The sequel to the megapopular Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2 comes out in a little over a week on November 10th.
As discussed in the promising upcoming games thread, I’ve been more excited about this game than any in recent memory. I’m usually not a big fan of the quasi-realistic arcade shooter, but COD4 just managed to be consistently fun, and this is basically more of the same but with even more variety.
A pirated copy of the xbox 360 version has already leaked, and I watched a stream of some of the single player. It looks really good - the same feel as COD4 only turned up a notch.
The rest of this post will be a rant about IW’s decision to fuck the PC multiplayer, so if you’re not interested in that feel free to skip the rest of the post and discuss whatever you want about the game.
Unfortunately MW2 went from the game I was ready to purchase the moment it came out to something I’m not considering buying at all in one move. I’ll have to see how bad it is before I buy it.
They decided to use console-style matchmaking with listen servers like the consoles use instead of a traditional, unambiguously preferred and successful dedicated server/server browser model used by every successful PC shooter game of the last, oh, 13 years or so.
If you don’t understand what that means, this guy explains it in these videos.. I think he actually undersells the points - it’s probably going to be worse than he warns.
Console players will be unaffected because - well, quite frankly, this is the same crappy system that you’re used to for everything, so it seems normal to you. I’m trying not to sound too elitist, but if console multiplayer is the extent of your experience then you don’t know what you’re missing.
On consoles, my understanding (I’ve never owned a shooter for consoles although I’ve played on other people’s systems) is that you basically hit “find multiplayer game” and it randomly plunks you down into a game, regardless of your preferences of game type, maps, rules, etc. This server is hosted on the xbox on one of the people playing the game - so if they live far away from you, or if their internet connection isn’t great (and the average connection isn’t), or they’re using their bandwidth for something else, you get a crappy, laggy server. The actual host gets a good deal, since now they have no latency to their own system, they have an advantage over everyone else who is remotely connecting and lagging. And when the host decides to leave a game or shut off his computer - boom, the game is dead, and you start over.
Dedicated server infrastructure puts servers in data centers that have massive bandwidth to properly handle internet gaming. Residential internet service is usually great for downloading stuff, but the upload limitations are usually fairly severe and that’s what matters when hosting a server. Most people simply do not have the upload capacity to host anything more than a 6 or 8 player server, and then it may be laggy and poor quality. Hosted servers in data centers, on the other hand, are designed to upload huge amounts of data and use very fast computers that are dedicated to hosting the server, rather than an underpowered xbox trying to both run the game and run a server at the same time.
Dedicated servers give you lots of options in customization. You can run custom mods or maps, but even if not - even if you stick to the stock game, you can tweak a lot in the way of game types, map rotation, time and frag limits, custom rules like which perks or weapons your server does not allow, behavior that your server does not allow, etc.
This leads to dedicated servers forming communities. Since they’re around 24/7 7 days a week, unlike the console version where servers come and go as people open and close their game, like-minded people tend to form groups on these servers. There are servers where the rules gear towards “tactical” gameplay where people are asked/required to act mostly realistically, rather than running around like crazy and bunnyhopping. There are servers that cater to a more adult/non-obnoxious-retard crowd by having the administrators boot and ban people for obnoxious behavior. I have maybe a dozen servers saved to my cod4 favorites list because I know I like how they’re run - I like the custom rules they have, I like how they’re administered, I know they are fast and reliable, I know they’ll have game modes and maps that I like, and I may even see the same people during repeat playings because they also are looking for the same sort of thing I am.
This model has worked great for as long as internet gaming has been around. It benefits the developer/publisher greatly because the users are paying for these servers to host the game, and it builds the community which keeps the game alive longer and boosts post-release sales. It works great for the server operator because they can create the type of game world they want to play in, and administer it to ensure that other people comply. It works great for the player because they have a choice in finding a high speed, high quality server with settings and rules that they like, and there are thousands of potential servers to choose from. It’s great for groups of people because clans have their home servers to recruit and play and they have servers they can lock up and keep private to face off other clans in organized competitions.
Now instead of having my choice of hundreds or thousands of always-on, fast and smooth servers with a variety of settings and rules to choose from, I’m just going to get randomly thrown into a game where I have to hope the host has a decent internet connection, decent computer, isn’t torrenting porn in the background, and doesn’t decide to leave while I’m having fun, while I have to suffer from a laggy crappy server that can’t even host that many people (in COD4 you can have 48 man servers with no lag - in MW2 it’ll be hard to host 16 players, and it’ll be with painful lag).
Every single shooter type game that has launched with anything but a dedicated server/server browser format has died a quick death. Recent examples include Frontlines: Fuel of War, Operation Flashpoint 2, and Gears of War. All were released with console-style listen servers, and all were pretty much dead on arrival when the multiplayer community never took off because that model of multiplayer is so clearly obviously inferior that no one wants to play on it. Two of those games later tried to release dedicated servers to correct their mistake, but by then it was too late.
The backlash against Infinity Ward is huge on this one. There’s an online petition with over 170,000 signatures as of now demanding dedicated servers. Pretty much every gaming blog or discussion site is full of people who are outraged. IW went from one of the community’s favorite publishers to one of the most hated with this single move. Many many preorders were cancelled.
Why are they even doing it? They claim their method will prevent piracy, but that’s unclear at this point. Pirates are pretty resourceful. The best way to combat piracy IMO is to have an online component that’s wildly popular and requires authentication, it’ll make people want to buy your game for that. If you screw up your multiplayer, people are just going to say “well, it’s pretty much just a single player game anyway, so I’m just going to pirate it and get the full experience” and so this may actually lead to increased piracy.
They also claim that they’re doing this for the casual gamer - a person who apparently cannot operate a simple server browser where you can sort and filter by many criteria to find a game you’d like. If someone is so clueless that they can’t figure out how to operate a cod4 style server browser, they’re not going to be playing the game on the PC platform anyway. But even that idea is bullshit, because that has already been covered by systems like Battlefield 2’s, where you have a full on dedicated server/browser model, but there was also a “quick play” button that would find you a good server that you had a good connection to automatically. If they’re so concerned with someone that’s mystified by a server browser (and if you have to wonder if this person was able to put their pants on all by themselves) then they could simply add an automatic quick join function in addition to the traditional model.
I could say laziness is a factor, but I doubt it. It simply doesn’t require that much effort to release a dedicated server program, because the code is all already developed, you just have to spin it off into an indepedent program.
The big one here may be DLC. Traditionally PC gamers do not pay for DLC and when multiplatform games offer it, the PC version gets it for free. In COD4 the map pack was a free upgrade. But I suspect with their method of content control, and the fact that they’re preventing anyone from making custom maps or mods means that IW becomes the only source for new content, and now they can force people to buy it. I’m not opposed to businesses making money, obviously - but when they intentionally cripple a customer’s product so that they can milk them for even more, then that’s deserving of consumer revolt.
I can only hope they rectify their mistake and give us traditional, superior multiplayer before the community dies very quickly after release.