No LAN play in Starcraft II?

[SunnyD]

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Rob Pardo is the VP of Game Design, and he had strong words for LAN play when he spoke with IncGamers. "We don't have any plans to support LAN," he told the site, also saying, "We will not support it."

WTF?

I assume it will be all Battle.net-based... but still. They're cutting the heart out of one of the genre-games that made the scene!

 

[natebigdawg]

I think that is ridiculous!

Why can't they just do what Company of Heroes does or Steam and just have come kind of an offline mode? I understand their desire to stop pirating of games but does Blizzard not realize that their games are probably the most legitimately owned games out there?

 

[TridenT]

Probably to counter piracy.

 

[Lonyo]

So they don't want SC2 to take over the competitive mantle of SC1?

 

[garkon]

Come on, game company's are so lame. We cant even get lan anymore because it's an incentive to pirate? PUH-LES! LAN is head and shoulders above playing MP online. Like blizzard isn't gonna sell millions of copy's of this game anyways. And it's not like it's not gonna be pirated because there's no LAN, tards.

 

[garkon]

excuse me, ass holes.

 

[natebigdawg]

The more I think about it, this is a pretty smart move though annoying nonetheless.

Removing the LAN feature completely basically rids any chance of a game being cracked and played via LAN since that is no longer a play option. Only possibility I would see is somehow creating a "free" internet server program that hacked copies could somehow connect to a small LAN-type lobby. Possibly something like Hamachi which creates VPN's over the internet for LAN-type play of any game without authentication.

The really lame thing about this is that Blizzard is being positioned as Single Player friendly with an extensive single player campaign but if you have any intent whatsoever of playing it multilayer, an internet connection (Broadband of course) would be required.

As long as I have a flawless connection when playing with 8 players at my house on a cable broadband, I will be ok with this. Any real LAN party should have a broadband connection anyways. I am sick of people showing up with pirated versions of good solid games that I have legitimately anyways. I just hope that Blizzard does not end up requiring ownership of all three games for the full Multilayer experience!

 

[TridenT]

Um... Huge incentive to pirate Demigod was because there was LAN play and people used Hamachi to play it online that way...

 

[ZzZGuy]

Start sending emails and hitting up their forums.

 

[Piuc2020]

That sucks so much... what if I want to play with my friend locally?

It started when they released World of Warcraft and neglected pretty much every other IP and it finished when Blizzard merged with Activision: Blizzard officially sucks, I hope this is just a rumor or a misunderstanding or something because I don't know why Blizzard would do something like this.

Blizzard is guaranteed to sell millions and millions of copies of Starcraft II, why give their customers the shaft just to prevent piracy? LAN play is a very popular option used by many legit customers and tournaments; so what, now when they play on Blizzcon they're gonna have each player connect to b.net and then play the tournament match? That's sounds beyond stupid.

The more I think about it, the less it makes sense, I'm sure it's just a rumor or a misunderstanding.

 

[Beev]

I highly doubt it's to combat piracy. How many LAN parties exist that don't have any internet at all? They can just play on battle.net. Historically Blizzard hasn't really combated piracy, but of course that could have changed.

Being done specifically to combat piracy? Extremely doubtful.
Combatting piracy nonetheless? Yep.

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by: Beev
... How many LAN parties exist that don't have any internet at all? ...

I don't see the big deal.

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: Beev
I highly doubt it's to combat piracy. How many LAN parties exist that don't have any internet at all? They can just play on battle.net. Historically Blizzard hasn't really combated piracy, but of course that could have changed.

Being done specifically to combat piracy? Extremely doubtful.
Combatting piracy nonetheless? Yep.

Then what's the reason? And the LAN party reason is beyond dumb, ethernet connections are much more reliable; lan games are easier to set up to your liking and latency is never, ever going to be as low on b.net as it's going to be through an ethernet cable.

I wouldn't mind if they only allowed one cd-key per lan and maybe even do an internet check for cd-key validation, both are draconian and extremely annoying but not as downright stupid as removing LAN altogether.

Ugh, I was considering pre-ordering Starcraft II but now I may skip on the game, I play Warcraft III on LAN all the time, I have a valid cd-key and I even prefer playing on Garena which has much less lag and a better community than b.net

I'm sure Blizzard will come around. The idea is just too ridiculous.

 

[Genx87]

I am getting older but do people really get together and play lan games anymore? The reason we did it back in the day was because internet sucked a donkeys ass though a 56Kbps or slower connection. It was worth getting together to play SC1 or other games like that. Now a days the vast majority of gamers have 1.5+Mbps lines hooked right to their homes and can use ventrillo or even a cell phone to talk.

/shrug

 

[Modelworks]

There are workarounds if they decide not to include it, still it is something they should include.
Anyone remember the days of LAN play when you could get 10 people together, but only 1 of those had to have the cd in the drive ?
That is the proper way to do LAN.

 

[Dumac]

People played Starcraft with friends? over LAN? People plan on playing SC2 with friends over LAN?

If you want to play SC with friends, just use bnet.

However, does this mean tournaments are gonna be played over bnet? :roll:

I bet it is to combat piracy.

 

[Beev]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
Then what's the reason? And the LAN party reason is beyond dumb, ethernet connections are much more reliable; lan games are easier to set up to your liking and latency is never, ever going to be as low on b.net as it's going to be through an ethernet cable.

I wouldn't mind if they only allowed one cd-key per lan and maybe even do an internet check for cd-key validation, both are draconian and extremely annoying but not as downright stupid as removing LAN altogether.

Ugh, I was considering pre-ordering Starcraft II but now I may skip on the game, I play Warcraft III on LAN all the time, I have a valid cd-key and I even prefer playing on Garena which has much less lag and a better community than b.net

I'm sure Blizzard will come around. The idea is just too ridiculous.

Could be they want to track everything for statistics purposes. I really don't know as I don't work for Blizzard. There has to be a real reason though, but I'm betting piracy isn't it.

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Anyone remember the days of LAN play when you could get 10 people together, but only 1 of those had to have the cd in the drive ?
That is the proper way to do LAN.

100% disagree. Buy your own damn copy. If you don't own it, you don't want to play it badly enough.

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: Genx87
I am getting older but do people really get together and play lan games anymore? The reason we did it back in the day was because internet sucked a donkeys ass though a 56Kbps or slower connection. It was worth getting together to play SC1 or other games like that. Now a days the vast majority of gamers have 1.5+Mbps lines hooked right to their homes and can use ventrillo or even a cell phone to talk.

/shrug

There is this thing, it's called social interaction.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Beev

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Anyone remember the days of LAN play when you could get 10 people together, but only 1 of those had to have the cd in the drive ?
That is the proper way to do LAN.

100% disagree. Buy your own damn copy. If you don't own it, you don't want to play it badly enough.

It isn't about piracy. It is called spawning . It is a big deal at LAN parties because each person could install a LAN only version of the game that would then link back to one pc with the full game installed. Once the LAN party was over those spawned versions did not work anymore.

If a new game was out that supported it everyone could play and try it out on the LAN. It led to a lot of sales for games because everyone could bring a game to the party that supported spawning, and once playing on the LAN many would buy it.

 

[Auryg]

Originally posted by: flashbacck

Originally posted by: Beev
... How many LAN parties exist that don't have any internet at all? ...

I don't see the big deal.

We throw at least one every week in the summer, so this pretty much axes any potential for me and my friends to buy it.

 

[BladeVenom]

Originally posted by: videogames101

Originally posted by: Genx87
I am getting older but do people really get together and play lan games anymore? The reason we did it back in the day was because internet sucked a donkeys ass though a 56Kbps or slower connection. It was worth getting together to play SC1 or other games like that. Now a days the vast majority of gamers have 1.5+Mbps lines hooked right to their homes and can use ventrillo or even a cell phone to talk.

/shrug

There is this thing, it's called social interaction.

I guess whoever is running things at Activision Blizzard has no friends.

 

[Beev]

Originally posted by: Auryg

We throw at least one every week in the summer, so this pretty much axes any potential for me and my friends to buy it.

You completely cut off your computers from the internet when you have a LAN party? Why?

 

[dguy6789]

If they actually omit lan support, I will not be buying this game. Selling the game three different times was bad enough, but now it's just plain ridiculous. I wonder if they will get rid of lan support for Diablo 3 as well.

Not everyone does lan parties at a lan center. A lot of people do it from their homes. Not everyone has the upload bandwidth required to support 12+ people playing at the same time from a single connection.

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by: Auryg

Originally posted by: flashbacck

Originally posted by: Beev
... How many LAN parties exist that don't have any internet at all? ...

I don't see the big deal.

We throw at least one every week in the summer, so this pretty much axes any potential for me and my friends to buy it.

And you can't do this at a friend's house with internet?

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: videogames101

Originally posted by: Genx87
I am getting older but do people really get together and play lan games anymore? The reason we did it back in the day was because internet sucked a donkeys ass though a 56Kbps or slower connection. It was worth getting together to play SC1 or other games like that. Now a days the vast majority of gamers have 1.5+Mbps lines hooked right to their homes and can use ventrillo or even a cell phone to talk.

/shrug

There is this thing, it's called social interaction.

Computer gaming and social interaction, funny
You can still do it via a phone or vent.

/shrug