After Call of Duty: World at War, we set out 3 goals for our next PC title:

* 1] PC gets every single game feature that the consoles get, but in a way that makes sense for PC.
* 2] PC gets even more features – the ones that PC gamers want like dedicated servers and more customization.
* 3] Keep it fun. Protect the integrity of the title through design and post-launch support.


Keep that in mind as you read through the decisions outlined below in our FAQ.

Call of Duty: Black Ops PC Multiplayer FAQ

Full feature support: Confirmed
Ranked Servers: earn XP and currency. Wager Servers: gamble your currency. Customizable Unranked Servers. Combat Training against practice dummies. Theater. Create-a-Class "2.0." Contracts. Emblem editor. Everything the consoles get. Implemented in a way that makes sense for PC (*cough* no lobbies *cough*).

PC Features: Confirmed
Dedicated Servers. New Server Browser. Dev console. /record. Customizable game modes, perks, killstreaks, classes, and higher player counts on unranked servers. Map rotation. RCon. Kick & Ban. MOTD. In-game custom Server Banners. And more.

Mod Tools: Confirmed
We will release mod tools sometime post-launch. We need to finish the game first. Then we will make sure any urgent issues are handled. Then we will begin work on tools. The extent of the mod tools package will not be known until this time.

Global Persistent Stats, Profiles: Confirmed
Your profile data is stored on servers for you and is accessible from anywhere on the internet. Stats, XP, COD Points, configs, etc.

Leaderboards: Confirmed
Yes, leaderboards - globally persistent leaderboards (i.e. NOT per-server based).

Steam Exclusive: Confirmed
Millions of Call of Duty fans are already on Steam. Their Friends are on Steam. Steam will provide the ease of auto-updating instead of manual patching. Auto-updating will also help keep the community playing together on the latest version. The Steam cloud will make your profile and configs available to you on any computer.

VAC: Confirmed
We are serious about protecting the integrity of this game from hackers and cheaters who would otherwise ruin the fun for the honest players. Used in conjunction with our own anti-exploit measures, Theater reviews, trusted servers, and supplemented by server admins with kick and ban powers we believe that Valve Anti-Cheat will be an effective solution for Call of Duty: Black Ops PC. We are committed to working closely and diligently with Valve to deal with new threats as they appear.

No “Public Server Files”: Confirmed
Many of these game features are predicated on having a trusted host or server. Otherwise these features would be wide-open to easy exploits and rampant cheating. Also, anti-cheat solutions can be significantly more effective on games that rely on trusted servers. We chose against “public server files” in favor of providing full feature support and protecting the integrity of this title. This doesn't mean you won't have customization or admin capabilities with your servers - because you will. This simply means we've partnered with an exclusive server provider.

GameServers.com Exclusive: Confirmed
We have partnered with GameServers.com as the exclusive provider of dedicated servers for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Every dedicated server for this title will be running on top quality hardware and infrastructure with excellent bandwidth. There will be a ton of official servers at launch for everyone to play on for free. If you want to run your own server you will be able to rent one at a great price (which will never go higher than $0.99/slot). They are actively adding new server locations and staffing up to meet global demand. If you don’t see your location you can suggest it here: http://www.gameservers.com/blackops/

Max Players: Not Confirmed
We have not yet finalized the maximum number of players in ranked or unranked servers. More playtesting is required to determine how high these numbers can go. This happens as late as possible in the project otherwise the game is likely to change in ways that could invalidate the results.

Minimum System Requirements: Not Confirmed
OS: Windows® Vista / XP / 7
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 or better
Memory: 12 GB free hard drive space / 2GB RAM
Video Card: Shader 3.0 or better 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600GT / ATI Radeon® X1950Pro or better
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Hopefully that answers the majority of the outstanding questions not answered from our MP Reveal coverage. There are still some questions we do not have answers for at this time, so as always, we appreciate your patience. We will have all questions answered before November 9th.

Regards,
-JD, PC Dev, & the PC Team

Yes, First IW, then DICE and now Treyarch to complete a trio of lying mainstream developers. I expected this from DICE and IW, them being mediocre at best after MW2 but I was actually hoping for a bit more from Treyarch. This may have been the reason PCDev went into hiding a few weeks ago. But the worst offender is JD_2020, who wore that dedicated server shirt and proclaimed Treyarch having a dedicated PC team and being a PC developer, not even acknowledging the problems of this game, which right now also include not being able to play.

I'm starting to think the $20 I gave for this game was too much, I didn't pay to be a beta tester.

Let this be a lesson, mainstream developers have nothing to offer us but lies, at least the indie devs will offer us the truth, even if because if they don't they'll go down quickly as nobody will buy their games.

We must cease to look forward to mainstream games, and what mainstream developers say and promise, and start putting our sights on developers that care. Black Ops may be a gift from heaven for Tripwire since now a lot more people will start looking into alternatives and will stumble upon HoS and all the other FPS indie games.