Dedicated Servers have been a staple of PC Gaming (and even some console games, like Rainbow Six Vegas) since pretty much the dawn of time. The performance improvements that they can provide are simply unbeatable compared to peer-2-peer listen servers. However, publishers / developers are increasingly getting too lazy to add dedicated support, and instead just use peer-2-peer.

The two main advantages of Peer2Peer are the fact that the publisher doesn’t have to host anything (and even if they do, their servers don’t have to be hammered) and the fact that clients can sanity-check connecting peers for, say, piracy. The problem with it (as we saw with Modern Rainbow 2) is that if the selected host for the game has connection that runs using a complex system of carrier pigeons, then everybody suffers (and this happens so goddamn often). Dedicated Servers step in here, allowing games to be run on beefy servers with tubes that make my connection look like carrier-pigeon-shit (having said that, it already does).

My main problem with dedicated servers, however, is playing with friends. As I prefer to have fun when playing my games (I’m not some suuper-l33t-ultra-h1x try-hard), I prefer to be able to open my friends list, pick someone, and join in with them (and have a resulting laugh). With dedi’s though, the process is a bitch. Take Bad Company 2 for example (the forefront of Dedicated Servers since MW2 took them out) – to play with a friend, you have to add them to a list beforehand, then if the damn thing refuses to connect, manually find their server on the list and connect to it (which is far too much faff). SourceEngine on Steam is pretty much the only example I have of the system being perfect, but publishers want to be the next xBox Live, so bundle their own shit with it (I’m looking at you, GameSpy).

Basically: In a perfect world, we’d have a hybrid of Dedicated Servers (with a GOOD goddamn friend-connection system) and Peer2Peer (for all of your custom matches)

This probably made little to no sense in the way that it’s worded, and the reason for that is this: It’s 06:27 in the morning.

Now, some updates since my last blog post:

• DISQUS has added Like and Dislike, so I’ve removed the ratings system (it was useless anyways)
• My motherboard is in for repair right now, should get it back on Wednesday. In the meantime, I’m using ravenzero, a AMD Athlon x1 + 7600GT build. Many nights of openttd have ensued.
• i40 is coming up! I’m in seat MQ-F20 (the temporary structure) along with the rest of FP. Come and say Herro if you’re there.
• I treated myself to an xBox 360 Slim (250gb) on launch day and sold my old Premium. It makes noises when I stroke it in certain places
• I’m working on getting my weather station hooked up to my Server, so it can automagically upload statistics (for your extremely-bored pleasure). Still might not happen.
• Video Watch: AwesomeLapse2 is up for your delectation, and rp_disorientation Trailer 2 is in the works (until my damn mobo exploded). Hopefully some time this / next month.

-End of File

Please note: The blog will start at approx 14:30 11/7/10.

Thread with all of the runner’s videos: http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=935166 (you’ll need a Facepunch login to vote)

An FYI: If I turn out to be the victor, there’ll be a special surprise put in the pipeline for you.

Hey, a new look! What do you think?

I’m going to be attending i40, the UK’s biggest LAN Party event, along with Facepunch. If you’re going too, come and say hello – I’ll update this post with my seat when I know where we’ll be sat. I’ll be sat in seat MQ-F20.

For those of you dumb enough not to know what a LAN party is:

A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people with computers, between which they establish a local area network (LAN), primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. The size of these networks may vary from the very small (two people) to very large installations. Small parties can form spontaneously, but large ones usually require a fair amount of planning and preparation.

Oh, by the way, I wasn’t kidding about the little something special this month.

Stay tuned.