Infinity Ward decided it was in the best interests of the company to lie to us and make us think their decisions are in the best interest of gamers. Confused yet? You should be. Modern Warfare 2 is going to be a drastically different multiplayer experience for many gamers. They have vouched for a match-making system in place of their "tried and true" server browser. Instead of bringing up a list of servers that you can pick and choose from and decide as an intelligent gamer which is best, they have developed a system called IWNet which does all of the thinking for you. It will "match" you up with players of your skill range and location. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a match making system for PC games. The server browser is really starting to show its age, but it's also too entrenched to abandon entirely. Call of Duty 4 on the PC is made up of gamers that love the server browser and all that it offers, and with the new match making system for Modern Warfare 2, you'll no longer reap the benefits of the old way and for most gamers, it will be a very difficult transition.

Creating a match making system for Modern Warfare 2 on PC made Infinity Ward get a little too excited, so they decided to " throw out" what made PC gaming what it is today. They will no longer have support for dedicated servers and custom content, in other words, modifications to the game, essentially making the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 identical to the console version right down to every last pixel. The only thing they couldn't do is force us to use controllers and I have a feeling they would try that if they could get away with it.

What does this mean for the average PC gamer? Well, for starters, it means you are at the mercy of IWNet to pair you up with players of your skill range and location, but the only problem is.. this doesn't actually benefit us. We as PC gamers don't want to play people of the same skill level. We want to "own", even if it means getting completely owned while climbing the ladder to greatness. Our goal is to be the best. We are egocentric and we don't care who knows it. Forcing a matchmaking system down our throats doesn't make things better. To top it off, connections won't actually be better, since there won't be any dedicated servers. The host, or creator of the server is the one hosting the match. I'll be referring to the host as "Guy". Everybody is at the mercy of Guy's computer. Guy might be using his computer to download torrents, or porn. Guy's internet connection might be really terrible, and stinking it up for the rest of the players. Guy might also have a really slow computer, so no matter how fast his internet connection is, Guy's computer will make the match extremely bad for everyone. Also, Guy is using the same computer to play Modern Warfare 2, which is something a dedicated server would NEVER do! The job of a dedicated server is to provide a high speed connection on a high speed computer, dedicated to one thing only: the server. In what way does Infinity Ward think a match making system without dedicated servers is better than a serverbrowser with dedicated servers? ...because it's not. It's a horrible idea and the competitive community is speaking. They hate Infinity Ward for this and they deserve every bit of criticism they receive for forcing a fatally flawed match making system on us.

It doesn't end there, either. Rob Bowling from Infinity Ward came out to tell us some of the benefits to using IWNet, but offered absolutely no defense for the bad things said about it. This includes: matchmaking, smoother gameplay, private matches, friends list and cheat and hack free games. We knew most of that already. What part of "lack of dedicated server" do they not understand? That last part about hack free games should make us all outraged. This is the PC we're talking about. You can't stop hackers. The only hacking and cheating they refer to takes place on the serverside with custom mods, which isn't even called hacking and cheating. That's called a modded server. This will not stop aimbotters, wallhackers, and radars. If IWNet really does stop hacking in its tracks, I give it a week before a prototype aimbot comes out.. and then what? IWNet will be the new Punkbuster... assuming that's what Rob Bowling wants us to think.

Is this supposed to put our minds at ease? They're talking to PC gamers, not sheep. If I was a sheep, I'd own an X-Box 360 and I'd own the X-Box 360 version of Modern Warfare 2. They are treating us like we're idiots and alienating us in the process. To top it all off, the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 is going to be $10 more than the traditional $50 pricetag for PC games. To take a line from "drinkingwithbob" from Youtube, "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?". They hike the price up for the PC version to match the price of console versions, all-the-while, giving us less content than ever. As my brother would put it, they are "systemizing" the PC version. They're saving and making so much money they should just give us X-Box 360s for free, and just to spit in our faces they wouldn't even include the 360 version of Modern Warfare 2.

I'm not one to advocate piracy, but it's unavoidable when piece of trash companies like Infinity Ward give PC gamers no other choice. Forgive me for not tip-toeing around words with that last statement, but I'm not the one to blame. For those of us that do buy the game, I hope you really love the lack of content, and the extra money you'll waste spending on the downloadable content for which they starve you. Just think about it. Charging us for the things we used to get for free is inevitable once greedy companies like Infinity Ward get savvy to this. Oh and don't let this rant confuse you, I'm not denouncing the game, I'm denouncing Infinity Ward. There may come a day when I decide to buy Modern Warfare 2, and it all depends if I have enough reason to or it's offered for bargain on Steam. Knowing Infinity Ward, though, Modern Warfare 2 will be retail price for MANY months. It's looking very unlikely. Hopefully Infinity Ward delays the PC version to right their wrongs because that's the only way they could have enough time to fix this debacle, but who am I kidding?

-Neil

Source: games.on.net