Hamma Time

Unless you have been living under a rock the past few days you know that Infinity Ward recently announced there would be no dedicated servers and no modding for Modern Warfare 2. Today Fourzerotwo the community manager for MW2 came out from under a rock and climbed right back in again saying in part:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is actually the biggest investment Infinity Ward has ever made into the PC version of our games. It’s also the most feature-rich PC version we’ve ever made. IWNET takes the benefits of dedicated servers and allows them to be utilized and accessed by every player, out of the box, while removing the barrier to entry for players unaware of how to maintain a server on their own.

This is only the first slap in the face. Wow, nice work wasting money Infinity Ward on a feature PC gamers had no idea about and do not want. As every PC gamer out there knows there is no need for every player to setup a dedicated server as mentioned above. Entry level players simply click multiplayer and select a server from the list. There are more than enough dedicated servers run by more than capable players to choose from. What a ridiculous concept created by a team that is obviously unaware of how the PC community works.

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Since my post just yesterday there have been over 30,000 signatures to the MW2 dedicated server petition online. Whether or not that will make a difference it’s hard to say. One thing is for sure and that is that it is hard for Infinity Ward to ignore a number on that scale. There have been tons of threads posted, and deleted on the IW official forums. They cannot quell the PC community by simply deleting threads.

During my reading today I came across a great comment on Kotaku:

PC gamers have already done their “matchmaking” days back during DooM, Warcraft and Quake. And you know what, once Quake came along it sucked to be the other 7 people in the match. We’ve upgraded, don’t bring us back to the dark ages and tell us it’s the second coming.

That is totally true, consoles do matchmaking out of necessity there is no other option.

The ball is in their court now, will they have the balls to man up and say they made a mistake? Or are they willing to lose millions from PC players who will not buy this game.

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Today is a sad day for PC gaming as we know it. It was announced in this interview (at about 1hr 41m) that Modern Warfare 2 will no longer have dedicated PC servers. This means that PC is going the way of dumbing down the game like Consoles with a matchmaking service where you click to play online and are matched up with specific users who will be hosted on a listen server (ie: You are the server). Consoles do it this way because well, it’s really the only way they can operate. PC’s do not have to abide by this ridiculous (and to be frank, very old..) technology.

The implications of this are so wide ranging that I can’t even begin to go into everything here. But I will go into a few.

First off lets talk about dedicated server companies like BranZone and GameServers.com. These companies thrive and feed their families from dedicated server rentals. These are legitimate businesses that make PC Gaming better for everyone involved. You are connected to a server who’s only job is to serve up a connection. You aren’t dealing with somebody else’s computer that is full of spyware on a 56k modem.

Second Competitive Gaming. Ladders like Team Warfare are based on Dedicated Servers. They provide a neutral ground where everyone playing can count on a solid connection for competitive gaming match. This is how I got my start in gaming, playing competitive  matches on Tribes 2 Dedicated servers. If not for dedicated servers it would not have worked and it will not work now.

Third and most important. PC Gaming is not Console Gaming. What works for Console does not work for PC and vice versa. They are totally different animals when you are talking about multiplayer online. Infinity Ward may think that 3 million 4 year olds running around cussing and calling everyone newbs on XBL is cool but I do not, along with many others.

Finally it’s important to note that Dedicated Servers are how the PC community gets to know each other and interacts. I found CDL, the team I have been on for 8 years via their very own dedicated server back in Tribes 2 had I not logged into that server I would not be the same person I am today. You can always find certain friends and teams playing on specific servers. This matchmaking service removes that VERY important social aspect from playing online.

I will not be buying this game unless Infinity Ward addresses this issue and makes a dedicated server available. Otherwise it’s been nice knowing you IF.

Be sure to sign the online petition here and let Infinity Ward know you are pissed off here.

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So unless you have been living under a rock for the past few days you know about Rep. Joe Wilson and his shouting “You Lie” at Obama’s speech Congress last week. It turns out that today congress passsed a resolution criticizing Wilson for shouting.

Now obviously this moron really shouldn’t have shouted out in the middle of a joint session of Congress. That’s a dumb moronic idea that he really should have thought about. He went ahead and apologized to the President as he should have and that shold have been it. But sadly in today’s age that wasn’t it, Congress decided today to totally blow our Tax Dollars and waste time by voting on a resolution telling Wilson that he is dumb. Sadly, I totally agree with Wilson on this one when he said that today they didn’t do anything for Americans.

Wake up Congress, American’s dont want you wasting your time on this bullshit. We want you to work for us and get some issues settled. Sitting around circle jerking and slapping eachother on the wrists is such a blatent waste of time and money that it makes me sick. It makes me sad to be an American. How about you guys get off your asses and do something useful for a change and quit accusing eachother of being racists (Which happened in this instance) and bickering useless garbage.

Congress works for Americans, not the other way around. America is extremely divided right now and that’s why you are seeing such anger on both sides. Republicans are afraid of Socialism and Democrats are afraid of Extreme Conservatism. In reality most Americans (Like myself) are somewhere in the middle (Even though obviously Senators voting purely on a religious basis scares the shit out of me.. They shouldn’t be allowed to hold seats). So quit being dicks and get some work done before people start to get REALLY pissed.

Term limits anyone? How bout we clean house and start over.

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Something that has always bothered me personally is the usage of terms like “Miracle” in media news outlets and just in general. There’s always the token interviewee who claims that someone was saved or avoided death only by a “Miracle”. The very definition of the term Miracle suggests divine intervention. Tell me why is this something that should be used regularly by news outlets and ignorant politicians to describe people who survived unbelievable accidents?

I will use the recent plane crash of flight 1549 in the Hudson River as a prime example, compared with the also recent plane crash of Continental Flight 3407.

In the first case everyone on board survived. They did this because of the extreme piloting skills of Captain Sully Sullenberger and not a miracle as the NY State Governor David Paterson said  “We have had a miracle on 34th Street. I believe now we have had a miracle on the Hudson.” Allot of news outlets ran with the headline “Miracle on the Hudson” That is a pure insult to Sully and the people who helped save those lives. Those people were saved because a human with amazing skills as a pilot saved them. He is the true definition of the word Hero which is another term abused often.

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Those of you who are baseball fans are aware that the Major League All Star Game was tonight on Fox. The game was held at Yankee Stadium. In their typical low class asshattery the Yankee fans booed every single Red Sox Player that set foot on the field, including the Manager Terry Francona who by the way won the World Series Last Year.. wait what? Jealous?

But they showed their true colors when Jonathan Papelbon took to the field. They booed his every pitch and chanted “Over Rated” among other bullshit. This was due to some comments that he made earlier in the week saying that he should close the game and not Mariano Rivera. First off, this guy is a competitor and his job is to win and be the best he can be at his role. Of course he is going to want to pitch the 9th inning at the Major League All Star Game. Should he have opened his yap? Probably not. But the NYY fans and media took it to the typical extremes of booing his every move.

They even booed him, and his family on the Major League Parade earlier in the day. They booed him and his pregnant wife on the red carpet before the game causing her to fear for her safety. It’s one thing to love the game, and the rivalry that NYY and BOS hold, its another all together to be completely disrespectful to the players of this game who regardless of their team are All Stars of the MLB. Today was a day to celebrate Baseball in one of its greatest stadiums. It was a day to admire and pay homage to the greatest players of the game. But thanks to typical Yankee fan actions and the NYC Media this day will be forever scarred in history.

Way to go Yankee fans and the New York Media!

Hamma Bullshit, Rants, sports baseball, Rants, red.sox, sports, yankees

  So here we are in the Spring of 2008 and gas prices are continuing to skyrocket day after day. Just last week here the price of gas went up .15 cents in just 2 days. So that led me to wonder how much am I spending on gas this month? I should have just not bothered figuring it out because it was just depressing, but I figured that I am on track to spend almost $400.00 dollars this month. Yep, thats right.. FOUR HUNDRED BIG ONES. And I don’t even have all that long of a commute. About an hour drive every day plus whatever local driving I do at home to get groceries and whatever else.

Prices of food and everything else are going up too, you don’t need my little blog to tell you this. Because truckers who are hauling all this stuff are paying about a grand to fill their diesel tanks. I personally feel the squeeze of the increased cost because I can’t go out and do the things I enjoy anymore. Jen and I can’t go out and grab a bite to eat at our favorite restaurant because we have zero spending money left. And the sad thing is we are living at home right now to save money. I would hate to have a mortgage or a rent to pay right now, I feel for any of you out there who do.

The big question is this, when are our worthless pandering, fucking idiot elected officials going to get off their stupid asses and do something about this? I am not an economist or an expert on gas and oil by any means but this continuing trend needs to be curbed in some way. The fact that prices are not even being driven up by lack of supply is honestly frightening, what does this mean for the summer season? Elderly folks on fixed incomes can’t even drive to the grocery store or the bank because they are spending all their money on gas.

This is the reality of the situation, the human effect. And don’t tell me we need to “Decrease our dependence on foreign oil” or “Drive a cleaner hybrid car” because those are long term solutions that would be wonderful, but America needs solutions now and that shit won’t help us in the near term. While giving everyone in America some cash this summer was a nice thought it isn’t going to do shit to resolve the current situation. Write your congressmen and let them know that something needs to be done, give them real world experiences and give this situation a human face.

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Here in New England the Red Sox / Yankees rivalry is the biggest in sports. So when news came out that a Sox fan buried a David Ortiz jersey in the new Yankee Stadium it was top story news. Now one could not be really sure if this was actually done, it could be just some guy trying to freak out the paranoid Yankee fans. But when Yankee’s brass got word that this may be the case they went to the extreme and actually ordered the construction company to start digging (which actually set them back about $50,000). Sure enough after many hours with a jackhammer it turned out that the rumors were true because buried deep in the concrete of the new stadium was a David Ortiz Jersey.

Now I wish the story ended here but look at what the nutjob Yankee’s president said:

“But then we decided, why reward somebody who had really bad motives and was trying to do a really bad thing?”

As if this guy had committed some kind of crime like raping a child or something.. give me a fucking break! Rumors are out there now that the Yankee’s might even be considering criminal action against this guy but seriously, what would you charge him with? Witchcraft for putting a curse on them? String him up from the nearest tree!!!

I know one thing, if I had managed to get a jersey buried I would have kept my yap shut until they were done.. lets see them try and dig it up then!

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