An innocent looking interview, a genuine looking answer and the internet exploded. PC gamers have done it again. Causing a major storm over the internet over the choice of a video game developer. But do they have a legitimate concern? Or is it all just hot air?
In a webcast, Robert Bowling revealed plans for IWnet that will be the gateway for Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer. The bad news, dedicated servers were being dropped. No support for dedicated servers. PC gamers were up in arms with this revelation and have started an online petition to demand Infinity Ward to reconsider this.
Much has happened since with other developers taking potshots at Infinity Wards, clans, and major PC gaming sites criticising this move from Infinity Ward. Inifnity Ward has since given their own explanation for why dedicated server were being dropped which you can read here.
Frankly I think the reasons given are pretty lame. It doesn’t offer a good reason why they had to drop dedicated servers. Considering the fact that dedicated server are such a huge part of shooters and the multiplayer community, this is a big omission. There are a few that point to the StarCraft 2 dropping LAN issue which is different. LAN is not the same with dedicated servers. Almost most modern FPS have communities thriving on dedicated servers.
LAN was a feature that is not used often these days and Steam has proven that having online authentication to have LAN parties can still work(the popularities of Counter Strike hasn’t dwindled with the introduction of Steam). PC gamers can forgive Blizzard with that. I personally do not want my PC games to end up feeling like a console games(especially wit the online community).
Lets give PC gamers more credit for all the cool things mods and dedicated servers have allowed. Infinity Ward, you need to think twice about this. Either serve the PC platform with its strength(stop trying to turn it into a console), or don’t make PC games anymore. We have other developers that do a great job serving PC gamers.