Update: StarCraft II Will Not Support LAN

[Georgeman]

Oh man, does this sound disastrous or not? I mean, if for every multiplayer game you have to connect to Battlenet, I dread to think what will happen to the launch period when everyone and his dog start connecting to the Battlenet. Massive lag! I still have very bad memories of Diablo's 2 launch period and witnessing the deaths of hardcore characters thanks to the power of the lag. Bad move, Blizzard. (Or should that be Activision-Blizzard?)

 

[6PrinceofDarkness6]

Eh, it'll probably be okay.

 

[AndresCL]

They just killed Lan parties

 

[ntnimara]

awwww.. blizzard turning into a corporate ninny..

sigh

ah well.. I guess it's not the worst possible outcome

I suppose this is so as to combat piracy or something (?)

I think a pirated version can't play through battle.net

I intended to get the original anyways... Irony is I'll probably not really play much multi

 

[bushwhacker2k]

This is one of those things that is obvious to everyone who is going to play but the devs just don't freaking get it...

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I give it 6 months before the strain of all the free users forces them to make it pay to play or free users get handicapped features........ either way it seems blizzard has sold out as well as anyone could.

 

[Embright]

I want to go buy a half gallon of vanilla ice cream now and eat it all at once so I'll feel better. The concept of my nostalgic idol blizzard from the original SC days doing something like this... ugh.

I played it sparingly at best on LAN and was a Bnet person but I ran into quite a few people who wouldn't have played it at all if they hadn't played it at a LAN party. The fact is it opened up many people's eyes to the game itself.

But for SC 2 I would like LAN since I now own a laptop and am around places where people do set up LAN parties. While I don't think this decision will honestly affect sales, it is kind of a slap in the face to LAN gamers. And I care about my fellow gamer.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

It will be hacked in less than a year and lan will be enabled sooner rather than later, Blizzard just shot themselves in the foot, not to mention once Koera gets ahold of it.....

 

[die4769]

Starcraft without lan is heresy....

 

[Syntax Error]

WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!!

Does this mean that the Battle Reports were not done in LAN?

EDIT:
This means no impromptu duels between friends where the day's lunch (or other arbitrary reward) is at stake. Sad.

 

[Osloq]

From what I understand the idea is if you're close enough to be having a LAN then your ping will be the same as your friend/roomie and hosting a game will essentially be the same as a LAN. If that's the case then to be honest it's not that big a deal for me. It's just like going battle.net > Host LAN as opposed to choosing between them.