Battle.net Ladder Rants

The Big Picture: Starcraft, Battle.net, online ladders, WGTour & the cheating culture

This is a follow up on my initial rant “Battle.net & its current state" written here at Star-Fire.ca, BackFire.

Blizzard wants to protect WoW, and rightly so since they are earning a lot of money from it that by comparison pales anything StarCraft is making for them now. They are "afraid" of enhancing their protocol to adapt a ladder system. Why? Well here is why. Coders use a term "packet sniffing", which means essentially a savvy nasty-nasty can "catch" data transmissions, in hex code. And he can learn from it. Then from his computer on a certain port he can send a specific code to be able to cheat. So Blizzard has modified their code to protect themselves and today they can even track down almost anything now that messes with their ports. I have a strong hunch that this might have something to do with the current situation of our ladder.

Now WGT, has the technology to host a ladder and this means Blizzard will have to give them some kind of access through which WGT programs can "detect" who has won or lost a game if they want to do away with the bots and replays etc.. StarCraft and other Blizzard games are on different ports but same servers, the fact that this might happen means this, a risk that brings them no monetary benefit and a risk to their largest investment, their other games, including WoW. They are just not quite ready for this at present. Plus even if games were on different servers, what one may learn on one server can be applied to the other WarCraft, Diablo, etc.)

Still it is apparent that they are willing and are of course exploring the idea of out-sourcing their ladder, and not necessarily to one partner alone. Another point to make is that they have tried in the past several times parallel ladders and none are here surviving today. Remember KBK? It was a ladder/tournament that ran in Battle.net independently from their own. Remember WCG USA online? Hacker & abuse fest. I wonder if the same thing happened at WCG online Korea, (that used the same anti-hack running today at WCG Zone)? Point is the few times they have allowed outsiders to run a ladder at battle.net, it has not worked out any better than theirs.

And so WGT waits, and waits, for green signal from Blizzard. The rabble at WGTour is of course is pissed at Blizzard but powerless in the issue. They have posted publicly this too. They can't out right go say it is Blizzards fault because it can affect their relationship. Unfortunately they have poor control when it comes to their own staff, and already you can hear some of them whining publicly even in Blizzards own forums. To top all matters there are some that already have found a way to hack WGTour launcher. A fan based ladder is a double edge sword for us and Blizzard. Why? It is run by fans not professionals. Even PGTour in its glory days was not perfect and cases of staff abuse did occur; and look at what finally led to its demise. That they were dealt with is not enough when it comes to a ladder associated to Battle.net officially. There has to be zero staff monkey business at least when it comes to battle.net's server security.

I guess this is why they have trusted their corporate partner, ICM & Samsung, with WCG Zone and not the community efforts. A trust that has so far led nowhere; at least from our perspective. Despite their prizes, try and find a game in WCG Zone and you will see what I mean; (or read [url="http://www.bwprogrammers.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=28"]Ashur's rant to realize Blizzard might just had to do the job themselves, if they want it done right. Unfortunately we all know how willing they are in this regard: Zero, Zip, proved by over 6 years of a failed ladder, their own). Do we have a hope?



So will there be another ladder? Every time you clicked on the Ladder option in Battle.net has not gone unnoticed. Blizzard has already measured the real demand for a ladder, in absolute numbers not the passion of a few. They know exactly were we stand, and how many of us are still around; which outside Korea, is a dwindling number, insignificant when compared to WoW users. If they had any doubts their tournament Sandlot gave them an even clearer picture. If they move a finger, it is out of loyalty to their fans. We want a ladder but blaming Blizzard for wrong doing that comes from within our own community is naive. We can of course ask again and again for our ladder back, a functional well run ladder. Is that so much to ask?

Has Blizzard support been perfect? No, but at least far better than most games out there. Blaming them for not trying harder, given their current resources is nevertheless legitimate. Are they really not trying though? After all they have cleaned the house up with a long series of patches but that still does not hide the fact that for over 6 years we have had no ladder at battle.net. The latest patch was indeed a major one and it finally did limit strongly the rampant piracy that has been going on for years. It also put an end to many assorted hacks, with the exception of map hacking which seems to be a problem with no solution. And yet still, no ladder. This reason enough to suspect they are not trying as hard and moving far to slow for the wish of the StarCraft fan. Why? Six years is a death sentence to any other game. How much longer must South Korea carry the longevity of our game on their shoulders alone?
And yet I still find myself asking, why would they, they put their energy elsewhere and it has rewarded them with success like never before. Are we truly doomed? We will find out sooner or later, for all we know they could be already developing a StarCraft series sequel; or so say the idle voices of gossip by a few who have spied beyond the secure doors of their development section. Making thus all my above comments the pointless gibberish it probably is. It will not take away the fun I had writing it.

We are after all our worst enemies. If some in our community would not be constantly making hacks or cracking anti-hacks to push their own anti-hacks and hacks, and if there was not an enormous demand for people wanting to cheat, we would still have a ladder and a much better gaming experience. It is in Blizzards own interest to keep us honest, but it is not their responsibility. For StarCraft to survive, we all know, a fair gaming environment is paramount. The solution is to include social engineering too, not only technical; i.e. both. All sports today are kept clean today like this. Any future ladder needs to address the main issues that foster and promote cheating: lack of accountability.



For a real ladder, one needs accountability. For this to happen we need real ID registrations. Once we are accountable, cheating though still happens, drops to tolerable levels. The mass smurfing and multiple accounts must end if we are to have a fighting chance. This is how it is in any competitive sport. You can’t show up to the competition with 10 different names and 10 different flags every time you don’t like your outcome. Blizzard and other online ladders have always avoided this issue due to the bureaucratic hassle it entails and also the different national legislations when it comes to the under aged and their ID information sharing. Still, things can be as they are with any other sport, parental consent for those wishing to participate or doors closed. A league with rules, registration with real ID and serious StarCraft e-Sports outside Korea could become a reality. An organized sport increases its value tenfold, for everyone: the fans, the competitors, the corporate world and the game developers. Any doubt? Look at South Korea.

They way things are looking if Blizzard prolongs the status quo, for better or for worse, we will have many small private ladders and an increasing number of many small private servers, all with sub par cheating control and all leading to an ever increasing fragmentation of the original Battle.net gaming community. Much of this has already been happening. This scenario puts us very far of ever achieving a single ladder dream like it once was and even further from an organized international online e-Sport environment for StarCraft. Maybe they are just waiting for us to realize there is an alternative, WCG zone, albeit far from perfect and empty, while they prepare other ladder environments. Maybe they just want us to quit whining and start playing WoW, and start paying for playing. Or maybe in a couple of years, they give us everything ever wanted. Such is the StarCraft fan, spoiled rotten to the core.


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Post dedicated to DecentAngel who fed the seed in me to write it, gave me game me his valuable insight and allowed me to borrow some of his words.