Infinity Ward sees matchmaking as good for Modern Warfare 2 PC community [Update]

Posted Oct 20th 2009 3:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: FPS, Multiplayer, Modern Warfare 2

The cries of "Foul" by hardcore fans of the Call of Duty shooter franchise over the dumping of dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2 have been reported on extensively for the past couple of days. Now Game Informer has some more info on why developer Infinity Ward decided to make such a move. The studio's heads Jason West and Vince Zampella stated they simply wanted to make the multiplayer gameplay experience easier to get into for the average PC gamer.

In fact they state they have received their own feedback from PC players that cheaters, the high skill levels and even the community itself have made playing previous Call of Duty games online harder than normal. West is quoted as saying, "We thought maybe it would be cool if the fans could play the game." Infinity Ward's community manager Robert Bowling hinted that was the main reason behind the move for Modern Warfare 2 when the news broke about the lack of dedicated servers in the shooter.

Both men said that their new IWnet matchmaking service will help the average PC gamer play online and find people they can play with their same skill set. As far as the hardcore PC players, they stated the only thing they lose in this new setup is playing on servers with third party mods; they can still set up private games in the matchmaking service. West said some dedicated servers fans may be upset because they won't be able to charge for their servers in Modern Warfare 2, saying, "It's a little dubious. Some of the people complaining are complaining with their pocketbook." West also discounted having both the IWNet service and dedicated servers at the same time, saying it would, "bifurcate the community."

Update: Robert Bowling goes into details on how IWNet will work on his personal web site. He states their system "will automatically find you a game with the best performance, ping, and preferences based on your location and individual connection as well as matching you with players of your same SKILL." He also states IWnet will have features like friends lists that will let players "see when your friends are online, and invite them to your Party."

Gallery: Modern Warfare 2

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, infinity-ward, modern-warfare-2

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

STILL. NO. EXCUSE.
At the least give players both options. Posted at 4:01PM on Oct 20th 2009 by Cheesus Crust

Bring it on! Dedicated servers don't make sense in this day and age.Posted at 4:05PM on Oct 20th 2009 by Sinnix

The problem is he seems to think that speed and efficiency is my desire when I'm playing games. The problem is, they've engineered so much speed and efficiency that they've taken out all the control.

I can play the maps they made in the game modes they made with the features they made. Yes, "mod" is derived from "modification" but mods don't just encompass rule changes. This game won't even support user maps.Posted at 4:14PM on Oct 20th 2009 by Kevin

I'm in a community of 100+ people who regularly play on a single server for COD4. When I want to play I jump on that server and play with whoever of my friends that are online and whoever else happened upon that server. I don't want to have to worry about setting up friends lists and then private games.

If another friend gets on will they be able to jump in and play or will we have to back out to let that friend in? Either way, I don't want to dick with friend's lists.

"they stated the only thing they lose in this new setup is playing on servers with third party mods" I don't care about third party mods. I have never used them and this still rubs me wrong.

The whole thing is stupid as hell. Just allow both options. L4D on steam does it nicely.Posted at 4:37PM on Oct 20th 2009 by Royale

Matchmaking rarly works the way everyone says its going to work. Just look at Halo 3 half the time I get into a game, its laggy and no fun to play. Posted at 5:39PM on Oct 20th 2009 by Sonic

PC gamers fire up your lag switches!Posted at 2:55AM on Oct 21st 2009 by smi04

As a designer / programmer, I have an opinion on why they did it this way - support costs.
It is a lot cheaper to use standardized, centralized matchmaking servers for all environments. If they were to implement stand-alone servers, they'd have to develop a better browser, plus a method for managing multiple servers. Then there are all the issues that come from people being able to customize their product.

Rather than deal with all of that, IW just cut the feature out of the game.

In my opinion, everything else they are saying is just blabbering to cover their "easiest for us" decision.
I can understand from a corporate perspective. Perhaps the studio doesn't have the long-term budget to support that. Perhaps they are nearly out of money. So they made a trade-off between what will make them enough money to make their next title and what might put them out of business.

But if they are hurting in that way then they have been poorly managed.
Posted at 8:24AM on Oct 21st 2009 by _Jon

I for one hate dedicated servers. in priciple they are cool and allow custon variations on the game. in practice they usually are a great way for admins to cheat, and grief, and to charge others for the privilige of cheating. If you want a perfect example of this look at the left 4 dead dedicated server douche bags. thank you infinity ward.....THANK YOU!!!Posted at 11:05PM on Oct 23rd 2009 by lerch

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