Digging A Deeper Grave

You know how people say that one is digging their own grave? I guess you can say that this is one of those cases where it's like that. Granted, it's already been set when Infinity Ward when they said that there won't be any dedicated server. But nobody knew just how deep the grave hole would be until just recently.

Best Buy hosted a live-chat with the people from Infinity Ward. And with it, questions about the game will be asked directly and the IW staff would have a chance to answer them. Obviously the questions that were raised repeatedly were regarding dedicated servers. But nothing was said that they will ever consider it, implying that they have full confidence that their IWNET system will work without issue. Another question that was raised that factored in to the limitations to the IWNET system is the maximum number of players possible. It turned out to be 18, or 9 for each side. Also gone from the game is console access, which enables people to enter special commands to tweak certain settings so that they are able to better suit one's playing experience. Some games featured the ability to lean left and right, allowing you a chance to peek around the corner instead of dancing in and out of corners where you can get shot. That feature is no longer in Modern Warfare 2. The issue with ping, another shortcoming of the IWNET system, will see players connecting with ping of over 100ms at the very least. So the playability on other people's host machine will be akin to playing through a fast 56k modem of the old days.

Much of what was seen in other FPS games on the PC platform saw these as standard-fare features. There was no question to include them as they allow for all sorts of customizations for players to utilize. They can tweak the game so that it can suit their setup no matter how strange or odd it may seem compared to the general masses. Sure the console players may not use 'em. But that's probably where everything went wrong there. Having to cater to the lowest common denominator seems to be the clear-cut choice when it comes to develop today's AAA/franchise games. And because of that, the PC players are slowly being ousted from having a reliable, dependable, thriving, and tightly-knit community. I just do not see why the big developers of today would look down on PC gamers so much now since it was the PC gamers that put them where they're at today. The one game that started out on the PC has now evolved and turned into a game that is nothing more than a mere port of a console-centric game. Yet Infinity Ward claims that is not a port but a new version that now has "custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings." Sorry but these three items are standard features on all PC games in general.

I just cannot tell you how terrible it looks now. Never mind the dumb features that they put into the game. There are many ways to make the gaming experience a thousand times better than what's being known as of now. Yet this is perhaps the one method that has truly killed the game before it even hit the store shelves.