Bad English cuz it's the guy's second language but this is from TL.net. Gotta say this is 99% the likely reason for no "LAN"... I assume it will have a steam like option to play in offline mode, but time will tell.
First of all, I am a long time lurker here at TL, back to 2003 I think. I enjoyed TL a lot but too lazy to post.
But now I find a very good reason to share my point of view and information that I?ve obtained.
We all know that currently Blizzard have no plan to support LAN in the upcoming SC2, and many wonder why?
I think I may have answers to many of your questions.
The reason lies in pirating and particularly in China.
First of all let me do a quick introduce about the backbone of Chinese SC/WC3 gaming platform in China:
As we already known Chinese SC players are among the best outside of Korea, and I can guarantee you that most of Chinese SC players don?t even play on Bnet. They play on a gaming platform called Haofang(and few others but Haofang is the 1st and the biggest)
A few thing about Haofang: It is biggest gaming site in China, it has millions of users for many games including SC and WC3. It is free and using LAN(TCP/IP protocol) to allow players to play.
How Haofang works: You download a small program for Haofang, run it, tell it where your SC folder is. You join a room(max 255 players because TCP/IP can handle max to 255)then hit RUN, the little program will load your SC up and instead of log on to Bnet you go to LAN, and can find many games their to play since 255 players in the same room is a lot.
Why it is bad: Cos millions of players in China were/are/going to using pirated SC/WC3 to play without any limitation.
Why Blizzard cares: Of course they care, if even SC2 is going to last only half the life of SC the next big market is definitely China(cos Korea is given). If things going on like SC/WC3 Blizzard is going to lose tons of money.
Did Blizzard do anything about it: Yes they did but failed. A few year back Blizzard sued Haofang but lost and Haofang is continue to grow and now become the most recognize site in China(among gamers of course).
Why is Haofang able to sneak pass Blizzard: Haofang told that they only allow players play via LAN(TCP/IP) they do not do anything to mess with Blizzard Battle.net and thus can not be judged. I know it is bullshit since it allows players with pirated copies play multi play which is the life SC, but it holds true in the EULA and Blizzard can do nothing about it.
So to conclude, When I see the news about Blizzard not support LAN, to tell the truth I wasn?t surprised at all. I knew it gonna come it some form or another. I am just deeply sorry for us those dedicated gamers got affected by pirate using scum.
I feel deeply for Blizzard, this is a very difficult decision for them to make but I think it is a necessary one. Long live BLIZZARD.
That?s it for now, discuss whatever you want!
[UPDATE]
For people that think that Blizzard removing LAN support to prevent the game being hacked, it is not true.
SC2 will be hacked and put on torrent sharing site within a week when it comes out.
What Blizzard is trying to do here is prevent company like Haofang which encourage mass piracy.
In China and many others place in the world people only go out to buy the game after they find out that there is no way or ivery troublesome for their pirated copy to play online.
Even if this increase the people that buy the game in developing countries buy 10-20% it is a huge gain for Blizzard.
What I think we need to discuss now is how Blizzard should do it to make it less painful for legimated gamers. Maybe like many people have pointed out a system like Stream should work?
First of all, I am a long time lurker here at TL, back to 2003 I think. I enjoyed TL a lot but too lazy to post.
But now I find a very good reason to share my point of view and information that I?ve obtained.
We all know that currently Blizzard have no plan to support LAN in the upcoming SC2, and many wonder why?
I think I may have answers to many of your questions.
The reason lies in pirating and particularly in China.
First of all let me do a quick introduce about the backbone of Chinese SC/WC3 gaming platform in China:
As we already known Chinese SC players are among the best outside of Korea, and I can guarantee you that most of Chinese SC players don?t even play on Bnet. They play on a gaming platform called Haofang(and few others but Haofang is the 1st and the biggest)
A few thing about Haofang: It is biggest gaming site in China, it has millions of users for many games including SC and WC3. It is free and using LAN(TCP/IP protocol) to allow players to play.
How Haofang works: You download a small program for Haofang, run it, tell it where your SC folder is. You join a room(max 255 players because TCP/IP can handle max to 255)then hit RUN, the little program will load your SC up and instead of log on to Bnet you go to LAN, and can find many games their to play since 255 players in the same room is a lot.
Why it is bad: Cos millions of players in China were/are/going to using pirated SC/WC3 to play without any limitation.
Why Blizzard cares: Of course they care, if even SC2 is going to last only half the life of SC the next big market is definitely China(cos Korea is given). If things going on like SC/WC3 Blizzard is going to lose tons of money.
Did Blizzard do anything about it: Yes they did but failed. A few year back Blizzard sued Haofang but lost and Haofang is continue to grow and now become the most recognize site in China(among gamers of course).
Why is Haofang able to sneak pass Blizzard: Haofang told that they only allow players play via LAN(TCP/IP) they do not do anything to mess with Blizzard Battle.net and thus can not be judged. I know it is bullshit since it allows players with pirated copies play multi play which is the life SC, but it holds true in the EULA and Blizzard can do nothing about it.
So to conclude, When I see the news about Blizzard not support LAN, to tell the truth I wasn?t surprised at all. I knew it gonna come it some form or another. I am just deeply sorry for us those dedicated gamers got affected by pirate using scum.
I feel deeply for Blizzard, this is a very difficult decision for them to make but I think it is a necessary one. Long live BLIZZARD.
That?s it for now, discuss whatever you want!
[UPDATE]
For people that think that Blizzard removing LAN support to prevent the game being hacked, it is not true.
SC2 will be hacked and put on torrent sharing site within a week when it comes out.
What Blizzard is trying to do here is prevent company like Haofang which encourage mass piracy.
In China and many others place in the world people only go out to buy the game after they find out that there is no way or ivery troublesome for their pirated copy to play online.
Even if this increase the people that buy the game in developing countries buy 10-20% it is a huge gain for Blizzard.
What I think we need to discuss now is how Blizzard should do it to make it less painful for legimated gamers. Maybe like many people have pointed out a system like Stream should work?