Guy's, you need to realize that this isn't a bad decision on Blizz part that they're completely ignorant about, it's just that it's physically impossible to implement cross continent play the way modern multiplayer works.

It's not a "step back" from old bnet, it's simply the way it's set up now. R1CH posted an article way back about how old bnet used to be peer 2 peer connections; this was why no one ever knew who really disconnected because you and your opponent were directly connected to each other. THAT was an ooooooooolllllddd school online play mechanic, NO ONE does that anymore.

Now, all online games operate the same way as sc2. Players connect to a SERVER. Counterstrike, MW2, you name it, they all operate with the players connecting to a central hosting server. This is why you don't jump on CS one night and connect to a server in China, it would just be way too damn laggy. At the very least, in FPS games, servers have the advantage in that they are hosted privately, not the game company itself. I can go out and buy a server and host a CS server on it myself. Not with SC2 the way it stands now. Blizzard is already undertaking a huge feat and major cost investment by personally hosting all its servers.

The only solution to the problem would be to allow privatization of the game servers, like the FPS world. Only this would mean money lost for Blizz and their whole huge server investment would be for nothing and their bnet development investment would be for nothing, as players will guaranteed choose the private servers with the lowest latency.

Blizz is backed into a corner. It can't have the best esports setup AND have the most profit at the same time. It can only do one or the other. Can you guess what they would choose?

0neder

United States3733 Posts

April 24 2010 04:03 GMT

#24

At least have some kind of international mode or option, for tourneys, if you don't make it a widespread thing. (like within proleague or something)

KiF1rE

United States964 Posts

April 24 2010 04:03 GMT

#25

On April 24 2010 13:01 Kennigit wrote:
Yup it's a total disaster. I don't understand how one of the core philosophies could be to support and develop esports and then in the same breath segregate and divide the community in 3 :\ . Hopefully this gets fixed, because having to find tricks and work arounds like iCCup/pgtour etc really should be a thing of the past.

agreed but i dont get why blizzard quotes lag lag lag over and over as the main reason to seperate servers.... many games handle the distance between regions quite well, SC1 with a few modifications handles lag between distance quite well...

Djzapz

Canada10681 Posts

April 24 2010 04:04 GMT

#26

Blizzard is doing so many things wrong... It's so easy to make a lobby, channels, CHOICES. CHOICES FFS.

muse5187

1125 Posts

April 24 2010 04:04 GMT

#27

I'm pretty upset I won't be able to play with friends from europe. This makes no sense western europe to north america really has no lag.

enzym

Germany1034 Posts

April 24 2010 04:04 GMT

#28

i can see two possible upsides with this... one is that it creates smaller communities and gives you a sense that you can get to the top much easier than having to take on the whole world at once. i also never liked international teams of the scale that covered multiple timezones and made it hard for the people to get together for events or practice, and regarding esports even things such as team houses, lans etc. the second advantage i can see is that big events, where players from all servers get to compete against each other will be a lot more unpredictable, because separated servers dont allow for people to know "all of their enemies" very well and creates more excitement/tension/uncertainty etc. it can also lead to competition between the servers themselves additionally to teams and players (i hope that it doesnt go overboard with the hostility. in the end we're all starcraft players!! but some of it cant be harmful imo).

the downside of course is that much of the starcraft 2 player base is coming from wc3 and scbw and especially bw is a very close nit community... we have international, overseas friends, and teams, and events, ladders, leagues and know these things and people for years. it kind of sucks to be forcefully separated from them like this until you get a second copy of sc2 to play on another server.
also, they (blizzard) must be really careful that the scenes they create with this arent too small and then proceed to die out. that could potentially be harmful. but i guess it is up to the people to make their server-scene alive. eu seems to have had a headstart, but team eg still dominated team liquid in the end.

im not sure which decision feels better than the other. i can see good things and bad things with both. id like to have both, but thats not possible it seems.

kyama

United States118 Posts

April 24 2010 04:05 GMT

#29

Rather than having servers that you can switch too. It would be nice if they find out how they can make one server that is lag-free(iccup like).

Irrelevant

United States2364 Posts

April 24 2010 04:06 GMT

#30

really disappointed with this choice, hopefully a 3rd party server will pop up soon

Laerties

United States361 Posts

April 24 2010 04:06 GMT

#31

FUCK BLIZZARD

zomgzergrush

United States923 Posts

April 24 2010 04:06 GMT

#32

On April 24 2010 13:03 KiF1rE wrote:

Show nested quote +

SC1 does not operate at all like SC2 multiplayer. There are no modern games that can handle latency cross continents.

Pull up any modern FPS game and connect across the globe. Won't work.

Trap

United States395 Posts

April 24 2010 04:06 GMT

#33

Personally I registered under the EU server for the SC2 beta even though I live in the US because I knew the competition would be better with more former BW/WC3 players there. The latency has been fine probably 90% of the time, with the other 10% I suspect my network was having troubles. This news is extremely disappointing and strikes me as both a way of Blizzard covering their own ass if reviewers play games between continents and experience lag or a money grubbing attempt since serious players will probably end up having to buy keys for multiple realms (...and I don't even want to think about buying multiple keys for the expansions too...)

Floophead_III

United States1832 Posts

April 24 2010 04:07 GMT

#34

99% of casuals won't care, but the 1% that is TL should be outraged! How will I be able to face koreans when I'm up at 6 am in the morning because I drank too many Dews. UNACCEPTABLE!

Lollersauce

United States357 Posts

April 24 2010 04:08 GMT

#35

On April 24 2010 13:06 Trap wrote: serious players will probably end up having to buy keys for multiple realms (...and I don't even want to think about buying multiple keys for the expansions too...)

lolol this is exactly what's coming too.

Pick

United States35 Posts

April 24 2010 04:10 GMT

#36

Blizzard has stated in the past that there will be pro leagues above Platinum in the future, right?

Currently, we don't know anything about the options above Platinum. Maybe a professional league will allow for global competition?

avilo

United States4100 Posts

April 24 2010 04:10 GMT

#37

This is bnet 0.5, not bnet 2, please no one fool yourselves =/
dumbest move in a while by an RTS company. Almost on the level of EA stupidity.

Wi)nD

Canada719 Posts

April 24 2010 04:11 GMT

#38

b/c of lag and latency that makes sense

but also it said to see such isolation

mahnini

United States6862 Posts

April 24 2010 04:12 GMT

#39

i thought it was a good idea, albeit slightly inconvenient, to have segregated servers during beta as we'd be able to see different strategic trends between the servers but segregating servers at release kind of sucks. i'd imagine this will segregate the community pretty severely.

also, we would never be able to play with people we used to SC with which SUCKS.

CrunkOwns

United States138 Posts

April 24 2010 04:13 GMT

#40

HON handles this perfectly letting you select which servers you are willing to play on from a map before you enter matchmaking. Blizzard is rich as shit cmon now.