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News Treyarch to charge for Black Ops dedicated servers

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 13 Sep 2010.

  1. r3loaded

    r3loaded Minimodder

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    Lol, I almost choked when I misread this as "charging players to play on dedicated servers". But yeah, this is a similar situation to BC2, except you have only one supplier (and the associated problems for non North American/European players).

    Why can't we just have a TF2-style MP system in PC games?
     
  2. DragunovHUN

    DragunovHUN Modder

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    You said the same thing as i did, so how am i wrong? Are you saying we're both wrong?

    You're really not making any sense.
     
  3. Bazz

    Bazz Multimodder

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    Love that answer, and the best I have seen.
    Another answer would be........


    FAIL!
     
  4. Sgt.Bilko

    Sgt.Bilko What's a Dremel?

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    Well I for one won't be playing Black Ops. I refuse to support a company determined to kill PC gaming.
    I'm with Bazz on this one..
     
  5. Sloth

    Sloth #yolo #swag

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    And Asia and Australia. Unless something's changed since I last used Gameservers, they don't cover those areas at all.
     
  6. DragunovHUN

    DragunovHUN Modder

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    They have Japan and Australia now.
     
  7. cgthomas

    cgthomas Cpt. Handsome

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    At least they ensure that CoD online runs the same all across the globe (ping wise and server quality).
    Hoever Dice was a only bit flexible - by allowing yuo to rent a server from pre-selected partners instead of only one partner.

    Good move non the less, at least you don't get those dodgy resellers that rip you off and pretend that they're running a quad core server while it's their virus-infected home pc
     
  8. Sloth

    Sloth #yolo #swag

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    Oh good! Well, Japan's not really much help for more southwest Asia, there it must come down to a choice of EU or Japan for whoever's offering lowest ping.

    It is things like these, however, where I count my blessings. Though this isn't a game which I am interested in playing, it's a nice, selfish feeling knowing that I'll always be covered here in the US :rolleyes:
     
  9. Toploaded

    Toploaded What's a Dremel?

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    This is a deal breaker for me, as I would rather use my current preferred server company for quite a few reasons. Ah well, guess that does spell the end of my CoD days for good unless they strike up a deal with Art of War.

    I've dealt with gameservers before, and although it was a good few years ago admittedly, they were a terrible company to use back then.
     
  10. Bakes

    Bakes What's a Dremel?

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    Well, EU countries are closer together. There are 5 EU datacentres - considering that the distance between an NL server and an eastern european player is about 50ms - it's not a big deal.

    There's also servers in Australia and Japan. Sure, it's not perfect, but you can suggest new locations, and apart from some parts of Australia (which is bad), most of the CoD playing world is well covered.

    Especially since there are currently only around 50 CoD servers combined in Asia. There are more in Australia, that's where the problem is.

    It's the same as it's always been (with regard to dedicated servers) except you can only get them from one place (rather like BC2 servers, but more restricted).

    Yes, unranked means you can run mods, custom maps, and basically have more control over your server.
     
  11. Fingers66

    Fingers66 Kiwi in London

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    Has there been any confirmation yet as to exactly what you will be allowed to do?

    This article was a bit vague: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/08/24/cod-black-ops-to-allow-modding/1

    "We plan to open the game up for modding sometime post-launch. We do not know yet to what extent you will be able to mod the game," said the Treyarch dev.

    "There are some purely technical issues related to engine and internal tool enhancements that do not easily fit the modtools paradigm. We have looked at it close enough to see that it is non-trivial and we will have to pick it up again post-launch. Right now we are completely focused on finishing the game."
     
  12. Rogan

    Rogan Not really a

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    Oh God. It's BF2 all over again.


    Incorrect, it means they can stop people making booster servers. It also means they can dictate and protect content. In theory it stops all the serverside hacking that was a serious problem in MW2 and W@W. Most importantly it allows DLC, needed to build Bobby Kotick his own Scrooge McDuck mansion.

    Nonetheless, there's no reason they couldn't open up to a wider variety of trusted hosts. This is exactly what DICE did with BF2 ranked servers, and eventually they had to back down and allow more GSPs to join the program. Unfortunately that couldn't happen until the standing contract with companies had timed out.

    It's a win in some ways, but small GSPs will lose out, and people who rent dedicated servers for clans and communities are going to be stuffed as well. It kinda sucks, and means it's unlikely CPC will have a black ops server, which is pretty lame.

    But I guess it's still better than the America's Army approach.
     
    Last edited: 14 Sep 2010
  13. Fingers66

    Fingers66 Kiwi in London

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    Okay, have a read here: http://callofduty.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=270441

    Whilst game customisation has been confirmed, it looks like no custom maps as Treyarch control all server content (or have I read it wrong?)...

    <snip from above source>

    No “Public Server Files”: Confirmed
    Many of these game features are predicated on having a trusted host or server. Otherwise these features would be wide-open to easy exploits and rampant cheating. Also, anti-cheat solutions can be significantly more effective on games that rely on trusted servers. We chose against “public server files” in favor of providing full feature support and protecting the integrity of this title. This doesn't mean you won't have customization or admin capabilities with your servers - because you will. This simply means we've partnered with an exclusive server provider.

    GameServers.com Exclusive: Confirmed
    We have partnered with GameServers.com as the exclusive provider of dedicated servers for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Every dedicated server for this title will be running on top quality hardware and infrastructure with excellent bandwidth. There will be a ton of official servers at launch for everyone to play on for free. If you want to run your own server you will be able to rent one at a great price (which will never go higher than $0.99/slot). They are actively adding new server locations and staffing up to meet global demand. If you don’t see your location you can suggest it here: http://www.gameservers.com/blackops/
     
  14. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

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    I hate GameServers.
     
  15. ZERO <ibis>

    ZERO <ibis> Minimodder

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    I wonder if we should need to pay money in order to host a game of monopoly...
     
  16. Saivert

    Saivert Minimodder

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    well as said. this is all more to protect the server side of the game. not for our benefit at all.
    I'm perfectly capable of hosting my own server and keeping cheaters out. And if I installed any hacks on the server that would just lead to players not wanting to play on my server. Pretty simple.
    I'm still playing Counter-Strike and there is no issue with that. If I spot a cheater I just bail and find another server to play on or host a server of my own.

    Having licensed game server providers is all about control and money grab. Nothing more.

    That being said, CoD Black Ops is really not a game that I care for anyways. Just more of the same + some game modes taken from Counter-Strike. YAY!! Assuming we are talking about the multiplayer only here that is.
     
  17. Centy-face

    Centy-face Caw?

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    Websites need to stop it with this stupid misleading headline. It implies that everyone who buys it will be charged to play when it's only people who want to run servers. Since I'm lazy I will copy paste my comment from RPS.

    There’s hardly need for all this fuss though we are getting dedicated servers and we are getting them in a much better way than with Bad Company 2 which I seem to recall everyone gushing over. We get as much access to the server as we did with a rented CoD4 server.

    I dislike the fact they have chosen to go with only 1 GSP since I would have much rather rented from Multiplay personally but I can see why they did. To ensure every single server gets updated at the same time it makes sense and from what I hear Gameservers are pretty good they have a lot of back end tools and support for mods and are very competitively priced. Sure you can’t host your own server on a box if you have one but so what the price you pay to run that and the net to make sure it works far outstrips the price of renting one. I’m getting together with 3 mates which makes our own Black ops server a mere £10 for 3 months each.

    I ask you if you are still bitching about this and everything Treyarch have done to make the PC version the best one then really maybe you should build a time machine and go back to 2001 because the rest of us would like to move on and take the good offer we are being given. Yes it’s not what we expected and monopolies are bad but the fine print shows the price will NEVER go above the current price for server slots and support is always forthcoming.

    I totally agree it’s a money grab and I am entirely sympathetic to people who don’t want to rent from just 1 provider but to everyone else who’s just moaning for the sake of it or because they can’t host their own well you know calm down.

    You can’t expect other companies to act like Valve since Valve don’t answer to shareholders they have free reign to do as they see fit which in most (not L4D2) cases they do for the benefit of the general player. I think Treyarch and, dare I say it, Actiblizz have done the best they can to help slow down the pirates and help give the customer what they want.

    Lets face it they could have just thrown the game out the door with listen servers and no support as Infinity Ward did and still have sold a bundle with little loss. Yet they have done what seems to be the best they could for both parties and instead of getting all ‘Internet angry man’ on them I applaud that they have chosen this path. It might not be perfect and suit everyone but it certainly is a hell of a lot better than most companies manage these days on PC.

    Really compared to Bad Company and Modern Warfare 2 it’s a nice step forward unless the modding tools fail to arrive then Treyarch can go **** themselves.
     
  18. DragunovHUN

    DragunovHUN Modder

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    Oh the sweet irony of this. GG Activision.
    Seriously. Bit-tech has been increasingly guilty of this lately, including blog posts.
     
  19. Saivert

    Saivert Minimodder

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    You keep one upping Treyarch for supposedly allowing mods, but somehow I doubt this will happen much when servers are locked up at licensed GSPs.
    Mod makers need local test servers and what about single player mods? what will the support of that be?
    Also remember that the mod makers need to care to even consider making mods for this game too.
    Mods may not even come out at all because people generally think the game isn't worth modding for.

    Would be nice with a poll here. To see what the general feel of the crowd is.
     
  20. Nix

    Nix What's a Dremel?

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    Welcome to the world of Corporate Games Development.

    Where we used to have small mod teams and groups of people that landed up becoming developers, we land up with corporations buying all the good art houses. What does this mean? There will be a large influx of cash into games, but they expect large returns, and dont care about how they get it.

    This completely baffles me to why they would want to limit the dedi servers to 1 provider. Sure they can rake in a bit of money like this, but would it better (for gamers) to offering dedi hosting up to all, with a small fee for those companies that provided professional hosting? This way users get choice, and the devs still get money.

    This stinks.... sure it stinks less than no dedi support, but thats not exactly setting the bar very high.

    The PC industry appears to be dying due to the fact that its tougher to find a decent game, and the games that do look decent get nerfed due to company greed, land up being console ports, or toned down for 'casual' gamers.

    Developers (and their parent companies) dont seem to care about what their gamers think, as long as they pony up the cash.
    Add in the mix that gamers no longer trust developers and you have a very bad outlook for the PC games industry as a whole.
     
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