StarCraft 2 Community Manager Responds to LAN Debate
Blizzard has posted a lengthy response to the news that LAN play will not feature in StarCraft II.
Reaching out to the community, Blizzard's StarCraft II community manager 'Karune' further explains the reasons for the decision :
As mentioned by Rob Pardo in interviews, piracy is a serious problem and often times tie in closely with LAN. At the end of the day, we want the best for the community and fans that support our games, and having chunk of the community pirate the game actually hurts the community.
1) Pirated servers splinter the community instead of consolidating all players who love to play the game. Battle.net will bring players together in skirmishes, ladder play, custom games, and allow everyone the opportunity to share a common experience.
2) More people on Battle.net means more even more resources devoted to evolving this online platform to cater to further community building and new ways to enjoy the game online. World of Warcraft is a great example of a game that has evolved beyond anyone's imagination since their Day 1 and will continue to do so to better the player experience for as long as players support the title. The original StarCraft is an even better example of how 11 years later, players still love and play this title, and we will continue to support and evolve it with patches.
We would not take out LAN if we did not feel we could offer players something better.
If I were to buy StarCraft II or any other title, I know the money I spent would be going to supporting that title. Personally, I would be upset that others were freeloading while others are legitimately supporting a title that has great potential and goals of making this title have 'long legs.'
If you like a song a lot, buy it, and that artist will only come out with more awesome songs for you. If you like a game, buy it, and we will promise to constantly work to make the player experience better at every corner we can.
Support the causes you believe in (This is applicable to all things, not just gaming).
Don't be a leech to society, innovation, and further awesome creations.
For all the StarCraft 2 news head to StarCraft IncGamers.
Related Info
| Developer: | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Publisher: | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Release: | TBC |
User comments
My friends aren't avid RTS players and most likely won't buy the game for themselves, however they don't mind playing for an hour or two at lan parties.
But, since you felt it necessary to cripple your own game that won't be possible for SC2.
On top of that you take this mangled remnant of a game, split it into three pieces and decide to charge me an arm and a leg for each.
Despite the splitting of the game and your insultingly poor excuse for the greed that so obviously motivated it I was still planning to buy at least one of the three versions. However this is just to much, not only do I get another insulting excuse you decide to take half of the game that remained away too.
This is the last drop for me, ironically your 'anti-piracy' measure is the last drop that drove me to piracy, you're not milking another cent out of me.
Signed, a disgruntled and insulted cashcow.
Ok so us that have original copies are screwed over?
"1) Pirated servers splinter the community instead of consolidating all players who love to play the game. Battle.net will bring players together in skirmishes, ladder play, custom games, and allow everyone the opportunity to share a common experience."
I've never played on a pirated server - I've never played a pirated copy. I've also never played on Battle.net :p
"2) More people on Battle.net means more even more resources devoted to evolving this online platform to cater to further community building and new ways to enjoy the game online. World of Warcraft is a great example of a game that has evolved beyond anyone's imagination since their Day 1 and will continue to do so to better the player experience for as long as players support the title. The original StarCraft is an even better example of how 11 years later, players still love and play this title, and we will continue to support and evolve it with patches."
Starcraft is an RTS. WoW in an MMORPG. Trying to turn SC2 into something like WoW with a community and all that blah is not what I want...I'll log into WoW if I want that. In an RTS I want to connect, select map and options and kill...not friekin' connect to the "World of Starcraft". Read the paragraph again...11 years and we still love the original Starcraft - and that's NOT because of Battle.net.
"We would not take out LAN if we did not feel we could offer players something better."
Sorry but I call bull. You have your agenda and you're going to prove to everyone that you're going to stick to it. Fine - be that way. The all mighty Blizzard will not give in. I really wanted SC2...even though it had been split into three (and with the Blizz dev cycle between games and expansions it'll be at least two years before we see the next expansion to SC2). Right now though I'd rather download a pirated copy of SC2 with the mechanism required to play it in a LAN environment...sure maybe months after the initial release but right now I don't even want to know anything about SC2 anymore. You can shove it.
"If I were to buy StarCraft II or any other title, I know the money I spent would be going to supporting that title. Personally, I would be upset that others were freeloading while others are legitimately supporting a title that has great potential and goals of making this title have 'long legs.'"
Sure...but Steam didn't stop the pirating of HL2 did it? When I first got HL2 it took me more than 6 hours before I could play (after install) because of their stupid "validation", "new client download", "authentication" and "blah blah blah". That was the last time I connected to Steam (I finished the game in "offline mode" and then later I found another way for Ep 2). I'll give Blizz the cash upfront for the two copies I planned to buy right now...in fact I'd pay double - or at least I would have if it included LAN.
"If you like a song a lot, buy it, and that artist will only come out with more awesome songs for you. If you like a game, buy it, and we will promise to constantly work to make the player experience better at every corner we can."
Starcraft was an awesome game. It didn't need all this "enhancing experience" bull to remain as popular as it is today now then did it? No the community kept it that popular. Plus they'll have several years between the three expansions to "add and enhance experience"...right now the piracy is just a very very lame excuse if you ask me.
I'm sorry...but this news has upset me greatly over the last two days and I don't mean to come across so strongly (actually I do). I will not be renewing my two WoW accounts...so keep the forced Battle.net migration (I really didn't care before but you've just pushed me too far now). In fact just because of this I promise to never buy another Blizzard product again. Probably means nothing...they won't even notice my pathetic small sum of money missing from their huge piles of cash - I know that my opinion probably also means nothing to most - but you come live in our country with the pathetic capped broadband we have (I play WoW with a 650ms latency on a good day).
Good luck with your "screw the customer-craft"