Well yet again we get another update about this DEDICATED SERVERS vs IWNET controversy. This time we got some explannation of what it all means.

Words by Vince Zampella and Jason West

Source: Gameinformer »

"We're just prioritizing the player experience above the modders and the tuners," says West. He points toward the mounting feedback IW has received from PC fans of Modern Warfare who couldn't find a decent server to play on between all of the cheaters, the insular communities, and huge skill level disparities that the original game's community fractured into. "We thought maybe it would be cool if the fans could play the game," he laughs.

IW says that gameplay concerns for the majority of MW2 players are the overriding reasons for the decision. Zampella downplays the obvious piracy prevention angle (IW has cited numbers of people online playing illegal copies of Modern Warfare up to 60 percent). "The Steam stuff helps with the piracy. I don't know that the matchmaking stuff does," he notes. West takes a shot at the motives behind some of the outrage, noting that there's money to made by selling dedicated servers and adspace on them: "It's a little dubious. Some of the people complaining are complaining with their pocketbook."

Again and again during our conversation, West and Zampella hammer the point that hardcore PC players lose very little to this change relative to the returns that casual to moderate fans will see. Clans can set up private matches to do their training or what have you; all they lose is the ability to customize the game on a deeper level with mods and such. Infinity Ward sees the addition of solid matchmaking and community support like IW-run tournaments to the PC as a huge win, and not something that could be done under the old system.

Why not have both? West does not want to include dedicated servers alongside the custom-built backend, stating that it would just "bifurcate the community."

Words by Robert Bowling

Source: Fourzerotwo.com »

Matchmaking and Smoother gameplay

[..] it will automatically find you a game with the best performance, ping, and preferences based on your location and individual connection as well as matching you with players of your same SKILL. So you’re always guaranteed the best game performance for where you are and what connection you’re playing on as well as an equal game with other players of your same skill level, not rank, but skill level. It doesn’t mean you’ll just be thrown into a random game! It will put you in the game that will give you the smoothest gameplay possible without you having to manually find a server with the best ping.

Playlists and private matches

[..] However, say you’re in a clan and you want to play a Clan match with another team, or you want to practice for an upcoming tournament that has specific rules in a private game. Then you can start a Private Match (which is essentially like running your own private server) where you have complete control over the rules, who can join, boot players you don’t want, and essentially control the entire game or tweak it to your liking. [..]

Cheat / Hack Free Games

The biggest benefit of using IWnet by far is the fact that you don’t have to worry about joining a server full of aim-bots, wallhacks, or cheaters. Or relying on the server admin of the server to constantly be monitoring, banning, and policing it. Modern Warfare 2 on PC allows us to control the quality of the game much more than ever before as well as utilizing the VAC (Valve-Anti-Cheat) system to keep games clean of hackers and cheaters.

All in all, IWNET adds a load of new features that the PC version of our games have never had before and allows us an infrastructure to continue to update and improve on the game post-launch.

Source: ModernWarfare24/7

Want to express your issues and concerns with Modern Warfare 2 toward people that can actually do something about it? From 6:00pm – 8:00pm Central time (7:00pm – 9:00pm Eastern) on November 3rd, 2009 you will have the chance to show your concerns to Infinity Ward CEO, Vince Zampella. Robert Bowling a.k.a fourzerotwo, the Infinity Ward Community Manager, will also be there. The live web chat session will be taking place on Best Buy Community Forums and will be hosted by none other then, Best Buy.

Here is a link to the forum post on Best Buy's website: http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Gaming/Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfare-2-Live-Chat-Session/td-p/58865

Big props given to Slice from The Double Helix for notifying me of this upcoming event. Please be sure to stop by their forums and say hello.

UPDATE

CONFIRMED INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE ON THIS: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2369799  Go to 1:40:00 on timeline.

Petition Here: http://www.infinityward.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=123824

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dedis4mw

ORIGINAL NEWS

Well, today we have received both good news and bad news from IW / Activision. Patrick Garratt from www.vg247.com was able to ask Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling at a London hotel a few questions, 14 to be exact. He firstly asked if the PC version was truly delayed. Robert's official response was "Officially, no." He then went on to ask some more questions about Steam. He confirmed there will be a Steam version of the game and the PC version will have the Prestige mode.

There are quite a few respected individuals from the PC gaming community that seem to have heard more information regarding Steam. What they heard was that it will be using Steam match making and that there will be no Punkbuster. It will use Valve Anti-Cheat.

Personally, I am not sure about this game anymore. I advise everyone to read up on the information and make decisions for yourself.

Here are links to VG247 and BASHandSLASH:

www.vg247.com
www.BASHandSLASH.com

Many of us have heard already that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 could possibly be delayed for PC gamers. We have also heard many rumors as to why the possibilities of this could be. After reading many articles on BASHandSLASH.com and other sites, I have come to the conclusion that it is probably really delayed. However, according to the facts it has not been delayed. Activision and Infinity Ward have yet to officially make a comment on the suspected rumor. Many respected individuals from the PC community as well as the Console community have commented on the possible delay and they are in a unanimous decision that it is delayed. The individuals I speak of are Jockyitch from BASHandSLASH.com; Jim (Rudedog) from fpsadmin.com; and Chris (Xiao) from Blackmonkeys.de.

Here is a link to a podcast that was produced by Jockyitch on the subject. I strongly recommend that if you have an extra hour to spare, you listen to it and then make a conclusion for yourself on the rumors. 

http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=738&Itemid=69

Here is another link to comments and analysis of certain things said by IW and Activison staff regarding the possible delay.

http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=735&Itemid=111

I also went and talked with my local Gamestop where I pre-ordered the game. The girl in there looked up on the computer and said that they have not yet received a change in the release date. She also stated that usually if a release date is going to be changed they find out 3-5 days before the scheduled release so that they have time to change their midnight release date and notifiy pre-order customers. So unless IW or Activision makes an official statement, it looks like we will find out a few days before the scheduled release.