News
By: Joe Topolnisky Jun 30, 2009
More on StarCraft II's Lack of LAN Support
Commenting on the lack of LAN support in StarCraft II, Blizzard Entertainment's Bob Colayco explained to Joystiq that they made this decision to encourage players to fully utilize their upgraded Battle.net service and fight off piracy, a growing concern in the industry:
"We don't currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.
Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we're encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We're looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future."
Once again, we can thank pirates for ruining a good thing. :(
Comments
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akse
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2009-06-30
#1
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Meh, I still think they would really sell a lot even with lan support :)
But I don't care I always used battle.net anyways :P |
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terrannova
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2009-06-30
#2
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I'm gonna miss TCP/IP LAN, this marks the death of a great standard.
TCP/IP WAN is here to stay.
I guess this pretty much rules out dial-up modem to modem support too... |
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Mantis
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2009-07-01
#3
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| GG pcgaming as we knew it. No LAN, just internet with proprietary multiplayer service. No addons or goty packs but pay to play "DLC" crap. Whats next? |
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Dr_BenD_over
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2009-07-01
#4
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| And no doubt the game willl still be widely pirated. People BUY games for their features, not a lack of them. |
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demi
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2009-07-01
#5
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I can't really see this as a bad thing - when was the last time you setup a lan party where there was absolutely no internet access? Setting up one machine to share the internet connection to everyone is trivial, and you'd want to do it even if the games you play did not require it.
Presumably, all the net connection is required for is to authenticate your copy of the game, so even if you're setting up a party in the middle of a desert, you can use a tethered cell phone to provide an internet connection for you and your buddies. |
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Jehdin
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2009-07-01
#6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by demi
I can't really see this as a bad thing - when was the last time you setup a lan party where there was absolutely no internet access? Setting up one machine to share the internet connection to everyone is trivial, and you'd want to do it even if the games you play did not require it.
Presumably, all the net connection is required for is to authenticate your copy of the game, so even if you're setting up a party in the middle of a desert, you can use a tethered cell phone to provide an internet connection for you and your buddies.
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You presume too much, authentication for LAN play is one thing, not supporting LAN play at all is another. So, it's pretty safe to say everything will be going through battle.net, meaning WAN speeds for LAN play. Unless they're truly stupid and are actually doing as you say, causing all of this "OMG NO LAN!!!!!!111" chaos for nothing.
Quote:
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Once again, we can thank pirates for ruining a good thing. :(
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No, once again you can thank corporate dipshits for thinking they can stop people from pirating. |
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bkkkk
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2009-07-01
#7
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I wonder how long it will take for someone to come up with a patch for this?! Similar to the Singleplayer coop LAN patch that is out for RA3 I suppose this will be harder to do since there is no LAN code at all. Time will tell, but yeah this is stupid.
DRM doesn't stop piracy, it only punishes the users and drives people to piracy. There isn't a single game you CAN'T download. |
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snowcrash512
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2009-07-01
#8
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| I still call BS, anybody who was really interested in the game was going to buy it anyway, pirate copies cant play on bnet which is still the biggest part of multiplayer, I refuse to believe LAN support would instantly cause the game to loose all profits to pirating. |
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tomatomanz
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2009-07-01
#9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snowcrash512
I still call BS, anybody who was really interested in the game was going to buy it anyway, pirate copies cant play on bnet which is still the biggest part of multiplayer, I refuse to believe LAN support would instantly cause the game to loose all profits to pirating.
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Agreed, as most have said it before.. at the end.. it hurt the paid customers instead .. |
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Goon
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2009-07-04
#10
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| omg i wont be able to play on garena i will need to buy the game ffs stupid blizzard |
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Jarnis
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2009-07-04
#11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Goon
omg i wont be able to play on garena i will need to buy the game ffs stupid blizzard
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Hmm. Let's make sure I got this right...
You are saying that Blizzard is stupid because they are developing a game that, by design, cannot be played online without, you know, actually paying for the game.
Hint: Blizzard wouldn't be developing games if they wouldn't get paid. Sooner all the PC developers figure out how to tie their games to online services that cannot, by design, be pirated (like World of Warcraft servers and all the benefits of Steam), the sooner we start getting more proper PC games made.
And yes, I do know that Steam games have been pirated. Those pirate copies cannot use Steam for the community features, auto-updating etc. Hence, the pirate copy is always inferior to the legal version - the only sure way to get people to pay up instead of just grabbing a warez version.
I can, in a way, understand the practical justification of warez copies when they are in every way SUPERIOR to the legal version (no need to keep disc in drive, no install limitations), but as publishers FINALLY are figuring out that the way to beat the pirates is to stop making the legal version inferior and instead offer a superior version this problem is slowly going away.
Some people will cry. I say let them cry. |
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idchoppers
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2009-07-04
#12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by demi
I can't really see this as a bad thing - when was the last time you setup a lan party where there was absolutely no internet access? Setting up one machine to share the internet connection to everyone is trivial, and you'd want to do it even if the games you play did not require it.
Presumably, all the net connection is required for is to authenticate your copy of the game, so even if you're setting up a party in the middle of a desert, you can use a tethered cell phone to provide an internet connection for you and your buddies.
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This will just make another hurdle for a LAN party. We NEVER allow Internet access at LAN parties. We get all patches beforehand. This keeps people playing instead of browsing the net. Now we will also need to set up a wireless connection into detached garages just so we can start a game. Also, it always seems that at least one attendee has issues with their PC that we need to fix. I think it's safe to say that SCII just won't be played at a lot of LAN parties. Not saying that it will hurt sales, cause I'm still definitely buying, but it will just be too much trouble at a LAN. I'll keep it for at home when my PC is sitting on a desk. |
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Kalidren
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2009-07-04
#13
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I don't really care about lan support but I do think it's a poor excuse on Blizzard's part. Out of all the companies out there Blizzard has the least to worry about in that regard. People want the competitive play via battlenet and the vast majority will buy the game. Oh sure a few might scam out just for their first look (for what ever reason) but if you ask me it's a non issue for them...
... more or less just making a statement. Seems more like typical suit mentality percieving a problem that doesn't really exist atleast not for Blizzard.
Everyone I know who has ever enjoyed the games made by blizzard have bought MULTIPLE copies.. due to broken, lost and/or scratched media. Eventually it get's so cheap sending it in for replacement is more of a hassle then anything else. Pirating? At best all it will do is make the game even more popular and encourage others to buy it, provided it lives up to expectations. Which it likely will. Most fans of blizzard's games know that Piracy is not a problem .. exploiting on the other hand has allways been a thorn in their side. |
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Unregistered
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2009-07-06
#14
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| I'm pretty sure people will now pirate it just to spite them, its never a good idea to cripple a game as an attempt to fight piracy. It just makes people angry, and makes pirates even more determined |
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besalope
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2009-07-06
#15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by idchoppers
This will just make another hurdle for a LAN party. We NEVER allow Internet access at LAN parties. We get all patches beforehand. This keeps people playing instead of browsing the net. Now we will also need to set up a wireless connection into detached garages just so we can start a game. Also, it always seems that at least one attendee has issues with their PC that we need to fix. I think it's safe to say that SCII just won't be played at a lot of LAN parties. Not saying that it will hurt sales, cause I'm still definitely buying, but it will just be too much trouble at a LAN. I'll keep it for at home when my PC is sitting on a desk.
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We have minor net access for steam authentication, but that's about it (since some games don't like offline mode). Our gaming group will not be using SCII for this aspect (pointless to be routed through an online server when you're at a lan party). And now I'm starting to question whether or not I will personally be spending any time on this game at all. I used to look forward to this sequel (~6 years ago back when a group of us still gamed regularly on Bat.net + lans), but not so much anymore. |
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