Starcraft II DRM?

[CurseTheSky]

Not trying to start a flame fest here - just a quick question.

I have a pre-order for Starcraft II and I'm waiting anxiously for Tuesday. Unfortunately I didn't get into beta, so other than the numerous videos I've watched (<3 HuskyStarcraft and HDstarcraft), I don't know what to expect.

I have both my desktop and my laptop that I plan to play the game on. I really don't want to lug the disc around when I go mobile. Does anyone know if it requires the disc to be in the drive to play, or can I install it and forget about it? Yes, yes, I know - no CD cracks probably are / will be available. I just don't like them.

Thanks.

 

[eggrolls]

You will need an internet connection to play. This probably applies to single player as well.

 

[CurseTheSky]

You will need an internet connection to play. This probably applies to single player as well.

Sweet, thanks.

Quick, someone lock this before it goes downhill.

 

[smackababy]

I believe you have to log into your bnet account in order to play, at least that is how the beta is.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

You will need an internet connection to play. This probably applies to single player as well.

If they did that without announcing prior, it would create such a shitstorm that not even Blizzard could recover from.

You can already watch replays without a connection on beta if you know what you're doing, but the multiplayer beta is of course only going to work with a connection to battlenet. I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't get achievements while offline or something.

 

[smackababy]

I am thinking after you register the game, you only have to authenticate once and when you go on multiplayer. I don't think they will require an internet connection for single player, but they do know this game is going to sell no matter what.

 

[shortylickens]

If you steal it Micheal Morhaime comes to your house and chops off your fingers.

 

[Hacp]

You need an internet connection to play single player. The AIs are all stored on blizzard's server. One of the reasons I'm not buying the game.

 

[Powermoloch]

well, 1 less game to buy. Why on earth they have to be online for single player lol :S

 

[secretanchitman]

what? i thought you didnt need internet to play single player - i read somewhere that there was an "offline mode" available..

 

[Attic]

not too into this one despite being a big Blizzard fan. The online req. for single player seals its fate for me. Not going to support that crap.

Legit buyers should be rewarded, not punished.

 

[Grooveriding]

You need to be online for singleplayer.

Online and logged into a battle.net account. Diablo 3 will be like this as well.

Blizzard makes great games, but lately there has been a lot of utter bullshit coming from them in some policies. The RealID thing was one, and this online only and no LAN in SC2 is yet another.

Surely this is all a result of the company's transition from being a great game development house to what is a now a huge cash register making incredible profits off wow. It's a remarkable business they've found fallen into their lap, a product that has a very small production cost relative to incoming cashflow. Huge sales of a myriad of essentially cost-less to produce services.

I guess we're starting to see what must now be a powerful corporate culture at the top of the company leaving it's footprint on the games they're releasing.

It's likely pointless anyways, SC2 will be pirated just like every game is pirated, people will be able to play the single player campaign on a pirated copy for certain. I doubt the multiplayer will be hacked for a service like hamachi though with the way battle.net is so integrated into the game, at least not without a lot of work on someone(s) part(s)

 

[Pia]

If it was any other game, this sort of DRM would cause me to delay my purchase until the game was $10 or less. I have adhered to that rule rather religiously so far.

 

[Barfo]

You need an internet connection to play single player. The AIs are all stored on blizzard's server. One of the reasons I'm not buying the game.

link?

 

[lupi]

can't wait till release comes and people find out about this.

 

[shortylickens]

not too into this one despite being a big Blizzard fan. The online req. for single player seals its fate for me. Not going to support that crap.

Legit buyers should be rewarded, not punished.

This.
And I just checked online, Razer1911 already cracked the beta to be played offline. I am sure they will do the same with the retail when it comes out.
Once again, the pirates have it better than the owners.
Fucking hilarious.

 

[taserbro]

link?

Sir, your skepticism is a breath of fresh air in a world where knee-jerk reactions seem to drown out even official information one google search away.
It has been confirmed that the single player mode can be played without connecting to bnet; the connection only allows for achievements to be updated into your account to display, if that's the sort of thing that tickles your fancy.

I'll wager that the unofficial patch will mostly be used to activate the copies without a legit code to go through the ephemeral un-ubisoft-evil-like one-time activation.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Sir, your skepticism is a breath of fresh air in a world where knee-jerk reactions seem to drown out even official information one google search away.
It has been confirmed that the single player mode can be played without connecting to bnet; the connection only allows for achievements to be updated into your account to display, if that's the sort of thing that tickles your fancy.

I'll wager that the unofficial patch will mostly be used to activate the copies without a legit code to go through the ephemeral un-ubisoft-evil-like one-time activation.

Hahah, this.

 

[Ika]

no kidding, you think there'd be a bigger deal if Blizzard forced you to be online for the single player of SC2...

 

[Dumac]

You need an internet connection to play single player. The AIs are all stored on blizzard's server. One of the reasons I'm not buying the game.

What?

Not only have I already played the beta offline through cracking it before I got in (proving the AI isn't stored on "blizzard's server"), but when I did get into the beta there was an "offline mode" button whenever I started up the game without an internet connection, or when the servers were down.

 

[imaheadcase]

I was about to say, the back of the retail SC2 box says "Internet Connection required for online play".

 

[Maximilian]

Sir, your skepticism is a breath of fresh air in a world where knee-jerk reactions seem to drown out even official information one google search away.
It has been confirmed that the single player mode can be played without connecting to bnet; the connection only allows for achievements to be updated into your account to display, if that's the sort of thing that tickles your fancy.

I'll wager that the unofficial patch will mostly be used to activate the copies without a legit code to go through the ephemeral un-ubisoft-evil-like one-time activation.

So what the guy said about the AI being only in blizzards server is garbage then? Good, sounded like a very strange system to have in place.

 

[Molondo]

it wouldn't make sense to not allow for single player offline.

 

[dopee123]

The Kotaku article says the game will be missing lots of "features" if played offline. Wonder what those features could be?

 

[Tsavo]

It'll be hacked, cracked and lovingly filled with keyloggers, viruses and other assorted malware a week after it is released.