Awesome...thanks

Blizzard really pisses me off. What the f*** with one account per cd key?
Not every 14 year old kid are fortunate enough to own original copy of Starcraft 2. How are they suppose to play in CC, when they have to authenticate their account first on bnet before playing on local network. f*** Blizzard. The future of eSports my ass.

Id say 3/10 for this troll right here
Overusing the underage kid fact

well, all sport involve money wad, thats include esport

a tennis player nid a good tennis and shoe arent that same as the case?
a bowler own his own bowlign and a good bowling shoe.
i dont even see those 2 are any cheaper than a SC2 copy

This shows that you have been living under a rock.

A lot of games are like that these days.If not,limited activations.

This post has been edited by Cheesenium: Aug 24 2009, 08:32 PM

How old are you?
I'm 24 this year. I dont have problem buying Starcraft 2. I can buy 10 copies and give it to my friends and younger siblings.
But my point here is, not everyone are fortunate enough. I know some Korean professional Starcraft players that come from poor family.
GGplay for example(Daum OSL winner). He said in an interview, he often lose some of his game because he's too hungry. How do you expect ppl that come from poor family that cant buy food to pay for Starcraft 2 or DSL connection? The only way for them to play is Cyber Cafes(PC Bang).

The things is with some people, they don't care about others as long as the problem is not theirs. If you can play the game, it good enough. If others can't play; its their problem.

I'm sure those young people who live in poverty in Brazil play football without any extra equipment. Kaki ayam only.
One example is Ronaldo. He can't even afford to pay bus ticket to practice when he was young. Football, Bowling and Tennis; tell me which one has the most player base?

To me, for a game like Starcraft 2 to transcend beyond the game and become sports it need to be accessible by everyone. Trust me you won't see this problem during the first 3 years this game is released. When bandwagon jumpers are gone, the player base become smaller and smaller. At that time, i can imagine how hard it is to get your friend to buy Starcraft 2 just to try the game. Starcraft 2 or not, this RTS genre that we all love is dying already. I'm talking from my own experience on how hard it is to get ppl to play Starcraft even when pirated version of the game is readily available. From all those players that i've managed to get, 90% quit after 3 month. I love Starcraft so much so its natural for me to be worried.

Then tell me mr cheese. How many player base those videogames have? RTS especially. Millions? No.
Some of those games are pirated. People managed to crack steam. That also contributes to their player base you know. A pirate today, a customer tomorrow. Im talking with an assumption that Starcraft 2 wont be cracked(hell no!). With limited accessibility, how do you expect Starcraft 2 to compete with this behemoth called DotA? Anyone who expect DotA players to move to Starcraft2 are delusional. Accessibility to the game will surely help.

Ok maybe i've been living under a rock. I'm no cybercafe patron. Can you explain to me how someone without a copy of the game can try this game in CC when; 1. He doesn't have an account(tied to CD key) 2. He needs to authenticate first before playing on LAN through battle.net. Isn't it better to educate ignorant person than mocking them?

yup.. i partially agree wif the guy above.. sometimes mr cheese will talk like he knows everything and is always right.. no flaming here just speaking my mind.. peace

You made some points there which I have to agree.

1. Well for the CC thing I think they have to buy original for each PC or share it among few or there are some licensing agreement between blizzard and CC. For that account issue I think they just mean that each CD-key is allowed to register one new account but its not tied to that CD-key which means as long as the machine is installed with an authenticated CD-key any registered account can be played on it.

2. Not too sure about the LAN they say that they allow guest log ins which might mean guest 1 guest 2 guest 3 on LAN

Everything I say is just speculation and my own baseless guessing so please do not scold me for it.

chill lar guise, still long way to go lols. but den i guess is time for malaysian to stop jacksparrowing and start purchasing the game that they like.

Increase in revenue> increase in marketing activity>increase in community> increase in revenue> increase prizes for tourneys> increase sponsors> increase competitive players and it goes on.

unless the game company - increase in revenue> den masuk pocket.

It was caused by greedy companies who try to sell crap for profit. Back in the 90's. All you need is a CD-key only to install and play. Then, PC game was gaining much more popularity and its piracy problem is starting to get bigger attention.

Now whoever buys a PC game has to jump through various hoop (must connect to the internet while installing, limited activation) just to play the game, which is actually causing the demise of PC gaming.

People won't mind to pay money for a certain item if it is produced in good quality.

Newsflash: No LAN support is no big deal

Blizzard is the new Apple company who is trying to sell overpriced crap and its consumers are drinking the cool-aid.

Edit: The meaning of drinking the cool-aid can be found here.

Yeah,i know you gonna say that SC1 is awesome compare to other "mediocre" RTS.No RTS have such large player base as SC1,but like i care.Please control your elitism,as SC isnt the only RTS on earth.Yeah,they arent as balanced,arent as well designed as SC,but still,they offer loads of fun.Most of the time,much more fun than SC1.Not everyone play games just to win some price money.

Dont you know games need millions to make? Cant developers that sit in that cubicle for that few years get some credit for their hard work? Developers trying to stop piracy now,and you advocate piracy. So,tell me,you like to see the future of PC is as dead as PSP,as piracy is quite rampant there.

So,now,you say the lack of LAN limits the accessibility then.Wow.Battlenet 2.0 is still under development and you just jump to conclusion while everything isnt set.From what i know,things are changing everyday.Zerg could be out of the game tomorrow,as they are being replaced by a race of pink fluffy bunnies.Have you even seen the new functionality of Battlenet 2.0? Blizzard have a valid reason why they want people to stay connected to Battlenet as often as possible.It gives a more complete multiplayer experience,with easy ways to stay connected to your mates,get new custom content or just play on the ladder.

SC2 isnt just an esport game.It tries to be a strong story telling medium,a modding platform and even a store at the same time.SC2 is an entirely different game,compare to SC1.It's a ambitious project.

A cracked version of SC2 will definitely appear in the future,but you'll be missing a lot of content and functionality.Blizzard is trying to have a unified game experience like what Steam have been doing.I dont see whats wrong with that.A pirate today,will always be a pirate,unless they realise the damage of piracy to the industry,frustrated with broken unplayable game or the lack of content in their pirated version.Even till now,my friends who are playing pirated version of L4D still dont have Survival Mode,while Valve is giving another free campaign for original users.

I have seen CCs with working Steam accounts where you can login using their account.Now,it's up to the local distributors whether they want do that for the local CC.It's SMM's job to do it in Malaysia then,but i doubt that they will do it.Besides,even CoD4 uses the same system that the CD Keys is tied to your account.There are still millions of gamers playing it everyday.TF2,L4D,CS 1.6 all have the same one key per account,there are also huge amount of players playing that game each day.

DotA is having another competitor call League of Legends,where the full game is free,with micro transactions.Not to forget HoN too.

---

Added on August 24, 2009, 10:44 pmThe guest mode is only available for SP and skirmish.Something like GFWL's offline mode.

So far,even on LAN,you need authenticate the game online.Whether on how it works,its was damn vague.

Those DRMs are there because they want to prevent Day 1 piracy as it's the form of piracy that will hurt the game sales the most.The hyped fans wont even bother to go to their nearest store to get the game when the game is available for free on torrents.This have been confirmed by a few dev's interview.

I think Blizzard wants to do something more than just preventing piracy.

The noob friendly ladder seems good to me.

This post has been edited by Cheesenium: Aug 24 2009, 10:44 PM

I do see your some of your points but try also to think from Blizzard point of view (Capitalism called, he want to talk to you btw):

* They are not in the business to do charity, they are here to make money *

eSport crap and all (I hate that term btw, it has nothing to do with sport and it's just a term to make it look less geeky) is just a way for them to make more money and hype about the game.

I totally agree that the widespread piracy can, in a very screwed way, improve the spread of the game to the mass (not like I am trying to be the white sheep here, I don't own all the games I played, especially when I was younger and couldnt afford).

But I think that blamming Blizzard for trying to reduce piracy is... sorry to quote Cheese there.... but it's living under a rock, or having a kind of limited view of how the world works. I think they had some guys there that know how to count on their fingers and calculated they would make more money this way so they will go with it. They will also have way more contronl on the "eSport" thinggy this way.

You are putting people who can't afford food in the same sack as the ones who are too poor to afford a PC and a internet connection, that's kind of a hell of a "spread" there... I don't even want to touch this topic with a 15 meters pole...

And finally, let's keep it cool here, nobody is here to attack anyone, I can understand if you are pissed off about it, but entering a thread that is going on like a bull in a corrida isnt the exact best way to have a good discussion going on (not like none of us here works for Blizz and can decide anything anyway right?)

edit: you guys type fast.... I tried to put it nicely...

PC gaming have become an expensive hobby now,as hardware tend to cost a lot,even for us.If one couldnt even afford food,i doubt that they should have anything with gaming.Im assuming on people who have the hardware,but refuse to get original.

Also,the complains on LAN is getting kinda annoying.To be honest,who actually play LAN often?

It's understandable that internet could have technical difficulties,even i could not escape from this,as i have experienced disconnect or lag on this side of the globe.I guess when that happens,it's time to spend your gaming time to do something else then.

I guess we all have to agree that PC gaming is becoming less user friendly, and become more geeky that you have to identify this install this update this to play. Besides we have already paid for it.

Thats the beauty of Starcraft. Even some poor kid can become world champion. To some of us, Starcraft 2 is just another game in the bandwagon jump list, and to some others Starcraft is everything to the point its more than just a game.

My conclusion is our point of view of what Starcraft is and what it should be are so different. Even 10 pages of heated discussion will get us nowhere.

Fixed.

This is the reason i don't trust Blizzard completely. What makes people believe they(blizzard) won't abandon SC2 when they made certain amount of profit?

This post has been edited by RtP|DEV: Aug 24 2009, 11:23 PM

People who can't afford a PC and a stable Internet connection? Last I heard they usually go to this mysterious place known as Cybercafe for their PC game fun.

Piracy only happens to a well known product. No one would pirate a lesser unknown items just to risk their product cost (in this case, the duplication of optical storage media).


Depends on what kind of money they want to make. Honestly, I don't think the 'piss off theold loyal fanbase and gamble to gain new fans' way is the best way to do get money. Blizzard is definitely hiding under the carpet while doing their marketing research.

PC gaming is like movie and music industry now. The last 2 have found a way to generate and lowering down piracy by introducing streaming and paid-per-download service.
PC game though still hasn't found a solution (it's an active entertainment. Which mean its user can control and interact with the content whereas movie and music are passive products). DRM cause more loses than gain, that's already a fact.

Well its the egg and the chicken.

Because of piracy they do DRM and because there is DRM people crack it so that they do not need to trouble themselves or just buy pirated stuff, so the cycle continues.

But this all started cos of piracy.

Cybers may be huge in Asia, but it's really not the norm in Europe or US to go to them that much which are Blizz primary targets so while I can feel for it I do think that for Blizz it's mostly "collateral damage". Cybers in Europe (I do think it's the same in US too) are also totally bound to have only legal copies of games anyway, otherwise they would be closed down very fast.

Lan there are also mostly used there for students who just do them among themselves, if they do the "I need to only authenticate once then can play on LAN without the packets to have to go to Bnet" thing, that would fix most of the legit LAN requests, having a shared net connection fast enough to authenticate is not that hard to get nowadays.

I was really pissed off about the No Lan thinggy too at first but from the hints we heard in the last Blizzcon, I am kinda feeling like the damage might not be so huge right now. Cybers in SEA might suffer because of the licensing issue but from a business Point of view you can't blame Blizz for that seriously... and they will get their pirated copies soon enough anyway.

While again I am not the white sheep who never bought pirated games here, if you think from Blizz of view, trying to justify local Cyberz using pirated games is pointless.

I would say to wait until we get real confirmation of what the new Bnet is going to be able to do and how things are exactly going to work.

Edit: I do agree that DRM are right now hurting more than they help PC gaming (lolSpore...). But imo that will pass.
In old time they tried to use stuff like manual confirmation or the "code wheel" stuff, it did not work, they stopped.
DRM are just hightech version of these. When the companies will see it hurt them more than it helps, they will adapt.

This post has been edited by Gormaz: Aug 25 2009, 12:35 AM

http://kotaku.com/5344013/starcraft-ii-can-be-played-offline
just like GFWL offline acc

That's why im so pissed off at Blizzard. Even till this day people still buy original copy of Starcraft even when they can download and play on iCCup for free. Never underestimate fanbase loyalty and respect.

Some might say it's their game, their product, so they can do whatever they want. But i say, Blizzard didn't make Starcraft into what it is today. People can make fun of eSports and label those pro-gamers as geek, but don't forget, they are the one who made Starcraft into what it is today. So people should stop making martyr out of Blizzard because they think Blizzard have the right to do so. Blizzard is just another bandwagon jumper who sees how big Starcraft in Korea and plans to make huge profit from it (Go search 2007 SC2 thread on TL.net on how those guys made fun of Blizzard's dev because they don't know shit about their own game).

The way i see it, Blizzard is taking an early measure in case this game failed hard like Warcraft3 (depends on how you define failure). At least they can get enought profit before they move on to another project. The Blademaster issue with wc3 is real in case any of you are still living under a rock. I also speculate they want to wrestle control from KESPA and and other eSports association(aka monopoly). Now every tournaments will be under the almighty Blizzard's eyes. From there Blizzard can decide whether they want to collect money from these eSports association or not. Lets hope they will opt for the latter.

Being optimist, i was hoping maybe after 5 years of sc2 initial release, Blizzard would release LAN patch for SC2. Now that i think again, there will never ever be LAN patch for sc2. You guys know why? See those DotA players who play for free on Gayrena? Millions of people play DotA. Blizzard don't want things like this happened again. So if by any chance Starcraft 2 fails and new custom maps like DotA appears, they can rake a lot of money from it. Since now map makers can charge some money from map downloads, i assume Blizzard will take some royalty from every map downloaded. See how clever these people are when it comes to making money. Its like killing 2 birds with 1 stone. No wonder their map editor is so 1337. Longevity of Starcraft 2 or money? I guess you guys know which one Blizzard would pick.

See, if its just combating piracy like what some small development company did i can understand. I fully support them if they have a hard time selling their previous games. But we're talking about big company who owes their brand name from us, loyal fans. People are willing to throw 200 bucks for beta key alone and they're the same people who wants LAN for SC2. Seriously, i hate when records and game company try to confuse us, customers with money loss and money not gain. What made these people think that pirates would pay when they can't pirate the game? They would just stick with what they have, DotA for example. It's not about combating piracy, i see nothing from this except pure greed. They're trying to get more than what they deserve.

Now some of you will again, tell me Blizzard know what they're doing. I will say again; look at warcraft 3 and its Blademaster saga. If that's not enough, ask any Undead players what they think of Undead vs Orc matchup. Blizzard forgot because they're too busy with Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. If they already have a solution on LAN problem, they would told us already to keep our mouth shut. Instead they did what they did best, make a promise.




Isn't it beautiful? This event took place 20 days ago, 11 years after Starcraft, not during the prime of Starcraft 7 years ago. Some people like me dream that one day this kind of event are not limited to Korea only. Blizzard obviously wants to make profit from this. There's nothing wrong with making profit as long as they do it the right way.