This is becoming a mainstream thing with game developers. As you mentioned F.E.A.R. 2. Now added to the list is Operation Flash point Red Dragon and now Modern Warfare 2. I'm sure many games to come will not have dedicated servers.
It is rather funny how game consoles owners can get the mod chips and play any games they want and not have to pay for them. Just download them of the net and burn em and they can play all day.
I feel we, the pc community, are getting the shaft. I will not spend one ounce of cash on a game with no dedicated servers!!
Pay $59 to play a Single player campaign and maybe with a few buddy's. Pffffttt... What a joke.

I blame Punk Buster for part of this due to their lack of knowing how to actually support a game and all of the issues they have caused client and server side. I have administrated many servers and PB just plain does not know what they are doing.

I say a boycott is in order and if we all stick to it things will come around. Just think of the money they are losing. Another great decision from some guy at the top that makes Millions either way.

I say screw the boycott and launch a full on attack.

I don't know how to do it but couldn't you dds or ddos? the IWNET?

Hell your all going to have servers that are sitting around doing nothing correct?

Wouldn't that make them sit up and take notice?

Yes consoles are getting them more money than the PC but if the consoles can't network than wouldn't a whole crapload of angry console fans make them change it?

Maybe holding back and not buying the game (like me) won't make much of a difference but I bet this would.

Hacking IW.net or any form of petty retaliation would probably result in the offenders being hauled in front of a judge and put in prison or sued for a fair amount of money or both. Activision would sue the arse off anyone attempting to meddle with their profits. The best thing you can do is not buy an Activison branded game. Also inform any of your friends who play MWII on the consoles where all the new MWII features came from.

There is one pro to IW.Net, it will stamp down on piracy, something that has been killing PC gaming for ages now. Dev's won't make games if they loose money. Simple fact. If we want PC gaming to be "accepted" again we all need to band together and cut the piracy rate.

But here's my question.

Why couldn't IW hard code a check system into the dedicated server files? IE if the "IW check" files find a setting or file that is not recognised as a pure game file the server would then go into a locked mode and would only start if the offending file or setting was changed. A White list of mods and maps could be made as to not interfere with the modding community. Piracy would theoreticly be down to the level of consoles, IW would be happy as they aren't loosing money, Activision would be happy because they are making money, the players are happy because they get dedi's and the modders and mappers are happy because they can start making the new features of MWIII!

I was joking about the hacking thing... ok maybe half joking but it's just because I am so dam angry at them.
I am not buying the game and I know a few clans/members personally that won't be buying the game after this weekend
Man I was syked about this game and looking forward to it but now I am just blown away from the news.

I understand you but lets not kid ourselves. They did not do this because of piracy or because of hackers.
They did this plain and simple to control and to profit.
They did this so we as a community of players have to pay for map packs (DLC) like they make off the consoles.

They see millions of copies out there and then they see that these copies can generate continual dollars if they are locked up.

It's pretty simple to see what the driver is behind it. I have Rockband for my PS3 and after spending $200 for the set I am still spending another $200 for more music (DLC). It just makes money, the consoles make a ton and they want to force PC gaming to do the same.

The big problem is they have a following and a great product that just may be strong enough to do this.

I'd pay for CoD DLC as long as we got it the same day as the consoles.

The more this saga continues with IW the more I'm looking to buy Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad by Tripwire Interactive.

Tripwire interactive are cool because the only DLC that they have charged for Killing Floor was an optional player skin pack. Which is around $2. It gives you 4 different player models. They do nothing other than to bring a bit of variety to the rather boring stock skins.

Since the release of Killing Floor they have released (in DLC) 1 New map and 2 Weapons (Kitana and AK47) and the optional Skin pack. They release a patch around every month or so, with important updates released ASAP.

This Thursday they are releasing the next DLC (which is free again) Which includes 3 new maps, 7 new weapons, a new demolitions perk and a new enemy.

Hows that for support?

If RO:HS is supported like Killing Floor has been then I'm grabbing RO:HS as soon as it's out

It seems like the concensus is that we should NOT buy the game as it will be offered to us. If you consider the cod4 game and its community as driving a hot sports car down a six lane interstate, then what IW is prepared to offer us is a ride in a buggy down a bumpy cow path. IW has slapped us in the face with a cold pizza. They are DARING the PC-community to stand up to them. They are doing that because they don't believe that as a gaming community we have the backbone to do it. As I see it, some dunce in IW made a purely short-term-profit decision which will have long-term negative consequences for them. They thought the whole process through - about halfway. They stopped thinking when they saw the dollar bills that they could screw out of the pc-community via their control of matchmaking. Then their brains went into shutdown mode.

IF the pc gamers reject IW completely, and do NOT lose about fifty percent of their communal brain cells and give in, even the dunce in charge at IW will suddenly realize that the "tiny" pc portion of their profits hurts when it does not come in. I have never seen a major corporation which willfully makes a decision to throw a substantial part of their business away. I have seen corporations do stupid things that drive business away, usually because someone's unemployable nephew was put in charge of some innocuous department from which that decision escaped. Nobody seems to remember the Edsel, except that it single-handedly made Ford the butt of jokes for decades. Ford put that puppy to rest as soon as someone had the sense to tell management that the emperor had no clothes. Had they not, Ford could well have suffered far worse than an embarrasment. IW has just created their own Edsel. If they are intelligent enough to recognize the smell of the methane gas they have just emitted, they may just be able to undo the damage that they have done. If they fail to heed their own noses, they will have "screwed the pooch" and will fall off the map as game developers, no matter what the kiddies and their game-boys are willing to suffer through. Gamers, even PC-gamers, know what they like, and they don't like to be treated as second-class citizens. We will find other games, and other game manufacturers and developers who will give us what we are looking for. That is what IW did when it gave us cod. And it paid them great dividends. They can become fossils just as quickly.

Personally, I have turned my back on MW2, and will find a way to live without it, unless IW delivers it to us in the form that we want it, and can use it. And that includes support for our dedicated servers. After fifteen minutes, the only thing left of MW2 will be its multiplayer capabilities, and if those are compromised ( in this case, destroyed), then it has no real place or future. If you pass an IW developer on the street, be sure to buy an apple from him. Or drop a dime in his tin cup.

So to echo and make sure we in the PC community stand up and be counted.

1) Don't buy the game until they add back in what we have lost
2) If you do buy the game, wait at least one week - it doesn't sound much but it will make a huge difference as first week sales is what they measure them selves on
3) Do not under any circumstances pirate the game (as this is the excuse they will use for poor sales, no piracy=no excuse)

Lets let them feel the loss from "the small market"

No dedi servers , no mod tools....

I think there trying to bring the pc down to the same level as consoles.
why ???? this is what i think ( just my opinion )

They don't make any money off the great maps or mods that our community share with us.
Is this there way of trying to get us pay for not as good maps and stuff????

They don't make any money off dedi severs that our community / clans put up for us to play on.

Cheaper for them to give us a lame port.


What would like too see 1 day is ,
get all these great maps /mods/coders makers together and make the best pc game ever.
Then give those giant money robbers the finger