So wait, who is to blame here? Infinity Ward or Time Warner?

Who is raping our dear children now?

wow thats nuts! Kinda funny too!

This is ridiculous on both sides, that IW wouldn't do anything to differentiate itself from traffic everyone knows is heavily targeted by ISPs, and that the ISPs are willing to liberally apply the banhammer so quickly, though that is really no surprise.

The real question is, though, how long will real filesharers get away with claiming MW2 is running up their bandwidth, or will ISPs not care and blast their connections regardless?

Considering how other publishers/distributors were considering following suit in not having dedicated servers, I really fucking hope no one else follows suit.

C'mon Activision, put some god damned servers up; you damn well can afford it. If I had the legal aptitude and resources, I'd seek to make Activision fiscally responsible for any of these issues.

Isn't this what Xbox Live and the PSN do anyway? How come everyone with an Xbox or a PS3 isn't getting these threats from their ISPs?

I only quickly scanned the link you provided but I didn't see any screenshots of these alleged e-mails from the ISPs nor any pictures of letters supposedly deceived by these people.

Sorry but PS gamers are the biggest whiners in the world, this sounds like BS.

Excuse the ignorance on my part, but is this only regarding the PC version, or could this possibly apply to console versions as well? I'm a little unclear how MW2 works over PSN or XBLA. I assumed it was related to IW.net as well, and correct me if I'm wrong, but if that's the case wouldn't it show the same data transfer issues?

Nevermind, I was looking at the issue from a different perspective.

@Arttemis: Activision doesn't even have to put servers up, all they have to do is allow other people to, like every other major PC FPS ever released.

@SuitCoatAvenger

I'm no expert but I believe the difference is the way data is tagged and sorted in a way. With XBL and PSN the data is encrypted with a sort of identifyer, telling ISPs that a legitimate service is being used. Whereas IW.net has no such identifyer, but I'm unsure who's to blame for that.

I could be wrong, but I think that's it.

I hardly think this is IW fault. Most PS3 games do this. I guess when you're ultra popular the focus is on you. ISPs have to get their act together and start giving people what they're paying for. Internet.

Sounds like he needs a new ISP anyhow. He should be thanking Infinity Ward and Activision.

@TheDreadHawk

If that is the case then that makes sense as to why XBL and PSN users don't get these letters.

However, I still don't see any proof of these letters so I'm still thinking its BS.

This just proves that IW/A made this up in about a week because they don't really care about the PC as a platform (not that it's not profitable). Had they planned this from the start, they would know that many ISPs have bandwidth/transfer limits, p2p limitations and hosting servers. That's what you get when a lazy developer decides to port a whole game for a week or so.

Hahahaha.

It'll only be because people want to play during peak times, ISPs are such cunts about it.

@TheDreadHawk;

Yeah, that makes sense and is kind of what I figured was the case. Thanks for spelling it out, though. Much appreciated for the response.

Virgin media (read only fibre optic cable provider in the uk, also read: monopoly) has super tight fair usage caps and often cuts my 20mb/s connection to 2.5mb/s for "excessive transfer"

looks like isp's providing "gaming suitable" connections don't understand the bandwidth requirments of gaming.

Fucking ridiculous.

ISPs commit highway robbery every day in terms of their bullshit bandwidth capping and ridiculous fees for going over said caps. Nevertheless, IW should have known that people have to deal with this shit. If someone has a really good PC, they're probably going to be selected as the best host more often than not. If that should be the case, they're going to be running up their bandwidth caps in no time. Just another reason why dedicated servers are the only way to go for PC gaming. If any game that wasn't MW2 decided to do this, people would have ditched it long before now.

@Octomom

That's exactly what i thought.
when i had a xbox, I hosted a few games, and received nothing.
wouldn't a xbox online game and a pc cod4 game look exactly the same to the ISP?

Yeah, this isn't IW's fault at all. It's greedy ISPs, and possibly also people that sit around and play the game for 8 hours at a time.

IW.net should have known their service would cause this kind of problem.

TW shouldn't be such dicks about it.

@SexualChocolate

I'm with Virgin as well, the second my contract is up I'm leaving for one of the smaller companies like fast.co.uk or something.

There hasn't been a day this month where my connection hasn't gone down for a 5 minute period.

I'm on the 10Mb connection and the second you download over 750mb on their 'unlimited' download service, I get capped to 2Mb. I mean, it's gotta be in peak times but peak times are pretty much all the time.

If there's one thing the government should do it's stop all this bullshit advertising. Saying your internet is 'unlimited' when it's obviously not should be against the law. Along with air-brushing in adverts and adverts for the Daily Mail.

Looks like I was right after all?

Allow me to enlighten you guys on how TW (Time Warner)'s security and abuse letters are generated. Generally, TW does not heavily monitor customer's internet connections and look for viruses or file sharing. They rely on complaints sent in with some sort of evidence, like a firewall log. What most likely happened is that someone's PC firewall didn't recognize all the MW2 traffic and flagged it as malicious.

He's really just looking to complain about IW/Activision. He should blame his ISP for being a bunch of dick-headed ass-faces.

As a complete aside, I find that pic gorgeous Jim. I didn't realize Modern Warfare 2 was such a beautiful game... yes, I've been living in that cardboard box outside, or I'm just not usually interested in army FPSes. Still it's nice. ^^

This sounds like non sense anyway. Newsflash people, this is not the first game that set local machines as hosts, further MW2 doesn't use that much consistent bandwidth, you can download and play at the same time on a 1.7MB connection easily.

@zod000

Shhh, the circlejerk of IW/ISP hate has begun and will continue to feed itself. No proof of anything in this "article" but those who have already made up their minds don't want to hear reason, they just want to add fuel to the fire.

So this is IWs fault how?

It's the ISPs that are being bell ends here, along with any customer who signs up to a bullshit contract.

Another utterly stupid Jim Sterling update Stupid IP makes stupid mistake.

@Akuma - I'm right at the start of my contract with them and I have an open dispute about this.

They tell me I'm "in the top 5% of users" and as such feel they can cap my internet to 10% of what I pay for! - It means i can't DL demo's or massive (MAG) updates before 9pm without hitting their cap and getting my speed chopped.

It's fucking criminal, I've refused to sign and return their contract until they amend their fair usage policies to make their "gaming suitable" "unlimited" broadband GAMING SUITABLE!

To be honest, I first got capped before knowing about the caps and hitting the torrents pretty hard, now I've had to set up a "don't download or upload until 9pm" rule on my Vuze.

Still, things like the Bayonetta demo are sitting on my PS3's download list waiting for me to remember to resume it after 9pm - sucks balls.

I wouldn't mind a FAIR fair usage policy, but if I get back from work and start playing online, perhaps the game needs an update, and the mrs is watching the Iplayer on the laptop, I hit the cap sharpish, and that is not what I pay for unlimited broadband for and I would not consider that EXCESSIVE in the internet age...

It should be based on speed / time - if you can hit the DL cap in 10 mins on the massive speed they offer, there is clearly something very very wrong. Not to mention their even tighter upload limits! Don't you DARE upload a youtube video in peak time on your "unlimited" broadband.

It's down to the fact that they don't have the infrastructure to supply the full 20mb/s to all of the customers that pay for it all of the time. As in they are selling something they don't have the ability to supply.

Criminal.

This is totally the ISP's fault. Our ISP randomly closed ports during the day, saying "nobody used them" and then opened them at 9:00 every night. That is peak hours for a college apartment. Good luck trying to play on Live or Warcraft 3 during those times; we'd have to stay up until 1 or 2 before it died down.
I really don't get how ISPs can get away with all this. I assume it's all in the contract we sign; but seriously, no other business gets to just change what they are giving you on a whim. Downright criminal, in every regard. Just give me what I paid for, dammit.

@Piellar:

It doesn't always look that good. There are a few places where it actually looks quite bad, in fact. For instance, the textures on the dogs are horrible and there's an underwater part where you're in scuba gear going by an iceberg with really low polygon count. But it usually looks about as good as that picture or better.

I don't see how this is all the ISPs fault. Their contracts clearly prohibit hosting a gaming server on their network, it's not like this is a surprise change in policy.

IW was well-aware of this fact (they were asked about it here: http://undead.mygameclan.com/pt/BestBuy-Webchat-Nov-3-with-Infinity-Ward/blog.htm) and chose to ignore it rather than attempt to provide for it in any way.

"One wonders exactly how much arrogance Infinity Ward can exhibit before customer relations finally turn sour enough to be a concern."
It hasn't already?

Slow news day...

Its a rumor at best. Saw this a few days ago and put it down to the collective rage of players that are trying to throw ANY reason at IW to get them to release dedicated servers.

So far there have been virus alerts, accusations that IW have ripped off mod ideas and fan made maps & DLC content already contained on the DVD to name a few.

Consoles have been using P2P for online gaming for years and AFAIK no one has received a letter from their ISP complaining about T&C's.

MW2 could be the best multiplayer out there, when it works now its great fun but this lobby p2p shit is killing it. Short rounds (1st to 4), 60 second wait between games, prolific cheating, rank boosting, unbalance weapons (dual 1887's with massive range), crappy UK internets = laggy games, random matchmaking ( Why the hell am I playing against Canadians and Americans?), the list is long enought with out resorting to bullshitting.

So yeah all this does makes me part of the rage collective, but making shit up isn't going to enable your console or bring about change any quicker.

Oh I remember this old scheme, the one where TW nickles and dimes you. There trying to be more like mobile phones by using a set limit, I remember the whole plan when they first laid it out.

Anything Time Warner does it's there fault theres someone else who does that too I think Comcast? Can't remember, but ya it's IW's fault for not marking the packets properly. Someone should sue them. There's really no precedence for this though, but I give it a 50/50.

but we knew this was coming. so not a surprise, well maybe to the article's author... or other console people...

@SantanaClaus89

And they are BUT this article is still idiotic since there is no proof of anything.

But then it really isnt't that shocking coming from the guy who thought just having someone say the word "gay" makes them a homophobe (http://www.destructoid.com/modern-warfare-2-has-a-homophobic-easter-egg--156677.phtml) or that the only reason to study history is because of WWII (http://www.destructoid.com/shock-treyarch-s-call-of-duty-set-in-the-past-again-156694.phtml).

This is why im a console boy

I work for an ISP. I used to be on the residential side of things but now I just do Commercial Accounts. This is really happening, running a server looks the same as running a torrent to an ISP and there are consequences for such a thing. IW really pulled a dumbass move when they ditched dedicated servers.

This is more Time Warner's fault, I would think. They're known for clamping down hard on people who use too much bandwidth, and their bandwidth cap is supposedly small.

So I've heard, at least.

I have a 30mbps connection from Comcast, and they allow me 250 GB up and down, total.

Bandwidth caps are bullshit telcoms use to make more money out of the same pipes. It's like charging for text messaging.

This is Time Warner's issue, not IW. It's all part of their push toward "consumption-based" billing. Naturally, the bitter PC gamers have latched onto this story to try convincing everyone enjoying this game just how evil it really is.

I used to work for a broadband provider, and we used to suspend accounts for ANY open ports; it didn't matter what it was. I remember having to call Linux users to tell them to close their X11 port. Broadband ISPs are dumb.

Um. I find this exceedingly hard to believe. For one thing - yeah, sure, because none of this ISP's customers is using torrents. Riiight. And another - all the customers on this ISP using Xbox Live or PSN would surely be getting similar reprimands? Call me cynical, but this looks like just another load of attention-seeking bullshit from the PC camp.

How can it be PROVED? There are already tow or more people noted or claiming in the thread that this is happening. While it is a rumor, its on the burden to UNPROVE it since its being claimed with no good way to prove.

I assume this is happening somewhere to some degree. it doesn't meant hat its significant or widespread.

Also until someone can say that XBOX live works the same was the IW net thing, then we can assume it doesn't. THats why the xbox live people dont have problems.

Yup, this is completely understandable and possible. I cannot play the game in university due to the fact that my internet connection has heavily throttled P2P connections, and cannot play at home on the Xbox unless it's between 12am/6am.

Yes, there was some actual weight behind my bitching about dedi servers.

Hahahahahahaha. Wow, that is just epic. This is why Live always had a dedicated, paid service. You never had to worry about ripping your ISP's internet connection off. Fail Infinity Ward, just Fail.

@King Sigy - All live does on MW2, and all your getting for your "paid" money is matchmaking.

You're still playing on P2P.

Fail.

I haven't been able to connect to IWnet in over two weeks. Oh well, the game isn't even that good anyway.

This is Time Warner's fault not IW's. They don't let users host servers on their service. The guy should've known that though, so he's an idiot as well.

Verizon FIOS allows users to host servers, if he had them he wouldn't have this problem.

Weeeellll I was going to BUY yes BUY MW2 for pc. Now I'll probably wait untill it's 20 bucks or less in a bargin bin for 360. That'll be a couple years considering COD4 is still 40 dollars USD.