= Citat =:
S by Tastyrice Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Lemme try to explain how it's a big deal to PC gamer, but I wont be a *** about it.
Dedicated servers are definitely the way to go for PC gamers. There's a couple of main points about dedicated servers:
They're dedicated. They only do one thing. They host a game. They have the resources to allow for more players to connect than your average home connection. They have greater bandwidth and better hardware to support these players, lag free. They usually have a very fast internet connection. It's always on, 24/7. You can log off for 2 hours, then go right back to the same server, and pick up where you left off.(Of course, it'll probably have different people in it) People log in and out freely from the server, but it still stays up and running, even when it's empty. This allows for bigger gaming concepts. Large scale battles that can take hours to complete. Since the server is always running, the battle continues on even after you log off. When you log back on, it's still going. So, in theory, you could log on at the beginning of a battle, and play for a few hours, then log off. Go out and party or whatever, come back, and catch the end of the battle when you log on later that night. That doesn't sound cool to you?
Another point is, the server is yours. You have complete control over it. You can load whatever mods you want. You can kick and ban anyone cheating, or anyone who's acting like a douch. No votes required, since you'd be admin of your dedicated server. For all intents and purposes, you are the master of that server. You can control who can stay, and who gets the banhammer. Popular servers, have plenty of admins, so there's always one on at any given time. It stays moderated against hackers, cheaters, and assholes. You can even change settings, like gravity, or other things like paintball mode, or even various "party modes". On a TF2 server I play on a lot, they have party mode activated on Fridays, which adds things like birthday hats, and confetti. Nothing game changing, but it's a fun diversion and keeps it a little fresher.
Now, keep in mind, this is completely seperate from "friend's lists". We PC gamers still have friends lists as well as dedicated servers. The only difference is, we don't host the game from our home connection. We gather all our friends, and we all go into a dedicated server. Lag free, hack free, *** free.....and with 50 other people. :D
Now, I'm not saying you HAVE to like dedicated servers....if you like listen servers (Like Xbox live) that's fine. They have their merits. Namely, convienence....and you don't have to pay for a listen server. :P
All I'm saying is that PC gamers are used to dedicated servers after having them for years and years. Now they are trying to take them away and change the core fundamentals of how PC gaming is played online, of course we're angry!
BTW, I should also note that Resistance 2, and MAG are both run on dedicated servers. This is why they have such high player counts. The ability to have higher player counts is a good thing, why wouldn't you want that? Why restrict the option, even if it is unnecessary at times?
Remember when I was saying how you could have your own dedicated server to log onto at any time? Now imagine thousands, upon thousands of those, available for you to choose from. You can pick any single one of them and join it. So, if you're looking for a particular map, you can set a filter for that. Or if you're looking for an exact number of players, you can filter that. Or perhaps you're looking for a certain game mode, also filter-able. Or any combination of filters. Perhaps you're looking for other people using the same mod as you? Also doable.
Map votes, fully automated
Auto-kick for spammers
Reserved slots for admins/VIPs (So even if it is full you can still get in. Perks of owning your own server, or knowing someone who does)
Complete admin abilities. Map change, kick, ban, mute(VERY IMPORTANT!), the ability to chanee god mode, ammo, what weapons and anything like that. (Although, this is commonly called "admin abuse" when done in a serious game)
Ability to set a password, so the random public can't come in.
Ability to run multiple dedicated servers for different games simultaneously from 1 computer.
All that and we can still 1-click join anyone on our friends list.
See, it's not any one little thing, nor even a combination of things. It's the sum of them all. The options, the choices, the freedom to do what you want, when you want, where you want.
Now, imagine having that for the past 10 years as standard. Now imagine someone saying "Well, er, duh, we're not gonna have dedicated servers" Now do you see why we're mad? Our freedom is being restricted.
I don't want you to think that I'm trying to sell you on dedicated servers, I'm just trying to explain how we feel. You are free to disagree, I'm just saying, imagine yourself in our position.
I'd also like to mention, that we've been seeing little bits and pieces of things like this dissappear over time. Dropped in favor of mainstream ease-of-use. So we're already disgruntled. :P
I just wish PC gaming & console gaming would seperate more. Since they've been trying to mash them up we usually end up getting shafted, and console gamers get pissed off when we get something they don't have. Whether it be an exclusive, or an added feature in-game
