The latest update of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare included a change that players have long wished for and which has now become quite important. However, just a few hours later, it was gone again. Why?
What is this feature? It is about dedicated servers for private matches. This was an option that was briefly available in the private matches of Modern Warfare’s multiplayer.
The option appeared along with the changes in the mid-season update on May 19, 2020, in Modern Warfare. However, just a few hours later, the developers removed it again.
What exactly are dedicated servers? Dedicated servers are servers directly from Activision, to which all participants of the match connect. This means that each player should roughly have the same ping (depending on their distance to the server).
The servers also allow for controlled conditions, as the developers or the publisher themselves manage the server.
Dedicated Servers – Important feature disappears again
Why the servers are so important: Until now, private matches were run through a host. One player hosted the match for all others and therefore had a ping of 0 – since it was run through them.
However, this also means that they have an advantage over the other players. That is why dedicated servers in multiplayer are considered “the holy grail of shooters”.
For players and professionals, the lack of such servers meant that they could never measure their skills fairly against each other. Especially for players and teams who specifically want to train against others, dedicated servers are so important.
Additionally, due to the current Corona crisis, many tournaments and games have been shifted from offline LANs to online matches. However, without dedicated servers, there are no fair conditions. Another reason why players wanted this feature desperately.
Moreover, the so-called “skill-based matchmaking” which players suspect even in Warzone – especially stronger players – is disruptive. In private matches with dedicated servers, they could play against whoever they wanted, without unfair technical conditions.
Why has the feature disappeared again? However, there seems to have been a problem with the servers. Twitter user @eXonic__ tweets that he heard foreign voices in his private match on a dedicated server:
Dedi servers are chalked. Private match and i can hear people who arent in my game people talk in chat pic.twitter.com/gUdQXn0UDP
— Craig (@eXonic__) May 19, 2020
The curious thing is that these players were not even in his match. They were in other rounds with a dedicated server. This was probably reason enough for the devs to take the dedicated servers offline again.
Currently, the developers are working on fixing 20 bugs in the upcoming updates of Modern Warfare and Warzone. When the issue of dedicated servers will be addressed and when they will be made available again is something we cannot say for sure yet.
