Want To Play The Multiplayer FPS Games You Bought?

Thanks to GamerDad for its editorial discussing why it's sometimes impossible to play multiplayer FPS titles as the developers intended it. The author argues: "I certainly don't think that every mod I've ever run across is better than the core game that ships in the box but yet there's often no one running the boxed game", before noting that most game publishers "...do not run their own servers for these games so you can't count on them supporting the boxed game either. There are exceptions to this rule but for the most part when it comes to PC games, you're at the whims of the many fan owned and operated servers... [which may] limit the maps to a select few in a deathmatch game or change the settings of the game to make it play very differently from what you expect."

Comments

This is a good thing

[obeythefist]

What it shows is that, if you have a situation like CounterStrike where the modded game servers way outnumber Half-Life game servers, the customer is really showing the publishers what they want.

It's rare nowadays to see market forces so easily detectable and free from the controls of the publishing monstrosities.

Re:This is a good thing

[cbirdsong64]

Mods are a very good thing, yes, but the companies should not leave it to the fanbase to run all the game's servers. EA runs many Battlefield Vietnam servers, without any sort of tweaks or oddball mods, so I know I can play there if I have a free half hour or so.

Not an issue

[Lord_Dweomer]

Ok, I really think this is NOT as big an issue as people want it to be. For any decently popular online FPS, there WILL be plenty of servers. Look at bf1942, it has thousands. And thousands more for Desert Combat.

You almost NEVER have a problem finding a server that's fun to play on. The real server problems arise with the new mods that MIGHT have good potential, but unfortunately only a few servers......and only a few good ones out of those. Forgotten Hope is a good example, as is Pirates.

A weightless argument

[inkless1]

I've read the same argument on Penny Arcade, that mods and mutators ruined Unreal Tournament 2003. Being the author of one of the larger mutator packs for UT2k3, I thought this was a bit suprising.

#1) Mods and mutators are actually fairly hard to proliferate online, they aren't some kind of virus that seeps into servers - they get put on and stay on because the people enjoy playing them. If people didn't enjoy playing them, they wouldn't be there.

#2) If people preferred to play vanilla games, people would run vanilla servers. For those people who prefer to play vanilla games they should run vanilla servers.

#3) If you can't afford renting a server by yourself, find some like minded people and share the cost. Or, just up your broadband and run a very low-end server (most decent connects can run at least 4-6 player games, and yes - those can be fun too with the right players).

#4) If you can't afford a server, don't have any online friends, and are still running off a 56k modem, then, well, tough. Sorry, the internet gaming world isn't a democracy and never has been (you don't think the term Low Ping Bastard came from nowhere did you?).

Now - the part where I do give this complaint sympathy is in -finding- vanilla online games. Here is where UT2004 really shines, giving much better filters for mutators or no mutators or custom maps or no custom maps and comes with a complete voting package right out of the box so that people on your server can choose to play what they want.

(and btw, the reason Quake III is so tweaked is that many people mastered this game years and years ago ... you don't want them playing vanilla Q3 - they'll likely rocket jump your ass out the door ;) )