Blizzard Declares LAN Will Be a "Footnote" in History

[ZippyDSMlee]

Did the merger with Activision just bring out the stoopid gene in Blizzard?

Your fans really want LAN support, so you say it's dead.

Perhaps Blizzard just don't understand that a lot of the world is still on dialup?

It's the same old saw, companies use the best of everything to make their games, and expect their customers to be using the same thing. Only in this case it is IMPOSSIBLE since most isps are at least two steps behind, overburdened, and not always well-staffed. Games that should run smoothly over a LAN in the basement, are instead going to lag, and then get cut off for whoknowswhat reason. (like in my case, the phone line getting cut by kids with big machines pretending they know how to rebuild a road just down the street from me)
I'm not a supporter of piracy, but this just gets me feeling the temptation...

Screw piracy its just to soon for a dedicated connection for a game you don't pay a monthly for...

I'm not That tempted. Does get me to thinking that maybe that next big Blizz MMO over the horizon? Is going to be Battle.Net 3.0, where you have to pay $15 a month to play all Blizz games multiplayer. *bonks head on desk*

I was thinking why not with a live option where you can offer games and nit knacks over it pay 4$ a month or 60$ a year to help it flourish, whole games are like 70$ a pop so the prices all balanced out so the monthly is not 15$....a game...... I mean sht if you get PC and console players paying2-4 a month and 10$ more a game it can't really fail...so badly....

 

[Quadtrix]

Honestly, 99% of the people crying about the absence of LAN in SC2 were just going to try to pirate it anyway.

Sure there's some who don't have access to high speed connections AND have friends with the same problem who would use LAN. However, those cases are so few and far between compared to the number of people who would use LAN as a means of playing multiplayer on a pirated version of the game.

This. Blizzard should ignore this petition entirely, if they're smart.

 

[thousandfaces]

There went my Starcraft 2 reserve. I don't buy Blizzard games to play them with strangers.

Seriously, there was nothing in the world better than spending hours playing SC with friends, trying to beat a whole pile of computers, then finally winning and going out for pizza afterwards. The fact that Blizzard wants to do away with that is nothing shy of criminal.

i know exactly the feeling, though i must say SC arrived a bit late in my life. I played WC3 with my roomies though and it was the same feeling.

 

[Credge]

I'm convinced that Activision has taken control of the company.

 

[dekkarax]

Wow, Activision is contagious.

 

[PumpActionJesus]

All i want to know is... Diablo 3 is LAN right?...RIGHT!?

Cause im gonna shoot me some Blizzard workers if i hear otherwise

 

[axia777]

Can you say money grab boys and girls? I bet you can! MONEY GRAB!!!!! Because if people are playing LAN style they are not paying for the new BattleNet service! Blizzard wants your cash! It is that simple. Everything else they are saying are a huge pack of lies. They are killing LAN in StarCraft on purpose. Personally I blame Activision. I really doubt that Blizzard would have done this had they not merged with them.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

Wait a minute....hmmm....a monolithic entity related to technology and computers declaring something will be a 'footnote' in its history....where have I heard that before....

Spoiler: Spoiler

[http://img134.imageshack.us/i/shodan.jpg/]

 

[Lord_Panzer]

While not off my buy list, this has confirmed that Blizz has gone bat-shit bonkers.

 

[kspiess]

A veteran of DOS gaming, I can say there is no reason to go back! But LAN gaming -- certainly there is still a reason why so many people are sad to see it go.

There are still tons of LAN gaming events.It's sad SC2 won't be a part of them.

Even more so for Diablo 3. If you have a couple of gamer roommates, it could be a bunch of fun just to set up your own LAN game to adventure into.

 

[Firia]

I wouldn't be surprised if some hackers put together a LAN package for the game though.

That's basicly what I think will happen. There's such a powerful outcry and demand for it, someone will cobble together something to facilitate that need. It's just a shame that Blizzard is deaf to these demands.

 

[Asehujiko]

Or you could both buy the game, sit next to eachother, and log into BNET.

And enjoying watching your internet connection slow to a crawl and get mega lag.

Fun.

Because we still use 1985 connection protocols which makes every single bit of data crawl the whole route instead of intersecting information targeted at the nearest pc at the closest relay point and because the host does a full on RAM dump every frame update instead of transmitting a bunch of co-ordinates as to where a unit moved or if a trigger fired.

The old starcraft had a network footprint of 1-2kbps and so does warcraft 3 so unless you are:
1. playing on an already throttled 28k
2. playings maps specifically designed to break the system
you shouldn't have any trouble whatsoever.

When playing 4 vs 4 ranked, there were 4 of us in the same room on the same 56k modem playing against 4 others and we had no lag whatsoever. Where did people get the idea that modern networking architecture is somehow de-evolved to the point where playing on it with 2 players will cause the cables to explode?

 

[not a zaar]

Is it really that hard to implement LAN netcode? Why not just throw it in, even if only a minority of people will use it? LAN parties are fun, get your buddies and their PCs together and have a practically lag-free blast. This is surprising coming from Blizzard, they always seem to try to court the largest segment of the market that they can.

 

[Bretty]

LAN is a foot note? Really?

Blizzard act like they are trend setting or something?

 

[teutonicman]

That's a pretty interesting declaration considering LAN play has been the life blood of a number of their games.

 

[Cryo84R]

Different time, different tech.
You have no one but the pirates to blame.

 

[mattiboi24]

LAN is much more personal than internet gaming. I know I have many good memories from having friends over to play Starcraft long into the night.

 

[Pirce]

It's a sad day when sitting around playing games with your friends is becoming "a great footnote in our history."