Alright, to start with, Tommy Kost came out with
this video last Thursday which outlines how to tell who's the host in a matchmade game on MCC. I kept that info in mind over the next few days, noticed a difference between hosted games and dedicated ones, and released
my video on Saturday which outlines those differences. To summarize:
-Hosted Game:
- Someone is listed as the "Game Session Leader" (the host); you can be listed as the Game Session Leader and not be on a dedicated server as long as the below two bullets apply
- The privacy for the lobby is set to "$CLOSED"
- You don't hear the 3-2-1 countdown during the voting screen
-Dedicated Game:
- You are listed as the "Game Session Leader"
- The privacy for the lobby is not listed
- You hear the 3-2-1 countdown during the voting screen
So, because most everyone already didn't believe 343's claim that "the vast majority of games are being played on dedicated servers," I recruited some people to help me keep track of their games over the weekend and whether they were hosted or dedicated. I did not play with these people, so all their games are separate to mine. We counted any game that made it as far as the voting screen, meaning that games that failed to load or ended prematurely were counted.
- Me (East Coast US, Open NAT): 86 games played, 4 games dedicated
- Friend #1 (West Coast US, Open NAT): 51 games played, 3 games dedicated
- Friend #2 (England, Moderate NAT): 70 games played, 5 games dedicated
- Guy I met in H2A Rumble (East Coast US, Open NAT): 63 games played, 2 games dedicated
From this info we can conclude one of two things: either a) some people are unable to play on dedicated servers consistently while others pretty much only play on them; or b) most games aren't being played on dedicated servers. Either result is bad. Judging by how many people on this sub have mentioned they haven't heard the countdown too often (meaning a host-based game), I'm leaning toward most games not being dedicated.