Blizzard blames piracy for lack of StarCraft 2 LAN support

I'm aware, but that's really subject to the method they implement. But yes, nothing is a sure thing.

The angle I was approaching there was Battle.net itself can be circumvented, but authenticating with Battle.net could be *as* safe. If Blizzard is satisfied with playing on Battle.net as their anti-piracy solution, then Battle.net authentication for LAN play can be every bit as good... as ungood as that may be.

And of course, Battle.net itself has been circumvented with private servers... Heck, even WoW has unofficial, private servers. There's probably not much that is going to stop that for as long as they retain compatibility with the Battle.net service.

Blizzard is a good company and will gain my loyalty and purchases as long as they are reasonable.....

but if blizzard moves to something equivalent to steam or EA downloader and requires online activation then they lose my respect from my previous statement...

This is (yet another) a really poor decision on Blizzard's part. Stick it to the honest paying customers because of a few bad apples. OK, more than a few.

I greatly enjoyed playing SC over LAN with my friends, all of whom owned the game, including BW. I greatly disliked playing on battlenet.

Because of this, and Blizzard's obvious milking the license by making the 3 races separate purchases, I guess I will have to pass. You lose, Blizzard.

The problem is that you have to settle with the internet rather than LAN!!!

Im from Asia and I have a family of 6 - 5 of us play warcraft 2 (DOTA Maps) and we all LOVE Lan play. We have a shared internet connection of 1.5mbps (but really its like 500kbps). Thats really what our budget can afford (we are not going to upgrade for a simple game)!!!

So that is 5 users - using whats left of our connection - all at the same time!!!! Imagine the crazy lag going on!!! what about days without connection (storms)?? What now??

---><------>

You know what, chances are, we'll be seeing bootleg versions of the game with LAN support.

I wrote an email to sales and advertise @ blizzard.com, I got a response back from an actual person stating that they will forward my email to some one above. I don't know if they wil or will not , but at least some one read my email. Here's a link to the thread on our page along with the email that I've sent:

http://www.lanpartygods.com/portal/viewtopic.php?t=1778&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

I'd suggest anyone that cares to also send out an email and try to be heard.

Piracy is a scapegoat, and this is the first move before they start charging to play the game online. Mark my words.

The best article on piracy you will ever read:
http://insomnia.ac/commentary/pc_game_piracy/

"The whole piracy thing seems like just one more thing for developers to complain about. And they love to ***** and whine, don’t they? Game’s late? Not their fault. Game’s buggy? Not their fault. It’s another mind-numbingly derivative WWII shooter? Not their fault. “Market pressures”, don’t you know — if there’s anything gamers push for, it’s late, unfinished and/or hopelessly derivative games. PIRACY BAD!!!GRRRR! Oh, but copy protection that screws over legitimate customers? Yeah, sorry, take that one up with the publisher, our hands are tied."

...

We’re supposed to have sympathy for them too, even though by their own arguments they deserve to die off. Piracy is killing the PC market, but the response to any legitimate complaint is to stop buying PC games if we don’t like it. If we act rationally and refuse to throw the baby out with the bathwater and download a game, we’re killing them. What would they rather have us do? “Talk with our wallets” and not play the games at all, and certainly don’t buy them. Which would also kill the industry, but that’s somehow the more moral solution. Either way the industry is basically daring us to kill it.

Most people are talking with their wallets, which is why the market is shrinking. And what message does the industry take from that? That they should do something different? Nope. The message is that they should simply move to consoles due to a shrinking market they surely can’t be responsible for. So even when we do follow the “moral” way, nothing ****ing changes. So the decision, from our view, is between "No Games, Dead Industry" and "Pirate Games, Dead Industry".

In other words, if the industry isn’t going to get the message no matter what we do and is going to die either way, why should we deny ourselves the few good games that get released? Should I feel sorry for Ken Levine not getting paid for a good game? Nope. The industry doesn’t care about screwing us over in the name of unproven piracy damages, so I don’t see why we should care if a few decent developers get crushed in the name of taking down an industry that could not possibly care less about doing proper business with us."

If you consider yourself a truly hardcore SC fan, then you would buy SC2 even if you cannot play online (for now) for at least the campaign and the other playable modes available.

Since you do not care about SC, we do not care about your opinion. Please go play warhammer 40k.

k thx bye.

F*** blizard dumb *****s razor and vitality wil crack the game in the first 24 h from realease and in the next weeek they wil porbably put a lan crack so basicaly blizard only has done to dont make ppl buy it ,if it had lan i would have bouaght it

I've been a blizzard fan for ages and ive bought copies of each of thier games (except Diablo that was given to me)

Honestly this sounds like a money scheme that in reality has nothing to do with piracy this is only an excuse - I doubt they are in trouble financially with WoW having over 11 million players meaning they made over 400 mil on the game sales alone.... rough estimate since the game cost 39.99 here in the US

I kinda wonder if they will end up selling the LAN play add on in an Expansion format or something.....

I do have to say I am looking forward to SC2 since I love RTS games

The comment above about spore kind of just took the words out of my mouth, short story, but true.

I am all for piracy. I currently study in Ukraine and cannot in any way attain a real copy of any game. All games in this country even in the stores is pirated. Without PIRATE BAY I would'nt be able to play games 8 out of the 12 months that I am in School overseas. Maybe It should be a big deal in U.S but here in parts of Europe its essential The decision for Blizzard to remove LAN is *****ic. Sorry for harsh words, but how will I ever be able to have a LAN party when there isnt internet present. Honestly I dont believe Blizzard will lose any money if they offered lan support for Starcraft 2. Look at Starcraft 1 it was a huge success and has many, many fans and will even have many more new fans thanks to the appealing new graphics and game design. Anyway Blizzard can count on me to fly back to U.S if I have to just to buy a copy of the game that I group up with when I was young.

There are many many online retailers to download games from. being in the ukraine is not an excuse.

Silly. A pirate will net even give two shits on the whole issue and make, or wait for someone to make, a bnet crack that enable lan play. Blizzard is just being lazy here and I guess, what some other poster wrote, having ulterior motives behind this move, be it data collecting or whatever. It's about control from Blizzards side, screw the customer. Blizzard used to be a loved developer, nowadays who knows. I think WoW made them greedy sobs, but thats me. I know I wont buy into this whole mess and I will wait for some geek to program a bnet crack and give the hypotetical 'finger' to whatever pea-brained ***** that made this decision.

planning to charge subscriptions for b.net after a undefined period of time?

Having Starcraft 2 being sold at S$109 here in Singapore, 44 pounds in Britain, and around 60-70 US$ in North America has its own justifications, based on the logic of business, profiteering in order to further invest in future technologies, capital and labour just for the sake of development so that they will be able to compete and hopefully gain monopolistic power in the long run. That is the way business works. When demand is high, you set your prices high up there. The CEO of Activision, Bobby Kotick, could not have done a better job at that.

What they are failing to realise however, is that this move is not without its moral consequences. Setting prices up high at way past the typical market price for games like the same thing which they did to Modern Warfare 2 is going to seriously impact consumer decision-making. For that much money, one would rather buy 2 or 3 different games which will give more bang per buck in the long run. Furthermore, what Blizzard and Activision have ultimately done is indirectly imprecate and burden themselves with accusations of greed which will surely tarnish their reputation in the long run. Already, we have 250000 signatures on a Starcraft 2 boycott site, and hundreds of thousands for other Activision products, showing that when a company acts way too far in imposing overtly high prices, the consumers themselves do have the power to oppose by forming a rally or coalition in an act of dissent against such "bear marketing".

S$109 may not seem big in absolute terms, surely a number that almost anyone above the poverty line can afford, but for that much money to pay for a single game, think of the opportunity cost lost, and how much would have been better used for that amount of money, and the psychological impact of having spent that much knowing this. Consumers probably will not know this until they have been put into the boots of guilt. Furthermore, if there another moral issue involved, this includes responsibility for being part of propagating the greed of Activision by feeding them with raw, green cash which will in turn perpetuate their unrelentless incentive for profits. Greed is now disguised as business as an accepted ordinary jargon of mundane life, at least through the adage, or the potentially brain-washing meme that: "taking something from a man is theft, but taking something from a thousand individuals is the logic of business." Think about that that aphorism before making such a purchase; you will, in the very end, fall into the abyss and trap of not just continuing to reinforce their lack of repentence for setting prices low, but also be part of the grand (immoral) scheme of feeding the rich, and making consumers lose utility in the long run.

Until they lower prices to a reasonable S$50-70 or so, people are just going to oppose this movement covertly or overtly. Openly through direct disapproval or disapprobation or boycott. Covertly through piracy, other illegal means, or simply by passive resistance by not making a purchasal. Capitalism might have made revolutionary breakthroughs in the past century or so, but it is certainly not without its vices. And for those vices, people will continue to resist. Perhaps if Activision and Blizzard had both understood the psychology of consumers beyond a linear, and overly simplistic model of hedonism and pure rationalism, this issue might not have arised in the first place. Now comes the scapegoating for piracy in an attempt to cover their butts using already dominant and prevalent property rights to justify their ability to reduce unemployment, lead to economical growth at the national or global level, at the cost of civil rights.

I have already signed up for boycotts against Activision and Blizzard. World of Warcraft and Modern Warfare 2 has shown what kind of companies you all are, tying people to their chairs through an addictive series of perks, leveling, and means of instant gratification in an attempt to get them to pay more and play more at the cost of their spiritual and intellectual development. Keeping them in the state of being obsequious and heedlessly nodding their heads in unison to demand more from you all while being in the chains of hapless addiction. Do I sense a new cyber-bourgeois and cyber-proletariat forming from the web of post-modernity? For those who are reading this, lift up your heads and starting thinking straight already: these are not companies that are going to be sustainable in the long run; neither are they the ones which we may prefer in the future if this trend keeps on.

I have been a Blizzard fan for over a decade, and this is the the absolute WORST ****ING DECISION to exclude lan. The company has profited immensly from WoW, and yet it still will exclude a seemingly commonsense feature? I am not purchasing this game, any other Blizzard product, and I have totally lost faith in one of my favorite companys.

piracy can't be stop bec. of original copies price is to high...lower the price thats better..developer's publisher's wants to earn billions of money in just 1 release ...wow...tooo much...

I was really waiting for this game but without lan the expectation is over and I will not buy it!!
The only reason for me to play RTS games is the LAN mode. If Blizzard stays on this path, they will end it alone.

Blizzard has always been a company that created engaging content for all video game enthusiasts. However, lately the decision making process at Blizzard has been tainted by the thoughts of the second head that it grew after the merger.

One of the most fond memories I have of playing Blizzard's games is of Diablo one. I still get chills in my spine as remembered the many times I had to defend my thirteen year old son from impending doom.

The fact that we can no longer adventure together makes me sad and irate. You see we only have a wireless connection and it does not allow us to both connect at the same time.

I don't buy the piracy angle for not providing such an essential component of a multiplayer game. The real culprit here is the ability to create a realm where you the game company can control, watch over our shoulders then turn around an invade our lives with more advertisements, third party offers, crappy
byproducts derived not to provide additional enjoyment but to obtain possession of my hard earned cash.

I guess Blizzard doesn't care about the many battles that have been fought in the sanctity of our homes behind a firewall and away from their prying eyes. Even if the tools (Game) used to wage war were purchased at a local retailer with the money we earned with sweat and blood. The same money that provided Blizzard with an enviable position within the game development companies.

To me, this is a grim reminder that for the countless Blizzard games that we purchased (legally and honestly) the price for our loyalty came down to a basic component called "piracy".

Well I will remember the Pirates next time a new Blizzard game get's released and rest assured that my loot will be well guarded. So say goodbye to a (former loyal customer) and his son. We will wage war on some other front it just won't be on battle net or using your tools.