Blizzard defends Starcraft II's lack of LAN support

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1:20 PM on 06.30.2009, Jim Sterling

80 comments | 46644 views

Blizzard defends Starcraft II's lack of LAN support photo

#Blizzard #PC #StarCraft #top stories

Yesterday, it was revealed that long-awaited RTS Starcraft II would not have LAN support, sending a number of PC gamers into a frenzy, despite the fact that they had the Internet so it shouldn't really be a problem. Blizzard has naturally responded to the nerd rage, defending its position and making sure to mention piracy as a contributing factor.

"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," confirms a Blizzard rep. "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."

So, an equal mix of piracy and Blizzard pushing its own gaming platform are to blame. Still, hardcore traditionalists who don't like change will likely be unsatisfied by this and shall continue to get all stroppy. You know what they should do? They should boycott it. I hear that's the cool thing to do!

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next 50 comments

76 comments | showing # 1 to 50

PwnanObrien

So, a buch of pirates are angry that they can't steal the game. Boo fucking hoo.

On another note...

I've never understood how people let Blizzard get away with plagiarizing Warhammer 40k with Starcraft. Yes 40k's derivative of other sci-fi genres but it carves out it's own distint IP. Star Wars is derivative of every space opera and hero's journey before it but if I made a game based around Duke Skyjogger and didn't even bother to change his character design a little I'd be hit with lawsuits as soon as this sentence finished.

moggle

Doesn't matter, really. It'll take only a few days for the pirate-friendly version of multiplay to be developed and hit the web.

All Blizzard is doing is delaying the inevitable. Which if that moves a few extra games for them, it's hard to blame 'em.

Vegas

Shut it Obrien. Pirates will still crack the game, this lack of LAN will end up only hurting their customers.

Wintersocks

Would you like some cheese with your WWWHHHHHHIIINEEEE?

hardeharhar.

VWGTI

Good for Blizzard. Any steps made to fight piracy is A-OK in my book, no matter how frivolous it may be.

Gantz

It doesn't matter how much better they make Battle.net because when you don't have a connection to the internet you can't have multiplayer without LAN support.

How the hell do they expect LAN parties to play SC2?
Ya lets have a hundreds of people in the same place connect to battle.net so they can play each other even though they're in the same fucking room.

The piracy comment is just a front, piracy will happen one way or another.

DarkTravesty

this doesn't bode well for diablo 3 i'm guessing either :/

Bigmoose85

This just in Korea declares war on Azzard because of no LAN support O_O

Midgetsnowman

Anyone who applauds blizzard on this move is a retarded fuckwit. Anti-piracy is great and all, but that's why we have shit like Steam.

Making it so you cant have lan parties because you wanna push your cock-stupid battlenet service is pretty much going to kill the hardcore support for Starcraft that wasnt already killed by the 3 game model.

Oh well. least the idiots who think kekekeke zerg rush games on big game hunters were the pinnacle of starcraft's multiplayer experience can have Battlenet all to themselves.

VisMortua

I've never had any issues with BNet myself, besides the fact that I couldn't play Diablo or SC with my friends and family that had the pirated copy and couldn't play on BattleNet and HAD to use LAN. ;)

I don't see how they can 'stop' it though, there are workarounds to those types of things. =P

Satsumomo

I love how many idiots think this is bad for pirates. It doesn't stop them, there's multiplayer enabled pirated versions of Left 4 Dead ffs.

This is an incredibly stupid move, how many LAN parties exist that don't have an internet connection? Too many.
Starcraft tourneys, God, it's just so much, how can they really be so naive?

Now they will be able to blame it on the lag,

Timmeh

Don't be so na�ve about piracy, this won't do a damn thing. There are already Battle.net emulators around for people with bootleg copies to play each other online.

Yes people can play over the internet but I'd guess you would need a pretty substantial internet connection to support a LAN party all playing over the net instead of locally.

Y'know, I wish you'd try looking at things from a perspective that isn't the developer's. It's partially because of those 'hardcore traditionalists' that are pissed that Starcraft is a mainstay of multiplayer gaming. Starcraft is synonymous with LAN party. What next, insult people 'whining' about the fact that the developers of Ghostbusters couldn't be bothered to include multiplayer in the PC release?

Dexter345

I think StarCraft fans are too hardcore to even pretend like they're not going to play StarCraft II.

the Golden Avatar

@Timmeh

Jim is just flame-baiting. At least I hope he's not that ignorant.

Zantetsuken

I have never seen any anti-piracy feature actually stop any pirates. Stuff like this only harms the end consumer. Within a few hours of release there will be a crack to enable it to be played over a LAN.

I can't wait for delicious Korea rage.

ROMaster2

Once your god damn servers go down once and for all, what are people going to do for multiplayer?

You better have some damn LAN, that's a deal breaker.

brainderailment

Isn't the lack of Lan support going to severely limit it's opportunities for pro gaming support?

GabrielMobius

That's uh... that's pretty much what I'm gonna do there Jim. Not in an over-sensationalised way, bawwwwwwwing about it through the roof. But more in quiet fury. I really wanted to play Starcraft II, don't get me wrong. But this kind of shit is like holding your entire userbase down and spitting right in their collective eye. With acid.

No, I can do without Starcraft II and the shitty decisions surrounding it. If Blizzard wants to be fucking retarded about this, I can simply give my money to someone else offering a product that I actually want. Isn't capitalism grand?

Midgetsnowman

Vis: thats not the problem. the problem is a lot of serious gamers (and pretty much any tournament) prefers LAN for the simple reason that the internet is inherent unreliable. and lag or a dropped connection is killer when 40,000 dollars might be riding on the line.

Midgetsnowman

@GabrielMobius: Exactly. I was sorta interested in Starcraft 2 myself. Then came the 3 game model. and the continued ripping off of ideas straight from warhammer. and now no LAN. Its like theyre systematically trying to piss off hardcore gamers

Scroll

Stopping pirates using Himachi to play against other players?

Niero

WHAT NO IPX ZOMG BIAS!

killias2

Honestly, though, this isn't going to tough piracy. There will always be alternatives. Warcraft 2 didn't even come with any multiplayer, yet, lo and behold, the internet of 1996 (!) was able to crack it open and create a vibrant multiplayer community entirely separate from Blizz. You don't think the internet of 2009/2010 can accomplish the same task?

In other words, this doesn't do crap about piracy. It just punishes everyone for nothing.

That said, I don't care nearly enough to not buy this....

citaro

I can respect Blizzard wanting to curb piracy, but c'mon. Anyway they slice it, it's gonna sell like gangbusters. Hell, they could split it into three pieces, sell them separately, and people would STILL go nuts. Oh wait...

Knives

I just come here to agree with dexter :).

DinnertimeNinja

I didn't even think of that, but it makes perfect sense to make online mandatory to stop piracy.

Starcraft sold by the boatload, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen pirated copies and cracks and such passed around at LAN parties.

I don't think it'll limit anyone's access to the game, either. Pretty much everyone that would play this game would have high speed internet.

ShawnKelfonne

@Killias2: War2 had LAN support. Also, a way to play over Kali and modem connections if I remember right. So yes, it DID have multiplayer support, even before the Battle.net edition.

But really, screw achievements, screw stat-tracking, I just want to get together in a room with my friends and have a good time playing some custom maps. It's been a Warcraft III tradition so far, and it looks like it'll stay that way.

Midgetsnowman

It makes sense? No offense. but you obviously have no idea what pirates will do.

Will this stop pirates? fuck no,. they'll just figure out how to spoof a connection to play off of battle.net.

the only people this'll hurt is lan parties and serious tournament play,

Turbofail

So in the big tournament matches they play, would they have to go through the net just to play it? What happens if someone starts getting lag halfway through the match?

Seems strange.

jedcred

No, it's just extremely short sighted. An immediate problem I can see is that, unless Blizzard gets smart and implements some kind of local discovery (oh wait, that sounds EXACTLY like LAN play), then all the traffic for the game has to go out the connection to Battle.net servers then back to all the players over one connection. If this is at my parent's house with a site-to-site wireless running at (barely) 1.5 Mbps down with my cousins on their laptops playing...well...not so good.

oberoi

Hw can you NOT be upset about not having LAN-support? Me and my friends arrange a LOT of LAN-parties and rent places that very often do NOT offer internet access.

Sure, playing from the comfort of your home will work but is Sweden the only country that still loves throwing your computer into a car and drive to a remote cottage to play starcraft for three days straight?

pyrrhic

Call my cynical, but I think the biggest reason not to include LAN support is to force each player to buy his or her own copy. I'm not a very big LAN-party attendee, but I know every game we played over LAN in the college dorms was one legit copy with multiple installs + noCD keys.

Midgetsnowman

oberoi: a lot of people love that. the problem is a great deal of the core blizzard fanbase (no offense guys) is a rather large group who have no comprehension of the concept of ever leaving their house to socialize

Paroxysm

So no spawn versions for local multiplayer now? Boo!

It's not an expected feature or anything but it would have been nice. It was very useful with the first game and sold a lot of people I know on the full product.

Shoop

Isn't Bnet gonna cost money? I thought that's why they're roping everyone into using it, not piracy.

yutt

I knew that Jim Sterling would have an article up mocking consumers. So Jim any luck getting a job as a PR rep for a major publisher? You sure do a lot of freelance work mocking gamers and consumers while advocating whatever bullshit, unjustified response the industry gives.

You are in a position to influence real change in the industry in many situations, and use it continually to mock any gamers who dare question what the EA and Activision PR departments release.

I want to hate you, but I understand it is your way of trying to feel "superior" to the average gamer. You're above caring! Surely that means you're better than us rather than you are just an apathetic, gutless troll.

rel123

I normally agree with Jim but

@Yutt
You said what I wanted to say.

Doomsday Forte

@Shoop: You're the second person I've seen say that BNet's gonna cost money to use. It used to not be, but if they're changing that...Pay-to-play online SC2 doesn't sound very lucrative.

I dunno, I don't have much interest in this game. I mean, I suck at RTS games and while this did sound interesting at first...splitting the game into three is worst for me (as I only did the single player missions) and while LAN doesn't affect me, reading about how they're effectively shutting out tournaments and netcafes is a little silly in my eyes.

If you wanted to stop piracy, why not add on some superleet DRM? Oh wait. :(

rel123

Well, apart from the insults at the end.

Turbofail

yeah, yutt is on the money. It seems lately that anything that involves a group of people angry about a developer, Jim is quick to jump on them and call them blubbering cunts.

He's still the best writer on the net, but he really needs to stop treating every group who is upset over something as a pack of rabid morons simply because they are upset over something - Sometimes they actually have a point.

GohanGVO

@MotoRobo - I think the idea is that a cracked or downloaded version of SC2 could, theoretically, be installed onto multiple computers for LAN-based play. Thus, tunneling users through Battle.NET should, theoretically, funnel out the unauthorized accounts.

Toucan Gourmand

MotoRobo-"I'm stoopid. How do lans allow piracy?"

The same way magic pixie dust allows people to fly...

Seriously though, this is a bad decision by Blizzard.
This is just going to piss off a large percent of their paying fan base.
No LAN support because of piracy....that's a laughable scapegoat.

ShadowKirby

You're fucked Jim, yutt discovered your secret plot to rule the world through the evil of BNet and Blizzard.

Wexx

It's depressing, but yeah, anyone who enjoys the series at all will still buy it. It's a shame I won't be able to try to get friends that haven't played it before to play it with me over lan, and if they like it, they'll go out and but it so we can play ALL THE TIME. Oh well, I hope this online functionality is awesome, and that the battle.net hosting isn't as awful as it was in Warcraft III.

Mr Kite

I'm gonna side with Jim and say gamers are as a whole Bitchy bunch.

Also LAN is really a necessary feature.

RIMoonlight

Everyone going 'LULZBLIZZARDSUXTHEYREMAKINGUSPAYFORONLINE' really do need to pay attention, as they already confirmed that B.Net will be free. Blizzard's not stupid, they know that the fact that their consumers don't need to pay for online has always been a major selling point, and would likely lose mountains of money trying to push a pay to play service.

And really, while I really did appreciate LAN; as it's always really just been a great feature, it's not the end of the goddamn world

And IMO, Obrien; StarCraft isn't some retarded carbon-copy of WH40K. IF you'd actually care to do anything but 'hey, there's some insectoid-like race and the standard infantry unit looks like the Space Marine! RIPOFF.', you'd actually note that while the concept seems rather similar, and, I admit, it many cases it does, it's not the blatant ripoff you claim it to be, especially since I never really knew that 40K was the first and only sci-fi IP that included insect aliens and psychic aliens. Just as you said, StarCraft is centralized around very derivative sci-fi concepts, it manages to carve out something distinctive.

Oh yes, I'm a Blizzard fanboy, I'll wholly admit to that; though considering Blizzard's track record, I personally feel like it's justified.

crowmagnet

It kinda blows my mind that a major PC game can ship without LAN support. LAN parties are so much fun and Starcraft+Warcrat III are usually the main reason why. I know Jim is trying to be sarcastic but, I agree with Yutt. There are times when making fun of the gaming masses is fine but this is a serious problem and will affect a lot of hopeful/loyal gamers. Blizzard seems to be taking a firm position and the only way LAN's gonna come back is if we "bitchy" gamers do something about it.

WastelandTraveler

@Niero - I love you.. rofl.. I wonder how many people here are old enough to even remember the IPX shenanigans needed for starcraft network play LoL.

Muetank

Ah, star craft LAN parties. Now that takes me back. Getting 1 copy of the game and installing it on all the computers at the boys & girls club then getting a bunch of people to play. Those were the days. I'm sure the boys & girls club enjoyed having 25+ free copies of star craft.

emuscles

Ever LAN a source game with Steam? Same shit you stupid faggots.. 2009, connect to the internet, etc.

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