Actiblizz are all about exercising complete control so as to maximise their profits. I'm only surprised they didn't pull this kind of stunt with MW2. They'd have made more money that way than they did with the crappy multiplayer they offered.

Just like BC2. I'll buy it, but at least I'll be prepared to deal with shit ping.

We have "price control" in that games only sell for what customers accept. The fact is that multiplayer FPS players accept $15 for 5 maps, that is why it sold so well. You can call that a willpower problem if you want, but at the end of the day those people clicked the buy button because they wanted the content enough to pay $15 for it, end of story.

The question then becomes: will people miss the mods?
Are there any big Modern Warfare mods other than the various flavors of "pro mod"? I haven't played MW2 online, but I suspect the same is true there. So why go out of their way to support something most users never use?
Or they realized that the lack of dedicated servers wasn't as big of a deal as they thought. Or they realized they wanted to enjoy set piece nirvana. Or they just realized they were only really in the "hate group" because they were "sheeple" and the like. That goes both ways.
Again, just because people don't necessarily share the same opinion as you does not mean they "lack willpower" or are "sheeple". I am sorry that you feel lonely, but I am sure you can find plenty of other rebels who will join your pack.
The only bad thing about this "feature" itself is that it effectively kills off mods (which were already close to dead) and that it gives Activision power over when to shut off the multiplayer component (which they already had, by disabling the master server). Beyond that, it just isn't a big deal. Dick move? Yes. Big Deal? No.

Even Battlefield 2 did that to an extent. If you wanted to do ranked matches you'd have to buy your server from an approved server vendor. There was the option of running an unranked server, but meh.

Weren't the dedicated servers for bad company 2 leaked?

There's the obligatory useless petition about the issue

This is exactly the point I was asking about. Dedicated servers (at least good ones) aren't of the 'Oh look, my computer's a server now!' variety. Good groups have always rented servers. So long as the prices being charged to those groups here are in line, this is absolutely nothing new.

Call of Duty? Never spent a cent on it, and I will probably do so for the rest of my life....

Every last one of those tools will be back in the toolbox the second the game's released.

"We demand you immediately kowtow to our wishes or we'll threaten to not buy your game! You have been warned!"

I'm only saddened by the lack of Steam petition about this, as it's not so easy to laugh at them. I've still got the screenshot of all those MW2 boycott tools playing MW2 on the say of its release.

Let's make an experiment. Imagine the original half-life, but with extreme amounts of DRM, no modding possibility at all, and no patching or support for serious issues. How big would it have become do you think? It's not so much a practical question (do we really want mods? etc.) as it is a question of principle. Do the devs want to achieve something with their game, create a great community and make it special, or just make a bunch of cash for their asshole distributors? I think no cognitive abilities whatsoever are required to figure out which side IW are on. :)
edit: I do have to add, it's a shame, since the game itself (although relying a great deal on instant gratification, which is not that intellectually satisfying) is actually really fun.