As it was posted around the net over the last few days; BestBuy held a live chat session last night with developers of Modern Warfare 2 and allowed the community to join in and ask questions of their own. Now we all know that the PC community is pretty fired up about the whole dedicated server/modding/consolization of MW2 for the PC since the BASHandSLASH.com podcast so of course this chat session was monitored. There was a limit of 300 participants allowed in the chat session and many questions directly related to the dedicated server issue and a few others PC issues were tossed out without so much of a response. The IW participants were Mackey McCandlish who is a level designer/scripter and has worked on numerous COD titles over the years and also Vince Zampella who is a Chief Creative Officer and has worked with IW and a number of other companies over the years.

Although some questions were tossed out there were many questions answered and the bad news is – there is more bad news for the PC community with mentions like the items below.

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  • The max amount of players is 9 vs 9
  • The “lean” function has been removed from the game
  • There will be no access to the console
  • There will be no /record in the game

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The full transcript of the chat can be found in the BestBuy forums but a few notable questions & answers are quoted below.

Josh111: PC Question… What will the max amount of players per map be for PC multiplayer on IW.net

Mackey-IW: The max number of players on all platforms are 1v1 through 9v9. This is the number of players we focused on when we were balancing map size, perks, classes, challenges, etc.

TheNinthAxis: Is there lean in PC multiplayer.

Vince-IW: No.

frzg: Is there a /record feature? Answer yes… please. We’re trying to give you a ‘chance’

Vince-IW: no

Laugh: Is there a console in the PC version of the game, so we can change our field of view from the xbox’s default 65 FOV to 80 also can we tweaks the weapon damage for each gun, removes perks, graphical debris, breathing sway, also thru console like we where able to before or is this all gone?

Vince-IW: We would like you to play the game the way we designed and balanced it.

Moriarte: Ignoring IW.net, is the PC version a direct port of the console version?

Mackey-IW: No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.

TRU-Jennifer: Are you considering dedicated servers for the PC gamer in the near future?

Mackey-IW: Our main focus right now is on making sure the game will work well when it is released (on all platforms)

Freeman06: Hello, are you considering ever patching in mod tools for the pc to make custom maps and such?

Mackey-IW: Right now we’re focused on launching our game.

DudezTY: Since we can not kick people in ranked matches, how will we stop hackers who get past VAC?

Mackey-IW: Our goal is to ban hackers from the game

GeneralClean: So how can you justify 9 vs 9 at the most on PC when we had 32 vs 32 in COD4?

strong>Mackey-IW: The CoD4 maps were not balanced for 32vs32. In MW2 the entire experience is carefully balanced for a smaller range of players.