Honestly, if they find a faster and easier alternative to costly, erratic, and sometimes downright strange dedicated servers, I would embrace it. So yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb and trust them on their decision here. If they can bring Battle.net to the FPS world, I'd be very pleased indeed. Considering these guys managed to make a very, very dull genre exceedingly fun, I don't think it's too much of a stretch.
I just have to step in here...
First, they are using the console style of randomly searching for other people to put together a game, then starting it. This is alright for console style gaming - drop in when you have 30 minutes or so, and leave when you're done, without worrying too much about finding a full server.
However, this goes against everything that PC gaming has cultivated. PC multiplayer gaming has (in the past) gravitated towards a community style setup.
Here, I'll give a comparison: (This is not speculation. I have COD4 on 360 + PC)
1) I want to play a quick game. I don't know how much time I have. I hop on the 360, multiplayer, matchmaker, and bam I'm blowing people up. Maybe a couple friends are on, I'll jump in their game. Thirty minutes later, I put the game down and go do something else.
2) I have several hours, and I'm up for some competitive coordinated teamwork. This is the time I usually play, so I log on to one of my favorite servers (or my only favorite server), fire up Ventrilo/Teamspeak, and talk to the community I'm involved with.
People know each other on the servers. Rivalries flare, which are fun, and don't often happen in the 360 gaming scene because if somebody wipes the floor with you, the chances of you friending him are nil - on a dedicated server, if it's the server you BOTH like, chances are you'll meet again. Some of my oldest online friendships are from opponents who I'd have never talked to again.
Dedicated servers (if run correctly, of course) can form a COMMUNITY for gaming. It's how I found EVERY FPS clan I've EVER joined - I played there for weeks/months, and got invited or applied.
Frankly I don't see how they can leave this out, especially with COD4's massive popularity on the PC with the dedicated/modded servers. I am not interested at all, since the only mode I enjoyed in COD4 was hardcore with SERVER ENFORCED RULESETS - like no shooting without sighting first (unless it's very close range), no martyrdom, no rocket/nade spam for the first X seconds, etc. Without dedicated servers and admins, that's going to be nigh impossible to enforce.
A dedicated server that has a ruleset and admins you like makes sure you enjoy the game. It keeps you away from players you'd rather not associate with, and vice versa. The XBox live style of matchmaking does not. That's why there are always 12 year olds screaming at you in Halo 3 about stealing their sniper. On a dedicated server, they'd be dropped - or if it was their dedicated server, they could drop you for stealing their sniper.
Note: I agree the petition is largely useless... but I guess it's interesting to see this many people care. All I know is that I won't be giving them my
$50 $60.
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Topic: Petition for dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2 (Read 957 times)