Dedicated Server Support Can Make or Break You

Let's talk about one of the most prolific first person shooters of all time. If you think I'm talking about Halo, please take the time now to punch through your face and into your brain, because Halo is garbage. I'm talking about Half-Life, and more specifically the Half-Life mod, Counter-Strike.

Counter-Strike was released in June of 1999. For those of you that can't do math, that's over 11 years ago. Counter-Strike made its debut 2 years prior to the release of the original X-Box. On the day of writing this article, August 29, 2010, there was a peak of 67,626 people playing Counter-Strike. That means at the same time. All at once. On an 11 year old game. How is this possible? Two easy words: Dedicated + Servers.

First I'll explain the opposing technology. "Migrating hosts" are typically employed by the console using types. Basically everyone joins a public "lobby" and then the game goes through and picks what it thinks is the best host. The host receives information from all players in the game and sends information back. This system sounds great, but something that people don't think about is while all 360s and PS3s are built the same, not all PCs are created equal, and not everyone's computer can handle that kind stress. On top of that, it occasionally picks the worst possible host for some reason (a poor internet connection or the farthest person away) and people end up being unable to even play the game because the latency is so bad. This usually works well enough for consoles, as they're too technologically incapable to find a server on their own, but as a PC gamer I feel pretty strongly that all such garbage should be reserved for the second-class gaming citizens on the consoles. Seriously, console gaming is trash in 90% of all cases when compared to PC.

Dedicated servers, on the other hand, are simple enough to explain and infinitely more effective. Somewhere you have a computer specifically calibrated to handle the strain of multiple internet connections sending to it, and having it send right back to them. It's a data hub created for the express purpose of hosting a multi-party killfest. Properly equipped servers even have the capacity to host multiple games at the same time while maintaining optimum performance on all games. The best part? The server is always going to be in the same spot, so you never have to worry about wandering hosts and inexplicably high latency. Latency so bad you want to bend space and time to jump through your monitor and strangle the host until they quit kicking. There is nothing about the system that isn't superior to migrating hosts.

Aside from better performance, there are other perks to employing dedicated servers. For one, the use of a dedicated server means that the ability to set up online gaming communities is far easier. With dedicated servers if you find a server with people you get along with you can keep going back. You can end up making friends, you can become a regular, and it creates a very social atmosphere that encourages people to keep playing the game long after it's out-classed in terms of graphics and even gameplay (Counter-Strike is a prime example). A game with longevity increases the likelihood of strong competition and allows hardcore gamers to get deeper into it.

When you play with migrating hosts, you end up with a mish-mash of random people. You may have played with them before, you may never have met them, they could be amazing or horrible. When you gamble on your gaming experience with migrating hosts it's a total crapshoot, which can be a huge turnoff for some gamers. On top of that, a lot of console games lack in the competition department because they can't compete with the social aspect of dedicated servers. If you can't encourage more people to play longer, you don't have a game that can stay in the race.

Another advantage to dedicated servers is the ability to administrate. When it comes to migrating hosts, no one is in charge so no one has executive authority, and that means cheaters (hackers and moders) can take advantage of the system. While the anti-cheat system might catch and ban some of them, the overall authority to kick a person from a game is out of reach for the average player, leaving them vulnerable to being shot in the face instantly through walls from across the map. Most migrating host systems don't even include a vote kick system (majority vote to remove a person from the game).

Dedicated servers are privately owned, so the owner has the password and can do almost anything they want, including permanently kicking people from the server. The counter argument is that this can result in admin-abuse (power tripping tyrants with a hair trigger on the perma-ban button for people that even slightly annoy them). The solution is simple, if you don't like the way an admin runs their server, don't play in it. There are literally thousands of servers for Counter-Strike, you can live without playing in a specific server.

I'll be honest, I do play games on PC with migrating hosts, but trust me when I say I would 100% rather they be dedicated server based games. It improves the gaming experience, makes life simpler, and encourages social interaction. If Modern Warfare 2 was on dedicated servers it would be a huge competitive game in the PC world, but limited social interaction stunted its potential from the beginning. I've made a dozen friends playing it in the last year on migrating hosts. In that time I would have made dozens on dedicated servers, and I'd probably be competing in online tournaments. Sadly that will never be the case, but I've got hope for Black Ops. It seems that the developers may have learned their lesson, because they're implementing dedicated servers in the newest version of Call of Duty. Maybe there's hope for the PC gaming world yet.