In this feature James "Trowa" Payne, a trialist vouching for a spot on the editorial staff here at 4Kings talks us through his hate for the inferior gamer, but more importantly, how to filter through the trash and mediocraty that is most CoD4 public servers to find a few gem's that allow his gaming life to be that much more easier.


Any person that plays online games cannot discount the claim that there are a lot of offensively bad, and offensively stupid people out there in the series of tubes that is the Internet. Coming from a background of playing MMO behemoth World of Warcraft since the days of it's closed beta, i am all too aware of 13 year old misfits who seem to take delight in ninja looting a piece of armour that your alt has been needing since he hit 70, or how he wants to body pull the boss and claims to be able to not aggro the 12 adds to his right. Well luckily i have put that mumorpega (ty Yahtzee) online version of heroin behind me and have since picked up playing Call of Duty 4. Actually i stopped playing WoW ages ago and picked up CoD4 a few days after i saw it debut at i31.

Call of Duty became my saviour in gaming, as soon as it came in the post, i tore off the wraping in glee and started straight into the multiplayer completely neglecting the any forms of single player or linear narrative experience. All i want is guns, explosions, and girls in bikinis. Granted CoD4 was most likely to only give me 2 out of 3 of those, i suppose it will have to do until the sloth’s at Duke Nukem: Forever decide to stop playing WoW and actually sit down and start coding again.

I love the multiplayer in Call of Duty 4, as I’m sure everyone will agree with however i am getting increasingly shocked at the occurrence of 'Hardcore Servers' popping up on my server browser. The whole concept of a 'Hardcore server' is that basically...if it is moving at you, you will die from it. 1 pistol shot from an M9 hitting someone who is no more that 10 pixels tall will kill them. People play it for more immersion claiming that it makes the game more realistic...well no, it doesn't. In realistic warfare situations are you really going to throw a grenade directly in the air to land 20 feet in front of you? Are you really going to try and jump shot the sniper 100 feet away from you that is situated just a hairsbreadth above the wall in front of you? I don't think so...Ergo, i don't buy the whole 'realism' argument...It ruins the game in my opinion as an Timmy power-gamer with a crosshair and a G3 can camp in a room and effectively become ni-on impossible to kill without a well timed cooked grenade or flashbang.

So to summarize from the initial rants, hardcore servers are rubbish. Fact

So all that build up...Hardcore servers ruining the game, Players who have such poor hand eye coordination that the only way to enjoyably kill them is to sprint everywhere with a crappy M9 in hand whipping them until they leave in anger, well both of these hatreds of mine have lead for me to yearn for more of a challenge in Call of Duty 4. For most, this challenge would resolved by joining a clan or team for the game and as can rationalize this action, it is not one that appeals to yours truly. As in past teams i have played in, enrolling on their ED and CB ladder team and playing 2 officials a week soon gets boring, not only because the quality of players on both leagues are almost laughable because...well lets face it...The European powerhouses are very unlikely to dwell in such meager residence and they are the teams who I have in my crosshair (metaphorically). So until I can finally find another team who enjoys more than just showing up on vent a few times a week to get some CoD4.Wars games which are notoriously bad for not only finding the most socially retarded parasites in the world who's prime vocabulary only has 'IP?' 'From?' and 'Bye' in, and are also laughably bad (most of the time), it is a far from reliable source for me to choose to spend my time.

So the build up...I have finally found what is possibly the best resolve to my yearn to play against decent players, and to not spawn into people crouched behind me, or walk forward and trip a retardidly placed claymore. This artifact comes in the form of Competativecod4.xm.com! All of the servers listed have a public version of PAM4 running on them.

This means that:

* All grenades be it flash bangs, HE grenades or Stuns are restricted completely
* All perks are turned off bar Bandolier and Stopping Power
* Most servers have a Sniper limit
* All servers have a Demolition limit


These factors, combined with the slightly increased calibre of player who chooses to play on the server due to his knowledge that Timmy Power-Gamer can't choose his favourite .203 and Claymore combo won't be on the server allow for a more skill based game style and over all more happiness and enjoyment out of the game. So to the creators of CompetativeCoD4, i salute you! For providing incentives for me to stick to playing CoD4 and not reverting to the near life ruiner that is World of Warcraft.

On a side note, some of my best e-friends are technically dire at playing these games and the majority of gamers are not at the extremely high caliber of gamer that i seek out. It is by no means their fault, if anything it is due to my own ineptness to not be able to find satisfaction from playing at their level. I feel i should thank the casual gamer for although not being a likely candidate for the next Fatal1ty of CoD4, however their support of eSports as a spectator has provided ample incentives for firms to propel eSports into soon what is expected to be a mainstream media outlet and part of every day life for the masses. So for that, i thank the majority of the gamer population.