MW2 developer chat reveals more bad news

Yesterday's developer chat hosted by BestBuy has revealed more bad news regarding the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, which will hit the stores in under a week from now. After Infinity Ward's new multiplayer model and their decision not to incorporate dedicated servers lead to a massive discussion across the various community forums, the results of yesterday's chat session will no doubt put more fuel on the fire.

In a community chat session with Mackey McCandlish, Ryan Lastimosa and Vince Zampella of Infinity Ward it has become apparant that there will be no console in Modern Warfare 2, stating "we would like you to play the game the way we designed and balanced it" when asked about the possibility to change the fov, remove perks and graphical debris and tweak the weapons for further balance.

In addition, the chat revealed that there will be no record option (for now) in MW2, nor the option to kick players out of ranked matches. Furthermore leaning will not be possible and no decisions have been made regarding mod tools, although the developers have indicated they are currently focussing on launching the game, as they are currently still working on finishing the game. This also means there are no plans for releasing a demo.

About the dedicated servers issue the developers have stated "nothing is ever off the table" and that they've seen the massive petition online. Whether they are aware of the ping problems IW.net will most likely cause is yet to be seen. The answer to a question regarding their ping during IW.net testing, "I've been playing mainly with around 100ms ping and it was great (Mackey-IW)", does not sound too promising.

Some of the more interesting questions can be found below. The full transcript with pc related questions can be found (HERE).

Is there lean in PC multiplayer.
Vince-IW: No.

You said IWnet was created to help stop piracy, what do you say about the Xbox 360 version leaked and shared on torrent sites?
Vince-IW: IWnet was designed to make the MP experience on PC easier and more balanced.

Will IW ever consider developing games on the PC to support dedicated servers, be it MW2 patches or future endeavors? Just curious if dedicated servers are on the radar anymore.
Mackey-IW: Our goal is to provide the best experience for our users, so nothing is ever "off the table". We are always evaluating our options.

Hello, are you considering ever patching in mod tools for the pc to make custom maps and such?
Mackey-IW: Right now we're focused on launching our game.
(LATER ON) Vince-IW: We haven't made any decisions regarding this yet.

Has IWnet been tested in European settings? My clan plays european leagues and we got ppl from Eastern europe, UK and Sweden meeting in the same match. How is this going to play out considering siginificant differences in Bandwith and connection qualities between players. Will host player always have the ping advantage. Can a match be hosted by 'third' person, not taking part in the match?
Mackey-IW: Players do not control who hosts.

Please give me a direct answer. On the PC version. Are all games hosted by players, and is there a 5 second delay when host migration is in effect?
Vince-IW: yes.

What are the current steps being taken in regard to active blocking measures that some major ISPs have taken regarding Peer 2 Peer connections, such as what Comcast does?
Mackey-IW: Only players capable of hosting will be host.

Will there be a multiplayer PC demo shortly after release? The PC community is largely skeptical at best right now and with no ability to trade-in or rent, this is a real gamble for our wallets.
Vince-IW: No plans for a demo currently. We are still working on finishing the PC game right now (yes, I know... we need to get done!)

Since we can not kick people in ranked matches, how will we stop hackers who get past VAC?
Mackey-IW: Our goal is to ban hackers from the game.

Will the IWNET multiplayer system compensate for the undoubtly low ping that the host computer will have for the other players, or will the host have an advantage over the other players? Also, going back to clans...Is there a way to have more than 18 people in a server, because my clan has at least 100 members and we like to get 20-30 on our servers at the same time.
Mackey-IW: Games cap out at 9v9. The software has great latency tolerance. See above!

Are you aware of the petition to for dedicated servers and mods, have you taken this into acount?
Vince-IW: yes.

Is there a console in the PC version of the game, so we can change our field of view from the xbox's default 65 FOV to 80 also can we tweaks the weapon damage for each gun, removes perks, graphical debris, breathing sway, also thru console like we where able to before or is this all gone?
Vince-IW: We would like you to play the game the way we designed and balanced it.

Ignoring IW.net, is the PC version a direct port of the console version?
Mackey-IW: No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.

What kinds of pings did you get during your IWNet testing and what do you say is an acceptable ping?
Mackey-IW: I've been playing mainly with around 100ms ping and it was great.

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