Why Blizzard Should Enable LAN to SC2/D3

[trevorblain]

ok, here's my theory, for what it's worth. I used to play both SC and D2 religiously. I only had one copy of each. I copied the discs needed to play, found new serials for friends, and we would all have our lan party off a single disc. we didnt play on BNet at all, it was just the half a dozen of us that didnt want to spend the 300 bucks needed for individual copies of the game. Later on, the parties subsided, and i played by myself, with my bought and paid for copy, on BNet.

But for the better part of a year, Blizz had to deal with the fact that a half dozen guys had a damn fine time drinking and gaming in a way that involved no one else for the meager price of 50 bucks... or whatever i paid for it at the time.

Is that what they are trying to control? a bunch of drunk guys laughin their asses off without paying their fair share?

on a side note... after we all stopped gaming together, everyone bought their own copies of the games they wanted to play legit... thier product was good enough that the value was evident and worthwhile... MESSAGE TO BLIZZ!

 

[Guest]

I'm shocked at the absurdity of this outcry. It would be "nice" to be able to play on LAN, but we are in a completely different age of connectivity than we were for SC1. I played SC1 in a dorm room, over LAN. Yes, it was a blast, but this was also the first time I had ever seen connection speeds over 56k.

You all posted your comments through the internets... you can.. and will play SC2 over the internets also, even if you want to play with friends.

This is a necessary control Blizzard must implement to protect their profits, their investors, the intellectual property and their customer base.

 

[hispeed120]

[citation][nom]dudeyouaregettingdell[/nom]Well I just wont buy the game. I just keep playing star Craft 1 until the good folks from Blizzard or rather Activi$ion change their minds. People will be complaining about lack of lan support and Activision just wont care...for now. Every one, i know it will be hard, just dont buy star craft 2. Seriously if our efforts in not buying SC2 and Diablo 3 hurt Activision's bottom line they will cave in and will finally add lan support. Rememember these companies only respond to money not words.Fight the good Fight!![/citation]

As much as I'd love to agree with your theory, the reality of it is that we make up a small percentage of their bottom line. Even if everyone here at Tom's doesn't buy a copy of either SC2 or D3, I would be surprised if we made a scratch into their profit margins.

A valiant idea, and I stand behind it. However, resistance is futile, and Blizzard knows it. Doesn't mean I won't play these games, it just means the likelihood of paying for them has decreased.

I bet if we created an electronic petition 10,000 deep, BlizzAvision would just laugh...

 

[NuclearShadow]

When asked to write an article on why LAN support should be included in StarCraft II and Diablo III, the first image that came to mind was the faces of friends,

Kevin has friends?

But seriously there is no good reason to end LAN support. It harms no one and by taking it away will not alter piracy any. If pirates really want to play online they will make a patch that makes the game connect to a alternative server that will host the game and likely enable playing single player characters on it. All removing LAN will do is stop friends from gathering and enjoying the game together.

My guess is Blizzard plans on making profits through BNET. Perhaps it will be many advertisements in the game lobbies. Perhaps it will even be a video advertisement before you connect or create a game that your forced to watch before playing. Something is stopping Blizzard from putting LAN and I will bet its a method for them to make money.

 

[mrsandoo]

[citation][nom]maobao[/nom]In a bussiness view its better to shaft smaller North American market a little for the huge Asia market profit [citation]

This. You guys simply have no idea what you guys are talking about. This isn't a matter of whether SCII is perfect for LAN. The amount of customers Blizzard may lose as a result of no lan support is paltry compared to the profit they will make in the Asian market.

 

[IzzyCraft]

[citation][nom]turboej25[/nom]What about lag? I hate playing Diablo II on Battle.net because of random slowdowns and lag not associated with my connection even in single player Battle.net games. Are their overhauls really going to be that impressive? I am still using an on off site server.And what about when the server goes down? what a pain, imagine you do plan a big (fake) LAN party, only to have the server go down.It hurts more then it would logically seems because:A) Blizzard is supposed to be the good guys right?B) It's not like I have a choice about buying and playing these games (I mean really boycott are you kidding me? will see about that two weeks after the release when you've gnawed off your fingers trying to stave of the hunger for sweet RTS perfection)[/citation]
LAG? Have you ever played starcraft with Master of Chaos' Lat Changer, which changes the built in lag of the code to lowest possible over the p2p connection.

Starcraft and diablo 2 b.net is over pvpgn but the games are connected p2p lag is not server deponent but connect of the individual people.

 

[NaNoSoLdIeR]

not gonna buy either of them

 

[briteball]

I thought Blizzard wasn't gunna release a game till its good and ready? If LAN isn't built in the game it isn't ready/done

 

[zodiacfml]

+1 dude!
to me, this is blizzard taking control.
it has become the usual corporation we know that is all about earning and becoming bigger despite all their past and continued success.
the issue here is slightly technical side (network reliability) but huge in ethics.

[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom]this is getting real old .. "piracy" is the cause of every thing these days. If i loose my toast in the morning , "its priacy". if my sister gets hit by acar next week "it's piracy!". if my dog dies of rabies .. it was piracy. Hell, if the world fucking blew up tomorrow and all that was left was some astronuats in orbit , thye'd say "IT WAS PIRACY!" give me a fucking break i'm tired of the industries claiming piracy as a reason to gain more control over citizen's. it's jsut a industrial greed thing THAT IS why they are removing LAN , support any one who states otherwise is fucking full of bullshit.[/citation]

 

[anamaniac]

"Maybe gamers just want to kick their friend's ass just like the old days."

Amen.

Personally I still play Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne online (dug it up a couple months back and decided to play).

 

[yrmoma]

As an Iraqi war vet, I can say LAN was the only kind of multiplayer we had over there. We didn't really have internet. At least, not one that we could plug our laptops into. We must have played over 1000 rounds of SC collectively, all over LAN. If one were to remove the LAN capability, we would never have been able to do that.

I will not buy SC2. Crippling an RTS, where LAN is the only type of multiplayer I play on it, is stupid. Just as stupid as EA crippling RA3 with DRM.

 

[Ramar]

Guys...does no one remember starspawn? Blizzard incorporated an awesome feature into Starcraft that was very generous and allowed many people to legally play the same copy of the game; they just couldn't connect to anyone but the person hosting that specific spawn server. It was a great endorsement of LAN play and the acknowledgment that well, console gamers get to split screen, why can't we?

That's why this burns me the most. Activision is just going to continue raping their once great business practices just like EA is going to continue with Valve.

 

[stufmenatooba]

[citation][nom]Ramar[/nom]Guys...does no one remember starspawn? Blizzard incorporated an awesome feature into Starcraft that was very generous and allowed many people to legally play the same copy of the game; they just couldn't connect to anyone but the person hosting that specific spawn server. It was a great endorsement of LAN play and the acknowledgment that well, console gamers get to split screen, why can't we?[/citation]

The problem arising now with the "multi-player" copy of SC2 or D3 is the fact that no matter what you do for authentication... it'll have to have an internet connection to function. Since people have expressed that they LAN wherever they want to without needing internet this becomes a BIG problem.

[citation][nom]Ramar[/nom]That's why this burns me the most. Activision is just going to continue raping their once great business practices just like EA is going to continue with Valve.[/citation]

They aren't raping anyone. They're protecting their assets. If you have a product and people can play without buying it... what's the point in selling it? Do you start a business to lose money? They are just getting their fair share and anyone that denies them that is more selfish than Blizzard will ever be.

Do I agree with them doing this? No. I just understand why they do and I know that anyone that would look at the situation from Blizzard's eyes would see the same thing they do.

 

[Guest]

I live in SA, where the cheapest broadband access is $25 a month, for a 384kbps line which is capped at 1GB. Yes, that's right, 1GB. A typical D2 LAN weekend would entail myself and three other friends, playing straight through the weekend. Now Blizzard is telling me that I have to connect to the internet to play with friends sitting no more than 3 feet away from me? Hands up who thinks my internet cap is going to survive 4 people using it nearly continuously for 48 hours. Anyone? Didn't think so.

So when my friends and I get together to play games in the months to come, we will NOT be playing SC2 and we will NOT be playing D3. As for the piracy issue, maybe Blizzard should go and read a couple of press releases from Stardock.

 

[TheZander]

I love to see all your feedback. I sure hope Blizzard is seeing this. There are a substantial number of paying customers and die hard Blizzard fans here, and we're pretty passionate about what we're saying.

Why would Blizzard want to throw away that legacy? Pirates will find ways around whatever anti-piracy anti-hacking protection you put in place. The more you take away from your paying customers, the less you're going to make in the long run.

Look at the response here, and this is just one site. Wake up, Blizzard.

 

[biofrog]

All I can think of is the horrible lag issues when playing from Australia.

If there isn't an Oceania/Australian battle.net server being implemented, then a game like Diablo III is already prone to some severe technical problems which will effect game play significantly. Being a dedicated fan of D2 I will still without any hesitation be buying D3.. but I shall pray to the gods (or demons of hell) that be for a good ping.

 

[leakingpaint]

[citation][nom]hendrib[/nom]So when my friends and I get together to play games in the months to come, we will NOT be playing SC2 and we will NOT be playing D3.[/citation]

Sadly we won't be playing it either. I quite often only buy a game for LAN play.

What was the most pirated game of 2008? - Spore
Why? EA p***ed people off, something Activision Blizzard are currently doing...

 

[safcmanfr]

What a stupid move by blizzard!

They complain about piracy, but nobody ever bother pirating SC cause they could spawn copies in order to play over LAN. Why cant they do the same again?

SC is all about MP, LAN in particular. Single was ok, but who played it more than once?

I still LAN, and I want to LAN with SC2. If someone reverse engineers the game, to add lan support, then i know i wont bother buying it. I am gonna wait a while a see what happens.

 

[wasteoftime]

[citation][nom]Mr_Man[/nom]Actually, that's a pretty good analogy! I wish I'd thought of that myself.[/citation]


Except the fact that the analogy is not applicable in the least bit. You expect a truck to be able to drive on dirt roads and if it wasn't able to you'd expect a fair warning from the manufacturer before you bought it. Guess what? Blizzard has been perfectly up front about the product you will be buying. It's not like the release date came up and we all discovered that it lacked LAN support, they've told us months before the games will even be released.

If you don't like it don't buy it. It's not your place to whine and complain and try to get a company to change it's errant ways. They've become one of the most successful computer gaming companies of all time. I promise that the 12 units they won't sell because some of you are whiny about lack of LAN support will not keep these games from being a huge success. You're not hurting Blizzard (trust me, something tells me they'll be fine) you're hurting yourselves by refusing to experience a game because of a fringe feature. At this rate we'll be lucky if the games come out at all, have free internet play, and don't have other costly ways of extorting our dollars for features we think should be included. Do we really need THREE versions of StarCraft? Triple-dipping? Only 5 classes included in Diablo 3 to start? You guys are whining about LAN support? The average consumer (all the people that are going to go buy the game while you sit at home and shake your tiny fist at Blizzard) isn't going to care at all. Blizzard is not in the business of catering to your needs, they're in the business of making money.

 

[Guest]

Face it! LAN or without LAN. Piracy will always be there.
Accept it? Blizzard will loss money underground. And they well lost alot more money from denying us loyal ang legitimate fans. My one cent.

 

[chainreaction]

[citation][nom]dudeyouaregettingdell[/nom]Well I just wont buy the game. I just keep playing star Craft 1 until the good folks from Blizzard or rather Activi$ion change their minds. People will be complaining about lack of lan support and Activision just wont care...for now. Every one, i know it will be hard, just dont buy star craft 2. Seriously if our efforts in not buying SC2 and Diablo 3 hurt Activision's bottom line they will cave in and will finally add lan support. Rememember these companies only respond to money not words.Fight the good Fight!![/citation]

I'm in. I'm all for boycotting these pricks taking out the only feature i ever wanted. I've been waiting 8 years for this game. I was waiting for SC1 before it came out... I only ever play lan games. I NEVER play single player and only once in a blue moon play bnet...

BOYCOTT SC2 AND D3. I know I will be. We need the numbers to hurt these guys in the pocket.

 

[dirtykid]

I used to play Diablo & Diablo 2 in LAN mode even when nobody else was expected to join me. I was able to level my character that could later go on battleNet without LAG, message spam, or a PK suddenly finding a way into my private game using a level 700 Barbarian kill me in a single fireball (not a spell usable by that class)...

In fact, I never played in single player offline mode by D2, it was always LAN or BattleNet games.

 

[leo2kp]

Because I generally solo a game, I'm still going to get D3 and SC2, but it does piss me off that my friends and I can't just hook up a few machines to a router and kick eachother's asses :-/ So yea, I'm not happy with Blizzard right now.

 

[lafery]

LoL - It always kills me how people can complain about a product before its even out on the shelves. Like if you have no choice, you HAVE to buy it, but it sucks for you coz it doesn't do what you want it to do.

Its very simple: if Blizzard thought they would lose lots of sales over lack of LAN, they would include it. But they know you guys: why spend more money to code extra LAN support while you guys HAVE to buy it anyways (or so you seem to think)? If i was in their shoes I would do the same.

You want LAN so badly, don't buy the game without it. If there are enough of you, they will add it as a patch. If not, then why should they code it?

I can hear the screams from here: "OMG common sense hurts my eyes! Please make it stop!!".

And whoever the guy is who said that hackers would add it to the game... errr... I think not rofl. You think you can code LAN support in a hack? Why, if they could do that hackers should start thinking of making their own games - its all just that easy to do.

 

[trkorecky]

Because we all know how poorly the original Starcraft sold even though it did have LAN play and no DRM... Are you kidding me? How many people bought a copy? Hell, how many people bought multiple copies? The original game sold 10 million+ copies, bullshit that piracy kept you guys from living like Gods after that one game alone. I don't even want to get into how much money you're sucking out of your 11.5 million+ WoW subscribers per month.