When Blizzard announced that Starcraft II would be ditching LAN support, people got upset. Local play has been a staple of Starcraft for centuries, and it was quite shocking to see that the sequel would not allow for that most ancient and noble of nerd traditions, the LAN party. Naturally, an online petition started up.
Futile as I may find online petitions, I still admire the willingness of gamers to make their voices heard, especially as they're usually a ludicrously apathetic bunch. The petition has broken the 100,000 signature mark, making for quite a loud voice indeed. Seems that, despite having the Internet, there's no substitute in many peoples' minds for good ol' fashioned human interaction.
Of course, with Blizzard being the right arm of evil publisher Activision, this collective outcry could fall on deaf ears. Blizzard is keen on pushing Battle.net with all its might, and if that means sacrificing the happiness of a mere 100,000 people, then so be it.
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Contest:
12:30 PM on 08.16.2009
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...in all seriousness. I'm just going to refrain fro giving Activision-Blizzard any more of my money after their shenanigans as of late.
I haven't given that company any money for at least a year, probably more. And I don't plan on giving them any money for a long time.
1: they say its easier to pirate LAN games
2: Because "you can use battle.net, its got functionality lan doesnt for communication! teehee!"
You need to be logged in to battle.net and all that stuff but once the game is on all the traffic will go locally. There just isn't something called LAN mode. They're probably forcing online for ranking, exp, cheat protection and such.
Think of it like Steam.
I'm playing in the Heroes of Newerth (Dota Clone with a new engine) beta right now and it doesn't seem to have LAN support too
so this will probably be the new trend to prevent piracy
I kinda have mixed feelings for it personally
What can LAN do that Battle.net can't?
Of course, if Blizzard do not want to give LAN support, they are free to do so. But then, a hundred thousand potential customers might also decide not to buy the game, and they are free to voice their anger. We'll see if Blizzard/Activision take them seriously.
It's capitalism - if a game publisher/studio start to do things the customer does not like, then that company will lose business. At this point it is a mind-game: will those 100,000 customers stick to their guns? Are they seriously willing to boycott SC2 over LAN? Is 100,000 a big enough figure?
Personally, I don't care about LAN support. I know a lot of people do - hell, a very long time ago when I was 14 I used to play against friends using LAN. We'd all take our computers over (usually to my house for some reason - possibly because they wanted free food) and we'd have a grand old time.
But since I no longer have many friends, and because I have a VERY reliable and good internet connection, I recognize that I no longer need LAN. Therefore, I will not be joining in this petition. It does not represent my voice as a consumer.
To all those who will boycott it, I understand you care about this issue and you have my support (sort of).
pfft...There is no "voice" on a fairly anonymous online petition. People ignore online petitions because they mean nothing. Typing 40 characters into a website and clicking a button is hardly anything worthy of praise.
If they actually wanted to affect change they would have to write a physical letter campaign or organize some sort of "message bomb" (think the peanut thing for the TV show Jericho). Of course that would require more actual effort, which is something I think the gaming community is incapable of.
LAN can work when you don't have internet....
Or, in reality, we will probably just pass around a pirated disc so even those of us that do already own it can play it in a LAN environment. Smart thinking Blizzard! Remove a reason for consumers to buy your game to prevent them from pirating something they will be able to anyway.
actually,LAN will be the only way we will be able to enjoy SC2 multiplayer just like SephirothX mentioned.
In my country ,we normally play war craft 3 Dota custom maps , COD games , L4D and some other RTS on LAN and xbox360 through system links or split screen.
I just signed that partition now and i'm gonna ask my friends and other gamers to do the same.There's 103929 sig. in total now.
And yes, it DOES suck that they're not allowing LAN multiplayer.
@ SephirothX
Am I wrong or we will need to buy Starcraft 2 two times to be able to play a game at home with a friend ?
@ Paviel
If yes, this is answering way more your previous question
I like many others bought this game legitimately and will now be forced to download a crack in order to play LAN with my friends who also find it ridiculous that you can only play online.
So in my mind, Blizzard have not solved the piracy problem regarding their game, but have instead added fuel to the flame, and its only a matter of time before a crack is released and many legitimate users WILL download it so that they may play LAN.