Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Live Chat Session transcript on the Best Buy Forum recaps a chat with Infinity Ward about their upcoming military shooter sequel. Included is some follow-up to the revelation that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will not include dedicated server support (thanks Brave New Gamer via Destructoid). Along the way they are asked multiple times about PC dedicated servers, which they clearly resist, but designer Mackey McCandlish admits: "Our goal is to provide the best experience for our users, so nothing is ever 'off the table'. We are always evaluating our options." Infinity Ward also questions the legitimacy of the petition for dedicated servers, with Vince Zampella saying not all of its 178,000 signatures are legitimate (This petition actually now has 180,700 signatures), with McCandlish adding "402 signed it 4 times I heard." A couple of other new bits of info were also pinned down, one a confirmation that with all this talk about IW.net being a superior alternative to dedicated servers, multiplayer games will indeed be hosted by one of the players, and that the limit for multiplayer games is 18 players on a nine-on-nine match (says McCandlish: "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."). Here's the part about hosting multiplayer games:

IWNet matches players together based on several factors including ping and skill. After players are matched, the most suitable host is determined. That player hosts until they quit, at which time hosting responsibilities will normally migrate to another player without interrupting the match.