Not-So-Modern Warfare: The Death of Dedicated Servers
I need to take a moment to write a bit about a recent event that has struck close to home with me. That event was the announcement of Infinity Ward taking away the Dedicated Servers from Modern Warfare 2 (MW2). If you have not fallen out of your chair yet then you a) do not grasp the situation at hand or b) are not a PC gamer (which is fine). If you do not know what is going on then here is a quick overview about this new death of Dedicated Servers, and why it matters.
Here is a recent interview with a member of Infinity Ward:
Source: http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=745&Itemid=111
No Dedicated Servers?! Dedicated Servers and the Server-Peer relationship that has existed in the majority of PC game titles has been what has shaped our community! Clans, Gaming Leagues, Teams, and groups of friends live and die on Dedicated Servers! For crying out loud I even run my own Dedicated Servers for a few of my favorite games! They are a point of control, a way to shape our game the way we want it. You want a “24/7 (Your Favorite Map Here)” Server? You got it with Dedicated Servers. A “Sniper Rifles ONLY!” 24/7 server? Sure thing under the Server-Peer structure. What about “Low Gravity”, Gun Game”, and other servers that change very core and physical aspects to the game? Yes, you can also have those in a Dedicated Server system too. Those servers are always there, ready to accept connections. Just browse to the server in your server browser, and connect! Under IW.Net we cannot have servers that have low gravity, or have drastically changed core aspects of the game like a “Gun Game” mod. These matches only exist for the period that the game is underway. Once the battle is over, and players disconnect, this game mode is lost forever. You cannot just click on a server, where you know who the community will be and what the rules and gameplay settings will always be, you will have to “group up” and go through matchmaking like Halo 3 did. A terrible prospect indeed.
Since all players (peers) must connect to the same server to play together, no single player has a better advantage by being a “host” of a game on IW.Net. Everyone must connect to the server, bandwidth problems and internet issues only hurt the one player. If a host on IW.Net has internet troubles, the game is gone for all players or the game host is “re-selected” and there can be a long pause or lag as a new host is selected. The only thing that can take down a game in a Server-Peer environment is a malfunctioning server. So instead of 1 failure point for a whole game, in a IW.Net world there can be up to 18 failure points (one count for every player). Speaking of player counts, MW1 could support up to 64 players. In MW2 the max player count is 18 or 9 on 9. Another step backwards for the game and community.
Under a Server-Peer system, administration commands can also exist within the game. Got a player causing trouble or cheating? You can ban or kick the player right away on a Dedicated Server, after all it is your server! Under IW.Net, no one player is admin, and “vote kicks” must be in place. This allows for cheaters and griefers to ruin the game for a longer period of time. That is until a small staff of IW.Net can wade through the thousands of complaints filed on IW.Net against countless players versus instant kicks and bans from server owners and admins in a Dedicated Server world.
When Infinity Ward controls all the servers, and players cannot host their own, these servers and server benefits disappear forever. Permanent private servers for clans and friends cannot exist ever under the IW system. But if Dedicated Servers are in place, the game can live on for more than a decade. There are countless games out there right now that still have hardcore players enjoying a match or two. For example, Team Fortress Classic or TFC (a first person shooter) was released in April of 1999. If a so called “IW.Net” was in place for TFC we can assume that the servers for it would have shut down years ago. BUT you can still find many TFC Dedicated Servers running by teams, fans, and clans all over the internet. While development for the game has stopped, players can keep enjoying the game thanks to Dedicated Servers! If IW.Net ever shuts down in the future all of MW2 multiplayer will go with it.
This is a serious blow against PC gaming.
A petition is running with over 192,000+ signatures at the time of my posting. A huge outcry from the gaming community is taking place right now; with thousands canceling pre-orders and shouting promises to pirate the game ASAP. But you might ask “Why would you petition a game, then turn around and pirate it? Won’t that still support Infinity Ward?” Well the answer to this question is easier to understand than you may imagine.
Torrenting or pirating the game is the equivalent of “flipping the bird” to the developers and publishers of said game. For starters, the Single Player portion was unaffected by this ridiculous move, just the multiplayer. Many looked forward to both the single player and multiplayer game modes, but since this death of Dedicated Servers is too shocking to the community, the game will not be bought. But players will still want to play the single player, and that is why it will be pirated. So this move is saying to the developers “Not only am I NOT going to buy your product, I’m going to downloaded it without purchase to partake in the decent single player (NOT the multi-player obviously) then cast it aside as a red flag to all the other developers what happens when you take away OUR servers.” This causes the company to lose not only a legit purchase, but lose a digital copy of the game as well. A strong one-two punch to Infinity Ward.
As a programmer I take software piracy personally. To my friends I advocate purchasing their favorite PC games and software to support the developers. Their countless hours and hard work is what makes the software a great product. Paying the small fee to legally own a copy not only puts food on the programmer’s plate, but will insure they keep producing excellent software; in an ideal world at least. Pirating hurts the developer, so does not buying it. A one-two punch like this will cause some serious problems, especially on the scale of 192,000+ that is predicted.
This petition, this out-lash will cause lost profits, lost community, and a lost trust in Infinity Ward. A small victory will be claimed in the chaos of all of this, it will show to Infinity Ward what happens when you mess with the Server-Peer structure that has been in place for more than a decade in the PC gaming world. The structure that has made the PC gaming community what it is today.
This has ruined MW2 for the real Hardcore Gamers, the PC gamers like myself. Infinity Ward won’t be seeing a dime from me. Looks like I have an extra $50 or $60 dollars to spend on another game, by another developer who supports Dedicated Servers.
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