On October 22 2011 12:46 proxima_ wrote: the thing about LAN is like, how fucking hard could it possibly be to implement it
You don't understand.
It isn't that Blizz CANT implement LAN it's that they don't want to.
Too many people pirated WC3 because of it's lan capabilities. It turned Blizzard off to the idea completely, that and the fact that tournaments have to be played over BNET means that it's literally impossible to have a non-Blizzard Sanctioned Tournament.
Blizzard is using the lack of LAN to police SC2. It's not a popular stance but it's one they aren't budging on, the community should give it up, it's their own faults that we're at this point. If it wasn't for the obscene piracy that plagues internet games Blizzard would probably still have LAN available.
You can see from the picture above that "Local Player" name is hovered.
Yeah, It's not like LAN is some amazing hurdle that's revolutionary or complicated. It's been implemented into games since the 90's. It's just them not wanting to do it because they're greedy scumbags who are afraid of piracy (aka one of the reasons SC:BW is so popular).
On October 22 2011 12:46 proxima_ wrote: the thing about LAN is like, how fucking hard could it possibly be to implement it
You don't understand.
It isn't that Blizz CANT implement LAN it's that they don't want to.
Too many people pirated WC3 because of it's lan capabilities. It turned Blizzard off to the idea completely, that and the fact that tournaments have to be played over BNET means that it's literally impossible to have a non-Blizzard Sanctioned Tournament.
Blizzard is using the lack of LAN to police SC2. It's not a popular stance but it's one they aren't budging on, the community should give it up, it's their own faults that we're at this point. If it wasn't for the obscene piracy that plagues internet games Blizzard would probably still have LAN available.
Don't see how we, the paying customer, have to be blamed for what other illegitimate people do. Other game companies still have LAN included in their games.
On October 22 2011 12:46 proxima_ wrote: the thing about LAN is like, how fucking hard could it possibly be to implement it
You don't understand.
It isn't that Blizz CANT implement LAN it's that they don't want to.
Too many people pirated WC3 because of it's lan capabilities. It turned Blizzard off to the idea completely, that and the fact that tournaments have to be played over BNET means that it's literally impossible to have a non-Blizzard Sanctioned Tournament.
Blizzard is using the lack of LAN to police SC2. It's not a popular stance but it's one they aren't budging on, the community should give it up, it's their own faults that we're at this point. If it wasn't for the obscene piracy that plagues internet games Blizzard would probably still have LAN available.
You do realize SC:BW is so popular due to the fact that kids could download this game illegaly, play it and enjoy it correct? No one knows how many of those kids went down to their local gamestop shortly after and bought a legit copy but one thing we do know is that pirating has not hindered the success of sc:bw AT ALL. If anything, it's one of if not the main reason this game grew to be the juggernaut that it is today.
Pirating goes against everything most companies believe in, but what they dont understand is that if you put out a solid you dont need to worry about piracy because it will eventually pay for itself in the long run. It's an unpopular opinion that most companies arent willing to explore but it's true.
On October 22 2011 12:55 m2e wrote: Yes LAN will increase piracy but piracy is also one of the reasons why SC:BW became so popular and so profitable over the last 11 years. In certain cases piracy can help a brand more than damage it, with starcraft this is the case. it sounds insane and against everything that a company believes in but its true...
Blizzard can certainly take a hit in the short run to profit off of the community and game success in the long run, they'd just rather keep their investors and shareholders happy by showing large sales numbers while hindering the capabilities and needs of this game by refusing to add features that would only improve the game.
Theres absolutely no reason why a competitive RTS should have any form of lag or any reason for it's play to be hindered. Almost every major popular competitve game has a LAN function for good reason. Money should never play a factor in improving a game at its core. They're reporting multi-billion dollar earnings but are afraid of losing a couple of million in the immediate short term instead of banking on the fact that a LAN feature would grow the competitive scene ten-fold and earn them so much more years down the road. Seriously, fuck blizzard for flat out refusing to add a feature that would impact the games growth so much more than it is now -_-
Piracy isn't even a real issue. Pretty much everyone that was willing to pay for SC2 has already bought it. If anything being able to pirate the game easily would only increase sales. The real deal breaker is losing control over tournaments. Remember how Blizzard gets some unspecified % of every tournament's income? If tournaments didn't have to deal with b.net Blizzard would have no way to guarantee that they get that money, aside from international lawsuits that cost a lot of money and they could possibly lose.
On October 22 2011 12:55 m2e wrote: Yes LAN will increase piracy but piracy is also one of the reasons why SC:BW became so popular and so profitable over the last 11 years. In certain cases piracy can help a brand more than damage it, with starcraft this is the case. it sounds insane and against everything that a company believes in but its true...
Blizzard can certainly take a hit in the short run to profit off of the community and game success in the long run, they'd just rather keep their investors and shareholders happy by showing large sales numbers while hindering the capabilities and needs of this game by refusing to add features that would only improve the game.
Theres absolutely no reason why a competitive RTS should have any form of lag or any reason for it's play to be hindered. Almost every major popular competitve game has a LAN function for good reason. Money should never play a factor in improving a game at its core. They're reporting multi-billion dollar earnings but are afraid of losing a couple of million in the immediate short term instead of banking on the fact that a LAN feature would grow the competitive scene ten-fold and earn them so much more years down the road. Seriously, fuck blizzard for flat out refusing to add a feature that would impact the games growth so much more than it is now -_-
Piracy isn't even a real issue. Pretty much everyone that was willing to pay for SC2 has already bought it. If anything being able to pirate the game easily would only increase sales. The real deal breaker is losing control over tournaments. Remember how Blizzard gets some unspecified % of every tournament's income? If tournaments didn't have to deal with b.net Blizzard would have no way to guarantee that they get that money, aside from international lawsuits that cost a lot of money and they could possibly lose.
There's always the option of blizzard creating their own lan-like servers that they fly out to tournaments with a blizzard rep or something. If your a major tournament such as IEM, DH, MLG, GSL or whatever you can pay the fee to rent this server(s) for the duration of your tournament to enjoy uninterrupted play even if internet issues occur. It is a possibility they refuse to explore.
On October 22 2011 12:55 m2e wrote: Yes LAN will increase piracy but piracy is also one of the reasons why SC:BW became so popular and so profitable over the last 11 years. In certain cases piracy can help a brand more than damage it, with starcraft this is the case. it sounds insane and against everything that a company believes in but its true...
Blizzard can certainly take a hit in the short run to profit off of the community and game success in the long run, they'd just rather keep their investors and shareholders happy by showing large sales numbers while hindering the capabilities and needs of this game by refusing to add features that would only improve the game.
Theres absolutely no reason why a competitive RTS should have any form of lag or any reason for it's play to be hindered. Almost every major popular competitve RTS has a LAN function for good reason. Money should never play a factor in improving a game at its core. Seriously, fuck blizzard for flat out refusing to add a feature that would impact the games growth so much more than it is now -_-
I can see the share holder meeting now:
"Gentlemen. We have a new plan to make Starcraft 2 and its expansion. We will let it be pirated. I know what you are thinking. 'Why would we do that?' Well I will tell you. It is for the community. They want lag free gaming at tournaments and hate micro transactions. We feel buy supporting them, they will purchase more copies of our game.
Also, we see strong numbers showing that the reason BW was so popular is Korea is that it was easy to pirate. Yes, that is not good. But if the game becomes popular enough, we will start of make that money back. How you may ask, since the the copies are being stolen? Well let us turn this chart here"
Chart is opened up:
Step one: Add LAN. Let get be pirated and people run private servers.
On October 22 2011 12:55 m2e wrote: Yes LAN will increase piracy but piracy is also one of the reasons why SC:BW became so popular and so profitable over the last 11 years. In certain cases piracy can help a brand more than damage it, with starcraft this is the case. it sounds insane and against everything that a company believes in but its true...
Blizzard can certainly take a hit in the short run to profit off of the community and game success in the long run, they'd just rather keep their investors and shareholders happy by showing large sales numbers while hindering the capabilities and needs of this game by refusing to add features that would only improve the game.
Theres absolutely no reason why a competitive RTS should have any form of lag or any reason for it's play to be hindered. Almost every major popular competitve RTS has a LAN function for good reason. Money should never play a factor in improving a game at its core. Seriously, fuck blizzard for flat out refusing to add a feature that would impact the games growth so much more than it is now -_-
I can see the share holder meeting now:
"Gentlemen. We have a new plan to make Starcraft 2 and its expansion. We will let it be pirated. I know what you are thinking. 'Why would we do that?' Well I will tell you. It is for the community. They want lag free gaming at tournaments and hate micro transactions. We feel buy supporting them, they will purchase more copies of our game.
Also, we see strong numbers showing that the reason BW was so popular is Korea is that it was easy to pirate. Yes, that is not good. But if the game becomes popular enough, we will start of make that money back. How you may ask, since the the copies are being stolen? Well let us turn this chart here"
Chart is opened up:
Step one: Add LAN. Let get be pirated and people run private servers.
Step two:
Step Three: Profit
So your saying that piracy had no role in how we view SC:BW today and it's growth over the last 10 years? Yes, short term they will lose money but in the long term it will be gained back in other forms.
Piracy didn't stop SC+BW from becoming the best selling RTS franchise in history and it didn't stop WC3+FT from becoming the second (I believe) highest selling RTS series in history. DRM measures have never stopped pirates from getting their hands on the game and there is no conclusive evidence that to support any theory that having DRM enables companies to profit more. What everyone can agree on, however, is that DRM has harmed the paying customer more than the pirates themselves.
when i was a kid, we would go to LAN parties, share the fun, and perhaps even persuade some friends to buy the game to play from home. it was an awesome experience. its just sad that none of us can do it for this game. hopefully they can find a way to bypass the piracy problem. but that will take a lot of time. which is probably why he said it could take nearly forever to implement.
On October 22 2011 12:01 GetToDaChopa wrote: As an old Blizzard fanatic from 98, I get a heavy feeling in my chest whenever I read Blizz q&a's like this one which more or less point out how other companies such as Riot, Valve are leaving them in the dust with their interface, user experience and support. And the response is typically something vague like, 'we'll look into it'. #OccupyBnet0.2
... Riot? Really?
Riot STILL doesn't have replays. At all. They still have a buggy pvp.net that crashes all the time. Riot is like THE WORST possible example you could have come up with, don't know why you would even try and compare the two.
With that being said, some type of LAN mode and an sc2TV would be sick. Hope Blizzard actually follows through with this stuff before LoV.
I am surprised they have not developed a tournament client for major tournaments (GSL/MLG as a minimum). Seems like it would be so easy to have a closed server system. I know you can't do it for every tournament (even on the IPL/NASL tier), but it just seems logical. Imagine MLG Dallas with internal client not reliant on local internet. Such a different experience.
On October 22 2011 13:18 tritonice wrote: I am surprised they have not developed a tournament client for major tournaments (GSL/MLG as a minimum). Seems like it would be so easy to have a closed server system. I know you can't do it for every tournament (even on the IPL/NASL tier), but it just seems logical. Imagine MLG Dallas with internal client not reliant on local internet. Such a different experience.
Exactly. It seems like they are absolutely set on not developing this or fixing it somehow, its fucking insane how close-minded they're being.
On October 22 2011 12:55 m2e wrote: Yes LAN will increase piracy but piracy is also one of the reasons why SC:BW became so popular and so profitable over the last 11 years. In certain cases piracy can help a brand more than damage it, with starcraft this is the case. it sounds insane and against everything that a company believes in but its true...
Blizzard can certainly take a hit in the short run to profit off of the community and game success in the long run, they'd just rather keep their investors and shareholders happy by showing large sales numbers while hindering the capabilities and needs of this game by refusing to add features that would only improve the game.
Theres absolutely no reason why a competitive RTS should have any form of lag or any reason for it's play to be hindered. Almost every major popular competitve RTS has a LAN function for good reason. Money should never play a factor in improving a game at its core. Seriously, fuck blizzard for flat out refusing to add a feature that would impact the games growth so much more than it is now -_-
I can see the share holder meeting now:
"Gentlemen. We have a new plan to make Starcraft 2 and its expansion. We will let it be pirated. I know what you are thinking. 'Why would we do that?' Well I will tell you. It is for the community. They want lag free gaming at tournaments and hate micro transactions. We feel buy supporting them, they will purchase more copies of our game.
Also, we see strong numbers showing that the reason BW was so popular is Korea is that it was easy to pirate. Yes, that is not good. But if the game becomes popular enough, we will start of make that money back. How you may ask, since the the copies are being stolen? Well let us turn this chart here"
Chart is opened up:
Step one: Add LAN. Let get be pirated and people run private servers.
Step two:
Step Three: Profit
So your saying that piracy had no role in how we view SC:BW today and it's growth over the last 10 years? Yes, short term they will lose money but in the long term it will be gained back in other forms.
Hard to comprehend? I hope not
I think SCBW and Blizzard in general got big partly because of piracy thats for sure. It gave blizzard exposure. But now Blizzard kind of don't need extra exposure anymore. Everyone knows them. I. Everyone already knows what the game looks like and how it plays etc. There is just no return for them in letting the games be pirated anymore. It might work for smaller game developers like minecraft ( who is a big advocate of NO DRM) but not for blizzard.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/t1gDB.png)
