Entry tags:

fan rage, videogames

Activision and Infinity Ward Hate PC Gamers
There was a time when all the first-person shooter fanboys were hot for Modern Warfare 2. That was before it was announced that the PC version wouldn't support dedicated servers, and players would instead be stuck having to use a matchmaking system. According to the Joystiq piece: Even without a doctorate in PC gaming affairs, it's easy to see how this fact would upset someone (or some community) who drops a wad of cash every month on renting a private server. Also preturbed by this news are fans of modded game modes and custom maps -- both of which would be unlikely under the IWNet framework.

The news wasn't taken well at Joystiq, or IGN, or Kotaku, or GameLife (disclosure: I wanked a tiny bit here, as a bemused observer). There's a whole herd of teal deer in all of the above, but here's some brief sample comments:

- IW is what it is today because of PC gamers, and then they completely screw us over. I have no idea if it's Activision or IW's fault, but whoever's, this is ridiculous.

- next thing you know you go to play the game and it comes up with the controller layout of a 360 Controller but i have no right trigger on my keyboard+mouse

- As with the boycotters who said, "I ain't buying that game" and who are now going to be standing in line at midnight on November 16th, everyone here who is saying that they are not going to buy this game are full of shit!

- MW2 is now off my "Do want!" list and now on my "Do hate!" list.

- What the ****? Are they serious? What's with all this console bullshit? This game wouldn't have been possible without the PC!!

- I play on consoles. I work on PCs. Nuff said. Don't like, cry me a river.

- Very simple solution:
If you don’t like it, then don’t buy it!
Oh wait, that’s what the ENTIRE community is now doing…huh!

- Here’s the reality: millions of people will buy this game while you pout and boycott. IW could never make a PC game again and still rake in the money. So either buy it or don’t. Nobody cares. I love how people get personally offended when a company doesn’t cater to them. The reality is the overwhelming majority of people who are going to buy this game could care less about dedicated servers.

For those of you still lost, 1UP handily breaks down the situation in a piece titled "Why Do PC Gamers Hate Modern Warfare 2's New Matchmaking System?" From that piece:

What this really comes down to is a matter of choice. IWNet eliminates much of the choices and freedom that PC gamers have enjoyed for years, and it's also removing one of the greatest advantages to playing games on a PC in mod support.

The appeal of this for Infinity Ward and Activision is very obvious: It'll make things much easier for the average to get in and play a game; it may help to curb piracy by checking that you're using a legitimate CD-key (though Infinity Ward claims matchmaking won't have much of an impact on piracy); and it incentivizes downloadable content to a market that could otherwise turn to an unlimited supply of free, community-made DLC.

Reasonable concerns, to be sure, but PC shooter fans weren't satisfied with merely complaining about this situation and/or swearing not to buy the game. That being said, you all know what comes next, right? The petition! It's currently up to 200,000+ signatures, but Modern Warfare 2 came out yesterday with nary any dedicated server support in sight for the PC version.

Since whining didn't help, nor the petition, gamers have since moved on to step three: negative user reviews. Amazon's got plenty, as does IGN.

Meanwhile, the midnight launch seems to have gone well, and three million copies of the game were shipped to the UK alone. Somehow I don't think Activision has much to worry about. And of course, the fanboys continue to wank.