IWNet
By mrhankey 4 Comments
Ok, so after reading many a site there seems to a gap in understanding what IWNet means for pc gamers, so let's look at the facts:
- We are used to playing on dedicated servers, which are infinitely customizable.
- We can own these servers, which means the community, in reality, makes the rules.
- These servers can run custom mods.
- These servers can run custom maps.
- We can implement third party cheat detection software, server side.
- The communities that evolve around servers are essentially two things: A community like Giantbomb. A business.
- Matchmaking, which essentially means that the software will supposedly chose a server for you with the best latency.
- Matchmaking groups, ie: create a party and join a server.
- Private matches (clans, friends, etc...)
- Friends List
- Cheat/Hack free games
The idea behind IWnet from what i can tell is to allow people, not inclined to pay for/setup/ and run a game server to do so, with no money and little to know technical know how. Now let's look how this adversely affects the pc gaming community:
- While you may provide us with customizable options for servers etc....essentially that's a finite number of options as established by IW, therefore some of our control has been removed from the game.
- Matchmaking isn't full proof (ie: could still be put on a server with bad pings or a bad community), and most of us have favorite dedicated servers we play on. ie: Lotus Clan.
Ok, so in conclusion, there aren't too many cons to the new system, and most would argue there are a lot of cons to the old system. However let's look at the main issue. For years pc gamers have been used to controlling their games from release day. Valve and all other game companies have for the most part let us control servers and etc...it really isn't something we hate doing. So our issue is the following: we feel like we are being treated like console gamers. We feel like we are being forced to accept a new system we necessarily didn't want or ask for.
So the solution: Keep IWnet, except, give us a browser option paired with the other IWnet systems, that way we can keep or amazing community of CoD players. Also let's acknowledge IWnet for what it really is, it is a way, to subvert piraters, or atleast a way to make the number of them smaller. No one can deny that, any company that has created a new online system (steam, Iwnet, WFL) are designed with that goal in mind, always. I'm not saying its bad, but they shouldn't hide that.
*Also i apologize if i came off as an elitist, but people fail to understand that by gaining such a new system we will be losing a lot of CoD communities and infinite customization that the pc crowd as come to love, regardless of it's short comings. Also i feel that websites, even Giantbomb, need to hire someone that is biased towards the pc, i'm tired of gaming websites giving it's two cents as, "i just don't understand the issue here."