A View From the Road: Unreasonably Dedicated

[Gildan Bladeborn]

*Of course that's not really true, since the obvious purpose behind stripping dedicated server and mod support from the PC version is to forcefeed us DLC by removing the option to make our own damn content and play with whoever we want to on the maps of our choosing, which makes plenty of sense if you're a soulless marketing drone. Nobody in their right mind will argue that it makes sense from a technical standpoint though.

You hit the nail on the head here. This is Activision's main goal with the removal of modding tools and dedicated servers. Just the mere fact that they are taking away one of the most attractive features of their past games is insulting enough. But trying to pass off these exclusions as a plus? Do they really think PC users are all as stupid as their normal consumer base? There are deliberately handicapping the replayability of their game and then trying to pass it off as a feature. I could come up with an almost endless number of games that have been going strong for over a decade on the strength of the community alone. But of course long lasting games are not at all what Activision is after. They have long since discovered that they can offer less and less content for ever increasing prices and get away with it, because most (not all) gamers will sell their own mothers into slavery if it meant continuing their hobby.

Indeed, it's the whole "But look, you totally benefit from this odious change, really!" aspect of their PR campaign that rankles the most, since it communicates the unspoken message "We honestly believe you PC gamers are a bunch of gullible idiots who will swallow our retarded PR bullcrap wholesale" - before I was just disappointed and cynical, and now I'm being actively insulted. I can deal with disappointment but I don't take too kindly to being freaking insulted.

As for not aiming for long-lasting games? Couldn't agree with you more! I harbor no illusions that Activision wouldn't hard-code some limit on how long a game will operate before refusing to play anymore, if they thought they could get away with it. After all, a customer still playing old games is a customer who is not out buying up all the new ones, that's like stealing from the company! Can't have that!

This is presumably the 'problem' they're planning to solve by monetizing their existing franchises [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96129-Call-of-Duty-to-get-WoW-Like-Subscriptions], possible via MMO-style subscription fees for games that are not MMOs and therefore should not bloody ever have FEES you damnable jackasses. There is no part of that announcement that does not read "We noticed a lot of you like to keep playing our older multi-player titles long past the release of their sequels. We'd like you to pay us to keep doing that."

Oh how I loathe Activision right now.

 

[Whistler777]

But nobody has actually addressed the idea of "Why do we deserve what is far and away the best version of the game? Why should IW make its console audience clearly inferior to their PC overlords?"

That's the issue I take umbrage with, and the thing that ticks me off - the refusal to recognize that there are many more millions who will be buying this game for 360 and PS3. Why don't we ask all the people who bought TF2 for 360 how it feels to be clearly treated as second-class citizens, hmm?

Consoles should be, and are inferior to PCs from a purely technological standpoint. Unless you know fuck-all about tech, you should understand that P2P works on consoles because hardware is the same all across the board, whereas with PCs, there's a giant range of firmware, speed, throughput, and manufacturers that leave a gap between almost all PCs. It's the same reason why you can't play HAWX on a Pentium III.

Dedicated servers are what make multiplayer on PC thrive, and since we not only have the technology to utilize them, but modify them and turn them into communities, they are clearly the best option.

Next time think twice before calling yourself a PC gamer if you cannot recognize simple facts about your platform that anyone could tell you.

 

[EBass]

Wrong thread, please view next post.

 

[EBass]

But nobody has actually addressed the idea of "Why do we deserve what is far and away the best version of the game? Why should IW make its console audience clearly inferior to their PC overlords?"

That's the issue I take umbrage with, and the thing that ticks me off - the refusal to recognize that there are many more millions who will be buying this game for 360 and PS3. Why don't we ask all the people who bought TF2 for 360 how it feels to be clearly treated as second-class citizens, hmm?

Thats not what this is about. PC users don't DESERVE the superior version of the game, EVERYONE should get the best version it possibly can be, and the best version is one with dedicated servers. You've already admitted that dedicated servers are a superior option. If console users don't want to push for such an option in their games thats down to their discretion, but we do. This has been a standard option in every PC FPS since Quake.

You might have had a point if this was an entirely new game on an entirely new engine and IW said something along the lines of "We apologise to PC gamers but we felt that coding in a dedicated server capability would not be an effecient use of our resources given the majority of our users play on consoles." That would have been a slap in the face to PC Gamers, but it would have been a justifyable one.

Instead we have a game where the engine is 95% the same and the dedicated server code already exists within the game, indeed some PC users have already hacked it to make it so. Therefore its not like IW have opted not to code something in, they've purposely taken something out and made the experience worse.

 

[EBass]

Ignore