Widescreen Gaming Forum

Just about every review site I know is very careful about avoiding spoilers, so what exactly is this 'purity' of which he speaks?

Hint: It involves negative press.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/61013

Whoring to the masses.

Sigh.....

Next we'll find out there's a monthly subscription fee.

I do not have the power to comprehend how Dedicated Servers are only for the "Professional/Hardcore Crowd" as many players and news outlets are playing it.


What the hell is that supposed to mean? Playing mods is hardcore and only for professionals? Ditto for simply forming or congregating around a gaming community?

It's basically the media toeing the party line of 'keep the console gamers happy' at all costs. If the console gamers realise just how much better dedicated servers are compared to matchmaking and lobby nonsense (particularly because it'll mean no hosts being bandwidth throttled by unscrupulous ISPs) they'll all want it as well. ;)

I think the game media is more about pushing what is "good enough" versus what is best. Matchmaking is good enough, mp3 audio is good enough, dvd video is good enough...

Most people, as in consumers, want what is "good enough" as convienent as possible. More than "good enough" is not worth the trade in conveinence. Then the gaming media wants to make these people happy, so they support what is good enough and conveinent as well. I just watched the quick look at http://www.giantbomb.com for Borderlands and the commentator was comparing the PC and Xbox versions and he listed all these reasons why the PC version looks and plays better, but then at the end his summary was "get the Xbox version if you can for the simpler matchmaking multiplayer."

This is why in my opinion piracy and cost, while being negatives of the PC platform, are not the main reason it is lagging behind console sales more and more as gaming goes mainstream. It is simply most people think console graphics, controls and options are "good enough" and consoles are a lot easier to use and more conveinent.

I guess I am just happy that I have never played any COD games, but I was in...WAS interested in the new one.

It's just getting worse and worse.

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Tycho at Penny Arcade responds, and I have to say he makes a lot of sense.

I've read so many posts of such a batshit, bugfuck nature about this Modern Warfare Server Thing that it's hard to know where to begin. If you are angry at this break from tradition, and if you feel betrayed by these eleventh hour revelations, these are both situated well within the reasonable and comport (by and large) to the known. Do not buy it. Your platform of choice is the most open, universal digital venue on the planet. A suitor will be along presently.

It's not cherry-picking to say that the notion of Microsoft somehow being involved runs deep. You could be charitable and say they mean Infinity Ward was infected somehow by Microsoft's peer to peer vision, but that's not what they're saying. They're talking about literal collusion to bring about the downfall of the PC. Even though Modern Warfare 2 is launching on Steam, leverages Steamworks, and grants Steam Achievements.

Some of the rage is channeled semi-constructively into (not a boycott, per se, but) a redirection of funds from Modern Warfare 2 over to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - a notion that has been cannily seized by the would-be recipient. Bad Company 2 is going to be pretty good, so why not buy it - but let's pause for a moment and really absorb the idea that PC gamers are rallying around a DICE console port in their zeal. Nevermind the fact that you can't host your own Bad Company servers, and that having a dedicated server for the game involves renting it from one of their partners. Maybe they didn't read the FAQ?

As to why they want to create their own matchmaking network in the first place, the ability to make money selling maps is floated as a reason, and it makes a lot of sense - presumably they would rather make a million dollars than zero. A centralized defense against piracy is also suggested, and things tend to go downhill quick after this. It is not a mischaracterization to say that conversations with the hardcore PC community about software theft follow these tenets:

- There is no piracy.
- To the extent that piracy exists, which it doesn't, it's your fault.
- If you try to protect your game, we'll steal it as a matter of principle.

It's like, who wouldn't want to bend over backward in their service? You need to know it, because nobody else is going to tell you: you guys sound like Goddamned subway vagrants. Of course when you speak exclusively to each other, it all sounds so reasonable. It'll be reasonable when you all board the bus, and the songs you sing en route to excoriate your enemies will be forceful, but within reason; and when you douse yourself with gasoline and immolate yourself in front of the offices of Infinity Ward, one assumes this will be reasonable also.

Well I disagree, he is just (as always) stirring up trouble cos he is a name and can effectively swear on line. I played a game of Op Flash Dragon Rising MP (several actually for the DR) and on every single one I had awful, peer-to-peer lag. I did the same on XBox Borderlands last night as well.

For those of us not in countries and regions not blessed with good broadband peer-to-peer sucks...

..esp if your ISP throttles!

He is equating those who disagree with this to those who are pirates... 2 different things. His rant is just as bad as some of the idiotic anti-IW rants I have seen. He needs to get some perspective, this is well reasoned

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He's not really praising peer-to-peer, he is just saying the response has been overwhelmingly immature, and to that I agree. The simple response is not to buy the game, wait for a better more PC-focused game, which is what he says.

I agree with all that.

The piracy thing I agree with too, it is almost impossibly on a PC focused forum to get people to admit piracy is just plain wrong. So many people try to find a way to justify it in some way, or blame companies for it, that we miss the opportunity to make piracy so hated and reviled in the PC gaming community it makes them ashamed to poke their head into a normal forum.

On that I agree completely as well.