4 ms·

I think the point is more that you can't play without blizzard's consent. You can't just download the game and host your own server to play with your friends. I

by aflag 4y ago

I think the point is more that you can't play without blizzard's consent. You can't just download the game and host your own server to play with your friends. If blizzard changes the rules (makes a patch) you need to play with the new rules. You can't host a server if the starcraft 2 servers are down (not that uncommon nowadays). If blizzard decides to stop the servers (or if it just goes under), you can't play anymore. That's a very different relationship from NFL or MLB.

TulliusCicero 4y ago
You are generally correct, but this being HN I'm gonna do some informative nitpicks anyway: * SC2 works as you say, but from what I remember SC1's Korean leagues were run without Blizzard's consent/management. Obviously with SC2 they then 'fixed the glitch'. Probably the same for SC Remastered as well. * There's an interesting case where the old C&C games are being slowly reimplemented in full by open source coders, in which case I imagine EA can't do anything even if they wanted to: https://www.openra.net/ https://www.openra.net/