CoD: MW2 PC "Dedicated Servers Out. IWNet Is In."
After a lengthy webcast on BASHandSlash Infinity Ward's community manager, Robert Bowling, confirmed that dedicated servers for the PC community will be dropped in favour of IWNet, a matchmaking service provided by Infinity Ward.
The announcement was met with disappointment as BASHandSLASH (via Kotaku) moderators told Bowling that the current PC communities are "structured in such a way that it relied on having dedicated servers," meaning there is no interest in changing the way matchmaking works and that the community are happy with its current set up.
The new system proposed for IWNet means the matchmaking service will run along side Steam (which has been making all the news headlines this week) and will match you up with players of your rank. It will also mean there are "no dedicated server list[s]," and that you'll rely on IWNet for "matchmaking and your games, but you still have your private matches," according to Bowling.
The main concern for community and clan members is that the ability to customise games in a hosted or modded game could be coming to an end. There will be hardly any control over any matches, making the service feel more akin to the likes of console gaming, according to Josh Pickler of planetmedalofhonor.com.
"The server community is what's made us. It's what defined us," he said, going on to say that "IWNET is getting the PC community to turn into consoles. You're trying to re-write our history."
The system seems to mirror that of Battlenet, currently being implemented by Blizzard for all of its products, and will allow community managers and developers to track, learn and better service the PC community.
"From a development standpoint, it's very good on how we can access and update the PC community.
"I know the team has huge plans for what IWNet develops into, and this is just the beginning. It's hard for me to speak personally towward IWNet, because that is a code heavy project," said Bowling.
So, again, PC gamers...thoughts?
Related Info
| Developer: | Infinity Ward |
| Publisher: | Activision |
| Release: | 10 Nov 2009 |
User comments
With this, they will make a huge mistake. In a world where internet users gain more and more power and service providers need to please the customer, IW still thinks they can control the community.
I cancelled my pre-order today and will not buy the game until this has been solved.
Several petitions have been started on the web on this. The link below already has over 22.000 signatures in just a few hours!
Dedicated Servers for CoD:MW2 Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/dedis4mw/petition.html
20,000 and counting
desite the petition and despite me signing it and over 27,000 signing it there will always be atleast 10-15,000 that buy it regardless. thus 15,000 buying it will mean they make 510,000 if the game retails at 34.99 minus costs. however if the 27k of us stood by it and didnt buy it then that will make a bigger impact on the actual game market for the CoD series.
but i just know it wont happen as I say regardless of the petition there are hardcore CoD players that will buy it cause:
a. its pier preasure gotta have them all
b. there friend has it.
I can safely say to the developers that they have lost well over 300 players already cause our gaming community wont be able to support the game and show support for the game by purchasing it without dedicated server files.
without dedicated files how can we all play together... think to yourselfs for a minute...yes my friend has it but what happens when ur friend gets better stats than you...not gunna be able to play together than.
shame... would have loved to support this game with our gaming community, sorry youve lost our support and we are a solid team of 300+ that stick by and wont buy the game without dedicated server files. theres 300+ sales straight away out the window. think about it. its all about money in the real world people. good thing we have l4d2.
www.wsat.co.uk
i will not even buy it
i play it only if i find something like cracked server
stick to the good old cod4
for me the call of duty dies at cod5
MW2 Pre-order duly cancelled!
DbD
dont waste ur money and buy the game.
its like buying a buger but burger king turning around and saying sorry were only going to give out the buns today.
This is indeed a very sad day for gaming. The entire gaming world is moving to the idiot boxes...the noob-sticks...impersonal public games....if I wanted to play on the idiot boxes I'd do so....glad I didn't buy that new GPU yet.
We own 5 copies of COD4. Infinity Ward, f**k you. F**k you very much. You'll never get another penny out of this household. Not. One. Penny.
I hope Infinity Ward reads all this!
I personally don't add everyone I meet in a game to a friends list, especially not after playing one map against them...
With dedicated servers you can play repeatedly with people through lots of maps and get to kno them, not just play one map then get put through match-making again and be against a whole group of different people like on consoles...
Another problem with match-making is the game host is normally chosen at random, which sucks when that person is someone with a bad internet connection.
One of the main reasons I hate online gaming with consoles is the match-making, the lack of mods, no admins to kick them annoying squeaky voicedkids, no real control over server settings... it's just gonna suck...
When I came to play Multiplayer, it wouldn't connect, I wasn't surprised. I also tried to get on the IW Forums to see what the problem was, and I couldn't connect there either, the Forums were swamped. :S
So I left it until this morning and I got a good 30 mins of online play before I went to work, twas gooood. So now the real test is whether I can get on with no trouble when I get home from work tonight. Fingers crossed. :P