Source: ars technica - http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/10/modern-warfare-2-the-case-for-the-dedicated-server.ars

Supporters of dedicated servers for FPS games claim that the current system is necessary to allow for a full gaming experience. Needless to say, the recent news that dedicated servers aren't being supported in the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 hasn't exactly gone over well with a lot of the computer gaming community.

Last week, when Infinity Ward revealed it was dropping dedicated servers from the PC build of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in favor of a new matchmaking infrastructure called IWNET, it was like someone sucker-punched the PC gaming community. The reaction was both immediate and loud: forums erupted with angry posts, and a petition asking Infinity Ward to rethink its decision quickly surpassed 150,000 signatures.

So far, the developer seems to be ignoring the complaints of its PC audience. This isn't whining, however. Digging below the surface reveals that those who are asking Infinity Ward not to do away with the dedicated servers entirely are not simply scared of change. Instead, they want the PC gaming experience to be as enjoyable as possible for the entire community, something they say isn't possible without control of the servers.

Why this matters

So what's the big deal about the loss of dedicated servers? Quite a lot, actually, especially for hardcore PC gamers involved in competitive FPS leagues. "To lose dedicated servers means we lose control of what rules we can use in clan matches (each league has its own rules, perks, weapons, etc). These rules, more than likely, are run by mods, such as PAM, Openwarfare, or Pro-Mod," said Dave Wilks, the author of the petition and an administrator for Codleague. "No dedicated servers mean no mods... we wouldn't be able to upload mods to IWNET."

Of course, Infinity Ward has been quick to tout the advantages of using IWNET over dedicated servers. By utilizing "playlists" (pre-set game modes and types for public matches), players won't have to search for a game on a list of available servers. The system will also "put you in the game that will give you the smoothest gameplay possible without you having to manually find a server with the best ping."

The final advantage of this new system, according to the developer, is that it will use the Valve Anti-Cheat system in order to "control the quality of the game much more than ever before." According to the claims, IWNET will eliminate the need to worry about "joining a server full of aim-bots, wallhacks, or cheaters. Or relying on the server admin of the server to constantly be monitoring, banning, and policing it."

While it's true that dedicated servers can't really have someone monitoring the games on them 24/7, many of them utilize PunkBuster, an anti-cheat system for online multiplayer games. If you're a dedicated player who sticks to one server, it's also comforting to know those that care about the community around that server are working to keep the cheaters out; control rests in the hands of the players, not Activision.

Even if the IWNET system does work as Infinity Ward claims it will, it's easy to understand gamers' concern. "I don't know if [dedicated servers will be better] in general day to day play," admitted Wilks. "The only game I've played with matchmaking or similar is Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, which also has a server browser so you can actually pick the server to go in.

"The thing with a matchmaking system [is that] you are reliant on the host not taking his bat home if he's getting pummeled in a game, and also on the host's internet connection being able to handle the amount of people in the server. With a [dedicated server], you usually have it located in a datacentre, with a decent connection, and so everyone connects to the server which means fairer play (no 0 pings)."

The PC gamer as whining loser

The concerns seem valid, despite what many people seemed to think when complaints started to surface last week. Even Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade jumped on the bandwagon, naysaying the complaints as little more than pointless sound and fury from a community that is no longer a key audience.

"To read such lamentations, you'd get the impression that PC gamers still think they are the focus of the industry, when that hasn't been true for awhile," he wrote in a recent post. "Indeed, hardcore gamers in general—and the dedicated PC enthusiast, which is a subset—haven't been the object of their desire for some time."

Wilks, of course, disagrees. "No, I don't think [Holkins' opinion] is true," he said. "PC gamers know that they are the minority (15 percent in Call of Duty 4). PC Gamers haven't been primary audiences for a long time for most publishers or developers, although some still do develop only on PC."

Wilks claims the community's hope is that groups like Infinity Ward will keep dedicated servers running side-by-side with systems like IWNET. "All in all, IWNET adds a load of new features that the PC version of our games have never had before and allows us an infrastructure to continue to update and improve on the game post-launch," he said. "At the end of the day, all we are asking for is support to run the game how we, the paying customers, want to run the game after all the support Infinity Ward was given by the PC gaming community."

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like developers want to consider this option, based on Infinity Ward's reaction to the petition. Despite assurances by Robert Bowling that the development team would see and respond to the petition, the ensuing silence on the matter has been deafening. Wilks hasn't seen any official response from either Bowling or Infinity Ward since then, and Bowling himself never responded to Ars' request for an interview.

The lack of dedicated servers also means Activision Blizzard controls what mods, if any, will be allowed. You can't control what maps are running on the server, and fan-made maps offered for free may be a thing of the past, replaced by for-pay content, if this model catches on. This changes the relationship between the community and the publisher: you used to be able to buy a house and move in, but now you'll have to ask permission to paint the walls of your rental. Which, by the way, is more expensive. To show you just how far Infinity Ward has come since the last Call of Duty in terms of embracing the PC platform, take a look at an interview shot for the first Modern Warfare. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMfTR8PBrsE

In just a few short years, we've gone from embracing the mod-making and PC gaming community, to treating them like children who can't be trusted with nice things.

How will the PC gaming community react to the game if Infinity Ward goes ahead with its current plans and doesn't support dedicated servers? "I can only speak for the guys I know about," Wilks said. "A poll on our site suggests that 75 percent have canceled preorders. As for what the community will do, well, if [Infinity Ward] stays with just IWNET, then we won't be supporting Modern Warfare 2. We will find other games to play."

Tags: mw2 | modern | warfare | 2 | call of duty | cod | dedicated | servers | petition | IW | response | PC

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There are now 158901 Total Signatures

on the "Dedicated Servers for CoD:MW2" Petition. - http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dedis4mw

If all of those people boycotted MW2 IW and Activision would lose over 4.8 million pounds or nearly 8 million dollars.

Tags: mw2 | modern | warfare | 2 | call of duty | cod | dedicated | servers | petition | signatures | IW | boycott | lost sales

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From multiplay.co.uk

Modern Warfare 2 - No Dedicated Servers
Oct 21 2009 10:43:56 by Killing
No Dedicated Servers
It is with huge regret we must inform all our current customers that the once promising upcoming game by InfinityWard Modern Warfare 2 will not include a dedicated server. Given this ourselves and ALL other GSP's will be unable to support this game with the same high quality servers you have come to expect from their previous Call of Duty Series Games.

Instead you will all be forced to play this title on poor quality listen servers hosted on home DSL & Cable connections, normally associated with our less fortunate console brethren.

InfinityWard's Response is to Insult PC Gamers
This is of course a massive slap in the face for the entire PC community, who made IW what they are by supporting their previous games including the highly popular Call of Duty 4, which many of you have servers for.

Community Feedback on this Decision
The entire community is now up in arms about this, not least because of the insulting and condescending tone taken by the IW's top men in responding to this issue ( Infinity Ward Responds To PC Fanboys' Dedicated Server Woes )

There is already a 118,000 signature dedicated server petition, which we would encourage anyone who cares about the success of this game on the PC to signup to. But for those of you who would like to express their concerns in a more personal manor you can find their forums here: Official PC Modern Warfare 2 - Forums

Should IW change their mind on this matter, which unfortunately seems unlikely, we will of course look to bring you the best servers for this game once again.

Tags: mw2 | modern | 2 | warfare | call of duty | cod | dedicated | servers | response | PC

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Whilst trying to be unbiased I fear that some bias will creep into this article, as I am a PC gamer at heart, and I ask that anyone reading this consider both sides of the story here, here goes:

http://bit.ly/47Z4MB

This was the first sign of official response, a HUGELY biased response from, most likely, a console player who doesn't have a clue. It is people like this who present themselves to PC gamers and make the whole XBL and PSN network look like idiots, which I know is not the case!

Firstly, to quote some of the phrases employed by the writer in this article:

"With dedicated servers and the server browser that comes with them replaced with custom-built matchmaking, PC gamers will have an online experience functionally identical to console players."   Which is exactly the reason I bought a conso-.... wait, I didn't did I? no. I bought a PC to game on because although I find playing on consoles fun with friends (oh yes I play on consoles every now and again) I prefer the traditional PC experience. While this is an example of backwards logic there are stereotypes such as "Predictably, nerds across world took to the Internet with a wailing and a gnashing of teeth..." that sadden me. This awful biased statement in the first published response to PC gamers (via @fourzerotwo) just says to me that IW really have lost touch with their PC gamers, shunning them and letting rude responses such as "this may shock some gamers with advanced persecution complexes" be portrayed by the article they choose to show us as a reason for their failure to interact with the community.

In my humble opinion, all this mess could've been avoided if the "PC fans of Modern Warfare who couldn't find a decent server to play on between all of the cheaters" hadn't been selected from the minority of a community that plays on cracked servers without PB protection. Most CoD4 servers are free of hackers. I should know, I played the game on many different servers!  The irony is that these people, who moaned about cheats (most likely on non-PB servers) will have either pirated the game or have otherwise acquired it illegally, else why would they continually play on servers full of cheaters? This is something IW.Net is meant to stop, so would not be in their interests.

The complete backlash from many in the PC gaming community could have also been almost completely avoided, had IW decided that they would give us a beta, or more information.

I speculate that IW are just doing this so they can force us to pay for DLC further down the line. I for one am happy to pay for DLC and have done before (for other games), so long as we get to have dedicated servers. After all, DLC is additional content that the game developers worked extra to produce for us to enhance the game we play, like a mini expansion pack.

This being the first official response, and a pretty lousy and insulting one at that, I feel that IW have completely lost touch with the people who made the CoD series so popular and completely screwed us over with this stupid move.

to quote the great DrD, "GG no re", I'm taking my money elsewhere.

Anagrams:

IW = Infinity Ward (The developers of CoD games)

CoD = Call of Duty

PB = PunkBuster

DLC = Downloadable Content

Tags: IW | response | PC | petition | mw2 | Modern Warfare 2

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101597 Total Signatures

Well that's a very impressive number to achieve in such a short space of time, 100k lost PC sales is a sizeable blow to the potential revenue generated by MW2, which is about 3 million pounds / 5 million dollars in lost income. Some people are putting the lost sales closer to 450k which would be 13.5 million pounds / 22 million dollars in lost revenue. Now that should be very concerning to Infinity Ward and Activision, and that number is only going to grow.

The PC community needs to keep asserting itself, we cannot hold back or settle for anything less than what we want, dedicated servers is what needs to be implemented in MW2 and a change of policy on the PC platform is what is ultimately needed. Console users may complain about why PC users should get extra attention and features, but in reality the reverse is true, the game has been reduced in functionality to the inferior console status quo (no server browser or dedicated servers). Console users should be campaigning with PC users for dedicated servers, both platforms should be treated equally, both platforms should both have dedicated server support. This important area of functionality has been absent from the console for far, far, too long.

IW and every other game devoloper should ask the community about what they think of the game before it is released or major changes made. This is the precise reason betas and prereleases should be industry standard, it is really worth the effort if it prevents one the biggest gaming backlashes in history, if not the biggest.

We have to continue to campaign and speak out for our cause, this is not just about the PC gaming platform, but it is about everybody who plays games that span multiple platforms.

Tags: mw2 | modern | warfare | 2 | call of duty | cod | dedicated | servers | petition | signatures

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We thank all of you for your positive responses to Starfleet's article!

I would be posting this on IW forums, but I can't actually register, maybe the registration servers are down every time I try? I dunno...

We will try to cover the news as it comes out the best we can, so check back for updates!

Petition currently stands at 80004 Signatures

http://www.petitiononline.com/dedis4mw/petition.html

-D3bug

Tags:

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There are now 75390 Total Signatures

On the "Dedicated Servers for CoD:MW2" petition - http://www.petitiononline.com/dedis4mw/petition.html

Tags: signatures | petition | dedicated | cod | call of duty | 2 | warfare | modern | mw2

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There are now 20073 Total Signatures

On the "Dedicated Servers for CoD:MW2" petition - http://www.petitiononline.com/dedis4mw/petition.html

Tags: mw2 | modern | warfare | 2 | call of duty | cod | dedicated | servers | petition

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So why is this article needed? It is needed because the PC community needs valid reasons to present to IW and the console community as to why we need dedicated server functionality.

On the reasons - BTW if you know of any more reasons please contact me ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - @starfleet1bop)

Latency

Dedicated servers are usually always provided by big game hosting companies, with massive bandwidth DSL connections. They have direct access to the internet backbone providing upload speeds in excess of 100 MBits/s. Now lets scale that back to the average user, lowest tier access to the internet with low priority connection, upload speed generally around 0.5-1.0 MBits/s. I don't know about you but that is not at all good when compared to what game server hosts provide, a 99% reduction in bandwidth. I realise this won't result in a 100 times worse connection, but it will definitly increase ping, if you are in the same state or country you will likely get a ping of 100-250 milliseconds, different state or country? 250-1000 milliseconds seems about right. This would result in awful hit registration and lag. This alone would make competitive play extremely difficult and public play very unpleasant.

Host drop out

The host of the game leaves for whatever reason, and so bang goes the game. I know IW will likely put in some feature that makes another player in the game a host, but this will most likely be not very good and may not work all the time, and in the best scenario would result in a delay in play. This is unacceptable, it disrupts and destroys gameplay and would destroy competitive play. Unless you have a poor server, the game will always be on with no disruptions.

Performance

This links in with Latency and host drop out. Big server companies pay lots of money for specialist server and networking equipment, and their sole purpose is to provide a server for you. The server they give you has one purpose alone, to host games, not host games and play them at the same time and whatever else goes on in the average PC. This will affect gameplay, if the host cannot handle hosting the game either due to poor hardware and/or poor connection, the whole game will lag (don't believe me? go play a company of heroes game against a 1 bar performance person), also RTS experience has shown that you don't even need a dodgy host to lag the game, all you need is someone with a PC that has a poor spec and it ruins the game for everyone.

No community

How can there be a community if there is no central point to access a game. It has been revealed there will be no server browser, and as there are no servers there will be no IP addresses to give out. So how can you advertise a game/match to the general public to play? Like on a clan website or whatever. And once the host is gone, the game ends, so you can't invite people to the same match again or keep it running. Whereas with a dedicated server you can advertise the IP, and people can come and go as they please, and you can create a community of gamers around that server. You cannot have regulars to a match if it ends when everyone leaves.

Lack of control

You most definitly won't be able to customise a match like you can with a dedicated server, so you will lose a lot of control. You won't be able to ban people, kicking you may be able to but it won't be the same either way. You also won't be able to get the gameplay exactly how you like it as there will be no config files, no more server cvars, no more mods, no more maps, basically no third party stuff at all. Competitive gameplay can forget it, as there most likely won't be enough configuration options available, and competition mods like promod just won't be able to exist.

No Mods, maps, hence no modding community

You won't be able to use third party maps or mods as there are no dedicated servers to put them onto. No competitive mods, no competitive gaming. Can't install mods? Then there will be no point in making them anymore so a whole group of people just die out.

No scrims/competitive matches

As there is no server browser, or IP address to give out, how do you advertise your server in general to strangers who are not on your friends list? You can't, it will be very awkward to add somebody to your friends list so you can invite them to a server if they a stranger, this means getting scrims/matchs over IRC will become impossible: not everyone will want to advertise their ingame name or have people adding them as friends just to play a match, there are no server IPs so advertising for a match will require some creative thinking. Basically it will become such a big farse to get a scrim it will become impossible.

Destruction of server ecosystem

This is more of a business and financial point, which can make it even more important. No dedicated servers = No server hosting companies. There are lots of games still out there that use dedicated servers, but big releases bring in lots of money for these companies, so they will lose a lot of business and hence money, this will affect everybody, not just CoD players. If server companies go bust because of this every PC gamer will suffer, CoD fan or not. Also dedicated servers are the foundation of many gaming communities, without servers, they become pointless. Even more money will be lost because of this, as there is no central way of joining up in a match without a server IP for strangers/general public (remember matches are not 24/7 like game servers), these communities will just disappear.

VAC is bad - Cheating

I know punkbuster is extremely annoying, but it is simply better at catching cheaters than VAC. Just look at the Counter Strike games for an example, it is extremely easy to get away with cheating when using VAC. Cheating destroys the gaming experience for everyone and makes the game not worth playing.

Matchmaking

As there is no server browser, you can no longer choose which match to play on. The game chooses for you, whether you like the match it connects you to or not is tough, as you cannot browse directly for a game you like. Sure there will most likely be filters, but the experience is diminished, and it will be a farse waiting for the matchmaker to find, and then connect you to a game. Also mentioned in the fateful interview, is that you will be paired up with people of the same rank. Rank is not an indicator of skill, any n00b can rank up to level 55 without any skill at all. You won't be able to choose who you play with/against, and you won't be able to judge their skill on their rank.

No more big games

You won't be able to have big games without a dedicated server because of the Latency and performance issues mentioned above. The average person's connection just won't be able to handle it, even small games will suffer without the bandwidth of a dedicated server company.

No competitive gaming

Competitive gaming has been mentioned throughout this posting so for additional reasons you should have read this article better. As there is no competitive gaming there will be no more clans or gaming communities as we know it, simply because competitive gaming relies on dedicated servers in almost every aspect. Without a dedicated server you will not be able to customise the match as greatly as you would with a server, IW will most likely not create a competitive gaming mode (why would they? If they did they would'nt have removed dedicated servers in the first place), no server browser or server IPs would make it very hard for strangers to get into the match, there will be no spectating or CoDTV so there will be limited coverage of major gaming events, cheating would be massive anyway as VAC is a poor anti-cheat  solution so why bother playing competitivly? As there can be no server mods for obvious reasons, gameplay cannot be changed in the way that promod can change it, for the better, another reduction of control.

Symptom of a larger problem

All in all, the removal of dedicated servers is the symptom of a much larger problem: lack of support for the PC platform. By removing dedicated servers IW is making the PC experience more like the console experience is nearly everyway. If I wanted a console experience I would have brought a console, not a gaming PC. There is no reason for the PC gaming platform to exist if there are no differences between the console version of the game and the PC version, sure you have the keyboard and mouse, but that is all you have that is unique and special about the PC now. MW2 is basically just a straight console port, with most of the effort going into the console version of the game (Proof: the map packs came out on console before PC, so more effort is going into console), this results in a lesser experience for PC users, and also more issues later on, like bugs (they still havn't fixed the bugs in CoD4), and as we are a forgotton platform we will not recieve a patch until much later than the consoles receive one. The lack of support for the PC is growing, and the actions by IW may affect every new PC game devoloped by Activision, and even the industry in general. This trend needs to be reversed fast, or the day's of playing games on the PC may be numbered.

Tags: servers | dedicated | cod | call of duty | 2 | warfare | modern | mw2

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The "Dedicated servers for CoD:MW2" petition now has:13084 Signatures

Tags: mw2 | modern | warfare | 2 | call of duty | cod | dedicated | servers | petition

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For all of you who care about the dedicated server issue, or lack of, please sign the "Dedicated Servers for CoD:MW2" petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/dedis4mw/

By signing the petition you are letting IW and Activision know exactly how many people they have pissed off, and the petition can be used as a leverage to get what we want; which is ultimately dedicated servers for MW2 and much better PC support.

If you have a twitter account I also recommend you advertise the petition on it: http://www.petitiononline.com/dedis4mw/. Also letting @fourzerotwo how you feel and what you want (dedicated servers I hope or you should GTFO) would be a good idea. We need to get this issue a trending issue on twitter, something IW cannot ignore.

At the time of writing the amount of signatures stands at: 11904

Tags: mw2 | modern | warfare | 2 | call of duty | dedicated | cod | servers | petition

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Some people are calling this the "Black Saturday", or "Day of Infamy", and it's not hard to see why.

Yesterday an interview was held between Jock Yitch (Bashandslash) and the community manager Rob Bowling (fourzerotwo) of MW2. For the raw version of the interview click here (the crap starts at 1h40m) - and for the cut version of the interview click here.

The following is a summary from the BASHandSLASH website news page:

• We're doing a lot on the backend to make the game accessible for everyone.
• There is no delay for the PC version of MW2
• There's prestige mode
• Jason West at the MP event, said that he was dead on, on the matchmaking servers. We've been building a system on the backend called IW.NET.
• You are completely reliant on IW.NET. There are no server lists. There are no dedicated servers.
• You have private matches where you can customize the game
• You cannot put MW2 on a dedicated server.
• This is the first time we've ever done something like this and the team has huge plans for what IW.NET develops into.
• Customizing your game...you have quite a few options in a private match
• You're getting same game (as in Console), plus matchmaking and private match.
• Server admin point-of view, NO DEDICATED SERVERS

General

• IW partnering through Steam is what you will see in the future. Matchmaking is not through Steam, but IW.NET is run in conjunction with Steam.
• GSP's will no longer be renting out servers.
• No PunkBuster. VAC will be used as an anti cheat.
• Retail distribution: Pre-orders will get a disk. Or you could order from Steam.
• DLC may now need to be paid for - not confirmed.
• Piracy was only a small reason for going to IW.NET - not the whole reason.

Clans

• No more clan servers. Private matches, replace clan servers.
• Listen servers will connect to each other.
• IW.NET/Steam will replace the community server admin

Competitive Gaming 

• Competitive gaming has changed forever.
• It might be possible in the future for IW engineers to load a "competitive" setting on IW.NET, but it is far from a guarantee. It might also never happen.

Modding

• Modding the game is now very much in question. Fourzerotwo had no info on modding. However, it appears that there will be no mods or maps for MW2.
• Modding in SpecOps? Unknown.

As you can see the shit has really hit the fan, if there are no dedicated servers a great many people including Team ploXebo and pretty much every other gaming clan will not get MW2. This will totally kill off the competitive gaming scene as we know it, and most likely just kill it off. Who knows? This may even resonate into the PC gaming industry as a whole, all I can say is that dark times are ahead, whether this news is true or not, game developer support for the PC platform is diminishing fast.

Tags: mw2 | modern | warfare | 2 | cod | call of duty | dedicated | servers

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From @fourzerotwo - Community Manager for IW:

No delay on PC for Modern Warfare 2. You'll also have Prestige Mode in PC as well as lots of Steam support. Hopefully min specs will be soon.

Tags: mw2 | modern | warfare | 2 | call of duty

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Hello all, welcome to the Team ploXebo blog. Here team members will post anything relevent to the team or gaming in general. Its a good place to find some of the latest devolopments at ploXebo and in the gaming world.

If you have any suggestions or ideas about something that should be blogged about, please contact a team member.

Also don't forget to subscribe to our RSS feed and follow @ploXebo on twitter.

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