WOW. I’m a huge fan of the series having played every game since 1942 (well except 2142), and although Battlefield is all about the multiplayer, I really enjoyed Bad Company’s campaign. Bad Company’s campaign wasn’t all that serious, and the second one looks like it follows the same path. I cannot wait for this game, DICE seems to be back on its game with the original Bad Company and 1943 being f’n amazing.
(an opinionated and biased response to both IW’s latest news [see my earlier post], and Jeff Gerstmann’s comments from the latest bombcast which you can find here)
My biggest beef with the P2P forced matchmaking system IW.NET is it destroys thousands of communities that revolve around servers, when I go to play TF2, CSS, or CoD4 I have the option to discover new communities and mods but like most gamers will not join usually anything but my favourites. By playing on these servers I start to know the people there, join their out of game forums, and become a part of a specific community. Left 4 Dead not only has matchmaking but has dedicated servers and a server browser. I’ve played hundreds of hours on console games specifically the Halo series and CoD4 which both have a matchmaking system that will frequently put me in match where I have to spend half of the match muting the jackasses; it’s a rare occasion that I will find a level-headed decent player.
[Matchmaking is going to eliminate piracy?]
Completely wrong, world at war, battlefield 2, and every goddamn VALVE steam game have a login system with your own dedicated servers. Its clear that Login systems can control piracy effectively. If you look at CoD4 PC right now which has does not have a login system. There are over 13,000 Dedicated servers, less 1,000 do not have PUNKBUSTER (anti-cheat). In-order to have a pirated cracked server you need to disable Punkbuster, so its easy to say less than 8% of all CoD4 PC servers are possibly full of pirates. Matchmaking and login servers do not necessarily go hand in hand, BF2 and Valve’s Steam games are proof of that. Matchmaking can also coexist with a server browser and dedicated servers, Left4Dead is proof of that. As far as I know BF2 and Valve Source based games have little issue with multiplayer piracy, unlike Call of Duty 4.
Jeff on the Bombcast rationalized the switch to matchmaking would solve piracy which is not correct; it’s a Login system that would solve the piracy issues that CoD4 faced. Also I have a few other solutions Infinity Ward could have implemented including not listing servers that did not have Punkbuster running on the master server list. Regardless its clear that Piracy is not the big issue Activision and IW make it out be, it doesn’t take much work to verify that by comparing the amount of Punkbuster enabled servers to non-Punkbuster servers.
The removal of dedicated servers and server browser in Modern Warfare 2, for a matchmaking Peer 2 Peer system, destroys the open nature of PC Gaming which allows for communities to form around such servers. Inherently it also limits the amount of players for a game, and also introduces all sorts of network issues. Peer2Peer does not work for anything over 16 players sure there are have been a few 32 player p2p games, however MAG, Warhawk, Frontlines, Bad Company, BF1943 of the top of my head are good examples for why dedicated servers are needed for large multiplayer matches even on console games.
Counter-Strike Source has over 10,000 and Team Fortress 2 at this moment has around 4000 paid dedicated servers all supported by the community, my point is this is all about making it easier to manage the pc version which likely requires fewer people in order to keep the bare minimum support for the next 2 years, and an easy way to sell content.
[Valve Anti Cheat is going to eliminate rampant aim-bots and cheaters?]
One of the features Robert Bowling of Infinity Ward mentioned on the podcast in which he announced all this exciting stuff that they were also implementing for us needy PC gamers was, Valve Anti-Cheat which he believes would eliminate Cheating and Hacks. Anyone who plays PC games knows that VAC (Valve titles) and Punkbuster (COD4 & pretty much every other game) both have problems and switching won’t do anything, after all anti-cheat is always one step behind.
[OT] What about the $60 price tag? I thought console games were more expensive because of MS AND SONY ROYALTIES!
[Matchmaking is the way of the future for PC?]
This past week DICE developers have been speaking out that dedicated servers are the way to go for the PC experience and even some times on the consoles (badcompany2, bf1943, and bf3 all coming to pc in 2010). Battlefield 2, Team Fortress 2, and World at War almost have ZERO piracy issues in terms of online play. I guess a login server doesn’t work right? Quick someone please tell Valve and Dice that peer2peer matchmaking is the future.
As someone who played the PC version of Call of Duty 4, I find this to be a pretty egregious omission. It’s one thing to raise the price of the game to $60, even with no platform royalty fees to be paid, but to actually refuse to include functionality that has for over a decade been an integral part of the PC multiplayer experience is just atrocious.
The entire tradition of clan-based and forum- and site-based community multiplayer on the PC is entirely dependent on the concept of privately-run servers. It’s a great collaboration between developer and community: the developer provides a service open enough that it can be run in accordance to the community’s preferences, and the community shoulders the cost and effort necessary to support the servers themselves.
PCs will never be as streamlined and standardized as consoles–but by the same token, consoles can never provide as open and community-customized an experience as PCs. Trying to simply turn a PC into a console by closing off the routes that make the PC experience unique isn’t going to provide a better experience for anyone.
In closing Just like the $60 price tag (which was reasoned on the consoles in the past because of the platform royalty fees), I believe the switch is for pure business reasons by removing dedicated servers and mod support it will allow IW to monetize Maps as DLC. The closed IW.NET system also allows for easier and thus less costly maintenance of the PC version because of the similarities to the way MW2 on the consoles work, IW has traded such key features of that make PC gaming unique including server and team based communities for purely business motives which is contrary to what Robert Bowling thinks that it will benefit
If you live in box or dont game on the pc, you maybe have not heard IW has removed all dedicated server support for Modern Warfare 2. Announced on a podcast by IW’s Robert Bowling, the internet was lit on fire and a online petition that will likely be ignored has over 110, 000 signatures since this news hit on Saturday. Instead IW chose to implement a IWnet matchmaking system and use a P2P system, also they announced that they would be selling dlc which traditionally has been free on the PC. This is only one of the blunders that IW has made on the PC version, a few months ago IW announced that the PC version would be $60 instead of the regular $50 which has been around for years, the whole reason console games are ten dollars more was because of licensing royalties.
This fiasco has gotten me excited for the release of Bad Company 2 on PC, DICE developers took the opportunity to let everyone know that Battlefield will not be making the same mistakes via twitter. DICE has made some of my favorite games ever notably BF1942, Midtown Madness 3, and more recently Mirror’s Edge. I gotta say although 2142 was a massive failure and the fact that its been quite a long time since a Battlefield game has been on PC. Battlefield 1943 this past summer was amazing and although I had already bought it for 360 I am still planning to also buy it for the PC when it releases this January. Well now I’m also excited for BF Bad Company 2, which is out in March, with comments from DICE’s community manager like this “ If you wanted a more powerful game, you should have bought a more powerful platform, plain and simple.” to their console fans, I can already tell Battlefield on the PC is coming back and better than ever.
Oh and I’ve also been playing around with the Difference Clouds filter in photoshop and made this quick header for my GiantBomb page, I like it.
