First of all, in case this is a double post, please delete but I couldn't find anything related using the search terms "SC2 China", "China" or "Chinese" but I think it deserves a topic
The Chinese Open Beta of SC2 will begin in 4 days, March 29 2011. www.starcraft2.com.cn
The left button on the site is download link to the beta client, and the button on the right is to create your account. This Chinese beta version will be in version 1.3 so it'll be similar to the rest of the world. I guess it's beta because of server testing/language bugs etc etc. The game will in beta for now so the time being it will be 'free of charge'
Finally, the game will open up with a notable (prize money wise) tournament. Information on the tournament can be found on the following link:
Total prize pool: 180000RMB (~19260Euro / 27000USD) First prize: 150000RMB (~16050 Euro / ~22500USD) Runner up, 3rd & 4th: 10000RMB (~1070 Euro / ~1500USD)
Sign up is open until 27th of March 24:00 GMT+8
Though I should share this with you all.
If any native/fluent chinese speaker has some interesting information I'd be happy to update this post. My chinese isn't all that great so I might accidentally left out some important information.
Update: Bearhug was nice enough to make a simple guide through the registration process and download:
On March 25 2011 17:16 coddan wrote: I don't really understand why they need the beta. What are they testing?
Probably has to do with fleshing out bugs related to the network (Great firewall of China) and also a playing time management system since youth in China are not allowed to play video games past a certain number of hours each day (correct me if I am wrong).
On March 25 2011 17:16 coddan wrote: I don't really understand why they need the beta. What are they testing?
Chinese translations...race distibution on server since china is getting is own... and of course the whole infrastructure. Since it is called "beta" Mistakes are allowed.
Interesting. Might try this out if I can navigate through this Chinese.
Anyone perhaps up for making screenshots of how to download and register an account for the beta if they are interested in playing? I would if I could read Chinese. :/
I'm expect XiaOt to win if he enters the tournament which I guess he will with such a huge prize pool. Especially according to chinese standards.
I'm not sure whether there is an actual rule regarding the allowed playing time in China, i think it's only active on certain games, maybe SC2 gets one but I guess all the pros will just play their max play time and then switch to the KR server
On March 25 2011 17:25 SolHeiM wrote: Interesting. Might try this out if I can navigate through this Chinese.
Anyone perhaps up for making screenshots of how to download and register an account for the beta if they are interested in playing? I would if I could read Chinese. :/
I'd also be interested in checking out the play on the Chinese server. Unfortunately I'm not awesome enough to read Chinese, and Google Translate tells me there's a "server error" when I attempt to run it on the account information page. I'd definitely appreciate a bit of direction.
Well I've made my account =D. I had to use Google translate and used some random Canadian address which worked xD. If you see some random number and a clock like icon that becomes a full circle, its the waiting queue to create an account, just wait and it will take you to the registration page soon enough.
It seems that the account for the beta will be 'your' standard battle.net account. How to get the beta acces to your account i'm not sure yet, it can't seem to log in, it get the "An error has occured" message all the time, so for now i can't help out in that aspect, but there's another 4 days to wait so hopefully by then everything is sorted out. When I have more info i'll try to add some shots on how to get ur chinese beta acces.
I hope this works, it's the first time I upload an image You will first download the blizzard SC2-chinese client downloader, which then will download the actuall game, just like downloading SC2 from the English websites.
If you're interested in joining the tournament you need a QQ account to sign up, that is you need a qq e-mail address to be able to register. www.qq.com.cn
There are sooo many players with so much potential!
If TH000 decides to switch to SC2 fulltime then he will be sooooo freakin good! He will be dominate the scene for sure! He is so freakin strategic and has a real good multitasking that everytime i watched a wc3 game of him I imagined how good he would be in SC:BW and now in SC2.
On March 25 2011 18:02 asdfVSqwert wrote: Finally SC2 is coming to China!
There are sooo many players with so much potential!
If TH000 decides to switch to SC2 fulltime then he will be sooooo freakin good! He will be dominate the scene for sure! He is so freakin strategic and has a real good multitasking that everytime i watched a wc3 game of him I imagined how good he would be in SC:BW and now in SC2.
Remember this name, TH000! Hope he switch!
Yes, but I'm very excited for Sky to switch over (although WC3 is still very big in China) because that guy is a beast and is dedicated to getting better.
On March 25 2011 17:38 chenchen wrote: I'm pretty sure that China will reaffirm its position as the strongest Starcraft country outside of Korea.
However, a bit sad that the Chinese WC3 scene (and by extension, the world's WC3 scene) will take a huge hit.
I think that China will surprise us all and become the dominant SC2 country in the next 5 years. It just needs some change in gaming culture and an increase in standard of living (regarding computers). It already has the biggest talent pool, the most geniuses of any country and a hard-working mentality at least on par with Korea.
Once interest shifts from WC3 to SC2 in China, the global WC3 scene is 99% dead.
On March 25 2011 20:13 MuTT wrote: I would register for tournament but I don't really trust a chinese tournament to payout esp since western tournies already take a long time.
rofl, if this was a post coming from MC, idra, or even f91 it would perhaps not be laughable.
Oh wow, I had no idea SC wasn't released there. I mean we saw Loner play sc2 so I assumed SC2 was released, you know. Good to know they will now have access to the awesomeness that is our favorite game :D
On March 25 2011 20:13 MuTT wrote: I would register for tournament but I don't really trust a chinese tournament to payout esp since western tournies already take a long time.
This is either racist or extremely offensive . . .
On March 25 2011 20:13 MuTT wrote: I would register for tournament but I don't really trust a chinese tournament to payout esp since western tournies already take a long time.
This is either racist or extremely offensive . . .
On March 25 2011 20:13 MuTT wrote: I would register for tournament but I don't really trust a chinese tournament to payout esp since western tournies already take a long time.
This is either racist or extremely offensive . . .
or realistic?
And when was the last Chinese tournament that DIDN'T pay out??
How is this realistic in any way? Just because a tournament is Chinese means that it won't pay out?
Pretty much have a vendetta against china since they have been sitting on top of the dota world for a long time, and i sure don't want every finals out there to become a korea vs china slugfest :|
Oh well, some pros would switch, but probably it would take awhile longer before wc3 pros there start switching over
On March 25 2011 21:14 DarkRise wrote: Isn't China same with Japan, Console > Pc gaming?
Not at all. Consoles are even banned in China.
Lol yup, you can't legally buy an Xbox - at least 3 years ago you couldn't, I don't know about now.
China is huge on WC3, MOBA (some DotA like thing, I think), casual flash games, pirated FPSes, etc. Basically whatever people can run on the computer and not need to pay for.
Edit: Note, however, that it is practically impossible for 90% of high-schoolers to play video games for more than 1 day a week during the school semesters, which make up pretty much 99% of the year. So, most talent will come from fresh college students who can finally play some games.
On March 25 2011 21:14 DarkRise wrote: Isn't China same with Japan, Console > Pc gaming?
Not at all. Consoles are even banned in China.
I dont think they are banned, they are just not released here afaik (in mainland anyway)... you can still buy imported 360s/ps3 tho... nintendo stuff is released here under the name ique (i think) no idea why its rebranded..
On March 25 2011 20:13 MuTT wrote: I would register for tournament but I don't really trust a chinese tournament to payout esp since western tournies already take a long time.
This is either racist or extremely offensive . . .
or realistic?
dude, gleague exists for many years now and is regularly holding big tournaments in china. i dont think its realistic to think that they wont pay the price money
On March 25 2011 17:16 coddan wrote: I don't really understand why they need the beta. What are they testing?
Despite what others have said, part of the reason is purely to have the game out there for free, to convince people to buy it - as piracy is extremely rampant in China. Releasing it for 'free' for some time in a 'beta' - will certainly not hurt them - sales wise.
On March 25 2011 21:13 Valckrie wrote: ESL already has Go4sc2 Asia, including China and Taiwan. Which server did these players play on previously?
They play on TW server :-) the reason I unfortunately couldn't join because i didn't feel like putting down money for another client. The chinese one will however be cheaper in general, no idea on the exact price heard rumors of around 20euros (~200RMB)
On March 25 2011 21:14 DarkRise wrote: Isn't China same with Japan, Console > Pc gaming?
Not at all. Consoles are even banned in China.
I dont think they are banned, they are just not released here afaik (in mainland anyway)... you can still buy imported 360s/ps3 tho... nintendo stuff is released here under the name ique (i think) no idea why its rebranded..
I have no idea about the 360 being banned here 3 years ago, 2 years ago however it was not and you could buy it legally with insurances and now u still can, same for PS3 2 years ago and wii since its release. The Nintendo GameCube however was 'banned'/'not released' -pick one. So it's hard to get your hands on one of them. These days most foreign products gets into China however some stuff gets delayed due to some strange 'laws' or 'regulations' like SC2. Though some things, HTC (mobile phone brand) and Nintendo are generally released under a different brand name, the reason is not clear to me either. It seems this mainly happens to Taiwan/Japanese brands but don't quote me on that one.
Edit: Yes they are imported versions, misread the last post a little
On March 25 2011 21:37 Tump wrote: Do you have to sign up for beta or does every Chinese Battle.net account get access to it automatically?
Judging by the OP it looks like you don't have to, but just looking for confirmation. :D
I've created a second account because it seemed i couldn't login to the Chinese battle.net with my EU account. Browsed the site a little and couldn't find anything regarding a sign-up for beta, if I find something i'll update the post but for now it seems you just need a (chinese?)battle.net account.
Lol PC gaming is mainstream in China, whereas consoles are almost nonexistent. China has been the top WC3 and DotA country for quite some time, and was the number two BW country. IIRC, over half of all WoW players live in China.
First place basically got HALF the prize pool for the first few months, and top 8 got 90% or so.
This means that, for FOREIGNERS, unless you made the top 8, you were LOSING money basically from flying over there to compete...
I know a champion is a champion, in a tourney like GSL, the #1 person isn't vastly better than the #3 person, so why do they get 10x the prize money? If they made the top 4 get a little less, the top 32 could all get a little more...
The signup process is only for the Battle.net account is it? Don't we somehow have to activate sc2 on that account then? Don't understand any chinese at all so can't figure out anything, but i'm quite certain not every chinese Bnet account is automatically activated with sc2beta is it?
people here don't even know what SC2 is... I ask all my computer geek students and they only know Crossfire, Counterstrike, DOTA and WC3. No SC2 ... Lets hope it changes.
On March 26 2011 14:29 borny wrote: people here don't even know what SC2 is... I ask all my computer geek students and they only know Crossfire, Counterstrike, DOTA and WC3. No SC2 ... Lets hope it changes.
I've noticed that the SC2 forums in China are much smaller. Nobody's really into it yet because there hasn't been a SC2 localization for China.
On March 26 2011 14:29 borny wrote: people here don't even know what SC2 is... I ask all my computer geek students and they only know Crossfire, Counterstrike, DOTA and WC3. No SC2 ... Lets hope it changes.
I've noticed that the SC2 forums in China are much smaller. Nobody's really into it yet because there hasn't been a SC2 localization for China.
I suspect it'll pick up speed fast.
Brood War forums are huge though =P
As Artosis always says, TL is the largest Starcraft online community outside of China.
I'm out of the loop here. Why did it take so long for China to get sc2? Wasn't there a big beta lan tourney held in China where they could hear the commentators.
There is also new portraits if someone can figure out how to extract them from the mpq.
Oh noes!!! More Terran buffs? Just when we thought that having imba music couldn't make them imba enough... /s
Jokes aside, awesome to see the SC2 beta finally hit China after the recent approval from the government. The more players the better, and it'll be interesting to see what kind of competitive scene forms over there now that the game is finally in the hands of the masses.
I googled abit and found direct links. They arnt the fastest but certainly is much faster downloading from BattleNet China. Hope this helps a few people out . + Show Spoiler +
On March 28 2011 19:20 Galgorthion wrote: Wait so, people outside of china can play on the Chinese server or something? I skimmed through the comments but didn't see this answered.
I'm sure you can but I'm wondering how long they plan to keep it in beta.... I might go to china server when it comes out for real if it does at all
It makes me want to read an article about video games in China (restrictions and such) anyone here know where to have a good read about it? (Google didn't help me much)
On March 28 2011 19:45 Mateo0 wrote: It makes me want to read an article about video games in China (restrictions and such) anyone here know where to have a good read about it? (Google didn't help me much)
mymym.com did a really nice series of articles, videos and photos about china called "enter the dragon", sadly i cant find anything about that but youtube videos.
in his profile you should find much more videos.
http://www.esl.eu/eu/wc3l/news/60650/ those videos are also very good to show how big tournaments can be in china. when you watch the third of those three videos you may start crying ;p
were chinese gamers playing a lot of bw when it was at its peak? if not, i think we can expect a pretty large influx of up and coming sc(2) players as this news progresses. this is me, hinting at china's large population having an impact on the starcraft scene
I think the beta requires a code now, the rest of it you can just google translate, but we cant finish the registration until we get a code from someone I guess
On March 29 2011 08:57 Shigy wrote: were chinese gamers playing a lot of bw when it was at its peak? if not, i think we can expect a pretty large influx of up and coming sc(2) players as this news progresses. this is me, hinting at china's large population having an impact on the starcraft scene
China had the biggest BW scene outside of Korea with professional teams and houses.
On March 29 2011 15:14 kellymilkies wrote: So this is free for everyone?
It's free for a week then starts charging a subscription next Wednesday, Rmb20 ($3) per month. They're not selling any hard copies in China. I see this coming but still a little surprised because there was an option of Rmb268 ($40) for a hard copy in their consumer-oriented questionnaire last year.
chinese id should be similar to kssn but as far as i know you can just create your own and dont have to search for a real one. its your birth date + some random numbers
did anyone from eu already try out playing on chinese server? hows the delay?
On March 29 2011 23:24 imperator-xy wrote: chinese id should be similar to kssn but as far as i know you can just create your own and dont have to search for a real one. its your birth date + some random numbers
did anyone from eu already try out playing on chinese server? hows the delay?
Not particularly pleasant, but if you don't care about playing a particularly micro intensive style you can get by. I thought I'd make use of it to try play a bit of Zerg...getting a crash course in defending assorted one base all ins rofl >________>
On March 29 2011 09:07 twiitar wrote: it looks like they changed the registration page when compared to the handy guide in the threadstarting post.. could anybody help, please?
Also no idea what the ID Number in the 2nd field is or where I'm supposed to get it
This is what I figured out so far, no idea about those I didn't figure out and no idea what that ID Number is they want
Last Name | First Name
ID Number
E-mail | Confirm E-mail
Password | Confirm Password
Security Question | Answer
Primary Phone Number
Some suggests to just find a random ID number via searching for 身份证号码 at http://www.baidu.com . It could work, but this might be considered identity thief, so be warned.
Seems like we have to pay to use the Chinese server from here on. Prices seem reasonable at 20 rmb (2 euro/2.5usd) a month. Site is horribly slow for me so haven't been able to buy a membership yet.
Hm now matter what I enter on the new reg screen it does not allow me to hit the button to agree and continue to the next page. Any ideas on something I may be missing?
On May 02 2011 11:00 iCCup.Diamond wrote: Hm now matter what I enter on the new reg screen it does not allow me to hit the button to agree and continue to the next page. Any ideas on something I may be missing?
Did you put in a Chinese ID number? Also, the beta is closed now :<
On May 02 2011 11:00 iCCup.Diamond wrote: Hm now matter what I enter on the new reg screen it does not allow me to hit the button to agree and continue to the next page. Any ideas on something I may be missing?
Did you put in a Chinese ID number? Also, the beta is closed now :<
Yes, so where do I register for the regular account?
I had to make a new bnet account personally, then I just put sc2 on that. But you need to pay monthly so you need a time card or a chinese bank card to pay for it. Making a bnet account is easy, trying to setup sc2 to work on it is a problem unless you have someone in china helping you. Online banking in china is crazy also, the bank provides you with a usb that has software installed so when you make purchases it needs that program running to verify it's actually your card and everything. Was the biggest hassle ever.
pm or go on gamsurge and pm norada if you need any help. I currently play on chinese server
On May 02 2011 11:00 iCCup.Diamond wrote: Hm now matter what I enter on the new reg screen it does not allow me to hit the button to agree and continue to the next page. Any ideas on something I may be missing?
Did you put in a Chinese ID number? Also, the beta is closed now :<
Yes, so where do I register for the regular account?
I don't know. But you have to pay monthly. I've been trying to obtain an account for a while now but no such luck.
On May 02 2011 11:00 iCCup.Diamond wrote: Hm now matter what I enter on the new reg screen it does not allow me to hit the button to agree and continue to the next page. Any ideas on something I may be missing?
Did you put in a Chinese ID number? Also, the beta is closed now :<
Yes, so where do I register for the regular account?
I don't know. But you have to pay monthly. I've been trying to obtain an account for a while now but no such luck.
Finally got the acct set up. , then I found out you can buy the time with a Chinese CC (which I cannot get), or the Game Time cards which I could get. But they aren't for sale yet.... tt
On May 02 2011 11:00 iCCup.Diamond wrote: Hm now matter what I enter on the new reg screen it does not allow me to hit the button to agree and continue to the next page. Any ideas on something I may be missing?
Did you put in a Chinese ID number? Also, the beta is closed now :<
Yes, so where do I register for the regular account?
I don't know. But you have to pay monthly. I've been trying to obtain an account for a while now but no such luck.
Finally got the acct set up. , then I found out you can buy the time with a Chinese CC (which I cannot get), or the Game Time cards which I could get. But they aren't for sale yet.... tt