I’ve been sick and recovering from surgery the last month or so, so I’ve been kind of out of the loop when it comes to gaming news. Yesterday, I found out about Infinity Ward’s decision to not support dedicated servers in Modern Warfare 2, and instead rely on their new peer-to-peer technology, IW.net. This is horrible news, for a few reasons:

1. Peer-to-peer supports fewer players. Indeed, the maximum game size has been disclosed as 9v9, which is significantly smaller than what you currently see on CoD 4 servers. Even worse, 9v9 is only available on a few game types - on others, the maximum is a paltry 6v6.
2. Peer-to-peer is almost guaranteed to offer worse performance than a dedicated server. Dedicated servers are run on dedicated hardware and are connected via business-class internet connections. Peer-to-peer relies on less stable hardware and an internet connection that is less stable, has less throughput, and is subject to QoS and other interference from ISPs.
3. It kills the community around the game. CoD4, like other games that rely on dedicated servers, has a large community of clans who host public servers. There you can hang out with people who share a similar play style and who you get along with. It is an enjoyable experience to play and hang out with regulars on a server.
4. Peer-to-peer lacks any kind of policing abilities. Many servers would kick/ban players who used racial slurs or excessive profanity. Players who griefed or caused problems were similarly kicked/banned.
5. Finally, there is the cheating/hacking angle. IW plans to rely 100% on VAC for this. The problem is that automated cheating/hacking prevention tools are sometimes behind the cheaters. This means there are often a handful of hacks in the wild that are not currently detected by them. On a dedicated server, the admins would be quick to ban someone for this and everyone could go on with the game - on IW.net, you just have to deal with it.

To add insult to injury, the PC game also lacks the popular ‘lean’ feature that was in the original Modern Warfare, lacks any modding tools (a particular slap in the face if you believe those claiming that many of MW:2’s new features came directly from the modding community), and lacks a console for customizing certain aspects of the game.

The worst part is how this whole thing has been handled by Infinity Ward. In a Best Buy Chat with the developers, IW representatives repeatedly sidestepped questions about the dedicated server issues. Some notable (and often humorous) examples:

TRU-Jennifer: Are you considering dedicated servers for the PC gamer in the near future?

Mackey-IW: Our main focus right now is on making sure the game will work well when it is released (on all platforms).

Our secondary focus is avoiding having to answer questions about dedicated servers..

DudezTY: Since we can not kick people in ranked matches, how will we stop hackers who get past VAC?

Mackey-IW: Our goal is to ban hackers from the game.

Well, that sounds like a nice goal! And until you manage to do so, I guess we just deal with them? Awesome.

krm2014: Will the IWNET multiplayer system compensate for the undoubtly low ping that the host computer will have for the other players, or will the host have an advantage over the other players? Also, going back to clans…Is there a way to have more than 18 people in a server, because my clan has at least 100 members and we like to get 20-30 on our servers at the same time.

Mackey-IW: Games cap out at 9v9. The software has great latency tolerance. See above!

Performance is not going to be a problem! Just trust us, it’s great! (insert Baghdad Bob picture)

zach426: What was your guy’s logic behind removing the lean feature for PC, a feature that was a mainstay from all of your previous call of duty titles?

Mackey-IW: The game is not balanced for lean.

Not balanced for lean? Wtf does that mean?

Torinir: How does IWNet plan to address serious griefing, such as intentional teamkilling, voice/chat spamming, and other unwanted behaviours in public matchmade games? This includes organized griefing from groups like myg0t.

Mackey-IW: You can easily mute players, and hardcore (friendly fire enabled ) SD has “ricochet” which makes you hurt yourself instead.

Way to avoid answering most of the question.

Vince-IW: Multiplayer is incredible, you should not be worried!

Just trust us! It will be awesome! If not, oh well, at least you can return the game, right? Oh.

maniac1969: Vince, there are 178,000 voices that say you need dedicated servers for the PC. COD4 is the bigest online game in history! Why in the world would you take away dedicated servers and change the whole MP experience for us? And Mackey, the PC version with dedicated servers is already the best experience the way it is!

Vince-IW: All I can say is that we changed it to make it a better and easier experience. Also, not all of the names on that list are legit. :smileywink:

Mackey-IW: 402 signed it 4 times I heard.

They try to cutely sidestep the issue of a large number of PC users being pissed off. Are some of the signatures on the petition fake? Undoubtedly. But a large number are, in fact, real. They need only step into their own forums, or the forums of popular clans to see how many people are unhappy about this.

Axen: Please explain how a 9v9 match is a multiplayer experience? I’d have more fun serving lunch at a local nursing home.

Vince-IW: Sounds like are a very compassionate and giving person. I hope the people at the nursing home appreciate you.

Ok, that was kind of funny :)

Moriarte: Ignoring IW.net, is the PC version a direct port of the console version?

Mackey-IW: No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.

Umm.. Isn’t that basically the definition of a port? Who the hell let these idiots represnt IW? This is the last quote I’ll use, because it brings me to another quote from fourzerotwo:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is actually the biggest investment Infinity Ward has ever made into the PC version of our games. It’s also the most feature-rich PC version we’ve ever made.

Really? So the biggest investment you’ve made in a PC game so far is adding “… custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.” These two statements, both made by people representing Infinity Ward, don’t make very much sense. One has to assume that fourzerotwo is referring solely to the addition of IW.net. If this is the case - that Infinity Ward invested a huge amount of money into a multiplayer setup that is actually a giant step backwards for PC gamers - then that is absolutely hilarious. It appears as though they’ve decided to approach the PC market in a similar way to the console market, which is a huge mistake.

This brings me to the greater concern I have - that this is the beginning of a new trend. Shitty P2P lagfest games, lots of DLC, and the destruction of communities around PC gaming. id Software recently announced that they are likely not going to support dedicated servers for their newest title, RAGE. If this becomes the new thing for PC gaming, many of the benefits of the platform are gone for good.