StarCraft II LAN Dropped Thanks to Piracy

[Guest]

1) I don't WANT to play online, having to play with little kids running hacks and cracks on the software like they do on the original SC.
2) BNet is HORRRIBLY laggy.
3) PC Gaming is dying b/c everyone buys POS systems from Dell etc, and then they try to run a game, and it won't run playable. Most people don't have the patience, much less then technical knowledge or cash to update their system to play PC games at enjoyable speeds. Plus, everyone and their brother owns some kind of console. Its just like Apple. PC gaming will always exist, it will just have horrible marketshare.
4) piracy won't even be slowed down by this. Infact, it will make it significantly worse. All they will have to do is make a patch to change the bnet servers address. Just like people did for ages to play WoW between Euro and US. How long did that take to patch? 3yrs or so, and thats on an MMO and it STILL doesn't stop rogue servers. Seriously, if it doesn't stop it with a game MADE for playing w/ other people, what makes them think it will even slow it down on a game that is really made for local games? Its just another heavy handed insult.

 

[sanctoon]

Well what about people from country's with very limited and expensive Internet, like me and my fellow South Africans. LAN has always been the only option for us to enjoy any MP. Thanks a lot Blizzard. -1 fan

 

[monger923]

I have 4 game worthly PCs. My friends swing by and play multiplayer games now and then. I was very excited to here both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 were being made. I have liked Blizzard for a long time. I am very disappointed on the lack of lan support with the new titles. No, I have no hard evidence Diablo 3 will also lack lan support, but I bet it will based on how Starcraft 2 is. I really think there needs to be a solution to this. I believe you should be able to buy the game and be able to play it via lan. However, Blizzard should provide many incentives to register your game and use battlenet. Maybe patches, game content addins, etc. I also believe you should still be able to spawn at least one copy to another PC for multiplayer only. As it sits, if I wanted to kill some zerg with my buddies, it would cost 200.00 dollars + tax to be legit. (4 copies at 49.99 a piece) I will not pirate the game. I want to see more good games for a PC in the future, and I support the PC gaming companies. But, I am also unwilling to spend 200 dollars on a PC game so I can play with friends on my own lan. Yes, I can get a couple friends to buy the game, but they are not very rich being unemployed at the time. The hole situation stinks. Unless something changes, I think I will just skip buying the game altogether. Depressing, but there are other games comming out that will be nice aswell.

 

[boogalooelectric]

Long time reader first time poster here. Dont know if anyone will believe me on this but oh well here it goes. I live in So Cal near Irvine, I have a friend who's nephew dates a girl who works at Blizzard in Irvine. While at a bbq/picnic at my friends house I had a chance to talk to her about SCII. I basically told her that Blizzard has pissed off many of the fans of the game by breaking it up into 3 volumes instead of one and indicated that their greed will be the undoing of the game as many will torrent it now just to spite their douchebaggery.

She thought about what I said for a moment and then told me that the reason Blizzard broke up the game wasnt due to greed but was basically due to the fact that their programmers cant make the damn thing work, they are not even sure that they can make the three factions work correctly even breaking it up as they have.

In other words the devs there are incompetant, the original programmers that made the original have all left to other companies. So by breaking it up as they have they are stalling for time to try to fix the balance issues and integration issues that have cropped up. When I heard that, I knew that I most likely will not buy this game nor even pirate it as most likely it will be garbage, not even worth playing for free, I gave her a response of "well that's reassuring."

I would almost rather it be greed than incompetance, but now seeing this about a lack of LAN support, I am confident that they have no clue what they are doing over there!

 

[Master Exon]

[citation][nom]zmanz[/nom]Haha, the tears of the crying kids too stupid/lazy to get a paying job sustain me!Go out and work for a living and buy it, or gtfo.[/citation]

Hahaha yeah, dumb lazy teenagers. I can't wait to pay $200 so I can play a 4 player LAN inside my house with my own computers.

/s

 

[ben850]

tons of people still play the original starcraft at LAN parties, so what's going to encourage them to upgrade to sc2? fancier graphics? screw that.

old/functional/lan enabled sc > sc2 because you can still play it on an old ass highly portable laptop compaired to a higher end gaming rig that you'd need to lug around for sc2.

 

[Regulas]

I agree with many posts and the three part release is money grubbing if you ask me. I will not get it until if and when they release the whole set in one box one day, until then I will play other games, I still play Starcraft and a old RTS game called Submarine Titans, it came out about the same time as Starcraft did and has unlimited units and they subs can be told to return for repair at set increments on their own. It is out of press but can still be had at Amazon. I run it on XP just fine, I don't know about Millennium II, I mean Vista.

@velocityg4 I agree with you, let me recommend picking up Fallout 3 and the retail expansion pack that after installed no disk in the drive is required to play. Fallout 3 is the best single player (FPS/RPG) game I ever played. Bioware is releasing Dragon Age in a couple months, disk check DRM only and it looks good.

 

[accolite]

Looks like I wont be waiting for SC2 anymore, in fact I am going to boycott it.

 

[kanaric]

guess it's a pass for me....

for no lan? seriously? Quit gaming, now.

 

[kanaric]

PC Gaming is dying

Wrong. In fact more people game on pc than ever before. Get your facts straight before you post, it makes you look ignorant and completely foolish.

 

[maigo]

Hope it gets leaked two weeks early, that'll teach them to piss off their fanbase

 

[Supertrek32]

It's good intentions, like DRM, once again completely missing the point. Yes, pirated games will have a slightly harder time playing multiplayer, but it won't last. Someone will come out with a crack enabling it. Red Alert 3 didn't offer support for coop play over lan. It took maybe 2 weeks, if that, for someone to mod the game to enable it. Considering the popularity of Star Craft, I'd be suprised if there wasn't a LAN mod out within 5 days of release.

 

[noobinberg]

Well, I don't lan...but I do have friends that do...have been asked to boycott the game...I like SC and would've bought it...out of respect for my friends...won't buy it...I will however pirate it...so THERE Blizzard! take that and shove it up ur ass!...in order to reduce piracy...what a joke.

 

[ethaniel]

I'm not actually worried about this. I mean, someone will find a way to make some kind of "fake server" and interconnect players using Hamachi or something...

 

[redgarl]

Piracy will be there... LAN included or not...

 

[dechy]

Some people don't seem to grasp the big picture here, comments like "if you download it illegally, you have access to internet therefor you can use B.Net" or sh*t like "lol, I make more money than you, I can buy it... get a job and buy it, end of story" are COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT.

B.Net = UBER LAG no matter if you have DIRECT FIBER TO THE DAMN SERVERS and an octo-core with 3-way SLI, B.Net will be the culprit in you having a crappy gaming experience.

Anyone remember the number of MONTHS it took Blizzard to get the WoW servers stable? About 4 months after release, and it seemd like an ETERNITY. Difference is, even with some lag, you can still accomplish SOMTHING in an MMO; farm with lag, quest with lag, screw around in IF or Barrens with lag: not the end of the world. Lag in a friggin' RTS? I don't think there's anything worst.

Even if you tout yourself as a millionaire that can buy hundreded of copies for all your friends; fact is your gaming experience will be tied DIRECTLY to an uncontrollable outside source. NOTHING you do on your end will help if B.Net is screwy, and that will completely destroy the game.

The point some others also made about having ISPs around them that literally rape them $$$ wise, is of great concern to them, and will probably be directly related to them not buying the game.

 

[techguy911]

That's bunch of BS having network play in a game has nothing to do with piracy, seem blizzard lies are getting silly.

Just watch battlenet crash,lag ect. from reports i am hearing its going to kill the online part of the game.

Users will find a way to add network support anyways i heard there is work in progress on creating a battlenet emulator for local lan play.

 

[redraider89]

[citation][nom]bikeracer4487[/nom]I'm confused...how does not including LAN prevent piracy? All it does is prevent LEGITIMATE customers from using LAN...a patch WILL be released to support LAN, whether by Blizzard or a cracker...I feel like not including LAN only ENCOURAGES piracy...[/citation]


The way it prevents piracy is that you have to have a unique key to play multiplayer. But the numbskulls at Activision/Blizzard apparently don't understand that one, it doesn't keep people who want to play the game single player can still pirate it and play it fine, and two, they just shot themselves in the foot because LAN play is Blizzard's claim to fame for Diablo, Diablo II, and Starcraft I and LAN play is the reason most people would buy Starcraft II in the first place.

 

[Guest]

I believe the biggest user base of sc is south korea and the second biggest is CHINA.

Please read the all caps word and then realize blizzard is doing a move that will help boost initial sales to one of the biggest markets for the game.

Its not like lan wont get added in latter by blizzard or by hackers.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I still play SC via LAN on actually purchased copies.. if SCII doesn't support LAN then I'm out. Battle.net is awful and the reason why I choose LAN plan. An internet connection should not be a requirement when having friends over to play. Thanks Blizzard for becoming the large company we all hoped you wouldn't be.

 

[bstm300]

Wow, of course making battle.net the sole arena for starcraft II play will solve all the piracy issues!!!! How ridiculous. Every starcraft 1 veteran on here knows we all lose our starcraft discs and have to buy battle chests every so often. For god sakes, lan parties are what help drive the sale of the game!!!! I say to hell with SC II, and it should be boycotted along with left for dead II. Not only has blizzard turned into a giant profit-making machine with WOW, now they want to sucker Starcraft fans too. Like I have said many times before, you should be ashamed of yourselves blizzard Starcraft II (only driven by money) team!

 

[Guest]

HAHAHAHA Human species are stupid and they deserve to get busted by their own economy whom thy support !
Each time i hear news like these i am pulling out my old consoles and emulators and have some genuine fun while idiots discuss how to pay 150$ to become slaves of a company !
if you are really smart then play the games you have get out more and live youre only live instead wasting youre precious days mooving pixels on a stupid screen while Big bosses have fun in real life with the monney you provide them !
I simply got no sympathy for the great unwashed !!! they deserve getting ripped !!!

 

[Guest]

first, give it time, i believe that eventually blizzard will patch lan support into the game. probably after all 3 parts have been released and had a good run. granted, it could be years; how long was it before they introduced the no-cd patch for starcraft 1.

and on that 3 part release issue. i really hope that blizzard doesn't expect people to pay $50-$60 per release, making starcraft 2 a $150-$180 complete game. if they have any sense (and believe it or not, blizzard does have some of that), they'd cut the price into approximate thirds of a complete title. maybe a little more (packaging, distribution, etc). so say $30 an episode wouldn't be all that bad.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see how things play out. but this whole thing, both lan support and 3 part release could be a deal breaker for many, many people. including me.

 

[moozoo]

If you think this is a big issue, wait until they tell you that playing online requires a monthly subscription fee...

 

[Niva]

LOL, I'm sure I'll get negged to hell for this but I totally understand Blizzard for doing this. First off rather than implementing questionable anti piracy software they're taking a simple stance, you must use B-NET for multiplayer.

For the folks concerned about when b.net servers go offline, it's possible for Blizzard to release a server later down the line that will enable anyone to actually set up LAN parties.

Lastly, this changes nothing for me and I'm still looking forward to this game and will buy it. The other thing this does is that now all matches will be recorded on B-NET and any tourneys and etc. That's money as far as I'm concerned.