Why Dedicated Servers in MW2 is Important to PC Gamers

With the recent announcement that instead of dedicated servers for online play there would be a matchmaking service like on the console variants of MW2, there has been a uprising of discontent from fans with the announcement on the internet today. From posting on the Infinity Ward forums and other forums showing their discontent, to numerous petitions online (with over 42K signatures so far), to canceling their pre-orders and threatening to not buy the game and pirate it because of IW got rid of dedicated servers and replaced it with a matchmaking option. So with all this madness going on, why are dedicated servers something PC gamers really care and need about to go and do all this?

As a PC gamer myself, I bought the original MW for the PC and played countless hours killing people online and having fun doing it.I would start the game, look for the usual server that I would join, and when I joined I would see the usual people in there and we would play the game. With the decision to replace dedicated servers with a matchmaking service, it would not be the same.

Changing to a matchmaking service makes the PC version more like the console version. This can cause many things to be different that would be normal to other PC games that have dedicated servers. The following things are a result of this happening:

Matchmaking issues

When I start up CoD:MW or almost any other multi-player game I just click on the “Join Game” button and I can look for the usual server that I go to and play with the usual people that play on there. With the change to matchmaking, you would no longer be able to chose what server you can go to and what people you will play with. You will be playing with people that is your rank, but that does not mean that they are not noobs and non-team players or not. Every time you play, there will be a new set of people there playing with you.

Latency = Higher

Dedicated servers are run by providers that have a huge amount of upload/download speed and bandwidth. They have upload speeds of over 100 MBits/sec and with high upload speeds, it keeps ping down. With matchmaking the end user has to run the server and not everyone has 100 MBits/sec upload connections, let alone 10 MBits/sec or 5 MBits/sec. This will cause the ping to increase not a lot, but enough to make it lag and have horrible hit registration.

No more BIG games.

With matchmaking you won’t be able to set up big games because of the latency and performance issues from the user hosting the server. The users connection would not be able to handle a big server, so server sizes will be going down.

Cheating

With punkbuster being removed and in it’s place VAC, the game is now more prone to cheating. Punkbuster is a good, but annoying method to counteract cheating, instead of leaving it in they replaced it with something worse. You can see other games like Counter Strike and how easy it is to cheat when using VAC. Cheating makes the game less fun and if you can’t win it’s worthless to you.

No custom content or mods.

You won’t be able to set up a game with custom maps or mods because there are no dedicated servers to run them on. Since there is no SDK and no dedicated servers there will be no custom content. Since there would be no custom content they can nail you with map packs for a price.

Map Packs+Patches (DLC) on the PC may not be free anymore.

Game developers and publishers create DLC on the consoles because there is nothing more that users can do with what came with the actual game. In order to give them more they charge them for more. With the PC, people would create mods and maps for free for users to play with. With no custom content for MW2, Infinity Ward and Activision can now charge you for extras. Where they would be free for games that are open to the community (L4D, CS, and more), it can now be something that they can make some money off of.

Lack of Control over rules, etc.

In a dedicated server scenario, the person that is running the server can ban anyone that they want. In a Matchmaking system, everyone has to vote on whether or not the person they want kicked should be or not, it’s not the same as an instant ban against the person. You can also control the game exactly the way that you want it on a dedicated server, like rules, map configurations, mods, etc.

No clan servers

Clans will no longer have a place where they can call home. They won’t have a place where they can just go and play with their fellow clan members and just do whatever. Clans won’t be able to run private servers where they can train or practice or just play with custom rules on purpose for specific scenarios/etc. With this change it will just make things harder for everyone.

These are just some of the main reasons why PC gamers want dedicated servers over a matchmaking system. There is however a bigger picture behind why this is happening. Infinity Ward and Activison and ALL the other game developers and publishers are starting to not care for the PC gaming group. Instead of putting time and effort into the PC version of the game, they are just porting the game directly from consoles and not caring what happens to the PC version. Patches are usually released latter than the console version and so are map packs. With the dedicated servers being removed Infinity Ward is putting one of the final nails in the coffin of PC gaming as we knew it, which was open and filled with support.

Maybe in the end of the battle between PC Gamers and Infinity Ward/Activison we might get a compromise of options to have both Dedicated Servers and Matchmaking service, but hopes for that are slim. With the petition growing ever so largely, all we can do is hope that change will happen for both the game and the way that the PC is viewed as a gaming platform.

Image props to Gamebane.com

New PlayStation 3 Motion Controller Prototype

At TGS today Sony has shown off the new Motion Controller. The controller was originally revealed during E3 2009 and has been criticized for its “ugliness” and for looking like another certain object. It uses the ball on the top of the controller and the PlayStation Eye to track the movements of the controller. Hirai said  that “very accurate” movement can be realized and the reality can be “enhanced” via slight vibration feedback.

Before:

After:

As you can see in the before and after pictures, the top part before the ball, has now curved out and so has the bottom. The Motion Controller is still on schedule to launch in Spring 2010.

*Image credits to Joystiq

Can we Expect a XBOX 360 Slim at all?

With the announcement of the PS3 Slim by Sony at GamesCom last week, there have now been rumors of a XBOX 360 Slim in the works from Microsoft to counter the PS3 Slim. The PS3 Slim is going to be released before September 1st at a new price of $299 and with the announcement of the XBOX 360 Pro being dropped and the XBOX 360 Elite replacing the Pro at the same $299 price point, Microsoft and Sony will finally be going head to head at the same price point. Could this mean that Microsoft might follow Sony’s footsteps and release a slim console of their own?

Microsoft may tell people that they are confident with the way sales are going and they are confident that the PS3 will not overtake the XBOX 360 in sales this holiday season, but there is reason for disbelief. This holiday season can mean announcing a new XBOX 360 Slim soon to counter the PS3 Slim, if sales dip and if the PS3 has higher sales. If they don’t that may be another story, but it can still happen.

If Microsoft were to release an XBOX 360 Slim, they can market it as a new reliable console that is more reliable than the previous versions of the console. A console redesign could be a good marketing move to get rid of the stigma of 360′s continuous breaking down. They can use the knowledge that they have now on heat design and with that they can redesign the XBOX 360 so that it has less faliure rates than before. That would mean less to no RRoD’s, E74 Errors, or other issues.

There is something stopping Microsoft from redesigning a slimmer console. A problem that they face would be that they can’t redesign a slimmer console until they get to the point where they can get the CPU and GPU in the same package. Sony shrinking the cell processor down to 45nm and other components allowed them to build a slimmer version of the console, but Microsoft still has a Falcon 65 nm chipset in their consoles.

This holiday season will be a turning point for better or for worse for Microsoft. Do you think that there will be a slimmer XBOX 360 in the works?

Sony in the Process of Rebranding Itself

With the announcement of the PS3 Slim (not officially called the PS3 Slim) we have been seeing new things coming from Sony on the PS3. As in a  previous article, Sony planning new PS3 Box art with PS3 Slim Announcement?, Sony is now in the process of rebranding it’s flagship PS3 in the market. With the  announcement of the PS3 Slim, it was more than just a new version of the PS3. It was a whole rebranding process with a new logo to go with it.

The new logo is now a third for the PS3 in it’s lifespan. With the original PLAYSTATION 3 Logo with the Spider-Man font as the original marketing figure for the PS3 it was very effective. It was effective in the way that the public quickly made the comparison with the Spider-Man font and were not very happy with it. Lately instead of seeing the PLAYSTATION 3 logo on commercials they were seeing something new in a sense. Instead of it being called PLAYSTATION 3 it was now just PS3, still in the Spider-Man font. This marked the first transition into being known as the PS3 instead of PlayStation 3.

The PS3 Slim has come with a change and Sony’s John Koller has told Ars Technica that, “We’re in the process of replacing the Spider-Man font to the PS3 logo. [The new design] will be the logo moving forward, that will be in place on the hardware and peripherals and software, starting with Uncharted 2.” With that information it confirmed that the PS3 was not only changing its logo, it was changing it’s whole image. Starting with the logo on the PS3, then the logo on the box art, and finally the logo for marketing.

Now to follow up on our previous post about the new box art, Sony planning new PS3 Box art with PS3 Slim Announcement?, the final design has been released and is shown in the new image from the Gundam bundle box. On the left you could see the new PS3 logo on the box, without PLAYSTATION 3 in Spider-Man font on the side, and with a MUCH cleaner look.

With this change, things are starting to be more consistent and it gives Sony a cleaner look on their products. Sony has gone back to their old marketing way’s and if they can market the PS3 like they did with the PS2, they can not only re-gain the lead this console generation, they can win it.