Blizzard: Lack of StarCraft LAN "No Big Deal"

[Zacharine]

"really, when was the last time any of us had a genuine LAN party?"

For me the answer happens to be 3 months ago. The next big one is scheduled to christmas holidays.

Really, us people using LAN might be rare and Blizzard might think it perfectly obsolete.

But it's not. It's the minority like me that use LAN quite often to play multiplayer games with friends, almost as much as we use the 'net to play. and at our LAN parties we have no way of providing a net access faster than 100kb and we have dozens of people wanting to play. A dial-up modem would be faster.

And it's not like adding LAN support would cost blizzard more than a dozen man-hours of work and it's not like not adding it will have a real effect on piracy or DRM if that's what they are worried about.

Honestly, I feel that we are being brushed off as unimportant and inconsequential. We might be, but that's no reason to tell us fans that we know nothing of the future of multiplayer gaming.

 

[Faeanor]

"There's a few legitimate cases that we're going to try and address over time. Location-based tournaments, or let's say I'm in a dorm with a firewall or something like that, hopefully there's a way to determine that and maybe start a peer-to-peer game."

If that's the case, what's the point in taking out LAN play in the first place!? If you implement something like that people could easily just block the game so it says "You can't play on the internet? Okay, here's your LAN."

I've said this many times before and I'll say it again now, I won't be buying this game if it ships without LAN play. Accepting removal of functionality is something we simply should not do. Neither should we with pointless price hikes.

Pardo is probably right in that it won't be a deal-breaker for the vast majority of gamers

Well, obviously. No matter how much they complain, people aren't going to choose to not buy this game because of the absence of LAN. No matter how much they hate the fact that it's not there, SC2 will still probably end up being one of the biggest-selling PC games of all time. It's like the Star Wars fans who complain about the changes made in the Special Editions: they go on and on about how much they hate them, and yet they buy them all anyway. Much the same thing will happen here, I have no doubt. The 100 000 people who've signed that petition aren't going to boycott SC2.

While you're probably right, Starcraft 2 will sell big, I think you're missing the point. Without something as simple as LAN play, SC2 will have no lasting power. It will be a footnote in gaming history as one of those sequels that was good, but nobody plays it anymore because they can't play with their friends. Will people still be buying and playing SC2 in 5 years? I'd put my money on a big fat NO. I personally hate playing with random people online because most of the time they're all so stupid I can't believe they're actually allowed in the internet. Like I said above, I won't be getting SC2 simply because of the removal of LAN. I know I'm not alone in this.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Doesn't the fact they're deliberately ignoring 100,000 of their fans when Valve actually addressed the 13,000 on the L4D2 boycott tell you all about the difference between Kotick and Newell?

I feel like I'm watching Blizzard decide whether or not to break up with its girlfriend.

I feel like Blizzard have already decided for me and are telling her that I was always saying bad things about her.

 

[Diablini]

I agree. There rarely is people without the internets. Also my dad said he will be buying two copies of Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 for me and for him and we'll be playing via Battlenet 2.0l

 

[Diablini]

WoW can't really be pirated because it's online at all times.

What, you've not heard of WoW Private Servers? WoW's been pirated across the internet. Sure, it's not the same experience as the legitimate game, but it's been pirated nonetheless.

Yeah, I've done it. (Don't look at me!). It's probably something like sex in the jungle at absolute darkness. But it's still sex.

 

[John Funk]

Doesn't the fact they're deliberately ignoring 100,000 of their fans when Valve actually addressed the 13,000 on the L4D2 boycott tell you all about the difference between Kotick and Newell?

150 lbs?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Doesn't the fact they're deliberately ignoring 100,000 of their fans when Valve actually addressed the 13,000 on the L4D2 boycott tell you all about the difference between Kotick and Newell?

150 lbs?

You are a bad, BAD man

 

[Murlin]

I don't really see what the big deal is... I haven't used LAN in anything for 6 years straight now, internet ftw!

 

[teh_gunslinger]

Doesn't the fact they're deliberately ignoring 100,000 of their fans when Valve actually addressed the 13,000 on the L4D2 boycott tell you all about the difference between Kotick and Newell?

150 lbs?

Damn! That was fun as hell. And now I feel like a jerk for laughing.

 

[Amnestic]

Doesn't the fact they're deliberately ignoring 100,000 of their fans when Valve actually addressed the 13,000 on the L4D2 boycott tell you all about the difference between Kotick and Newell?

150 lbs?

Someone's going to need cream for that burn.

 

[UnravThreads]

Surely B.Net could just be used to create a LAN system? I'm not fully sure how it'd work but I guess that'd be how. Personally, it's not an issue. Both myself and my dad are getting this, and we live in seperate buildings, so we'll be using B.Net anyways.

I can see both sides of this, though. 100,000 people out of a few million is, what, 5-10% of the possible customers? I think Blizz are gonna have to cave on this.

 

[SaintWaldo]

I played Diablo II on my LAN less than a month ago. SC the month before that. The fact that I CAN do that was a reason I considered buying D3 or SC2 in the first place. Not being able to do that is a factor in my decision to not purchase D3 or SC3. They aren't MMORPGs, there's no world persistence to worry about, so what's the actual game design issue that requires removing LAN? There is none.

Sorry, but it IS a big deal to me, and you don't get my money on D3 or SC2 without LAN. Thanks for snubbing your fans (you know, the reason you even HAVE a franchise to screw into the ground) and telling them their opinion is invalid. That makes it pretty easy to call you exactly what you are: Jerks.

 

[T'Generalissimo]

I really don't think they understand what the problem is. You know, I probably won't ever play Starcraft 2 LAN, but they're choosing to make an inferior, less functional product, which is so worryingly against Blizzard's previous policy and that's what annoys me. I'll probably still buy it, and he's right that it's not a big deal, but it is still a deal and their doesn't seem to be any genuine reason for removing it. Plus the way they're continually dismissing it despite the fact that thousands of people obviously care about it shows a disregard for the customer's opinion, which is very un-Blizzard.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

I wish they would keep the LAN because it just makes things so much easier, but it's true that I will certainly stil buy the game.

 

[stabnex]

I pirated the first two games, I'm likely to pirate the third installment. (though don't bother suing, I purchased the StarCraft battle chest when I got a job after being introduced to it)

However, I don't even feel the compulsion too strongly to pirate StarCraft 2, now that I think about it. The game was not broken, and they went and "fixed" it anyway. I honestly would have been much, much happier with just another expansion pack and no significant changes to the core game play 5 years ago.

 

[SaintWaldo]

Here's an interesting development:

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/60156

Can you say pseudo-LAN? Pinging for auth is not as onerous or rigid as running the whole thing over BNet. I mean, seriously, if I'm playing against my roommate in the same house, why should the packets run to California first? Making me ping on startup, kind of like SecuROM disc checks, seems a fair compromise that would make me consider buying these 2 games again. Sure, it still punishes the _honest_ customers more than anyone else, but at least I won't be wasting electricity sending packets to another state just so I can play a non-persistent game with someone 5 feet away.

 

[scotth266]

What does this mean? Are they including LAN play, or are they not? I have a small flicker of hope at these confusing statements though.