The news that Modern Warfare 2 will not include code for dedicated multiplayer servers, instead relying on a yet to be revealed, peer-to-peer matchmaking service called IW.net, hasn't gone down well. At the last glance, 90,000 gamers had signed a petition asking for dedicated server support to be reinstated.
Those gamers are right. I've signed the same petition, and I think you should, too. Here's why.
A dedicated server is a PC usually held within a bank of computers belonging to a private company or the game's own publisher. Dedicated server hosts have been part of PC gaming for decades; I think you can attribute some of the rise of multiplayer games like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty directly to their work.
Why?
1) Dedicated server hosts are judged by their reliability. If a server crashes, or an internet connection goes down, the gamers paying to host the game will complain, and they'll start to move elsewhere. This economic motivation forces server hosts to constantly improve their hardware, their internet connection, and their management tools. Compare that to the peer-to-peer networking that Infinity Ward developers are proposing, where the quality of the game will be entirely dependant on the gamer's own home web connection.
2) Dedicated servers are fair. Want to know why that player always seems to get the drop on you when you're playing Call of Duty on Xbox 360? It might be because he's the host of the game. In combat, data has to be bounced from his console, to yours, and back again, for you to impact on the game. Meanwhile, he doesn't have to wait on the round trip - he can fire as soon as he's ready. Hosts always have an advantage in peer-to-peer networked games.
3) Dedicated servers are adaptable. We don't know the details of what InfinityWard.net will offer, but there's little chance that the tickbox customisation options usually available to players in peer-to-peer matchmaking setups can match the level of control dedicated servers offer. That can include, but not be limited to: competitive players who run their own specific rulesets, to the spectator mode mods, to machinima friendly sets, to the expanded player counts, to the custom maps. That evolution of content is key to extending a PC game's lifespan, and improving that game. Enabling the community to host the mods and maps they choose is a good thing. Entire game development businesses have been built from gamers hosting dedicated servers for popular, low key games. Guys like Splash Damage (Enemy Territory, Brink), Tripwire Interactive (Red Orchestra, Killing Floor) simply wouldn't be around were it not for gamers putting up their own cash to pay for dedicated servers.
4) Dedicated servers create community. Don't think of them as a piece of hardware. Think of them as a place. PC Gamer hosts servers for Team Fortress 2, Killing Floor, and yes, Modern Warfare. We have plenty of regulars who are looking forward to playing Modern Warfare 2 together. If we had dedicated server code, we would definitely host our own place - it's good for our readers, and it's good to create magazine loyalty. Every month, we'll join the servers to play with them. We don't have to swap friends contacts, or pray that our skill levels will broadly match. We just double click the server, and we're playing together. PC Gamer isn't alone - communities worldwide love hosting servers for their members. Peer-to-peer matchmaking stops that happening. Now, that specific group of fans simply can't play together. Even worse, without dedicated servers we can't enforce our 'don't be a dick' policy. We can't ban racist or homophobic players, nor can we appoint our own moderators to look after our community when we're not online.
Modern Warfare 2 launches in twenty days. It would be nice to see Infinity Ward demonstrate what advantages InfinityWard.net can offer as soon as possible.
Spot on, I think. Red Faction Guerrilla's annoying and dodgy matchmaking system prevented me from enjoying more of its rather good multiplayer.
Was nice to see DICE over the weekend saying "We're sticking with Dedicated servers for 1943/BC2 on the PC", with any luck the massive reation here will stop it becoming some sort of horrible trend.
Hell, I'd have never joined the PCG Steam chat if not for the TF2 server.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that CoD4 sold very well on the PC. This absurd shafting of PC gamers leaves me feeling sickened. The step motherly treatment meted out to us by almost every major publisher with economic clout is the one of the biggest reasons why I will NEVER buy a hood damned console. Shame on you activision.
Congrats Tim and the Team for doing this! You are definately taking a more offensive stance against the developers who appear to be doing us PC Gamers over now. Thank you for taking the time to stand up and fight our corner. Just read the why we hate Games for Windows Live article in this months mag and again congrats! This is what a forerunning magazine should be doing for us. After all whilst our voices can make a little difference the voice of a magazine which has a large subscriber base will most certainly win battles for us. Good work fellas!
The numbers are shooting skyward. I'd say 200k by end of tomorrow.
And well done for taking a stand guys. It appears some outlets (*cough* shacknews *cough*) are content not to report it let alone take a stand for the gamers out there.
Hi All, Just wanted to say thanks to all of you over here at PCG for taking the time to read and vote on the petition, also a huge thanks to Tim Edwards for having the blog and spreading the word to the wider public. We are still pushing this, even after FourTwoZero has replyed to the Twitter, as no solid reply has come yet, hopefully it will come sooner rather than later and they can limit the damage they are doing to themsleves and the community.
Our gaming league www.codleague.com launched the petition, and it has gone even further than we ever expected, come on over and check us out!
See you on the (Dedicated)Battlefield soon (I hope)
Awesome article Tim. Many thanks for throwing your support behind this.
No dedicated server will also have a big impact on the maximum player numbers the game will see. A dedicated server is absolutely required if we are to see 16v16 battles. Not only are listen servers generally incapable of such numbers, even on awesome machines, but home connections simply do not have the upstream bandwidth to facilitate this, even before we look at the horrendous latency doing this brings in.
Competitive play also requires the ability to control the servers directly. It will make it very difficult to run organised online leagues or LAN tournaments for MW2. To underestimate the impact on longevity of a title that competitive play brings is a massive mistake, especially when you see that they are effectively freezing out the mod and map scene.
However, it gets worse. Infinity Ward have now been quoted as saying:
"It's a little dubious. Some of the people complaining are complaining with their pocketbook."
As if 100,000+ complainers are all dedicated server hosts with commercial gain on their mind. What a pathetic attempt to undermine the legitimate protest of such a huge number of gamers. To say IW appear out of touch would be a huge understatement.
$6,000,000 in potential lost sales so far and counting. This is before you take into account the consequential loss of all those hundreds of thousands of people telling all their friends to stay clear. I think this ranks as one of if not the biggest example of a developer cutting off it's nose to spite it's face. Truly staggering!
Let us hope that the powers that be see sense and do so soon. There is still time with the right resource to knock out a dedicated server.
These Walt's* sadly have revealed that they want the money, nevermind the steamlining. I can understand what they were trying to do from a more casual gamer perspective now, but no. It's all gone horribly wrong if that gameinformer article is to be believed.
Warned my mates to steer clear and cancelled my pre-order.
*Walter Mitty - wannabe, bluffer, nuisance. It comes from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, written by humorist James Thurber and published in The New Yorker in 1941. See also pointy heads and flat heads. A walt is an individual who believes, or wishes others to believe, that he or she be something he be not. They are often found bidding on 'Genuine SAS' KFS and other items on eBay and usually act the Internet Tough Guy -ARRSEpedia
So I read fourzerotwo's response to all of the anger and I'm convinced that they're not going to do a damn thing to fix this problem. They don't consider it a problem (clearly) and they've convinced themselves that having everyone enjoy the same experience, since they can't replicate a PC experience on the console, is easier than having gamers (those dirty dirty gamers) mess up the beautiful game IW has created with Mods and Private Maps and Servers.
What bugs me even more is that PC gamers have no way to combat a decision like this. IW doesn't really seem to care about the petition (even though I signed it I don't expect it to do much) and boycotting the game is probably a pointless endeavor. If we boycott the game all that will result in is IW telling us not to expect any PC MW titles in the future.
As I posted on our league forum (www.codleague.com) This is a real kick in the teeth - for many reasons Modders and Mappers sure they are gonna get hit and everyone who benefits from them, but ... the most important difference is that a clan will have nowhere to call home.
I, like many many other players started fps games as a casual gamer and just played in random servers for a bit. It was fun, for a while, but you soon got tired of it, playing solo soon loses it's appeal. So ... I started playing on a paticular clans server. I regularly went back to the same server, met the same people, basically I got to know them. I liked the people, I liked the no nonsense way the policed the server (no racists, no spawn camping, no noob toobing etc etc). After a while they got to know me - I got to know them and I joined the clan (www.nango-gamers.co.uk). I imagine pretty much every clan member can claim a similar story. Without a place to call your home you won't attract new members and eventually your clan will die as members leave for one reason and another and you have nobody to replace them.
A big shame as without the clan i would probably have never got past the game MOHAA (start of my clan life).
I also am one of those people that supports clan sites with add-on tools - I wrote statsgen (www.statsgen.couk) which I have supported without any form of payment for many years, this along with many other third party apps will disappear from thegaming commjunity - such a shame
I have to say I agree with the person who said IW probably wont do anything regarding the petition. Well not at this moment in time at any rate. In the past few hours though the petition has increased by over 2000 signatures. Now if it doubles at this rate and as stated by Activision themselves because this will be a must have game they are going to have a lot of angry pc gamers on their hands. A lot of money will be lost and considering the length of the first game I certainly wouldn't be forking out 34.99 for a copy of the game I would predominantly use for singleplayer and which could at face value only give me a 10 hour campaign.
Companies should start listening to the consumers. At the end of the day we keep getting shafted by Microsof with their GFWL service which still as pointed out by PCG hasnt been fixed after two years of promises. Developers continually abuse our trust and take away our freedom by imposing strict non-essential rules and restrictions on our games. PC Gaming was born and created n a basis of bein un to play with no hassle yet continually things keep getting more and more difficult.
Someone stated that boycotting the game wouldn't work as such but having a potnatial 100,000 and growing number of people boycotting a game will certainly be a blow to their revenue funds. My money would much rather be spent on another game if they wont put the time and effort into making this a so called must have. So we should boycott this game and we should keep fighting back. The only way to achieve anything in today's world is by standing up for what we believe in and it can all start here with the backing of our fellow PCG members and PCG staff.
I'm so gutted. I was really looking forward to this game, as I've played CoD 4 and CoD: WaW to death. Then they curled out this bombshell. I am a PC gamer for several reasons. 1, I prefer mouse and keyboard to controllers and 2, I prefer dedicated servers to useless matchmaking facilities. And since the matchmaking function runs on peer-to-peer it is guaranteed to be just as useless. How can they expect a local host to host a 32-64 player server without huge amounts of lag, especially if that host happens to be running a PC barely capable of playing the game on its own?
I am cancelling my order, and will not consider buying it until dedicated server support is reinstated in a future patch. There are plenty of other great games coming out, such as Battlefield Bad Company 2.
I sincerely hope this doesn't set a precedent, as it will be the death knell of multiplayer FPS on PC.
I just wanted to thank you so much for the support. Not many major publications would support us ,the PC gaming comunity, like you have so many times in the past and right now. I know its your job but I love the magazine and and read it and I know it also is your passion too, or you wouldnt do it.
I dont understand why they are doing this to us. It can always be for future money, ie: map packs. DICE did the map pack thing with BF2 and it worked out well, Armored Fury, Euro Force. I think they just dont want to do anymore PC titles and this is their push to get rid of us all together.
Again thanks for the support and give them the review they deserve.
I just read part of this elsewhere and wanted to say Thank you!
As a clan admin this whole fiasco disgusts me. We were really looking forward to running a MW2 server, but at this time . . . well you know.
Heck I made the mistake of preordering Operation Flashpoint : Dragon Rising thinking it would have dedicated servers after all it is required for optimum performance and . . .
Anyway just wanted to say thanks for the support for the PC gaming community. I think IW really Jumped the Shark, to steal from the TV industry, with this one.
what the hell I signed it too, I was never going to buy the game but I think it's time that us PC gamers made a stand against the industry which is treating us with an increasing lack of respect.
http://www.fourzerotwo.com/?p=745 : Fourzerotwo's thoughts on it all
Hmm seems to me that they could release 2 versions of the game, one for those that want all the hackers out, and one for those who will use their own server and won't let the hackers in anyway.
I'm not going to say much as everything has been already said, but I'm very skeptical. The reason why is simply because even if most of pc gamers would boycott the pc version of MW2 and it'd have low sales because of that, guess what'll happen. Activision/IW will just blame it all on piracy and proclaim PC gaming dead.
That's why articles like this from major gaming magazines/blogs/sites are SO important. If more sites would take a stance joining the gamers, they can't simply blame the piracy.
Even if I'm not interested in MW2 I've signed the petition because it's important for PC gaming community and its future.
Someone mentioned that if we boycott the game they may not make future versions available for the PC. If they treat us like this now then you can take it as a sign that they probably intend to do just that anyway.
Ne'er mind, there are other developers out there who still appreciate their PC fan base.
A thought for IW to take on board... PC gamers made you, that's a fact. The gaming industry changes, right now consoles might be your main market but with PC gaming rigs becoming cheaper will it always be that way? There are also a number of other ambituous developers out there, just like you once were, you may not always be on top. So you may need the support of the very people you're alienating now - an old saying that still holds true, be careful who you step on on the way up, you'll meet them again on the way down.
Even though at most I only intend to play MW2 single player, I signed the petition as well. As a fan of FPS games in general, and a clan gamer for the majority of this decade, I'm worried about more games doing this in future. If PC gamers can join together to fight this now, it might make other developers think twice about screwing us on their games.
I beleive if we as a community stand our ground we will prevail. It may mean we lose out on MW2, but that isn't the end of pc gaming. Yes, it will suck. But sometimes we have to pay a price to better the future of our community. What we do now will set the pace for future releases from all developer/publishers.
If you bend over and take it ... you deserve a sore ass.
Thank you Tim. It's good to see genuine support and that we PC gamers do not stand scattered nor alone. We stand together.
I signed the petition yesterday and after reading numerous posts on various forums - some for and some against the petition - I finally read one that tipped the scales for me. Although I pre-ordered "MW2" for the single player campaign months ago, I've decided that the fundamental values at stake here far outweigh my desire for what will likely be a superb single player experience. I canceled my pre-order of "MW2" for the PC yesterday and sent an e-mail to IW with an attachment confirming the cancellation. If I ever end up buying this game, it will be when it's in the discount bin and even then I may just decide to show IW and Activision the same scorn they have shown the PC gamers. IW and Activision are not the only game in town and they would do well to remember that!
Gentlemen, OAP clan salutes your stance. If MW2 fails to sell & IW take the ball & go home, So what? There's enough hungry young coders out there, just waiting for the chance to make a name for themselves. IW can Sulk off to console land & never come back. The next big thing, & there will be, will have learned for this monumental c**k up & not make the same mistakes. It'll just make huge new ones
reading that gameinformer interview with the IW heads, they say.. "West takes a shot at the motives behind some of the outrage, noting that there's money to made by selling dedicated servers and adspace on them: "It's a little dubious. Some of the people complaining are complaining with their pocketbook."
and you're not thinking about yours jason west?. you money grubbing bastard.
they just want to have control over every aspect of our multiplayer with regards to DLC and so, and they'll make us pay for it.
I haven't purchased PC Gamer for a while, but I'll make sure to buy more of your issues from now on.
Thanks for taking a stand on behalf of us PC gamers, Tim. I'm a dedicated competitive member of from Singapore, and this news has gutted us. All 45 of us. We have close relations with the major software distributors here, and we've explicitly let them know of our collective decision.
Just posting to say well done Tim on presenting just a few of the reasons why the petition should be signed and the game boycotted by everyone who'd previously intended to buy it.
I posted an angry response when I read the news on the CVG website (which I won't repeat here - its already been said by everyone anyway), and then took a look at the PCG forums. Very pleased to see Tim take such an active stance on the issue.
This is definitely something we should all stand up and oppose; if Activision and IW get away with this, it WILL set a precedent which other publishers will copy. This cannot be allowed to happen.
Just posting to say well done Tim on presenting just a few of the reasons why the peition should be signed and the game boycotted by everyone intending to buy it.
I posted an angry response to the news whilst I was browsing the CVG website (which I won't repeat here - its already been said by everyone anyway), and then took a look at the PCG forums. Very pleased to see such an active stance on the issue.
This is definitely something we should all stand up and oppose; if Activision and IW get away with this, it WILL set a precedent which other publishers will copy.
Thankyou Tim for supporting the PC gamming community and making your thoughts public. I'm now considering subscribing to PC Gamer if people like you write in it.
Thankyou Tim for supporting the PC gamming community and making your thoughts public. I'm now considering subscribing to PC Gamer if people like you write in it.
I am not normally moved to write stuff in situations like this.
I am probably a fairly typical PC gamer when it comes to playing COD4. I am not a particularly good player, especially on Friday nights after a few beers when i do most of my gaming, but being able to play alongside the same people who are in a similar state of mind is a huge plus. It saves on the "noob" comments if nothing else.
Last night the clan I am in had a few scrims. These were organised at very short notice and yet within a few minutes we had a 20 v 20 "match" underway. No having to get everyone’s friend codes or add loads of people I may never play against again. Just click the server, enter the password and away we went. Four or five clans partook in this and several spin off matches happened afterwards. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard this would have been had we all had to find friend codes or invite people. The bandwidth and machine required to “host” this would also have made it impossible to do.
Customising a server makes it popular. Take the 1 para server in COD4. It’s always got players on it, people like the way its set up and run. No hopping, no swearing, apologise for TKs and “don’t play like a dick”. Our own clan server is similar but without the no swearing rule and it too fills up on a fairly regular basis. Not because someone was matched with it but because people have chosen to come play on it. You get to know the people who play particular servers and some of the modded servers can be great fun when you are in the mood for that type of game. Gun game servers and Zombie servers spring to mind but there are more. Some have custom maps and skins to set them out from the more standard servers and this too is attractive for some who want that bit of individuality.
The clan community is more than just a bunch of people who sometimes shoot each other in a video game. It becomes a real community with different clans having their own personality and attracting different types of people. The clan thing spills over into real life with people meeting up and helping each other out with various things. It becomes part of your social network.
The inability to run a dedicated sever strips all this away and IMO is a really bad idea. If only a fraction of those who have said they have cancelled their pre orders do so then it will have a real financial impact. IW must have known the multiplayer set up was going to be this way for months.
So the cynical part of me is asking why they have waited until now to announce it. Would it have anything to do with the announcement that MW2 exceeded the previous record for pre orders? Again the cynical part of me wonders on the timing of that announcement and anything else that was happening at that time. I would be interested to see if the number of those who actually have cancelled their pre orders (as I have) alters that record in any way. I would also be interested to know if any other game manufacturers would have timed their releases differently or if any investors etc would have acted any differently
Thanks for the support, and succinctly stating why this is not the greatest decision that IW could have made for PC gaming.
However, the manner in which the news was broken (late and 'seemingly' accidentally) and the patronising/condescending (insulting?) response from West/Zamprella indicates (to me) that IW are/were pretty aware that this was not going to be popular change. If IWnet is indeed the "biggest investment" they have made in their PC product, you would imagine that they might be justifiably proud of its technical merits and actively telling gamers how it would work to the gamers advantage. Surely such a revolutionary change would garner more interest than in-game achievements, badges, prestige etc? CoD4 saw Grant Collier (IW co-founder but now on 'special projects' at Activision - er sidelined?) engaging with the PC community and stating how and why it would be such an excellent game; which indeed it is!
The fact that IW broke this 'quietly' and so close to release does not seem to support IWnet being quite the technical tour-de-force they are implying. Also, the fact that they know how to do good PR (CoD4) seems to show that they knew they could not 'sell' IWnet to the PC gaming community; thus the lack of demo and zero in game footage on the PC platform.
As discussed in myriad other forums (IW's included) it seems evident that IWnet is P2P based and more than likely heavily based (if not a direct port of) the console netcode. This, we know is not good. I think I'm right in saying that every other PC game (FEAR2/Far Cry2 to name a couple) that has used this model has died on its *rse (in MP terms) within a few weeks of release. I work in the Enterprise IT sector and have done a lot of work in the WAN acceleration field (Cisco, Packeteer, Bluecoat, Citrix etc etc).
Basically, unless IW have miraculously developed netcode that can defeat the simple laws of physics then this is going to be miserable, laggy and intermittent gaming 'experience'. Fear the message "Host Migration"!
My suggestion/request to PCgamer, is to test CoD-MW2 MP as "Joe Public" will get to see it.
Now obviously, you are bound by NDAs and severe limitations on the game-code leaving your hallowed offices, which in all probability has a reasonably decent internet link. Therefore, I suggest using WAN simulators to emulate the typical net connections the public has and see how it fairs. Obviously there are (expensive) commercial WANsims out there, but a copy of m0n0wall (free) plus spare PC with 2 NICs should do the job. Set the uplink to 384kbps, downlink to 4Mbps (approx the UK average), add 5-10 ping each way, and small amounts of jitter and packetloss and hey presto - sucky home net connection!
IMHO, the reality of IWnet is about control and money. By controlling the servers and removing mods and custom maps, they gain control of the platform and believe they can more effectively monetize the product (how i hate that term!) by charging for DLC (maps, weapons, badges, anything they can). Remember we only got the PC map pack for CoD4 because nVidia 'sponsored' it. This is where Activision wants PC gaming to go.
Finally, apart from the smoke and mirrors PR and the insulting attitude from IW's leadership, what I find particularly galling is being charged extra for less - Ł10 extra for 6-10hrs SP and hamstrung MP?
I know IW started out making games about Nazis but I didn't think they would actually become them.
This is a crazy mess for everyone. Iw's intent is unknown, but I'm guessing its do to laziness. Sure IW makes the big bucks off of console, but they forgot who made them. I work so hard to get friends away from console. Consoles are a disease. Its just all so wrong. People need to inform the brainwashed that PC gaming is on a whole other level. Its not as expensive as the "media" makes it out to be. It's better in so many ways. One being the user has control. We choose where we want to play, who we want to play with and so on. I enjoy a smooth server.
I think the problem is easy money. Easy work. What happened to taking pride in your work? Trying something totally different? Anyway I talk in a crazy uncontrolled fashion.
Last thought here... Bf2 was the game that solved many of my friend's xbox problems. They were blown away with smooth gameplay, 64 man servers. Something they had never seen. The clan base, the teamwork... all of it. It is time to take a stand. As many have said if this follows through then expect more devs and publishers to make it the norm. Honestly, I'd rather watch the PC version of COD die and vanish than to tolerate this type of service.
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