You’re probably pretty busy in real life, so I’ll make this short and sweet: As a PC gamer (or a former one), what do you make of the removal of dedicated servers from the PC version of Modern Warfare 2?
It is old news. The FPS games have dumped PC gamers overboard for ‘consoles’ and trying to force the ‘console’ vision onto PC gamers. Perhaps Modern Warfare 2 was such a high profile example that has woken up PC gamers that these so-called “hardcore game companies” are not your friends, and that they see you only as a revenue pie to slice. After all, “hardcore” is a marketing creation devised to maximize peeling money from gamers. “No, you aren’t a nerd. You are a HARDCORE GAMER! Yes, buy the limited edition pack with the cheap China plastic item inside for 20% more money.”
When I say, “I am not paying for peer to peer online,” which is what Xbox Live is, I am said, “You are not hardcore enough!” I’m not going to submit to your little revenue scheme. It is incredible to me that so many have, though.
King Kotick makes a decree outlawing dedicated servers. However, I am more paranoid about King Kotick’s decree outlawing LAN gaming for RTS.
You realize that single player gaming isn’t dying? It should be obvious to everyone, including the hardcore, that the “Game Industry” is trying to close its fist on your neck to force your head underneath the fountains of ‘downloadable content’ and ‘service fees’. They want every game to become like WoW. But every game is not a MMORPG, so they are doing their hardest to graft MMORPG things onto all games so they can start charging.
Single player doesn’t NEED any of that. And no PR in the world can excuse an internet connection for single player. Even Blizzard had to allow single player offline, and they didn’t seem too happy about it. Single player games are becoming a huge problem to this technocrati dream of you never owning the game but only have continuous revenue streams. This is why single player games are being declared ‘dead’ everywhere not based on any numbers but based entirely on the desire that it is so. The “Game Industry” loves seeing things that are not there such as the grand “High Definition Generation” that was supposed to occur years ago.
I heard gamers complain about what Tycho, from Penny Arcade, said about this. I found that curious since Penny Arcade was supposed to be the same as the gamers. So this is what Tycho said:
Everywhere the discussion takes hold, the conversation surrounding Infinity Ward’s decision to forego dedicated servers is an absolute fuckfest. I understand why it would enrage that contingent. It’s an aggressive assertion that the universe is not as they claim.
On Four Zero Two, Robert Bowling’s clearing house for Infinity Ward PR, the thread quickly reached one hundred and nineteen pages. The petition at the core of the conversation, entitled “Dedicated Servers for CoD:MW2,” has (at the time of this writing) reached 143,991 signatures.
To read such lamentations, you’d get the impression that PC gamers still think they are the focus of the industry, when that hasn’t been true for awhile. Indeed, hardcore gamers in general – and the dedicated PC enthusiast, which is a subset – haven’t been the object of their desire for some time. I was under the impression this was well known, but it does require a willingness to perceive factual information, which is not a universal trait among cultists. Maybe if you had just put out, instead of becoming a signatories to a vow of consumer chastity, the old twinkle might return to his eye.
I guess Tycho doesn’t know the difference between “Game Industry” and gaming. The relationship of the “Game Industry” to gaming is the relationship of the parasite and the host. Crippling a standard PC gaming feature is just yet another symptom in this long decay. (Also, Tycho is dead wrong about PC gaming not being an apple in the “Game Industry”‘s eye. Look at the Sims. Look at WoW.)
Alas. I wonder if Penny Arcade has become nothing more than just a cog in that “Game Industry” machine. Weren’t they selling “Penny Arcade” gamer tags on Xbox Live?
Put out? Twinkle in the eye? The analogy is more like PC gamers want a divorce from the “Game Industry”. And guess who is going to take the house with them?
Malstrom's Articles News 