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Sorry if this is old news. I searched for key words like pirate and didn't see anything related to this.
http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/11/15/starcraft-ii-pirated-over-2-3-million-times.aspx
http://www.1up.com/news/pirated-version-starcraft-million
With at least three million copies sold as of last count, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is doing just fine for itself, but that doesn't mean pirates aren't getting the game the old-fashioned, illegal way.
"According to TorrentFreak, a BitTorrent enthusiast site, StarCraft II has been illicitly downloaded via BitTorrent 2.3 million times. The download file's huge 7.19 GB size makes it the most data sent via BitTorrent for a single file -- 15.77 petabytes.
It's unclear how those who downloaded the game were able to play it afterward, as Wings of Liberty normally requires users log in to Battle.net with a legit account, but pirates do tend to find a way. Curiously, TorrentFreak notes that the official Blizzard downloader -- which also uses torrents -- may have moved even more data than the pirated version.
I don't think we're in any risk of Blizzard going out of business because of piracy, but if anyone's reading this who downloaded an illegal copy: Quit being an idiot and go buy the game already."
As much as I hate corporate greed. I find it disgusting on how entitled some people are to a luxury(games). Blizzard really is putting a lot of effort into this game and I don't really like how some people just decide to just not to pay for it. This kind of stuff is why companies have started using Draconian DRM measures.this is of course my take on this news.
Edit: Sorry, I don't know if this is the right section for this.
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They can't play online... And the campaign isn't that fun... so, yea they fail
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That's terrible, I hate seeing people who cheat there way through such great things (music, movies, etc.) That many people have put a lot of effort into and are free to enjoy what they want without even supporting such products. It disgusts me when people like this "Bite the Hand That Feeds" (if anyone gets this reference +300 cool points).
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I'm not shocked at all and I'm pretty sure Blizzard isn't either.
With a game this big you have to expect a high piracy rate, Blizzard took the "must be connected" approach to combat it and frankly I think it works to a certain extent.
There are better options though.
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You pay for the multiplayer experience, just because it's not as easily stolen as brood war doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
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Yea, the pirated copies are just essentially campaign. It's pretty dumb to pirate that IMO.
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you could also flip the coin and argue why did blizzard try to fight pirating in the first place and simply give its community what they wanted (lan, cross-region etc...)
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Not surprised and honestly don't really care because I highly doubt that 2 million people d/l'd the game and somehow got around the key and b.net log-in system. It's just 2 million retards who wasted all that time downloading the game only to realize they couldn't play it. lol.
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Well, a lot of people who actually bought the game probably used a torrent to download the client because the blizzard downloader is slow as balls.
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On November 16 2010 12:07 mufin wrote:
you could also flip the coin and argue why did blizzard try to fight pirating in the first place and simply give its community what they wanted (lan, cross-region etc...)
if that many people dl'ed it for just campaign, if lan was included (and hence non b.net online servers) how many more people would not have bought it?
blizzard does have staff to pay after all.
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Honestly I don't all that mind seeing as they can't play online- and that's where all the fun is at!
I remember people boasting it'd be cracked with LAN play in a week, or a month, yet here we are and it's still not done. :D Besides, I'm proud to have my Starcraft 2 box sitting on my desk. One of my most favorite purchases. ^^;
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I bought the game, but can't play offline ftl.
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Yes, I'm glad we didn't get LAN, ruining finals and high profile tournaments, so Blizzard could put a halt to piracy.
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Well, I did enjoy the Single player campaign. So I don't doubt other people did.And not all people pay only for the multiplayer experience.
ThatsNoMoon.I agree that with big games a lot of piracy is expected. What I don't like its that because some people do this the majority of legit customers are affected by moronic DRM(Spore anyone?)
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This kind of stuff is why companies have started using Draconian DRM measures
And draconian DRM makes the official version less valuable, thus making the pirated version more appealing, so good job there. I guess it's the same reason they leave out game features like LAN play to "fight piracy", being apparently under the assumption that making their offering worth less will draw in more customers.
Seems to have worked like a charm.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
I would bet that a number of those illegal downloads are actually people just annoyed with the speed of the blizzard dl 
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On November 16 2010 12:09 ckw wrote:
It's just 2 million retards who wasted all that time downloading the game only to realize they couldn't play it. lol.
I seriously bet that this is true. I'd say the vast majority of these players downloaded it not realizing that they couldn't play online, or downloaded it and wouldn't have purchased it anyway. This statement cant be read as 2.3 million more copies would have been sold if the game hadnt been pirated.
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I can see both sides of the argument (not that there are only two sides); of course it's wrong to pirate, but why should a college kid have to pay $60 for a game he may or may not like because the developer won't let them demo the game?
I've been on forums where a lot of the users torrented Crysis just to see if their computer could run it.
I think the statistics are slightly misleading (can't play multiplayer, I doubt everyone who downloaded it actually played a significant portion of the game, etc), and in this case I don't think those 2M downloads automatically correlates to $180M in lost profits.
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imagine if the game costs 200+ dollars for u, would that be a good enough reason for u to pirate?
fact is that in foreign countries they have to import the game and if their country's currency is weaker, then the price of the game shoots up to almost ridiculous level..
and not everyone wanna play the game online...
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On November 16 2010 12:09 seaofsaturn wrote:
Well, a lot of people who actually bought the game probably used a torrent to download the client because the blizzard downloader is slow as balls.
This, and the "Problems authenticating your download" bug.
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EPT
