The L4D2 boy-cotters were a bunch of idiots. There. I said it. They were certainly passionate about what they felt, but they were still idiots. The original L4D was a darn good game; and even without any further updates, NO ONE could complain that they didn’t get their money’s worth after having played it for over a freaking year. It was petitions like that which made me think of all online petitions as a joke. Which is why I’m a little surprised at how soon I signed for the CoD Modern Warfare 2 petition that is demanding the inclusion of dedicated server support for the game.

Let’s look at this logically for a minute. If IW is focused on delivering an exceptional single player experience, shouldn’t the gamer be happy with that? No one is charging me for the multiplayer so technically, the dev does not “owe” me anything. Don’t get me wrong, I play cod4 multiplayer virtually every day and no dedicated servers basically means I won’t touch the online mode in the sequel. But what if Infinity Ward turns around and says “OK we will give you your dedicated servers IF you pay us a monthly fee”?  But hey, you guys upped the price for the PC version anyway. Hmmm, maybe there is more to this than I previously thought.

The PC is all about freedom. We won’t settle for second class products that use their console heritage to pander to some decision making suit. Or rather, we shouldn’t have to because; well let’s face it, that’s precisely what’s happening. Ultimately, while Infinity Ward’s official stance seems diplomatic enough, it still does not change the nature or intention of their decision. They simply do not care about the PC market. Or rather we are just not as valuable or lucrative as the console market.The fact that we as community are passionate to the point of absurdity does not really dent their bottom lines enough to warrant any real attention. This game is going to be challenging GTA4’s sales figure records (which sold 3.6 million copies sold on day one ONLY on consoles) and all of it will be accounted for by consoles. The fact that the PC release is being pushed back is proof enough for me.

At first, reading TwoFourZero’s explanation did seem like the whole thing wasn’t so bad, I mean, no aimbots? That’s reason enough to be celebrating right? Some of the ideas put forth actually do make a lot of sense. I honestly WANT to believe we are not being shafted here. But then, this reminded me that the truth is going to suck.

At the very least, IW owes this community a better explanation. And please, no more bullshit about “bifurcating the community“. Without the ability to hold dedicated servers that can accommodate 30+ players with minimum lag, or adding to the life of a game via mods, there IS no community.