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Call of Duty 2 Causing Server Unrest
Despite the excellent gameplay, Call of Duty 2 is causing a lot of internet unrest among the players who want to participate in the online multiplayer component. GamePolitics reports on a thread from the official site. From the site: "Server admins - those mysterious men (and women) behind the curtain who keep online gaming venues humming - are fed up with the PC version of Call of Duty 2. So fed up that they are planning a 24-hour shutdown of COD2 servers on Deember 16th if publisher Activision and developer Infinity Ward fail to address their complaints, which include the lack of an anti-cheat system."
Can't say I'm familiar with that month. How long away is it, again?
For a while there, I thought this was a strike being organized by some company that ran CoD2 servers, ala XBox Live. If that was the case, this would be Bad News(tm) for Call of Duty. Then I read TFA, and realized that wasn't the case.
Here, the "strike" is being organized (if you can call it that) by an upset gamer who runs a server, calling on others who run similar servers to take down their servers for a day. Still pretty bad PR for CoD2, but only if 99% of the game servers out there take part. Unfortunately, I suspect this will have about as much impact as those "Don't-Buy-Gas Day" boycotts I see via email from time to time (trying to force Big Oil to drop the price of gas at the pump.) That is, it will generate some press buzz, but in the end I doubt the company whose attention they are trying to attract will pay them much attention.
That said, cheaters really suck, and it kills the online gaming experience. I stopped playing online FPSs entirely because of cheaters.
The people who make fps multiplayer gaming possible belong to user communities. You can only get these people so pissed off before they just stop supporting your product. Sure, as some of the posters in the links say, Infinity Ward already has their money, but the next time the release something they may see the consequences. Also, you can't totally blame this on the rush to release the game for the 360. I'm pretty sure that it took a couple of months for Punkbuster to be added to CoD as well.
I'd say these days it more of a requirement than something nice. Unless you are tacking on multiplayer as an afterthought you really can't expect people to just play nice...because your original topic is pretty much on target.
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"Your license to run the server are hereby revoked. You must uninstall all copies of our software formerly licensed to you. To obtain refund, please submit original UPC code from the box along with original receipt of your purchase. Allow six to twelve weeks of processing time."
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Everything works fine, apart from the silly 8 player maximum for Xbox 360 on live...
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This seems to be happening in a lot these days.
A similar situation is happening with valve software, players of the online valve-developed games are becoming fed up with the constant stream of updates that don't actually seem to fix bugs.
Now another developer is releasing more software that's bad enough to generate word of a 24-hour boycott.
Laziness is slowly making it's way into software companies. Eventually, I use this term loosely as it may take 5 years for anything to happen, people will stop buying games until the developers fix them.
Of course, with a huge advertising budget the companies can always discredit complaints. Unfortunately, I only foresee the lying in advertising getting worse in the near future.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
While I assume it would be nice for the developer to add things like Anti-Cheat
More like "necessity". This isn't just to make gamers happy, it's in the publishers best interests as well. If it gets around that online cheating is rampant, people will be much, much less likely to buy the game.
And the complete lack of dedicated servers, which make multiplayer games above 4 users next to worthless with the amount of lag.
Oh, and the fact that they want to use ranked games, using some dipwad's home internet connection.
[DISCLAIMER: This post is a work of satire and should not be misconstrued as a holy text upon which to base a religion.]
Because a large multiplayer user base acts as a continuous advert for the game, attracting new players and keeping sales up throughout the shelf life of the game. Popular multiplayer games spawn fansites, mods, clans and competitions which all act to introduce new players to the game.
The single player is really nice, however have you ever played COD:UO? If you have you will then know why everyone is so upset with COD2. COD:UO had everything in it and then they came out with COD2 and left everything out. Read the forums below for the non-biased version of what is going on with this game. http://forums.raidersmerciless.com/
COD:UO is a great product. They made many improvements from the original COD. They added:
1. Punkbuster
2. Vehicles
3. New weapons, including light machine guns
4. The ability to run for short distances. Previously, you could only walk, crouch/walk, and crawl.
5. Battle rank. As you reached point thresholds, your rank increased.
6. New games types including Capture The Flag, Headquarters
With the exception of Punkbuster, COD2 included none of the additions from COD:UO. They added a lot of "eye candy" and reduced the plability of the game. All game types are reduced to "run and gun." It is imposible to use any tactics in the game.
If I had known this, I would have never bought the game. What a disappointment.
I won't make that mistake again... Can you hear me now, Activision???
Depends, it's extremely quaketastic. If you liked COD:UO gameplay, you will be disappointed. If you liked COD, you might be ok with it. Things that have changed since COD:UO and COD2. No tanks, No portable emplacements, crappy sounds, SMALL maps, recoil reduced, nade indicator. If you ever wondered what it would be like to play Q3 with WWII weapons, here is your chance. (I know it's not exactly like Q3 gameplay)
My personal recommendation is to pass on this one.