It’s been a while since I have ranted and I have been thinking alot about the current state of Multiplayer gaming recently.

Myself and Jenny recently have been playing All Points Bulletin it is a game I have looked forward to for a few years since I first heard about it. I’ve always enjoyed the GTA series and any open world game. The added opportunity to customize the heck out of my whips and character added to it.

Unfortunately we have started getting extremely frustrated by it and many other games recently. Why exactly? One word: Progression.

Back when I started gaming, playing Tribes, Doom, Duke Nukem among others multiplayer gaming was based purely on skill. Who was faster? who had the best aim? who practiced the most? It was not uncommon for me to play a couple of hours a week in Tribes to keep my skill level high for when we had matches. I had equal access to all the same weaponry as anyone else. This favored casual players as well though because some people just had the knack for doing something and could pick it right up.

Nowadays however gaming has de-evolved (Some will say it has evolved, I disagree) into who has the most time on their hands to unlock the best weapons. A gamer just starting out is already at a disadvantage to those who have had the most time maxing out their characters. This is true of World of Warcraft, Bad Company 2, APB and pretty much any modern online game. Players who have the most time on their hands become the most overpowered characters that can simply wipe the floor with newer or causal players. In some games this is not as big of a deal as in other games but the mechanic still exists. In APB for example 3 slot modified weapons with Level 3 upgraded modifications make it near impossible to gain the upper hand most of the time.

Games are no longer based purely in skill and even modern FPS games that have not been spared this fate. Games like Bad Company 2 and Call Of Duty have numerous unlockables which gain them advantages that others do not have. Now, it is not as extreme in some FPSs as it is in others and especially MMOs. PlanetSide did this right, it had unlockables but these were available to any new player early on. They didn’t have as much versatility as the more seasoned players however they had access to the same weapons.

I fear that the future of gaming will continue down this road. Upcoming games like Star Wars and Jumpgate Evolution I fear will lead me to the same conclusion. At this point the only thing that keeps me from quitting gaming and finding a new hobby is the friends I play with. If not for them at this point I’d have already quit.

Religion impeding on anything that effects the non religious infuriates me such as opposition to Gay Marriage, Stem Cell Research.. etc. However I find that I often agree with many things on the other side as well, the side that has things that I despise.

I will give a couple examples of what I mean first being Gun Rights. I believe that the constitution clearly states that Americans have the right to own firearms. The fact that it gets so diluted when the verbiage is obvious is ridiculous. States such as my home state, Massachusetts restrict guns like crazy. If you want to own a firearm in Massachusetts it must meet specific requirements and be on a list of approved weapons.

Similarly if you want to conceal carry your weapon in MA you need to get permission from the local police chief to do so. In most cases the Police Chief isn’t the friendliest and most rational of individuals.

Another example is our current administration and state of affairs in the USA. Now I hated George W due to some of the BS he pulled. I could not bring myself to vote for John McCain because of Sarah Palin’s views. It angers me that this whole Health Care thing is happening and I do not believe that giving people free hand outs is what this country is about.

When Obama was running we had people saying “I wont have to worry about putting gas in my car anymore” What kind of garbage is that? The Government should not be in the business of supporting people in ways that we are about to see happen. Because with all due respect, the Government has not a clue what it is doing.

So therein lies my conundrum. Unfortunately, I doubt I will ever see a candidate I will be able to vote for without things changing significantly. If I want gun rights and in most cases (not all) smaller government I have to vote Republican. If I want gay rights and medical advancement I have to vote for a democrat.

It sucks really, and I know I am not alone in this country.

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.

Party System and Friendslist: Modern Warfare 2 on PC also makes it much easier if you want to party up with your friends, or again, with your clan for a match. You can utilize the friendslist to see when your friends are online, and invite them to your Party. A Party allows you to move from game to game as a group. It’s great for clan matches, because you can party of with your clan and move from public game to public game together. Or if you’re doing a scrim, party up and invite the other clan (who is in a party) and they’ll all join at once. Set up a private match together and play. It makes setting up scrims or games with friends easier and hassle free.

Wow.. just wow. This is just a ridiculous and utter fallacy. Friends lists are well and good, and a nice addition to dedicated servers. And obliviously a must for console players. But this is yet another slap for PC players who have been building gaming communities on dedicated servers since the first one’s ever hit the scene many years ago. PC players BUILT online communities, we started it.. we may know a little about it. A console gaming community is more of a bunch of people you play with on occasion and may never see again.

A PC gaming community is much more fluid and rich because PC players by nature are more enthusiasts, we are people who enjoy gaming on the PC because of the flexibility it gives us so we like to hang around with people of similar interests. You find a server that you enjoy playing on and you keep playing there. You have the chance of running into people you know and even meeting new people, or joining their team because you like playing with them. This does not happen with the system IW has in mind. Another thing? On PC we want (and expect) 24+ player servers.

Cheat / Hack Free Games: The biggest benefit of using IWnet by far is the fact that you don’t have to worry about joining a server full of aim-bots, wallhacks, or cheaters. Or relying on the server admin of the server to constantly be monitoring, banning, and policing it. Modern Warfare 2 on PC allows us to control the quality of the game much more than ever before as well as utilizing the VAC (Valve-Anti-Cheat) system to keep games clean of hackers and cheaters.

And another slap.. what a joke this is. There is no such thing as cheat/hack free games. First off no system (Especially VAC) is capable of a hack free game. This actually is precisely the reason you NEED server administrators to monitor their servers. Many games today have come out with mods (yet another thing not allowed by MW2) to create global ban databases of bad players and ID’s. It is the PC community that stops cheating, not some silly “anti cheat” system.

I only went into a few points here because it’s just too easy to pick apart every tidbit of this post. From reading IW’s response to an amazing outpouring of rejection on blogs, gaming sites and over 110,000 signatures online it is totally apparent to me that they have absolutely no intention of changing this. So we as PC gamers must stand tall and not buy this game as it is the only way for us to show the company that we do not approve of their actions. It’s a lesson to other developers who may be thinking of dumbing down their PC experience in favor of consolization.

This will be my last entry on this topic unless they decide somehow to change their minds. Good work Infinity Ward on totally destroying COD for the PC.

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.

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.

There’s this great show that showed up this season on the Military Channel called Special Ops Mission. Unfortunately last night marked the last episode of the first season. I am really hoping they bring it back for a second run! If you haven’t seen the show it centers around one Operator named Wil Willis who has the tough task of competing several objectives against a larger force of enemies. The show utilizes real weapons with what are called Simunitions so the encounters are as close to real as you can get.

Now obviously this isn’t an exact simulation of what a Military Operation would be like but it is pretty close. Wil manages to outsmart his opponents on numerous episodes and is pretty funny to boot. I have enjoyed every minute of the program and I have written the Discovery Channel to let them know.

If you have seen and like the show be sure to go here and fill out the form to let them know you enjoyed the show and want to see it continue!

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.

I logged on tonight to discover that my beloved Scarlet Letter was broken! So I went over to Out Campaign to see what was amiss and noticed that the location had changed. And where is it hosted? Why the Rackspace Cloud of course. Kick ass! Since this is a rather short post I figured I would post a quote I found earlier today that I rather enjoyed:

I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.
–Mark Twain

I’m sure many of you have seen it but it was my first time.. great quote!