bildo123 :
Again, talk is cheap, you'll be whistling a whole new tune come release day. Also LAN can be a ticket to holding all pirated copies. But wait, you got four friends over, and three have the real deal, only one has a pirated copy. Its only one right? Ain't no biggie right? Wrong. Also, riddle me this. In order to hold a LAN, don't you need a...router...? And isnt there usually a...modem...of some kind attached to the WAN port of said router? So you see LAN support is no longer needed. It's really more or less a thing of the past when dial-up ruled the world.
This will be the last time I bother responding to you, bildo.
Point One: you can't know my mind. I can only TELL you I meant what I said. Some free advice, incidentally: assuming people DON'T mean what they say can be a poor approach to interpersonal relations. I watched someone get permanently injured that way once.
Point Two: You assume too much about other people's connections, as well as other people's intentions. I'm not a pr0 gamer, but I BUY my games and insist others do so. (What's dialup got to do with anything?)
Point Three: The omission of LAN from any game that is or should be LAN-playable is of no benefit to the player. In this case it is beneficial (arguably at least, and obviously THEY think so) to Blizzard -- exclusively. It only serves to limit the player's options and tie him permanently to dependence upon Blizzard for all multiplayer use of the software.
I have used battle.net approximately twice, ever, with Starcraft. After looking it over and considering its implications, I decided to never do so again. That was several years ago.
There are privacy implications. There are functional implications. There are implications as to financial exploit, system security, et cetera.
I won't be a pawn for commercial exploit.
So I tell you again... It's Game Over for Blizzard where I'm concerned. They've violated not only my expectations (foolish me, I had the impression they cared for their customers' power of choice) but also, and far more importantly, my principles. Dependence on battle.net is unacceptable. Period.
I may one day buy Starcraft II -- used, or from the bargain bin. If there's a LAN hack, and I know it works, I'll have no compunction about using it. In any case, I'll stay off Blizzard's radar. I don't care ever again to be tracked and profiled by a company so obviously indifferent to its customers' standards, and so obviously intent upon its own enrichment without concomitant ethical commitment.
I'm obviously not alone in my views. Blizzard may well go on making billions; it's not a just world, and consumers, in aggregate, are notoriously myopic and manipulable. But to a significant degree, Blizzard has now clearly lost valuable support from their longtime core clientele. Their decline, I suspect, has begun.