established community. Then you keep joining the server, you get to know the people, you make new friends and then one day, you might even be asked to help admin the server.

Then there is the competition as well. Most of the servers also have a stats program that keeps track of all the regular players. Information such as kills, deaths, shots fired, accuracy percentage, etc are all recorded. I know, from personal experience in helping admin several servers, how fierce the competition can get. It always feels great when you make the top 10 ranks, especially the number 1 spot.

One last thing about why dedicated servers are great, in conjunction with modding tools, is that someone is always going to tweak the map so that more people can play on it then it was originally designed for. You want to talk about fun and chaotic, play on a server that has 32 vs 32. Talk about insane!

Now I could spend all day telling you how great running a dedicated server can be; all the great moments I’ve experienced, the awesome communities I have been a part of. But I should also get into IW’s system that they seem to want to use instead and why I think it is inferior to dedicated servers.

A Look at IWNET

Let me say right off the bat, that I have never really experienced going through the MM(Match Making) process. All I have to go on is what is talked about in the latest MW2 article from IGN.

Matchmaking & Smoother Gameplay: Bowling says IWNET matchmaking allows players to find and join games much easier 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.‘

First off, it isn’t that difficult to scroll through a list of servers. Games such as Counter Strike can even let you look for a particular map. Once you type in the name of the map, it automatically brings up the list of dedicated servers that are currently playing that map with the list going from best ping to worst. So it’s not much of a change for me.

Now what I do have a problem with is the last part. Matching me with people who have the same skills? Where is the fun in that? Personally, I’m the person who enjoys a challenge but if I’m playing on a server where everyone is in the same skill bracket, I’ll find that to be quite dull. I enjoy the challenge and have at many times played when the odds were against me; 2 vs. 1 and 3 vs. 1. What’s wrong with people of different skill sets playing on the same server? Once again, from personal experience, in a dedicated server we’ll have some veterans who seem invincible playing with the casual/new gamer. The real greatness of a dedicated server is that a lot of the veteran players will start to talk with the less skillful player and give them tips to improve their game play; hence the mature and intelligent atmosphere when playing on a dedicated server.

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.

I really don’t see a difference between Playlist and Match Making. It’s still focusing on easier use in finding a game. I’m definitely going to need clarification on this point if someone would be so kind as to enlighten me.

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.

There is nothing new here. Steam has a friends list which is awesome and more than adequate. I see no use for IWNET’s friend list system at all.

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 they really think that they can stop cheaters from ruining the game, then they are in for a shock. VAC, which stands for Valve-Anti-Cheat, is awesome but it is far from infallible. There will always be someone out there who will come up with a way to get their aimbots and wall hacking programs working in the game. This is a fact which is why dedicated servers are a great way to stop this. All the good dedicated servers will have contact information for and all admins who patrol the server/servers. If you can’t get an admin right away, the person can always take screenshots and record the IP and send it to the admin to make sure that the offender is banned from that server permanently.

Now don’t get me wrong, VAC is great. Before it came into being, the Counter Strike servers were rampant with cheaters. Even with the admins it became a chore. When it was implemented, things got a lot easier and the number of cheaters dropped drastically. Whatever cheater/cheaters happened to join a server were almost immediately banned by the admins thus making the game more enjoyable for everyone.

Conclusion

As of right now, my opinion is that dedicated servers are vastly superior to IWNET and its matchmaking system. I’d be more then willing to hear why someone would think otherwise. But from the information provided, I can not see why I would want to give up the option of dedicated servers or why I would buy a game that does not support it. I’ve been playing Counter Strike since it was in its beta stages back in the nineties. It is still extremely popular today. All you have to do is bring up the server list and watch as thousands of servers pop up instantly. Why is this? It sure as hell isn’t the awesome graphics because, lets face it, they are very dated. But because of the gaming and modding community, it is still fun even after all these years. I still get a kick out of playing Zombie mod.

At the time of this being posted, there are now 126,546 signatures that want MW2 to support dedicated servers and still increasing. Hopefully this number shall continue to climb at an exponential rate. If MW2 refuses to support dedicated servers, then it is my sincere hope that those, who signed the petition, also boycott the game indefinitely.

But let me say this to those that are saying they are going to boycott the PC game but get it for the console instead. You idiots apparently don’t understand the meaning of the word Boycott. Boycott means to abstain from buying or using a product. If you buy it for a console, instead of the PC, then you are still giving IW the money and not hurting them. I am utterly amazed at the stupidity of these idiots who say such a thing. If you are going to boycott, then don’t buy it at all. I know I won’t.

For those of you who are console players familiar with this type of system, please feel free to try and convince me why I should support this new system. For those of you who present a thoughtful argument I will edit it into the blog with my response, so I look forward to a, hopefully, engaging discussion.

I wish I could have added a poll, but the option doesn’t seem to work anymore for me and it is very frustrating. If anyone has any idea how to get it to work again, please share the information. I’ve tried to make the poll through IE and Firefox but no results whatsoever. Thank you in advance.

(Author’s Note: It’s been a long time, but I think this was one of the first posts, that I wrote, which IGN posted on its homepage. Which was a complete shock to me. Looking back on that time, and considering the state of the video game industry today, I am still surprised that they promoted it. It’s a shame that IGN no longer support a blogging community, which was a really great thing, but even if it did, I doubt the company would ever even consider posting such an editorial ever again.)

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