In a recent reply to feedback to one of Blame Truth's CoD5 gameplay videos, Treyarch Multiplayer Design Director David Vonderhaar, or 'Vahn' has tackled a few issues fans had with Modern Warfare 2.

Dedicated Servers
''edicated servers for console (Xbox, PS3, Wii) games. The cost/reward structure of dedicated servers for console games is complicated as All Get Out. I am not talking about PC games. That's a different, and much easier, conversation. My point is simply that error you see that you think is lag, is not necessarily caused by latency, and dedicated servers won't solve every perceived error you think is lag.''


Matchmaking
''We have a few very specific ideas to improve host selection. Yet, no matter what you do until you can build a profile/library/db of who is a good host and who is not, the first couple of times someone ends up host he is going to be as good of a host as anyone else. The game can't see into the future. His connection might of been awesome at the time host selection was made.''

''Generally, however, we like the "make matchmaking as fast as possible" approach. When you start adding in matchmaking criteria, such as: "I only want to play with people who think cussing is OK," you end up making the matchmaking process slower.''

I like the idea of allowing the user, in matchmaking preference, to opt out of joining games in progress. But, I don't think I would turn it on by default. I will discuss that with the team and see what we can do.''


Map Preference
''We did do some work in this area. Blame Truth wants to go back to the COD2 way. What we have is more simple and requires active participation.''

Bare Bones Playlists
''This can be done right now except for the "no weapon attachments" part of it. I would say that if people want a playlist, then they should lobby Josh. We have features that require more post-launch support than ever before. Playlists can be updated.''


Weapon Balance
''Black Ops is trying to find some place between the skill of World at War weapons with the accessibility of MW2 weapons. Easy to use, difficult to master. I added a guy to my team this year, who is working on this nearly full-time.''

''We are committed to this idea and committed to fixing what we don't get right. I get a lot of feedback that the guns "should be more like MW2" and are "too hard to use, and should have less kick and sway."

''The more focused (dare I say hard-core?) competitive FPS gamer seems to prefer the World at War tuning. I am like you. I also prefer it, but it would be arrogant to complete dismiss and ignore the other 10 million people who are not like us.''