Oh, Internet, you and your silly petitions that nobody will ever bother actually reading. Hot off the back of Blizzard revealing that StarCraft II would not support LAN, a bunch of hardcore StarCraft fans have banded together to petition the studio and demand that the feature be reinstalled.
The petition is at least respectful, imploring Blizzard to bring LAN back, and pointing out that Internet connections aren't always available and that it was LAN that cemented StarCraft's popularity in the first place. The petition currently has 25101 signatures, so it's not quite a Left 4 Dead 2 boycott yet, but it's early days.
That said, do these petititons really ever work? Only when they're a marketing stunt, and I have a feeling that Blizzard isn't yoinking out LAN simply for publicity. We'll see if the democratic process wins out this time, but it's highly doubtful that Blizzard will reconsider because of an Internet petition.
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Contest:
8:30 PM on 07.01.2009
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That's like 1% of the people who play Starcraft.
It looks like it's going to be Battle.net or GTFO!
...OH WAIT...
This whole no-LAN thing scares me. I love LAN games, theyre much more personal and fun than fighting faceless robots on the internet, and my whole flat is looking forward to Diablo 3. If we have to play via blizzard servers while we all sit in the same room together, I'm gonna be pissed off, but with nothing to do about it, mostly just sad.
In the end, this is gonna support hacking the games to provide LAN support in some way, maybe by setting up a local fake server. Theyre not gonna stop it... not forever.
How the hell are LAN parties supposed to play without LAN or other events.
But will blizzard listen?
Probably Not
There are other factors to take into account beyond the petition itself and I definitely don't mean to overstate the power of online petitions since they're largely whiny piles of shit.
I think it's a given that every Starcraft player would prefer LAN play, but if it was removed from the game, only a very small handfull would actually refrain from buying it. Blizzard knows this, the bastards...
But regardless, I'll sign! I'll be damned if I gotta buy more than one copy to play some MP action with friends. Of course, I don't play multiplayer on these types of games anyway, but still!
Besides, I'll probably just pirate it anyway and enjoy the single player campaign muahahahahaha! (Not serious, FBI don't arrest me!)
> I have a feeling that Blizzard isn't yoinking out LAN simply for publicity
My left-field theory is that the Activision influence is the source of removing proper LAN support. The designers that let this information out before they were supposed to did so intentionally because they thought it was a bad choice and wanted to stir the pot a bit.
For those that do not know, there is software that allows LAN games over the internet by fooling the PC into thinking the PC's are on the same network.
By using these newfangled devices called routers, LAN isn't needed anymore, its a thing of the past.
@Kyousuke Nanbu
WTF? Do you know what LAN is?
That was a rumor, Blizzard has stated many times that there will be no fee for Battle.net
@ Kyousuke Nanbu
That is LAN...
Because everyone who hosts a LAN has a personal fiber connection to support 20-50 players off their home connection. Wait, you're an idiot.
My siblings and I (4) get together at my parents' on holidays and LAN. Apparently Starcraft 2 will never be a game we play since my parents don't have broadband available much less a good enough connection to support all of us.
Unfortunately I have to agree with Jim Sterling, (who is an arrogant, apathetic, consumer hating, publisher-cockgobbler), that online petitions are ignored and ineffective. However, the sentiment and using whatever methods possible to communicate your upset as a potential consumer before this is released shouldn't be mocked. Who can honestly say what, if anything, will get LAN added? Who can say what, if anything, will bring democracy to China?
Surely we're going to have many failed and foolish attempts, that doesn't mean the cause isn't worth giving an effort to.*
*Yes, LAN in SC2 is at least as important as democracy in China.
LAN = LOL AT NANBU
I signed it. I'm not all 'OH SHIT THAT IS BAD B000O' like some, but I miss LAN. Some of my best memories are using LAN on SC with a couple friends and getting completely destroyed by a stream of Zerg that block out the floor.
It sort of worked during the Spore and Mass Effect SecuROM scandal. Granted, it wasn't a complete success then (it just got rid of the periodical activation, not the initial one), but it got EA to do SOMETHING NOT IMMENSELY PROFITABLE. You'd think it'd be worth another shot.
> Why would they take it out in the first place?
What it boils down to is adding forced authentication to any multiplayer game so they can more effectively monetize "battle.net 2.0".
I think these things have more power than you think, if the number of people gets high enough :)
WARDROX ADVOCATES TERRORISM.
They never meant to take LAN availability out, but predicted this scenario.
1. Be a jerk and announce to cut LAN for silly reasons, even though you don't really plan to cut it at all
2. Wait for petition to appear on the internet
3. Seemingly care about your customers but say it's impossible for some silly reason.
4. Wait for more signatures on the petition
5. Put in LANability again
6. ???
7. Be loved for putting it back in and gain credit for listening to your customers
Ohyes.
It's about removing a feature that's commonly in use to this day. Everytime I play WC3 with my friends, I do it on our apartment's network. I want to be able to do the same with SC2.
It is an anti-piracy move, making their online play have similar verification requirements as an MMO. In other words, if you don't log in to their service then you don't play online...period.
Starcraft 2 would get pirated in the many millions without something like this, especially in Asia. A signature list of 25k doesn't even begin to come close to that. Their minds will not be changed, and there is no way the public will convince them otherwise.