Infinity Ward must not have Hardcore mode on, because they've taken a hell of a lot of fire. We've been reporting news like never before, keeping everyone updated to the minute on Modern Warfare 2's lack of dedicated servers. After reading several hundred comments across multiple collaborative news sites (like N4G.com), I've come to the conclusion that reporting it in an unbiased manner is not the way to help the community - it's time to take action. We have a strong petition, but that only gets us so far. No one has organized an OFFICIAL boycott yet. Yes, we've all canceled our pre-orders, but let's make it as clear as day. Here are the rules to the Infinity Ward Lockout:
1. Cancel your pre-orders immediately, do not buy Modern Warfare 2, do not recommend buying Modern Warfare 2.
2. Kotick likes publicity - good or bad. Cease all participation on the Infinity Ward Forums. Abandon them like they abandoned us. Do not even flame, just disappear.
3. Do not talk about Infinity Ward, Activision, or Modern Warfare 2 unless it is referencing this boycott.
4. There's no need to kill the messenger, but we could at least load him (FourZeroTwo) with loads of messages to take to his King. Wouldn't it be funny if hundreds of thousands of gamers emailed FourZeroTwo a personal boycott message? Just saying, you can find his email address on his site...
5. Don't buy future Infinity Ward publications until we receive what we want: what we've always had.
6. Use one of our collected IW Boycott Signatures in all forum accounts (found on the IW forums, credit due where it is deserved).
Activision and IW have to learn that if they do not address these problems now, they might not have a chance to in the future. A failed delivery has often been the death of development companies, while IW and Activision are large and strong, a well-placed blow to the chest might just knock the wind out of them enough to remember their audience. Even if MW2 sells well, displeased gamers will not purchase future games from the duo, making a stronger impact than we ever could with just this one title. Think forward, not just about MW2.
Follow these rules and refer people back to them. We want games our way, IW and Activision should work hard for their money. Sorry FourZeroTwo, telling us that 'IWNet is good and you will like it' doesn't work, we're the customers. PC Gamer editor Tim Edwards has even voiced his opinion against the new decisions, and he speaks well for all of us. Dedicated servers are good and you will like it, because if you don't, DICE has got the whole thing figured out.
Sadly, there will almost certainly be introduction of dedicated servers - at least not at launch. For now, the best we can do is decline their offer to "buy it, then tell them what we think."
***Update***
As Maikphisto from N4G put it, "I think ALL GAMERS should stick together on this one.....you never know when the next "EVIL" is going to hit your favorite platform....so for me anything related to IW or ACTIVISION is deleted from the wishlist"
~Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke