A: I hear you're already thinking of a way around IWnet, however. What's your idea?
f_m: Thinking yes! Will it work? No idea, but I'm hoping so.
What I plan on doing is creating a website devoted to listing 'private server' information. IW has said that although there will be no dedicated server support, the ability to create private servers will remain; that's what hit me! Why don't we create a list of 24/7 private servers?
After chatting to a few people who are in the COD4 competitive community, they thought that the idea was great! We'll have a website listing all private Server information from IP addresses and passwords (if there is one), to how many slots, the map rotations and game types. This will then allow someone to connect to whatever server they want via the private server option.
A: And how will this actually work?
f_m: The process would be similar to this.
Say I'm a server admin who would normally setup a dedicated server for our community. I set up a private server on a dedicated machine (this would remove bandwidth constraints and ensure almost 100 per cent uptime) write down all the information about it and post it on my website for others to know.
That way I can come along as a user and say "Oh, look this is a Gamearena or Node server. I'll copy\paste the IP in and I'm off" sort of thing. This would also then give the gaming community the opportunity to create some sort of ladder (I would hope) because you could set up a server as needed.
This is all at very early stages, but it's something I'm really keen on getting done. Being so worked up for MW2 I was shattered that this would kill my competitive playing. Knowing how annoyed the Australian gaming community is I felt that this game was going to sink and sink fast! Being the shit stirer I am, I thought that if we could stick it to IW and say "Hey look we don't need your IW.NET we created our own system," it might rattle a few cages.
After all... How long will it take IW to get Australian players under the 100 Ping mark? I doubt it will be ready on release!
A: I really hope this works. Any parting words for IW and MW2's publishers, on behalf of the Australian competitive community?
f_m: I really wish them luck if they decide to make any more COD games as I think that if they don't include dedicated servers after release it will ruin the franchise for the Australian gaming community. I won't waste my breath arguing with them and demanding they include dedicated servers, though. Instead I will continue to try and get my set up out there and supported by the PC gaming community and show IW that we, the community, are something to be reckoned with.
I do have two questions for IW before I sign-off, though, which I think most PC gamers out there would like to know.
Firstly, will IWnet have anything to do with Battlenet? I know a few of the guys have 'slept with the enemy' and been close with Blizzard. Makes sense to piggyback off the system considering it's being revamped for Starcraft 2
And secondly, being an American service, I can understand that the yanks will have a great service from launch. Will this also be the same for Australia? Will the rest of the country have dedicated IWnet servers or will you get around to it when you can?
I bid you the best of luck on your adventure of winning back your fan base. You're going to need all the stamina you can get.
A: Awesome stuff - and I'll see what I can do about getting those questions answered, too! Thanks for talking to us funky.
If people would like to offer support, chat or want more information about his plan he can be emailed at briantait@gmail.com.
Issue: 111 | April, 2010