I was upset when I heard about Infinity Ward’s (or is it Activision’s?) announcement regarding Modern Warfare’s 2 online play options for the PC. Even if I never really felt the Call of Duty myself, I know some people that are deeply inloved with the game.
A lot was said about the announcement already. A awful lot. To sum things up, at one end of the spectrum you have an online petition signed by nearly 200 000 people (i’m one of them). On the other one, you have Penny Arcade calling those who complain “subway vagrants”.
Their piece struck me, I gotta admit. How could 200 000 subway vagrants find their way to the Internet that fast? Was Obama to blame?
I needed to investigate.
So I went to Steven Leunens (pictured after the jump). The man might have answers, I thought. We met several years ago when he was running the TEK9 Call of Duty team – tops in the whole wild world back then.
Hello, could you introduce yourself?
Hi my name is Steven, a 24 year-old from Belgium, and I work for Heaven Media as an eSports Specialist and as a manager for the websites of TEK9 (eSports related news and content) and Esports Heaven (tournament website). I also run my own company called Gamevibes which is also located in Belgium.
What is your involvement in gaming? In Call of Duty in particular?
My involvement in gaming is quite noticeable in the websites I manage for Heaven Media and the work I do for Gamevibes as it all relates to competitive gaming. My ties with the Call of Duty community are strong as once upon a time I was a heavy gamer myself, mostly in the CoD series. TEK9 as a website is also highly focused around the Call of Duty community and caters to a large group of Call of Duty gamers who either play in competitions or like to know more about the top teams and players.
What was your first reaction when Infinity Ward made the announcement about the Modern Warfare 2 servers and matchmaking system?
Shock. They had one of the best PC based games and a great community to go with it. It was not only vast in numbers but also capable of organizing itself in clans and teams and fan sites. LAN events picked up Call of Duty and gave away tens of thousands of Euros to Call of Duty players. That Infinity Ward/Activision would make the decision to change the PC aspect so drastically doesn’t make sense to a lot of people. As an entrepreneur myself I can see the business motives behind the decision, but I would call it poor judgment that they took this decision as I can see it biting them in the ass.
Did you sign the petition?
Yes I signed the petition as allowing dedicated servers would solve some of the issues I have with IW.net.
What do you think about calling those who complain “subway vagrants”?
I feel some people might indeed be tackling this in the wrong way, but the general motives behind the protest are legit. With months and months of PR and promotion on the new Call of Duty game behind us, many of us thought this would be everything that IW/Activision had promised and it turns out it is nothing like that. For months IW/Activision portrayed a game to the PC community that was not what they would be getting when they bought it and dropping the bomb like that showed the lies that they had supplied the community with so frequently. They built up the game via the PC community and now that PC community feels validly betrayed. I do understand the point that if you don’t like it, you don’t buy it, and I think a lot of people will do so (as will I). But I also believe that the way IW/Activision tackled this one shows of little respect for the PC community as a whole as they could have been honest about this from the start.
Call of Duty has tremendous success, especially on consoles. I don’t have official figures but I read estimates saying that for every COD4 sold on the PC, 10 were sold on the Xbox 360. Do you feel Call of Duty, which was born on the PC, now is more of a console game?
Call of Duty was indeed born on the PC and has become a very popular console game. The 1 to 10 ratio is probably a bit exaggerated but it clearly shows where the backbone of the problem lies. Due to sheer numbers console wins and IW/Activision can afford not to care about the PC community and it is exactly what they are doing. They are neglecting the numerous request of PC gamers alike over the years and turning the PC version into a console version. They’re in their good and honest right to do this but their mistake is that they are still trying to sell this as a good thing for the community and portray this as a favor they are doing towards the PC community.
It’s like a relationship breaking up because one of the parties has found a better partner who’s more attractive and keeps their mouth shut.
Exactly. They didn’t have the luxury growing up surrounded by mod tools, dedicated servers, LAN events, online tournament websites and more. For IW, nothing changes. For PC gamers, the entire world they are used to is turned around all in the faith of making more money. Again, I can understand the business motives behind this, but being honest about it would have stopped most of the flame they are now getting.
IW says piracy is the major driver behind the changes. Yet Valve, with the exact same type of games and audience, doesn’t complain about it and doesn’t need to shut down privately ran servers. How do you look at that?
I feel the piracy issue is completely out of context here and shouldn’t even be brought up. The console version of MW2 can already be found on several warez forums and the PC version will follow suit as soon as it is out. IW are hiding behind this piracy issue because they have nothing else to hide behind. They are truly ignorant if they think they can stop piracy by removing dedicated servers. It’s like their move from Punkbuster to VAC will magically make all cheaters disappear they claim. VAC is implemented in Counter-Strike Source and does a very poor job.
Despite the uproar, it makes no doubt that MW2 will sell extremely well. So what about the 200 000 signatures? Will those hardcore fans, those that invested so much in this series, play anyway?
I think the hardcore players won’t even touch the game, though their number will be smaller than 200 000. Some might end up trying it anyway but those who play the game for years to come as part of a competitive group will stay away. A vast majority have cancelled their preorder and IW are losing a couple of millions that is for sure. But what are they when you expect to sell for hundreds of millions worth?
That wraps it up. Thanks for taking the time, Steven.
Community endeavors can get pretty serious, until you shut them down that is.
200 000 people just got their passion thrown back at their faces…
And you expected them to walk away quietly?