![[22ndSAS] Server Admin](./images/ranks/level6.gif "[22ndSAS] Server Admin")
Source: http://www.infinityward.com/forum/viewt ... 4&t=185378
VegasHB wrote: I’ll start by saying I’ve been a diehard fan of the COD series since release date October 29th, 2003. Before that, I played Medal of Honor Allied Assault religiously. By writing this I want to show how IW use to care for the PC community, and hopefully help them realize where their roots are if they care at all. It’s long so those with short attention spans move along.
It begins with 2015 Inc., developers or Medal of Honor:AA, what many don’t know or remember is that 22 members of this company left including the project leads in hopes of making a better game on their own terms. Hence the birth of Infinity Ward and Call of Duty in late 03. The game was complete with Punkbuster support, went through 5 patches and even a 1.5b patch specifically for dedicated servers. It was a massive success as we all know, the online community was huge and gaming leagues were huge into COD. The birth of IW out of those 22 people had created the greatest FPS of the time.
One chink in the MP armor was what would be know as the Left Lean Glitch, basically making any player good at doing this glitch unable to be shot while left leaning in and out quickly while still being able to kill. This was profound in the high levels of competition and stalled the games momentum in a way. Keep in mind the game was a huge draw to LAN competitions, kids traveling half way across the country to play with their team for some money. Even Josh Wendel AKA Fatal1ty had a brief stint with a team (clan Kapitol or U5 I think) in competition. IW even included code in a patch that made CODtv a reality with the help of Garetjax at his request. This was huge in the competitive community, and many applauded IW for the response. The COD series had begun with a bang.
United Offensive came out which was received well by many and hated by some but it was an expansion developed by Gray Matter which later would become Treyarch as we know today. IMO it basically split the community.
With word of COD2 around the corner teams and COD fans began preparation for another go and had high expectations since Infinity Ward had proven genius with COD1 or what many refer to as Vanilla COD (vCOD) in the community. This time we had a PC beta of a single player mission which was good news. It was fun, game played fairly well but it was evident that the Left Lean glitch was still an issue and had not been fixed. It was only about a week before a wall hack was out for the beta to prove that the game is hackable. Getting me to the point that COD2 would not be shipping with Punkbuster, the developers felt that their file system would prevent hacking in the game. After word got out…you guessed it, online petition [sh*t] hit the fan much like what we see with no dedi now.
Here’s an excellent example of how IW use to care. When the left lean glitch seemed apparent in COD2, IW developers invited a local “pro” to their office and demonstrate the glitch. I believe it was Rez or Raz if I remember. He signed a non disclosure agreement and demonstrated the problem and proved it was in fact it was still apparent even with the “new” engine. Before the game went gold, IW fixed the LL glitch with huge hooooraaaahs to the hardcore COD fans.
After COD2 hit the streets and hacks were rampant with the lack of anti-cheat and piles of petitions, Infinity Ward came through with the 1.2 patch that included Punkbuster support. IW had come through with flying colors albeit late and appeased the angriest of followers. COD2 went on to be a fan favorite for years and even today is a favorite to many over the other titles in the series.
COD4 came around and in turn we start to see the downfall, with a basic port of the console versions to PC but at least we had a separate PC team developing the game for the PC with dedi servers, console and a slew of game options. Again a huge PC and console hit and appeasing the hardcore fans and competitive community with a great game overall. I personally bought 5 copies between my team members and family.
Now, we have come full circle. As you can see IW was born from a crew wanting to create the greatest PC FPS shooter ever. Mission accomplished at the time, it’s heart breaking to see how far they have fallen under the Activision flag and console hype. IWnation forums were ablaze with responses from developers helping and chatting with PC players. At one point working face to face with the community to fix problems, inviting players from every corner of the PC community to come test the game at their office in person. Look where we are now, taking feedback from a single point being the Xbox people and casting a large net over all 3 versions.
To me, it IS the responsibility of IW and Activision to give every community it’s full attention. IW is/was the greatest FPS developer of all time in my humble opinion, they have a responsibility to themselves, to their past, to their roots of rising from 2015 inc to be the greatest they could be. Responsibility to the communities they helped create, only to be smashed under the foot of profitability and turning a blind eye to the community they made. There is literally family’s playing this game, huge groups of friends and teammates that live and breath this series. IW, you can’t turn your back on us now, we want you to be the best, we want you to be the team we know you use to be. We don’t want to give this game up, we are here because we care. The anger is merely out of frustration from knowing you CAN and SHOULD do better to us all.
To those 22 originals that still exist in the IW company, ask yourselves if you have done the best you can do, ask yourselves if this is what you wanted to hear from your biggest fans, the fans that have been with you from day 1. You’re not simple programmers plucking at keyboards to us, you are the reason we spend countless hours playing your game with friends and family, laughing on Ventrillo or TS, cracking wise with everyone in our community with countless forums, podcasts, IRC channels that we devour in the name of COD.
The no lean to me is the worst part of COD6, I've "beta" tested the SP and it's garbage IMO. A shiny turd of run and gun with fancy animation scenes. SP to me is no reason to buy games anymore, nor has it ever been. I've played a total of 5 hrs of SP combined in all the COD games.
I have not nor will I, buy a game that I can't enjoy with my friends and family. Fix MP and I guarantee you i'll buy several copies and so will many others.
Good Day Sirs