5 ms·

It really bums me out when companies that have terrible, user-hostile policies get rewarded with record-smashing sales. You know their CEOs see the sales report

by mxavier 16y ago

It really bums me out when companies that have terrible, user-hostile policies get rewarded with record-smashing sales. You know their CEOs see the sales report and are all too happy to attribute it to their own doing. See Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for another example.

moultano 16y ago
This might be obvious to most people here, but what do you consider to be their user-hostile policies with starcraft 2?
- lmkg 16y ago
  Probably the most controversial misfeature is that Starcraft 2 doesn't provide LAN support, ostensibly to combat piracy. If you want officially-supported multi-player, it's Blizzard's Battle.net service or gtfo.
  - moultano 16y ago
    Internet access is so universal now that this doesn't seem like much of an imposition to me. What are the other complaints?
    - pinksoda 16y ago
      Starcraft is a national sport in some countries. Not having LAN support is pretty significant because you can't get low latency like that any other way.
      - moultano 16y ago
        Really? I don't buy it. The game hosting is still peer to peer, the packets shouldn't have any need to leave the local network once the game is started. I'd have to see actual tests of people on the same local network with high latency before I'd believe it's a problem.
        sliverstorm 16y ago
        You're right on the money, the game takes place on the local network- the only reason the internet is required is so you can log in to bnet.
        gte910h 16y ago
        Trying custom games against the AI, I'm seeing occasional network blips. I am betting a heartbeat or something to blizzard is happening at least.
    - fragmede 16y ago
      Region locked - You have to have the US version of the game to play against US players and no playing against South Korea. Removed 'spawn' install - locked down installation so you can play 1 copy on several computers - but only with each other. The single player campaigns are going to be broken up into 3 $60 games. There's the Real-id fiasco that they've backed off a little bit on. User made maps aren't files that can be passed around, they MUST be hosted on bnet's servers, and there's a 25MB limit per-account. -- However you fall on the question, the real problem is we end up not talking about the various merits of the game and how much we can't wait to play it, but instead dissect the policies surrounding the game. Also, what happens when battle.net is down?
      - Asa-Nisse 16y ago
        Uhm, you cant multiplay on them perhaps, but you can use them locally fine..
      - Pent 16y ago
        1.5 million is still pretty low for a game of this caliber and fan base. I know this is hearsay but I can't help but think that the previously stated points on their new user-hostile policies hurt sales fairly badly this round.
        gamble 16y ago
        It's huge for a contemporary PC release. 150k copies would be great performance for a typical PC game in its first week on the market. Most AAA PC titles will never break a million copies.
    - lzm 16y ago
      The inability to play the game in English in a Latin American server is a deal breaker to me.

by mxavier 16y ago

moultano 16y ago

This might be obvious to most people here, but what do you consider to be their user-hostile policies with starcraft 2?

lmkg 16y ago
Probably the most controversial misfeature is that Starcraft 2 doesn't provide LAN support, ostensibly to combat piracy. If you want officially-supported multi-player, it's Blizzard's Battle.net service or gtfo.
- moultano 16y ago
  Internet access is so universal now that this doesn't seem like much of an imposition to me. What are the other complaints?
  - pinksoda 16y ago
    Starcraft is a national sport in some countries. Not having LAN support is pretty significant because you can't get low latency like that any other way.
    - moultano 16y ago
      Really? I don't buy it. The game hosting is still peer to peer, the packets shouldn't have any need to leave the local network once the game is started. I'd have to see actual tests of people on the same local network with high latency before I'd believe it's a problem.
      - sliverstorm 16y ago
        You're right on the money, the game takes place on the local network- the only reason the internet is required is so you can log in to bnet.
        gte910h 16y ago
        Trying custom games against the AI, I'm seeing occasional network blips. I am betting a heartbeat or something to blizzard is happening at least.
  - fragmede 16y ago
    Region locked - You have to have the US version of the game to play against US players and no playing against South Korea. Removed 'spawn' install - locked down installation so you can play 1 copy on several computers - but only with each other. The single player campaigns are going to be broken up into 3 $60 games. There's the Real-id fiasco that they've backed off a little bit on. User made maps aren't files that can be passed around, they MUST be hosted on bnet's servers, and there's a 25MB limit per-account. -- However you fall on the question, the real problem is we end up not talking about the various merits of the game and how much we can't wait to play it, but instead dissect the policies surrounding the game. Also, what happens when battle.net is down?
    - Asa-Nisse 16y ago
      Uhm, you cant multiplay on them perhaps, but you can use them locally fine..
    - Pent 16y ago
      1.5 million is still pretty low for a game of this caliber and fan base. I know this is hearsay but I can't help but think that the previously stated points on their new user-hostile policies hurt sales fairly badly this round.
      - gamble 16y ago
        It's huge for a contemporary PC release. 150k copies would be great performance for a typical PC game in its first week on the market. Most AAA PC titles will never break a million copies.
  - lzm 16y ago
    The inability to play the game in English in a Latin American server is a deal breaker to me.