[This article is a special contribution from SGC Member and SG Forum Moderator Ala Douche, thanks Ala Douche!]
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” -John F. Kennedy
“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” -Woodrow Wilson
Here we are, the release of one of the most anticipated (if not the most anticipated) games of the year, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. People across the world rejoice! The next iteration of one of the most addicting first person shooters of all time is upon us! Hold on a second there, it doesn’t look like everyone is happy. Oh my, an entire platform of consumers are angry!
I’m talking of course, about the amazing, the hardcore, the elite… PC gamers. Those who, for this (and last) entire generation, have been paying less and getting more than the suckers that call themselves console gamers. And why shouldn’t they? After all, look at what they’ve done to deserve such special treatment for all this time! They’ve… well, they’ve…I mean, I’m sure they’ve…hmm. Wow, it looks like they haven’t done a damn thing to deserve more for less, yet they expect it anyway.
Let’s face it, before last generation’s console boom and the video games industry expanding an unprecedented amount, who was there the whole time supporting the industry? That’s right, PC gamers. Before it was “cool” to own a video game system, who brought most of the revenue towards the industry? You guessed it. The PC gamers.
Now, as 2009 is dwindling to an end, how much does the PC platform support the video game industry? Well, when you take into account piracy, I would imagine it almost breaks even for no profit (for games like Call of Duty. MMOs are a different story completely.) Of course there is no way to put a number of revenue loss on the shoulders of piracy, and “consoles have piracy too!” Regardless, when you’re a game developer (even one of the most lucrative developers in the world), losing money is not what you want to be doing.
Let me take a step back at this moment and just make the statement that I am primarily a PC gamer. I have owned every single Call of Duty game (that was available for PC) since Call of Duty 1 back in 2003. As I was playing Call of Duty 4 the other day on my trusty PC, reading the little text of all the important PC gamers, furious about Modern Warfare 2, I read something interesting. A couple people who were bitching about the new Call of Duty were beside themselves because they wouldn’t be able to pirate it and play multiplayer. What will become of the world when there are no private cracked servers????
It was at this moment that I had an epiphany. PC gamers no longer deserve to get the special treatment they’ve had for so many years. It really is unfortunate that times have changed the way they have, but it’s the truth. The few legitimate PC gamers who actually buy the games they play may feel like they’re getting hosed, but among that very exclusive group, they feel like they deserve more than the rest of the world as well.
“Why should we pay more when we’re getting less?” The short and simple answer is because you don’t deserve more. The more long-winded answer? Because the video games industry is, in fact, just that: an industry. Unfortunately, Infinity Ward is not on a crusade to keep gaming how it was ten years ago. They don’t care about the golden age of gaming. They care about making money. They care about making their consumer base happy enough to continue buying games.
So, why? Why? Why in God’s name would developers keep giving PC gamers such special treatment? It doesn’t make sense from a business standpoint, a personal standpoint, or any standpoint. Face it PC gamers, your days in the spotlight are over.
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Sorry…that article was simply…uninformed.
Why should developers give “the nod” to PC gamers you ask?
Simple…. $12 billion a year…and likely to expand to $30 billion by 2012. ACTUALLY, PC gaming had a dip this year…but STILL outpaced console hardware sales….sorry….
The actual numbers don’t lie…
http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/05/27/study-pc-gaming-hardware-market-to-do-well-despite-economic-cri?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_joystiq
And if I want to complain about a product that offers less features, offers less performance, but is somehow MORE expensive…I CAN.
You don’t like it? I DON’T CARE.
Lol amen Matt
Pc gamers do have to spend a lot of money on hardware upgrades while that is included with the consoles. Although, not having to pay for most maps and additions while console gamers shell out 10 to 20 bucks per map set kind of evens it out.
>PC gamers no longer deserve to get the special treatment they’ve had for so many years.
We haven’t been getting special treatment, we have been getting the baseline treatment. I’ll restrict the following comparisons to FPSs, though the same is true of other genres. Were Wolfenstein 3D and Doom on consoles first? No they were on the PC, with custom map making tools and mods. Was Quake on consoles first? No, it was on the PC, with dedicated server support. Was the original Call of Duty, whose fantastic multiplayer that started an multi-million dollar brand originally on consoles? No it was on the PC. The console versions of CoD1 didn’t even have multiplayer for fuck’s sake.
And this is where the issue lies with PC gamers and MW2. We haven’t been getting more, console gamers have been getting less. In this case the two are distinctly different. Due to the closed nature of consoles, developers had to remove such features as dedicated servers and custom content, because such features were not possible on consoles. The developers were not giving the PC special treatment, they were ripping features out of console versions. Over time, this became accepted; it was expected that console version would have matchmaking and no custom content. Now, IW expects to remove features that are not special, but standard. This is why we’re pissed. If you want to ensure equality, you don’t lower the top, you raise the bottom.
Such is why your opinion is so incredibly misinformed. PC games cost less because there are no licenses to pay Microsoft or Sony, nor devkits to buy. Servers can be used to allow pirates to play, but they also allow gamers to host mods and, this is what irks me, have low-latency connections. Consider the following:
I care about latency. I hate lag. On the CoD4 servers I play on, I get a ping ranging from 30-45ms. That means that there is a 30-45ms delay between what happens in my game and what the server registers. On IW INTERNAL TESTING, that is these people were playing in the same building, pings registered at about 100ms. That’s anywhere from 2-3 times more lag than I play with currently. Now imagine I’m connecting to a player on the West Coast, far away from my home town of Chicago where my favorite CoD4 servers are also. It would be fucking awful. If IW got pings of 100 by people playing in the same goddamn building, imagine what would happen if I tried to connect across the country.
Control is what this whole MW2 debacle is about. Console gamers never had control over their game; what they bought is what they got. PC gamers always had control over their game; they could do whatever the fuck they wanted with it. IW is retroactively trying to control their game which was never in their hands to begin with. Once they realize that the PC belongs to the players, which has made the platform so great, then IW will understand why we are pissed. I’m not making threats, nor demands, nor setting unrealistic expectations; I just want to enjoy what I’ve enjoyed for the past 10 years with First Person Shooters.
“If you want to ensure equality, you don’t lower the top, you raise the bottom.” – Couldn’t have said better myself. +1. Agreed.
Yes, I agree completely. An informed rebuttal indeed.
Agreed, only thing wrong is that that 100 ping on internal testing was overseas internal testing, that’s an exceptional ping between two countries.
PC will remain a viable platform regardless of what one company who seems to be trying to vilify itself is doing. Ok, so Activision once again proves that they view all gamers equally as idiots with wallets that were put on this earth to keep them in business. This is not news. Heck it’s barely even worth the cost of bandwidth to host this article.
The PC is the venue for the lesser known games, has tons of product in the sub $10 markets, and will continue to keep those gamers that can get over the barrier to entry (cost) busy and enjoying themselves. EBGames/Gamestop has left the platform for dead years ago, and yet it’s still there.
How about instead of bitching that one platform gets more for less,you ask yourself why the others get less for more. If you look at it, it’s easy to see, it the console manufacturers taking their “cut”. Is that the fault of the PC gamers, nope, not at all.
Oh, and this is coming from someone who has all 3 consoles and a PC so that “Must” mean I know what I am talking about. Oh wait, it means nothing, which is pretty much what this article is worth.
Bit of a rediculous article in my opinion.
I think the main argument isn’t that the PC version isn’t getting special treatment, it’s that the devs have taken OUT features.
Couple of examples off the top of my head:
– Obvioulsy the 3rd party servers. This means if IW’s servers are down, no one can play. It means people can’t play on modded servers for fun, or have clans practace together..etcetc. It means people can’t kick unwelcome/racist/hacking players.
- The console has been taken out. The ability to tweak and adjust your play experience through the console is something PC gamers have enjoyed since… well, since there has been modern gaming.
The ‘people’ need a voice to stop companies walking all over the consumers. Telling people who talk out to STFU is a bit lame imo.
Just my opinion. Disagree if you wish, but don’t flame me.
eerrrr those things might of been standard back in the 90’s but now games are made for consoles first ported pc later. That means whats included on consoles is now standard and the developers have to do more to on top of console versions for the PC. That means you are getting extras because its not the old days console games sell more they are the baseline. Its time to move on.
Your right. There are many high quality games on the PC that do offer these features. If Infinity Ward would rather not compete with them, PC gamers will find other games. We should just “move on”
1) Sorry Ala, but on this we are not seeing eye-to-eye. PC gamers have always had these features since they were playing online. Take away features that are standard for the platform, and people have a write to gripe and moan. Id rather they stay noisy and NOT BUY for just that reason. (In fact, I would encourage 360 gamers to at least voice over the lack of party chat for the same reasons….)
2) I think we will see more of this, sadly… from Activision. They seem hellbent on not really pressing the strengths of any platform to assure we get the same game all around. Less coding for them, right? My Proof… Wolfenstien… till then, Ive NEVER had to be told I can turn off auto-aim… on a PC… with a mouse….
Oh dear.
I will just say that this is a very poor article and I’m rather disappointed to see it on Sarcastic Gamer, which while pleasantly frivilous, at least usually puts some facts in articles. The current situation with the PC release of MW2 is quite an interesting one and there are points to be made both for and against. Ala hasn’t at any point mentioned why PC gamers might not be happy with the release, or any reasons why we should be happy with it.
All Ala’s done in this article is label PC gamers elitist, pirate jerks crybabies and told us to shove it because… well, we’re elitist, pirate jerks crybabies and we deserve it.
I really hope we don’t get many more articles like this.
i completly disagree. There’s no reason for PC gamers to complain based on the fact that like rothbert has said PC gamers shouldn’t get special treatment. It’s wrong.
Just to clarify Timewarp, I didn’t write this article Ala Douche did. I just posted it.
oh. I wondered why ala was talking about it as if it was he’s first articule.
I was getting all ready to rage and hold my valued platform as a banner above all the ignorant console peasants, but then I realized all the points I was going to make were already said in the first few comments. I’d like to add tho, that just because a few idiots complained that they couldn’t play online if they pirated it (duuurrrrr…), you shouldn’t assume the entire user base is like that and punish them for it. If that was true, then the entire 360 crowd would be assumed as racist, homophobic bastards and would have had voice-chat removed or something else drastic. Also, you would think its a pretty fair expectation to assume that each platforms copy of the game would be optimized to that particular platform. It would be like ditching Xbox Live support, or having major performance issues on the ps3 (this has happened, and caused an uproar). Anyway, that’s all from me, I have a wealth of non-MW2 games to play for the moment.
still if im going to buy mw2 for ps3, i think that infinity ward is fucking pc gamers by the back, no mods???? no dedicated servers????? more pricy????? its true that most of pc gamers are pirates, hell im one of those, but pc gamers will prefer treyarch if infinity ward keeps going that way
this article is not really informed at all, but to anyone who condemns infinity ward for this, it was an activision move, they just chose to impliment it first on an IW game.
I KNEW IT!!!!!!
Activision is going to quickly become my “if it’s on sale” go-to company, arent they?
My complaint over the saga is slightly different and something I’ve not seen given as much coverage as the direct “LOOK WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO MY PC GAMEZZZ!!!1″ complaint. For many years I admined for a PC based gaming community league, as well as running a large and successful multinational gaming clan, with its own community. These community sites are built primarily around their servers. They are what draw players in, they find the fun servers they like, keep coming back to them and then from there get to know the regular players join the communities, sign up for leagues, apply to join the clans etc etc. Without being able to run these servers on a game of the size of MW2 will hurt these communities. Their consumer base will drift away and the communities will suffer as a result.
Another part of the industry that will suffer are the server providers. I can’t even begin to imagine what the reaction to the lack of dedicated servers will have been in the board rooms of companies like Jolt, Multiplay and the like. Not happy is my conservative guess.
Personally, I’d have liked to have seen IW take a leaf from DICE/EA’s book when it comes to servers. Run ranked servers that have everything locked down the way they want it, but provided by 3rd parties but also offer the ability for people to run their own custom unranked servers if they so wish. Best of both worlds then. Everyone is happy. The consumer gets what they want, as do the communities and Server providers. Plus IW/Activision get there chunk of change rolling in all the time too. Alas its not happening.
I’ll be getting MW2 on the 360 it looks like. At least I know XBL can support the matchmaking. IW.net too much of an unknown for me.
You mention paying more and “oh no poor you you have to pay the same price” Except that we can’t return our PC games, I’m not sure if you know this, but there’s kinda an install process and CD keys and stuff, so really, we were always paying more. never less
This is what activision/iw should do; instead of putting in ass-backwards multiplayer servers, they should sell their own dedicated servers, i mean, gamers get what they want, dedicated servers, and activision gets to stroke their ego, all happy ? if they don’t, they will say bb to money and greet alot of angry customers who feel like they have bathed in a tub full of broken glass.
Holy crap. Look at all this text.
Didn’t they just tell you to SHUT THE *&$% UP!?
LMAO!
If you read all the text, you will see why we don’t shut up.
actually i think keith means you should be more annoyed as they just should you to shut up. The irony is had they not made this articule you might not have even known or thought about arguing about this.
Hahaha, I’m glad my article has raised such a stir! uninformed? I’ve owned every single COD for PC since COD 1 back in 2003 (including the best one, United Offensive). I KNOW what has not been included. I KNOW what was included in the past. I KNOW that in the past, games were developed on PCs, then stripped down and ported to consoles.
Let’s move past that point and realize where we are in the present. Most multiplatform games are now being developed for consoles (xbox 360), THEN ported to PC. Meaning now developers actually DO have to do more to live up to the standards of today’s PC gamers.
The point of the article is that while it’s ok to be upset that something that you wanted wasn’t included in a game you were looking forward to, you really don’t DESERVE anything. That’s the main focus of what i’ve written. I’m not saying that the method they used is better, it’s definitely a step back (for the PC version). That being said, if you don’t like it, move on. Wait for BF:BC2 in a few months. I’m definitely looking forward to that one as it looks like a better game overall anyway.
(btw if anyone has MW2 and wants to play, my steam ID is Ala_Douche).
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