Starcraft 2 won't support LAN play

[BabyHeadCrab]

via Kotaku

I'm suddenly not even slightly interested. LAN was pretty much the only way I played SC, setting up wireless networks with my buddies on our notebooks outside on my campus, etc. This is an incredibly ridiculous move and I hope consumers make a genuine fuss.

And... looks like they've all been sent this canned response to address the outcry:

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. 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

All part of a supposed push for what Blizzard previously suggested would be a "monetized battle.net". I honestly wanted to believe that this kind of thing wouldn't start happening.

Bear in mind:

The reason Starcraft became the sensation it is is it's multiplayer, by forcing players to rely on battle.net it not only "combats piracy", but also introduces a MMOG or DLC style business model. Your bullshit alarm should be sounding if you honestly believe they're doing it to "improve the core multiplayer experience", it's almost offensive how stupid they expect their target demographic to be.

Surely there's a happy medium that doesn't involve gutting the core Starcraft experience. I'd take one time online activation a million times over something like this.

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comprehensive list
Tom's Hardware editorial
IGN reports
what the non-gaming press is saying

 

[Acepilotf14]

I heard earlier.

Also, this will ruin any kind of organized play they plan to have. We have to assume they're going to come up with something else, or realize their mistake.

 

[Dog--]

Who cares LAN is gay. Just make a room with a password. Everyone - EVERYONE - should have internet, no exceptions.

 

[Stigmata]

Who cares LAN is gay. Just make a room with a password. Everyone - EVERYONE - should have internet, no exceptions.

LAN is the reason I play videogames today.

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

HEY LETS MAKE A GAME AND THEN NOT PUT IN THE ESSENTIAL FEATURES IN IT . THAT WILL MAKE SO MUCH MONIES.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Who cares LAN is gay. Just make a room with a password. Everyone - EVERYONE - should have internet, no exceptions.

Stupid. You are aware that a lot of gaming happens in impromptu get togethers in which an internet connection (or even a concrete LAN) is entirely absent (you create the LAN through your computers wireless card, etc). No, internet connections are in fact often absent in the case of LAN play, stop assuming everyone lives the same life you do.

Not to mention the latency issues.

 

[SpiderPig]

Holy shit, this was gonna be my game of choice at LAN partys..

 

[Ennui]

omg boycott starcraft 2!!!!

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Nah, bra

Pretty clever use of sarcasm though! Are you honestly not even miffed a little bit?

 

[YROC]

Lack of LAN is lame, but i'll still buy the game. I can't stop playing the first one.

Btw, if anyone wants to play the first, let me know. My skill is decent to "meh".

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Someone quickly make a childish steam group!

 

[MorganFreeman911]

LAN is the reason I play videogames today.

Yep. LAN Parties are the shit.

 

[Stigmata]

What I don't understand is how Valve can accomplish LAN gaming with an online authentication service, while Blizzard has to be a cock and require you to play over Battle.net at all times.

 

[Ennui]

Nah, bra

Pretty clever use of sarcasm though! Are you honestly not even miffed a little bit?

I would definitely prefer lan, but pretty much anywhere my computer is on a network (i e with other comps) there's an internet connection. If they asked me I would say give it lan but I'm not going to be outraged over its absence, just irritated.

 

[15357]

I can see Blizzard Korea getting bombed over this. Seriously. Without LAN you can't have pro gamers tournaments in facilities that aren't conneceted to the internet for security reasons. Which is about 90% of all Korean e-sport facilities.




Although most likely we'll say **** the EULA and "add" a LAN mode to the damn game. Or make a SCII LAN program ourselves.

 

[Stormy]

^^ Me puking my guys with laughter! !!PMGWL!!

HAHAHAHA Sucks to be a SCII Fan boy!!

 

[YROC]

The game is going to be great regardless.

 

[Operational]

Well that is lame, I'll still be buying the game though. TBH I'd probably be using Battle.net way more anyway but it does make me worry about Diablo 3 - Diablo without LAN would be terrible.

Edit: Turns out Diablo 3 has already been confirmed not to have LAN

And you just know pirates are gonna find a way to add LAN back in and it'll be another case of piracy offering a better service for some people than the legitimate product.

Blizzard and Valve are often cited as the PCs best hope for high budget gaming on the PC. Blizzard's rep is going to take a hit if they keep this bizarre policy.

 

[Dekstar]

And you just know pirates are gonna find a way to add LAN back in and it'll be another case of piracy offering a better service for some people than the legitimate product.

This. Fake battle.net authentication servers that run from your own computer will probably crop up first, then they might just find a way around it entirely. Didn't take Steam-game piraters long to make Steam register a different master server, showing only cracked servers, so I can't see how SC2 will be different.

Personally I think it shows a lack of insight and forethought to their fans, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people would have one copy for online play, then just have a patched version for offline/LAN play.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

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. 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.

Nah, its all about the piracy, quality multiplayer experience comes with the least amount of ping, hence LAN networks

 

[Lucid]

God, they better not ****ing add any sort of fees at all to the game.

 

[Stormy]

I bet they do... ****ing greedy bastards.

 

[CyberPitz]

It's amazing how many people are just instantly jumping at the fact that since they said no LAN, means there's no alternate way they can do it.

They are looking towards Korea to how best to treat this game in the E-Sports scene. They wouldn't just take out LAN, then flip off Korea. Anybody who believes that are just freaking retarded. They probably have an alternate way of going about it with Bnet 2.0. Kind of like Steam, you register up and then you can use Bnet in some form of "Offline Mode". Prevents pirates that slight bit more that way.

Man, I expected this sort of explosion from starcraft2forum.org, but they were all pretty logical about it. You guys freaked out like kids that didn't get candy that day.

 

[Gargantou]

Yet another case of legit customers being punished all in the name of combating piracy.

 

[CyberPitz]

Yet another case of legit customers being punished all in the name of combating piracy.

*sigh*

Does nobody read posts before actually hitting the "reply" button?

Do you HONESTLY think they are just going to take out the largest portion that SC 1 has going for it?

 

[swan_song1973]

dumkopfs. they're gonna lose a lotta koreans for this move.

 

[CyberPitz]

Nope, people Don't read before posting.

 

[Quixoticism]

That's apparently what they have just announced...

I'll be very upset if they stick to this and there is no LAN support at all. Blizzards online net code blows.(at least in WC3 it does) Makes it hard to play competitively. :|

 

[Operational]

They probably have an alternate way of going about it with Bnet 2.0. Kind of like Steam, you register up and then you can use Bnet in some form of "Offline Mode".

Right an Offline Battle.net which you would then use... over LAN.

If they were going to have a LAN feature that still needed some kind of link to battle.net they would say, "yes there is LAN but you'll need to activate it via battle.net". This is not what they have said, they said, "we don't have any plans to support LAN". Unless Blizz clarifies it as a misleading statement or changes their minds that is exactly what it means.

 

[TwwIX]

Another stupid ploy to decrease piracy.

 

[CyberPitz]

Right an Offline Battle.net which you would then use... over LAN.

If they were going to have a LAN feature that still needed some kind of link to battle.net they would say, "yes there is LAN but you'll need to activate it via battle.net". This is not what they have said, they said, "we don't have any plans to support LAN". Unless Blizz clarifies it as a misleading statement or changes their minds that is exactly what it means.

I think it's a mis-communication. How would pro sports be played? You've read/heard about every inch of news that's coming through. They have e-sports in mind primarily. Taking out LAN will ruin that completely. *Although, you can play on iCCUP without worrying about any sort of lag, so maybe they are going to do something like that.*

The ability to play the game in a LAN like state is VERY possible. Again, I'm sure it's going to be something that clicks when they give more info on it later. You guys have to be stupid to seriously think they are going to tell Korea to just get over it.

 

[Shakermaker]

Pitzy seems to be the voice of reason in this thread. It is just plain stupid to assume that Blizz is going to f*** with millions of Koreans and other people that want to use LAN connections.

 

[Operational]

I think it's a mis-communication.

I hope so.

How would pro sports be played? You've read/heard about every inch of news that's coming through. They have e-sports in mind primarily. Taking out LAN will ruin that completely.

There are ways to go about catering to the e-sports guys without including LAN support for the general end user.

They could, for example, give tournament organisers the ability to run a battle.net server. This would then allow them to run a tournament without needing the Internet - participants would just connect to the tournament's battle.net.

Or maybe they want tournaments to go though battle.net while giving match organisers abilities like broadcasting matches over battle.net (along with commentary, interludes, ads, etc).

 

[CyberPitz]

Yeah, that's quite the possibility. Or, in the e-sports scene, they may give them their own Bnet server. I know Blizzard is partnered with GOM now, so that is quite the possibility.

I'm not saying I'm right, and there WILL be LAN of some sort of the usual gamer...I'm just trying to say wait. They made an announcement, it could be a smoke screen for something to be revealed later. Let's hope there is some way to do LAN with it. I have faith in Blizzard, lets see what they do.

*EDIT* Also, bnet was catered towards 56k. It was built along those lines. I have a great feeling that people causally playing on bnet 2.0 will have LAN like latency. That's a plus thus far, right?

 

[Rico]

The truth of the matter is, as much as I would like to be optimistic about it like Pitz is, until we hear something definite from Blizzard about any alternate means to internet play I will just have to take what they have said (which is NO LAN play) versus what they may or may not have plan to replace LAN or at least give us a semblance of it.

So based on current knowledge, boo Blizzard. I've always considered them one of the better game companies but they are slowly slipping downhill in my book.

 

[CyberPitz]

In their defense, you can already play lan latency with people on your network via bnet.

Getting it to work is hit and miss. I've never been able to get it to work, but others have.

Being optimistic like me, as you said, isn't a fault. It's not much different than the people freaking out over L4D2...except this is a lot lower scale lol. Since when was being a pessimist on something the right and default place to be at? Have a little hope!

 

[Stigmata]

The truth of the matter is, as much as I would like to be optimistic about it like Pitz is, until we hear something definite from Blizzard about any alternate means to internet play I will just have to take what they have said (which is NO LAN play) versus what they may or may not have plan to replace LAN or at least give us a semblance of it.

So based on current knowledge, boo Blizzard. I've always considered them one of the better game companies but they are slowly slipping downhill in my book.

This. If they're going to backtrack and say that they do have plans to support LAN, then they can go right ahead and do that. But until then I'm going to be pissed.

 

[CyberPitz]

This. If they're going to backtrack and say that they do have plans to support LAN, then they can go right ahead and do that. But until then I'm going to be pissed.

They won't backtrack. They said they won't support LAN at all. They WILL have an alternative to LAN. Will it mean you have to have an internet connection and verify? More than likely. But don't think they will backtrack and say "JUST KIDDING, WE HAVE LAN." Nope....though, not sure how it will pan out, but it will. Blizzard isn't exactly retarded.

 

[Gargantou]

*sigh*

Does nobody read posts before actually hitting the "reply" button?

Do you HONESTLY think they are just going to take out the largest portion that SC 1 has going for it?

Nope, I actually started writing the post before yours was posted, but then I had to run to the toilet, and after I had posted mine, you had already posted yours.

So ..|..

 

[CyberPitz]

Nope, I actually started writing the post before yours was posted, but then I had to run to the toilet, and after I had posted mine, you had already posted yours.

So ..|..

That'll teach you to potty!

Also, you flip people off in one weird way. You move your thumb up next to your knuckles?