No Tubes, No Sprint, and NO FUN - Battlefield 3's Dedicated Servers Nigh Gone

May 12, 2012 Microsoft, News, Sony

No Tubes, No Sprint, and NO FUN – Battlefield 3′s Dedicated Servers Nigh Gone

According to Venturebeat the number of actual DICE-run servers for Battlefield 3 is getting smaller and smaller for both console platforms. You might recall that a couple of weeks ago EA revealed that they’d be allowing console gamers to rent out servers for a hefty chunk of change. While this was certainly something that the players were clamoring for it has had a negative impact on the amount of dedicated servers which EA/DICE take online – the average number of them being under ten a day. In response to Venturebeat’s original article EA informed us that these servers aren’t being removed but rather more and more gamers are renting them out – leaving the dedicated pool rather dried…

Although custom severs have received an immensely positive reaction from the players I personally find getting into a game of Battlefield 3 is a bit harder now. Since renting out a server allows you to change around game parameters and establish rules enforced by kicks or bans you’ll come across a vast array of servers each with different kinds of laws which vary from acceptable to downright moronic. Some will not allow certain types of weapons or gear while others restrict players from using a particular vehicle (either literally or by threatening players with kicks/bans), and while I didn’t spot one the last time I went online I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some servers on there who enforce the “no sprint” or “crouch only” rules which frequently appear in other online player-owned servers for games like Call of Duty. Custom servers can also be pretty exclusive as ones owned by clans or certain groups of people may require a password for entry or the server might kick you out of the game in favor of someone else who’s affiliated with the owner(s).

If you ask me custom servers just aren’t any fun when you’re only looking to play a couple rounds of Rush for an hour. Surfing through the server browser and weeding out the games with stupid rules is just time consuming and annoying. That being said I hope EA/DICE does truly intend to add more servers to the mix and possibly increase the pool of dedicated ones. Regardless of how cheated I might feel getting popped by a grenade launcher in the back I much rather deal with that then going into a game sporting 20 different rules.