Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling Explains How No Dedicated Server is Not Crazy
October 21, 2009 by srfto
Once the internet got hold of news that there will not be any dedicated server for Infinity Ward’s ‘Modern Warfare 2′ for PC, fans storms out with petitions, raging across the internet, and of course the usual bashing of the company. Among the chaos, Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling (aka fourzerotwo) tries to explain how no dedicated server is not such a bad idea to the angry mob and also tops it off by listing out the benefits of using their IWNet (just read some of the comments..ouch).
On his blog he talks about how every users can jump right into IWNet without players learning how to maintain a dedicated server on their own.
He also list out the positive side to this such as:
- Matchmaking & Smoother Gameplay
- Playlists and Private Matches
- Party System and Friendslist
- Cheat / Hack Free Games
Bowling added:
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.
I wonder if this will settle the community down till the game launches on November 10th.
Check out Bowling’s blog for the full explanation.
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So…the reason that they completely shut down the possibility of allowing dedicated servers is because…?? I understand they may not want to support it…I’m curious just how far that goes…the same thing with mods…are they pulling all support for those too? That’s mind-share lost right there…guaranteed from me…couldn’t say how much many other people will lose some more faith with Activision…but I am definitely curious
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Okay and so what if some server has private rules and such? don’t fucking play there… so easy wow. I’ve been running my own COD servers since COD4, and never had issues “administering” the servers, I’m not a prick who just kicks everyone, only real cheaters and hackers when proven guilty, also I don’t believe in setting up “rules” I just allow people to play freely aslong as they don’t ruin the game by cheating or hacking. The move over to VAC isn’t going to change anyone from hacking or cheating in-game, if you think this is going to improve your gaming experience then I think you’re wrong.
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1st, not all dedicated servers are run by pricks. More often then not the admins are fair. I don’t run my own server, but don’t want matchmaking. I want to play on a server with a low ping and a community.
The bigger question though is why won’t they support both? Plenty of PC games have all those features and have dedicated server support.
I think it’s a lazy and/or deadline thing. They spew out features that sound good to console gamers that PC gamers already get as justification for eliminating the server browser when the real issue is they are lazy or don’t have the time to add dedicated server support before launch.
Also eliminating cheating is a joke. They are using VAC instead of PB and VAC is only a little bit better then no anti-cheat in my experience.
No, the real reason they are doing it is so you *have* to buy their DLC if you want more content. CoD 4 was great, but what, 6 hours of single player (?) and a pitiful number of multiplayer maps at launch…
On the PC I was able to play on player-made-maps, on servers with 40v40, etc…, for the $50 the original game cost me. To stop cheating, do they really think people are that dumb? TF2 does just fine with VAC and dedicated servers as an example…
The only, only, reason why IW chose to do this is to make more money (as if they weren’t going to make an absurd amount on this game already). So, now I know I’m not picking up the game. Borderlands just came out (it rocks), L4D2 looks awesome (and has great Devs), there are just too many other good games out there with devoted developers to waste money on a game like MW2 and it’s developers (Did they forget the PC community that made their franchise?).
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Bowling’s words should have put an end to your insensate arguments. IW.NET is the best thing that has ever happened to the PC community and the sooner you all realize that the better. You can finally start paying us for the same DLC packs and monthly fees that you’ve always wanted. Some day maybe you will understand that it is not about fun and games. It is about money.
For every dedicated server, clan, and modder we eliminate, [ATVI]’s stock goes up 1/10000 of a point.
then that’s just wrong, and u are treating ur fanbase like crap.
greedy fatcats that dont care about the future of pc gaming so long as they make millions.
By the way, alot of that content in mw2 (ie weapons and perks) are taken from mods created by modders for free, ur selling their hard work without their permission after u handed them the mod tools to do it with for free. then u want to burn the modders that gave u that content!!!!!!!! Do u really think i will spend all my time to create a map pack and let u sell it without me getting any royalties or worser still sell it back to me the creater. I would sue the arse off of you.
ST3: “By the way, alot of that content in mw2 (ie weapons and perks) are taken from mods created by modders for free..”
Source?
Hey I love gaming, but maybe you should take a break and go through a remedial English class. The headline is nearly indecipherable, and your word usage and sentence structure in the body don’t really give the impression that you’ve mastered the language.
Perhaps you might consider reading a little bit more. The rules of grammar really don’t apply to communication. Sure, you spend most of your life learning the rules of grammar and the forms with which you can form complete thoughts and ideas, but, in the end, language is just a tool of communication – slave to the purpose that you need it to fulfill.
Get a grip. If you get your kicks being a grammar Nazi, go to school and do that kind of thing there. In the real world, nobody cares as long as you can communicate your thoughts.
P.S. There are forms of writing that utilize streams of thought rather than well structured sentences. The methods of writing those forms are still rather experimental. Some authors never even use punctuation at all.
His english bad not so, and how
One thing not taken into account is when people desire to play the game locally without access to the internet. A great example is at a lan party. Yes internet access at a lan has become standard, but that doesn’t mean that the access is good, the larger the lan the worse the internet gets generally. Even at medium to small size lans I have attended that have use of a business class connection to the internet the connection is not reliable even for basic services like HTTP or POP, let alone applications that need low pings and packet loss like gaming. This doesn’t even touch the fact that it will hurt a person who might behind a bandwidth cap, not to mention add even more traffic to the internet needlessly.
Dedicated servers are more than just for people trying to play over a Wan connection.
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the only reason a lack of dedicated servers would be acceptable was if IWnet worked cross platform
1. screw over gamers
2. give crap excuses
3. ????
4. profit!
Possible, Definite, almost inevitable downsides:
1. No more custom rules such as must always use sights and have visual contact (necessary for S&D IMO)
2. They will now charge PC players for DLC
3. Too maintain ping probably no large scale games, always 16-20 or less players.
4. Probably unable to control ping and will have high ping most of the time.
As far as number two I think selling DLC which is usually just 4 new maps is a ripoff, console or PC. Why doesn’t someone mix the complete openness of Unreal Tournaments community with DLC. So fans would make and submit maps and IW/Activision would pick the best 4 or 5 every 4 or so months and release it in a patch for free. This has a couple benefits:
1. Free new content
2. Its locked down enough that you dont have 5 billion maps floating around but you get the best maps and everyone is on the same page.
3. Did I mention it was free? And it would be minimal cost to IW/Activision as they would simply tweak it for errors and make it so it would fit into the game.
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This is all I see on 402’s blog now, all I have to say is, what a fucking pussy if he can’t take shit and allow people to communicate why this decision is basically going to kill off COD, I was really looking forward to MW2 and I could care less about XBOX360 gamers and noobs who don’t know how to join a freaking server or play without a hack.
Hopefully they realize this but it is probably too late, oh well time to find a better game with actual consumer support, not bullshit down your throat.
Although I agree with you that it is pretty lame to disable feedback I am pretty sure that it is disable because people are flaming not giving back thought out logical feedback. So it is probably two fold, they know they are being chumps and they are getting flamed.
if i have chance,i want play it
This sounds alot like XBOX live. That said, the matchmaking would quite often take too long, causing downtime if you want to play anything but the standard rules. I also remember gameplay being all but smooth as well, since people who pay for the service, yet have crappy ping make the game unplayable much of the time. I believe they should at least support capability for dedicated servers. From my experience the admins are forced to run a server that people will want to find playable, or no one will play in thier servers. Not only that, dedicated servers attract regulars, which is often the best way to meet people that are genuinely fun to play games with. The reasons provided by Infinity Ward to shy from dedicated servers hold almost no water compared to steam. At least there you play the maps you want to play, have a friends list, an anti-cheat system, and you don’t have a company that thinks releasing four maps for a game is worth 15 fucking dollars.
Have you actually ever played CoD4 on a console? The matchmaking is nearly instantaneous. I have never had to wait more than 4-5 seconds before the map started loading.
You may be thinking of Halo, which doesn’t allow matches to be joined in progress. I remember waiting several minutes at a time before matches started when trying to play.
So we get no dedicated servers for an EXTRA $10? How does that work?
And I don’t buy the whole anti-hack prevention idea. VAC is supposed to do that and do you know how many hackers and scrubs I see online still?
What happens to your great matchmaking system when IWNET goes down or is undergoing maintenance? And don’t think that it doesn’t. Cause when Steam undergoes maintenance none of my friends can play L4D together unless we have a clan server to play on. But wait, we don’t get those anymore with IWNET……oops….
Let me know when you patch the game and/or lower the price.
I’ve been gaming for over 20 years and I usually could care less about the petty nonsense that transpires online. However this match making system is complete and utter bullshit.
The reason I became so interested and played online FPS’s so much was because of dedicated servers. I played Counter strike until the dedicated server I frequented finally shut down (IUE5 w00t).
Same thing with C0D4. The game attracts you but the community and regulars will bring you back.
I am one of the people who will not buy this game. Its simply not worth my time with the matchmaking bullshit.
I dont appreciate being spoon fed excuses from IW either. Sad day for COD series (next to World at War)
“Cheat / Hack Free Games” This is a lie.
” the only way to make anything on a computer unhackable is to disconnect the power cord, put it in a box, go to the desert, find an underground nuclear bunker, go to the bottom of the bunker, dig a hole, then fill in 10 feet of cement over the box, fill the bunker with serin gas and then hire some armed guards to stay there 24/7 but even then there is still a good chance that we can make a hack for it hahahaha”
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ROCK ON!
It’s not crazy… It just looks stupid. It might even be beneficial to the “average” player. But it’s an outright slap in the face to the PC player community which has supported CoD like crazy over the past couple of years. They never even tried to engage the mod guys at all, giving them a heads up or trying to find a compromise that would allow match-making for the “average player” while letting the mod guys, dedi server guys, and clan guys do their stuff. And, no disrespect to Fourzerotwo, IW cynically kept it all quiet until 3 weeks before the game was due to be released. Shacknews even had a statement from Fourzerotwo from 9/22, less than a month before the announcement of the dedicated server elimination, that the MW2 PC game would be “the same as it ever was.”
Are they out of their mind?
How are they going to support the hundreds of thousands of online players? Are they planing of setting up their own dedicated servers? If so, they’ll only set up a few in key locations, i.e USA East, USA West, UK …But what about the other countries? How I, a Portuguese player, will play a decent match with low latency? I mean, I don’t want to play in a Chinese or American server, they’re just to far away, therefore a lot a lag.
And for the people who say this is meant to improve the online experience by making it easier, that’s utter bullshit. I mean is a server browser hard to comprehend?
This game will definitely be unhackable! Because no one is going to buy it so there will be no need for hacks
Please Someone shut this redneck loser!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKe7SFLeg9U&feature=related
I would make a video reply to this redneck loser but i dont have a camera.
So please somone do it.
Pc gamers need to stand up together and say no the crappy console piece of turd the producers are offering us, AND WHO GIVES A FLYING A F if wether we get call of duty 7, as long as we stand up together to NOT tolerate this crappy port, We made this guys and this how they repay us by a crappy port and 10 dollars more, Nobody should buy this game, So please watch this video
Give it a 1 star rating and make a video reply of how we should not get call of duty modern warfare 2, And probably instead battlefield because they are going to gives us dedicated servers, and if we pull this through well teach a leasson to producers that if they treat us good, they get cash, if they treat us like crap THEY GET CRAP. And this the truth and nothing but the truth.
Thank you very much.
this message only applies to pc gamers, Console gamers dont bash since your version remain unchanged.
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lol – did it take you longer than 5 minutes to type those words on your console? What? You’re using a PC? lol…I think your mommy is calling!
“All in all, IWNET adds a load of new features that the PC version of our games have never had before” -Bowling
Uhhh, Bowling… there is a good reason why pc games haven’t had those features before. It’s because this is not what pc gamers want. You guys have made a huge mistake. Attempting to change the culture of pc gaming is not the way to go. And, your essentially taking away money from loads of companies that offer server support and that is not what this country needs right now.
JUST DONT BUY THE GAME IT WILL BE JUST LIKE LEFT 4 DEAD!!!!!!
HA! Fourtwozero blog has blocked adding comments, it shows that IFW are just turning their backs on the community…
It utterly perplexes me how any one at IFW thought that getting rid of support for dedicated servers was a good idea. Ok sure, what they have set up seems like a good idea if it works as well as they say it will, but removing a feature of a game that started on the PC and had the support of the PC community from the start was a fucking stupid idea. Not to mention the loss for dedicated server companies and the modding community. Sorry to get aggressive but the CEO or whoever allowed this decision to pass actually needs to be shot, or at the very least fire their arse.
Personally I couldn’t give two shits about any of this console crap matchmaking, I spent a lot of money and time on my pc, unlike console owners to gain the benefits of PC games because 9 times out of 10 they are better than the console version for various reasons that we all know of. It feels like IFW have just stuck their finger up at the PC community, because they COULD resolve this issue and make thousands of people happy. If they do then I will gladly spend my money on it, until then the internet is a wonderful place…and I’ll be sticking to MW1 for online play.
I said to my room mate who plays MW on the 360 why I’m not getting MW2 and he replied:
“Whats a server?”
This is why I’m not gettting MW2. MY PC IS NOT A GOD DAMN CONSOLE!
this is fucking stupid, now i have to wait 4 hours to let steam update the game… thanks a load rob bowling, must be great being an ass hole….
Matchmaking & Smoother Gameplay —–
Matchmaking fails, I want to join my own server. I had smoother gameplay in dedicated servers too, none of this changing hosts bs.
Playlists and Private Matches —–
We had private matches in CoD4 too. Its called Dedicated servers with a password.
Party System and Friendslist —–
Ive seen many games with Dedicated servers that have a Friendlist, and we dont need a crappy Party system with dedicated servers because we can join the servers our friends are in.
Cheat / Hack Free Games —–
TOTAL BS. Ive seen MANY people with hacks, and the most common one, the level 70, 10 prestige. AND WE CANT EVEN KICK THEM. This is total BS. Your server system fails, face the truth.
And By the way. Ive been hosting gaming servers for a good 10 years. I have many friends who know how to do dedicated servers. We are not as dumb as you think.
cheat free my arse. I’ve just played a game against someone (I think he was called bugsy or something) who was using an aim bot. He racked up about 120 kills in a not very long game.
secondly – this game seriously needs a higher player limit (i.e. as it was with dedicated servers)
thirdly – I have experienced anything but smoother game play. I consistently “cannot connect to host” when trying to find games, or it “cannot migrate the host” whilst in lobby mode. Also, (I don’t know if this is the game or my internet) I find that after approx 1 game, I game massive amounts of lag, even exiting and rejoining another game. though it does seem to be fine once I restart the game.
What I don’t understand is why they didn’t just simply have a quick game section based upon the IWnet current system, and then have a server list alongside it. They could have made peace with their ridiculous argument for IWnet and pleased PC gamers.
I can only think that whoever made this decision had very little experience with pc online gaming.
LISTEN! TO ME INFINITY WARD! I HAVE BUY THE GAME MW2!!!!!!!!! FOR PC IT WORKED FINE (hh the best way that iwnet can do not much so..)
AND! NOW WHEN IM DOING FIND GAME ITS DOING TO ME CONNECTING TO IWNET FOR HOURRRRRRRRRR! HELP DAMN IT