Modern Warfare 2 - No Dedicated Servers?

[Terr]

Well, whether he meant pc-games versus pc-modders on the specific point about dedicated servers, I think the first part was still said:

if they have a PC and a console, majority of the time they go console because very few pc gamers still exist

Premises aside, the argument itself is sound: If you don't have enough people actually using the features to warrant implementing them...

[Mighty Monk]

Well it's true. It's not like this is the first time it's been said, is it?

When you look at the cost of getting at best, a semi-decent gaming computer, to what it costs you to go to a store and buy a console, the majority of people are going to take the console route.

A good example would be Crysis. If you look at the rig that thing needs to run on say, medium settings, and what that's gonna cost you.. I sure as hell would much rather go with a console version had they provided it. An Xbox 360 costs now £199.99 at most. I could spend far more than that, easy, on a processor, or a graphics card alone. There are also other sorts of problems that root out of gaming on a PC, like drivers, software installation, microphone setup which isn't easy for as many people as you'd think!

[Spas12]

And Spas, I'm seeing then, that you think they need to keep the Dedicated Server? Or bring it back in, rather.

Add/keep it, yes.

[vcool]

You don't need a 2000 dollar computer to run games on decent settings.

Also, imo Royce is wrong about the fact that only kids with 2k PCs know the difference between servers. There are tons of people who know a lot and who have crappy PCs. Likewise, there are plenty of kids with 2k PCs who have a good money supply. (parents)

[Mighty Monk]

You don't need a 2000 dollar computer to run games on decent settings.

Also, imo Royce is wrong about the fact that only kids with 2k PCs know the difference between servers. There are tons of people who know a lot and who have crappy PCs. Likewise, there are plenty of kids with 2k PCs who have a good money supply. (parents)

Actually, what you need is dependant on what game you're playing. My example Crysis, eats the majority of PCs that people have even today and I'm not really sure many members of the PC gaming community realise how poor running the average PC actually is.

I think more the point for me would be, who actually cares what the difference betweena dedicated and listen is? I know I don't, nor my brother, my dad or my friends. I'm sure the trend continues upwards, far greater than those that do give a toss.

And you say "plenty" of kids, you being one of them I presume. I live in England. We are a wealthy country in comparison to the majority of others, yet I know for a fact that the majority of kids parents simply cannot afford to spend £1000 on a PC for their little cherubs. That sum of money is simply out of the question. Plus, it's all about the laptops these days, most spending no more than £500 on one which in turn is hardly capable of running the latest AAA title. What also doesn't help, is the current economic crisis the world is experiencing, so even if you're right, and plenty of kids parents CAN afford an expensive gaming rig, they probably won't want to be paying out for one right now which potentially means they'll look at alternatives instead, i.e. the console.

[nub]

His argument is valid, but some things he said were kind of off. I'd just settle to have dedicated servers so I don't have to play with shitty pings. Even if modding is out of the question, dedicated servers would still be nice.

It really does feel like PC gaming is slowly dying.

[Terr]

Obligatory: Tonight's word: "Gamers"

I think part of the console appeal is ironically anti-technological. If you're a techie, you'll have a decent computer anyway just for work and hobbies, so you'll beef that up. The computer is actually cheaper because even if you're not playing games, you're sharing files or working on some art or even compiling something in the background. But for everyone who sort of plateaued four years ago where using Kazaa was the sign of epic leetness...

It's also possible that PC gaming (as a function of human population) is growing, just not as much as console gaming is, which has some advantages when it comes to people physically sitting in the same room playing the game. (Well, except for the often-too-small split screen views...)

[nub]

I laughed hard at that comic.

Anyway, being that a majority of the signatures on the petition are indeed spammed by bots, it seems like the group that wanted the changes in the first place aren't even honest about it. I don't really care anymore...I'll just play the campaign at my friend's house or something...

[Unreal_Me]

That conversation was... painfully true.

So what, will MW2 put PC gaming one step closer to a hospital bed? The broken playerbase of MW1 was a kick to the teeth if nothing else. While it's fun to play, there's only a handful of servers worth playing on. As for modded content, I rarely run into it.

Valve's spread/migrated to consoles as well, with L4D, and to a lesser extent TF2/OrangeBox. Then again, they were smart about it. Any well-done highly-played maps were ported to consoles. Valve rewards and promotes user-made-content.
But then, that's because their modding community has been huge since HL1. Hell, Half Life was made by a modding community.

Are modders the only people keeping PC games alive?


Aside:
Personally, I hate matchmaking for the same reasons as everybody else. Most specifically, matchmaking in L4D (yes I know openserverbrowser exists). Same goes with listen servers in general.
Also, fuck control-stick aiming. That crap is broken

[Dionysos]

No, people.

Yes, the pc community is prolly smaller, and usually made up of a different crowd than console gamers. But this doesn't mean the death of pc gaming because as long as there are still people with developer skills passionate about pc's and gaming, there will be games. Period. What has changed, is that the industry has grown, been industrialized and seized the biggest and easiest market in gaming, consoles. It might be sad now, because many companies are changing their direction, but that's all it is. so MW2 changes its direction towards consoles. Don't buy it. Support pc game developers. This has the advantage that the pc game devs that are left actually do listen to the community and adjust their games for the pc.

And whoever plays Crysis all the time? It gets dragged up for saying how demanding games can be and how you have to spend a lot on your high-end pc, but really, it's not counter-strike. The piracy for that game was huge because it was so dull and not worth the money. Granted it was fun for a while, but really it was only a techdemo. The singleplayer got shit after 1/3 and the mp is laughable (imo).

OFP2 (DR) is changing direction towards consoles (with all that is implied, i.e. false advertising), and there are no dedicated servers. This *will* kill the pc multiplayer, but maybe not the console mp.


In the end, we will see. But seriously, it's all a matter of what you want your game to be. PC vs consoles are different mindsets (usually), and the sad fact is that because it's easier to reap profits from the console gamers those are the ones focused upon. For us it just means we have to wade through more shit to get to the good titles.

[Mighty Monk]

And whoever plays Crysis all the time? It gets dragged up for saying how demanding games can be and how you have to spend a lot on your high-end pc, but really, it's not counter-strike. The piracy for that game was huge because it was so dull and not worth the money. Granted it was fun for a while, but really it was only a techdemo. The singleplayer got shit after 1/3 and the mp is laughable (imo).

Dionysos, if you read my post and the one beforehand, you'll realise I was discussing reasons why people turn to consoles and away from PCs. It had nothing to do with Crysis's gameplay. But just for the record, I actually quite enjoyed the campaign.

[Dionysos]

Well it was mainly directed at the "another sign pc gaming is dying" notion provoked by IWs move and the convo Spas posted.

Oh, and if you enjoyed the VTOL section and the boring shooting of the aliens in the last bit (not to mention the lack of free roaming), I envy you But that's off-topic. Warhead was much better imo.

[Mighty Monk]

Haha, righty. No problem! I see your point anyhow.

Warhead was much better, yeah. I loved the section where you're defending that mine entrance with that other squad.

[nub]

I enjoyed Crysis the first two times as well. It was much lengthier and had great missions compared to Warhead. Warhead was also pretty good, but the plot was kind of lame and there were only a few good parts that really had me in to the game (the rainy jungle where you save the pilot, the frozen place AFTER the hovercraft, and the caves).

I think Cryengine 2 was left in the dust...sadly. There's like ONE game other than Crysis that uses it, and it's a crappy MMO. The next Stalker game is rumored to use the new Cryengine, but that's mere speculation. I hope that's the case though...it could look amazing.

By the way, has anyone played Call of Pripyat yet? Is it even worth the time? Judging by the horrible trailer for it, it looks like an even bigger downer than Clear Sky.

I mean, seriously, the music in the trailer was literally composed of two stock samples from Fruity Loops Studio. I can even NAME the samples they used:

DL_Break Percussion.wav

HIT_6.wav

/rant

[TicTac]

Likewise, there are plenty of kids with 2k PCs who have a good money supply. (parents)

And there's kids like me who spent a summer's salary on their PC

Spas, I can see both sides of that argument. I see what Royce is saying, that the PC community for MW is minuscule in comparison to their console community. Still, he's not very understanding/compassionate during your conversation