bibblles said:
DrOswald said:
bibblles said:
You do know that the internet doesn't run on good vibes generated from the pure flow of information, right? Internet based services are run by servers. Servers cost a lot of money. Good servers cost even more. Enough good servers to run a worldwide multiplayer service costs a large fortune. The console providers have a decision to make: provide a shitty, half-assed multiplayer service and destroy the one thing they have going for them over PC (a relatively hassle free experience) or charge a small monthly fee to provide a useful and good service.
And don't say "but the PC does it for free!" because it does not. PC multiplayer service is a joke. Besides a few highly successful titles PC multiplayer service is generally very poor. Many games, even high profile games, barely even function.
If I could pay $5 a month for greatly improved multiplayer on my PC I would do it today and never look back.
You haven't been to the internet much have you?
I'm not sure where to start with this so I'll just go in order.
You're right about one thing. The internet does not run on 'good vibes.' It does indeed run on money, usually through ads. And if you've ever been to a player hosted dedicated server(remember this word "dedicated server" I'll return to this point later), you'll probably have noticed the ads that play when you enter the server, and their 'perks' for members of the community that contribute. So yea, sometimes its better to pay, but you're paying a trifle of what these giant corporations charge, for none of their bullshit, and a much better and more creative and involving community. Not that xbox live and psn don't have communities, but having grown out of my teens, I find the language and behavior in these communities to be lackluster at best, and a good example for human extinction at worst.
You mentioned 'pc multiplayer service is a joke' and I'd like to know what planet you're living on that you think this is a logical sentence. It is most definitely not a joke. If you look at the steam statistics alone, you'll find evidence contrary. That's not taking Origin, LOL, GOG and Blizzard's services into account. PC multiplayer is not a joke, it crushes the consoles in every event, and in most cases it crushes them while not being a 'pay to play' service with gated content and restrictions on modding (not cheating, i'm talking custom maps, and games revived from the dead by the community), it's a free and open ecosystem, something Microsoft and Sony seem to hate and fear.
Steam is not a multiplayer service. Neither is Origin or GOG. I am specifically talking about multiplayer services here. And I specifically did take into account LOL and Blizard's service, noting that sometimes a highly successful game will give good service, but that is the exception to the rule. For most games multiplayer service consists entirely of a list of currently online players who are trying to start a game. Many games don't even have multiplayer service, instead opting for multiplayer to be entirely on player run dedicated servers. (More on this later)
If you want you can pay 5$ a month, any community server would gladly welcome you and make you a premium member on their DEDICATED SERVERS for that cost.
Premium membership for an amateur run single game dedicated server is not comparable to professional level dedicated multiplayer services for nearly every game on a platform. They are completely different things. You aren't even comparing apples and oranges here, you are comparing apples to steak.
And this is the last and most important thing. DEDICATED SERVERS, something completely alien in the console world. And something that has ruined so many console games. A dedicated computer, just running the game server, consoles rely on Peer to Peer services. These giant servers you mentioned above? DO NOT RUN THE GAMES YOU PLAY. They host content and multiplayer matchmaking.
And I never claimed they did, though with the new generation of consoles it is becoming more and more common.
Meanwhile, dedicated servers on the PC side mean that you have a stable connection to every game, and you can filter to find games where you will have very low latency when you play. If someone leaves the game it doesn't kill everyone's fun. And where consoles struggle to coordinate 16 players total, PCs and their dedicated servers have no problem hosting 32 or even 60+ players in the same game, because the machines that are playing the game don't also have to host it, that computational load is taken off of the client machines and put onto one large host machine called the 'dedicated server.' And remember, these are free on the PC side of things, so is everything else these consoles gate off.
I know what dedicated servers are, and I think they are a great tool. I ran a dedicated minecraft server for nearly a year and whenever my group of friends gets a new game I am the one to put together the server. I know their advantages and disadvantages.
So lets make something clear: dedicated servers, while awesome, are not a multiplayer service. They are a multiplayer tool. And as such they do not allow for the many advantages of a multiplayer service, including region wide skill based matchmaking, auto balancing, a region/world wide community of players, a non fragmented player base, and easy click and play multiplayer for those who don't want to spend hours hunting down a dedicated server not run by a bunch of assholes.
