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This is just depressing. LAN support dropped as a security measure:
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/30/starcraft-2-blizzard-responds-to-lack-of-lan-support/

I've never once played or wanted to play on Battle.net for Starcraft or Diablo II, but both games were some of my favorite LAN experiences ever. SCII is down to about a 10% interest level for me now, and my gut tells me DIII will soon follow suit.

*sigh*

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

Err....LAN support is kind of a big important feature? It's been in ever Multiplayer game I've ever played for over a decade and beyond.

Although I don't play LAN, not including it at all is complete idiocy. StarCraft LAN parties were huge. Blizzard already killed the deal for me a long time ago, though, what with selling the game in three different boxes. I'll wait for a "StarCraft II Battle Chest."

Awe man....... why has this stupid idea become so popular? I certainly didnt; expect it for Starcraft.. Good thing there are ways around that.

But still pretty damned stupid.

SCII is a big money-maker. Dropping LAN support prevents mass piracy.

If they included LAN, then people could just use Hamachi, GameRanger, or set up some other VPN and play the game online without having to buy it.

People will still pirate the game, of course, but they'll be limited to playing SP only.

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SCII is a big money-maker. Dropping LAN support prevents mass piracy.

If they included LAN, then people could just use Hamachi, GameRanger, or set up some other VPN and play the game online without having to buy it.

People will still pirate the game, of course, but they'll be limited to playing SP only.

This, it goes both ways. They did say they will have a battle.net feature to replace LAN function so I'm presuming just P2P based servers like LAN would be for <1ms pings which is the only REAL good use for lan play now days.

Like as long as they have an easy system to get that sub 1ms ping for tournaments in battle.net I dont see how you can complain.

Sure it requires an internet connection but if you have a PC thats good enough to run SC2 you should have an internet connection even if its just dial up to log into battle.net.

I'll wait for a "StarCraft II Battle Chest."

This.

I'm not horrified at the idea of losing LAN support - provided they can get some way of allowing low-ping for tournaments (the idea of even four or more players using anything less than a T3 connection is rather... yuck...)

But if they don't... well, Starcraft II won't become the long-lasting hit that Starcraft was.

...

I don't like the idea of having to buy three games to complete one, however. Yeah, yeah, I know... each game is the single player campaign for one race... great. It better be a bloody long campaign, then. In the order of 30 missions, as that would get close to how long Starcraft was. Unless they play to sell it for $25... or less.

I'm probably not going to bother buying Half-Life 2: Episode 3 as I just can't be bothered with episodic content that takes years to arrive. That new Sam & Max game... maybe. Because the episodes came fairly quickly.

wow, blizzard really likes their money now... I always looked at them as respectable. I stayed out of WoW so the last game i bought from them was Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. And now that they're coming back they feel like a different company then what I knew back in the day.

I don't care if they'll replace it through Battle.net, it means we're completely reliant on their network to work 100% of the time for everything. Not interested.

wow, blizzard really likes their money now... I always looked at them as respectable. I stayed out of WoW so the last game i bought from them was Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. And now that they're coming back they feel like a different company then what I knew back in the day.

Reading my mind, chabooka? ;)

I think it can be said with certainty that a fundamental change has occurred at Blizzard (and perhaps the gaming industry at large) when they decide that removing a core feature that helped define/popularize their previous games is better for them and their players. SCII, probably more than any other upcoming game, is a guaranteed crazy-million$ hit title. Blizzard knows this, and considering WoW already allows their fat-cats to roll and smoke $100 bills while they laugh their way to the bank, they can do almost anything they want to SCII with very little risk to their bottom line. For most other devs, releasing an MP-centric game sans LAN support would be retail suicide.

Just like the triple-box separation of the SP game, Blizzard can dump LAN play because there is no significant repercussion to deter them.

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods