This is really just getting to be insulting. If the continuous stripping away of vital features isn't enough to turn people away from the game, I would hope they would be persuaded to do so by the way IW/Activision either ignore PC gamers completely or talk down to us like children who don't know what's best.
We can speak no louder than when we speak with our wallets.
I think Modern Warfare 2 will sell a ridiculous number of copies on launch day and in the following week, but what about 6 months from today? A year? Three years?
I think of Team Fortress 2 and how Valve sees a surge in sales every time there's new content added or a sale--even though content updates are free for PC gamers. Valve planned for the long-term with TF2 and I think it's safe to say that their strategy paid off. I disagree with some of Valve's decision (deciding to release Left 4 Dead 2 only one year after Left 4 Dead, including random crits in a first-person shooter, taking several months to introduce a server variable to disable random crits), but I can't help but respect Valve for their commitment to TF2 owners.
Then I think of Mario Kart Wii, which saw a tremendous amount of activity for a few weeks. A month later, activity had dropped like a rock.
"Core" gamers and members of the gaming industry alike are watching and waiting to see how Infinity Ward's gamble pays off.
One thing is for certain: No developer can afford to assume an arrogant "We've got the only game in town" attitude--not in 2009, when the market is saturated with high-quality titles and it seems more and more players are talking about "backlogs" of games to play through every day.
The kind of hubris that inspired IW to price CoD: MW2 at $60, even though it lacks dedicated server support, leads to disaster in the gaming industry. Just ask Sony.
To add to the bad news, looks like ID may be
getting on board with this whole deal. Not that they're half as relevant as they once were, but still it's a blow to lose what was once the giant of the FPS developers.
People listened when John Carmack spoke...in 1999.
Carmack indicated he believed the servers are something of a remnant of the early days of PC gaming.
Source:
Dedicated servers and Rage - news you probably don't want to hear
The same could be said of Carmack.
I think that developers are missing the point: The gaming experience depends greatly (if not entirely) on the people with whom you play the game. That's a key reason I founded Tribe of Judah in May 1999. I wanted to play with people who I could trust not to cheat, hack, swear, and grief. If no one had expressed an interest in forming a Christian StarCraft clan, I would have quit playing Brood War online and things would have been very different.
And before anyone says that StarCraft used Blizzard-owned Battle.net servers for online play, remember that the Christian Gamers Alliance ran a private Battle.net server (called Zion) back when playing through a full match on Battle.net with more than 4 players was nearly impossible and before Blizzard took legal action against bnetd. Battle.net eventually improved, but a private Battle.net server gave us an alternative when the official servers were unacceptable.
Also, StarCraft matches are not equivalent to first-person shooter matches from a technical standpoint. Battle.net allowed players to create private rooms and password-protected lobbies. I have not yet read that the same is possible in CoD: MW2.
The issue of dedicated servers comes down to control. If I have no control over the gaming experience, then I have no interest in continuing to play. People pay good money for dedicated servers, which allow control over the gaming experience.
Tribe of Judah pays for multiple game servers every month because members don't want to hear (or read) profanity or put up with negative attitudes. Dedicated servers allow that control for a price--a price we are glad to pay.
I have to wonder if Infinity Ward understands just how many punks are out there playing first-person shooters online. Include a vote kick system in your game? It can be abused. Have a played swearing like a sailor in-game? You can mute him, but that takes time and the punk is still taking up a slot that could be occupied by a player who cooperates with teammates and uses voice and text chat constructively. Are you a n00b to first-person shooters and want to learn the game from patient people ready to teach you? Too bad. All the "Beginner" servers are populated by punks who just created a new profile for the sole purpose of griefing.
When Infinity Ward asserts that replacing support for dedicated servers with a console-like matchmaking system
improves the gameplay experience for most people, I honestly have to wonder if they've thought this through--or ever played Halo online.
The whole thing stinks of shortsightedness, a shallow (if not fundamentally flawed) understanding of criteria for enjoyable online multiplayer gameplay, and greed.
Yes, Infinity Ward will make a profit on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. But Valve still makes considerable profit on Team Fortress 2. This isn't an "either-or" decision. Even if CoD MW2 is financially successful, it doesn't mean that dedicated servers will disappear from all future FPS titles. Developers are often gamers, too.
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