I remember in the old days when we'd buy the game on a CD, type in the code and play. A while later the patch would come out, then another that included a bunch of maps for free. You could download them fast from places like filefront or 3dgamers.

You could also setup your own server on a linux box or whatever and moderate it yourself. Stats were tracked by fans on different websites if you gave a shit about having your name in lights, there were no 'unlockables' or 'achievements'. You could use the in-game browser or third party browsers to find games by ping, users, maps, or whatever you liked. It was easy.

Battlefield 1942 was a blast for me, a great change. Then they came out with BF2, killing the subs, aircraft carriers, shrinking the maps, adding super fast planes on those small maps, slowing down infantry and sucking the 'hilarious' out of it. I believe it was still a PC game at that time but it was obvious that the same hacks and cheating were going on and since the servers weren't moderated (you had to buy them from a certified EA distributer, or some shit like that) I bailed within a few months.

I'm not sure why they did that and can't imagine going through the red tape described in the above post to play a nerfed down, hollow shell of everything that made Battlefield fun in the first place. I was really, really thinking of trying it out a little while ago, but what is this? Does it split up the community? It's just one map, I could understand an expansion, but what? How many hoops do I have to jump through to play the game with an extra map?

Whatever, I suppose I can wait another year until they sort it all out. Just not interested anymore.