Interview: We caught up with Jack Webster, and asked him about Activision, Call of Duty Black Ops, and the whole dedicated server issue.
So we've managed to grab some time with Jack Webster, the man behind the FixBlackOps petition we wrote about earlier today. He's a tad busy at the moment, a bit of a sudden gaming media mini-star. But with fair reason, too. "Activision's come out saying this is going to be the one for PC gamers, but it's not true. It's pretty much just the same as last time," he says of the whole dedicated server issue that's now spring up around Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Jack's in a unique position to offer criticism, too. He himself is part of a small web hosting company working in cloud computing - he's no stranger to what it's going to take to manage a launch of Black Ops' magnitude. He still considers himself a concerned gamer first and foremost, however.
"There's just one licensed server, and that's in Sydney - I really feel sorry for anyone outside that area," he says. "They're just trying to control the game like they did with Modern Warfare 2, and that's now lead to MW2 being unplayable thanks to uncontrollable hackers, and ranked lobby."
"The thing is, when you close things down that much you're practically forcing people to hack the game," he added. He goes to mention Valve and Steam's take on server control. "Those games are wide open to modding and server tweaks, and you get a lot less hacking in games like Left 4 Dead." Not to mention you tend to get much tighter gaming communities because of that openness and transparency.
Of course, Jack's also realistic about the impact his protest is going to have. "We've only had a few hundred sign-ups so far, but we are getting some media interest," he told us. "And my mates are certainly talking about it!"
Issue: 137 | June, 2012