Printable View
So lately I saw an article on the internet, a reviewer said that he is happy with the region lock because it will improve the battle.net latency
how many people here like the idea
Region lock in StarCraft 2 will allow people from Europe to play against people only from Europe, people from America only against people from America and so on
Rob Pardo said (in a joke tone) that if we want to play with guys from other continents we need to buy their version of the game
It's probably a good thing for ladder, but I don't see any reason for us not to be able to play a non-ladder game with people from other regions. If I choose to play a game with another person knowing full well that there is going to be latency issues, how is it any of Blizzard's concern?
yeah I know, I don't even know how it would improve the latency, that is just...
Why is this a good thing for ladder? Iccup had perfect latency. And if their system can't support great ping, well it's the system they should rework, rather than add stupid restrictions. Sometimes it just seems that Blizzard is throwing wrenches in their gears.
edit: godawful grammar
you're obviously as biased as me on this Spychi; since we're in Europe but part of a predominantly NA-based community - of potential playmates (wtf this word is totally pr0nofied?)
from the beginning i assumed the region lock was only for beta. then i learned it wasnt. but im yet to acutaly see any first hand sources on this!
as n00b says, it makes intuitive sense to allow custom games cross-region. the crux of the matter may be that such a service might be expensive and/or complicated to provide given the current structure or BNet 2.0 (what do i know?) ... at the same time, they are in no way 'required' to provide such a service.
i think its a matter of us in the community needing to articulate the value of keeping sections among us directly linked within the game infrastructure.
there's already needless region separations with all the sub-forums on BNet; its great to provide proper language support , but it has side effects, and i never understood the point of separating NA forums from English EU forums... i cant even post on NA-forum topics with a EU-beta account!
.... Those of us that actively participate in online GLOBAL communities such as this one are clearly the losers in this whole equation; the dedicated e-socially active gamer that isnt rich or hardcore enough to pay for several game copies just in order to keep in-game touch with certain people.
a while back there may have been more localized gaming communities, but i think, those taht are slightly more serious, and quite able to read and write in english, are much more likely to seek contact among like-minded globally than locally.
we need to stand tall on this: Starcraft II could grow big. real big. BNet 2.0 can be a big part of that, but if they force 'community building' to be region based, it cant grow as big as otherwise.. if we weren't cut off, Players like me (defined above) would be much more active participants -heck even walking pillars of advertisement! - for this community-building.. and thats potentially lucrative community-building too.
... for the very infrastructure that is designed to pull us together, to be the thing that keeps us apart... its utterly anticlimactic.
Frankly, it's an awful idea.
Lots of people have online friends from other games who live in other countries. If there's no way to play with those people, then suddenly the social angle of this game becomes much less appealing. It's frustrating and makes little to no sense that they would put that kind of restriction.
If latency in ladder games is really that big of an issue, then I suppose they could restrict "guest" accounts outside of their native realms from playing in ladder games. But to restrict players to playing only with people who living in the same country as they do is just dumb.
Blizzard has always had problems with gateways and having the multiple servers connected. I always thought it was pretty safe to assume that nothing would change with StarCraft II. Just give us the option to change what gateway we can connect to. Problem solved.Quote:
Originally Posted by Todie
________
Tastylikepeachs cam
Do not like :(.
I wanna be able to play with online buddies from all around the world :[.
Their big argument for removing LAN was to connect everyone on Bnet, and ironically, the new Bnet makes it impossible for people around the world to connect to each other :(.
Theres no reason to like this lol
I'd be happy with switching between different gateways like we did before.
Just give everybody one account for each gateway.
If I have friends in Europe then I feel I should be able to play with them. I can understand ladder being locked for latency optimization, but we shouldn't be hindered in custom.
I don't like this either. Like many of you, I also have playing friends dispersed all over the world and would like to play with them in custom games. I don't play ladder at all, so this seems a very... limiting and biased factor. Most of the lag issues aren't the server per se, they are more a matter of the tech being used by the player(s) in each game. A subpar tech setup will lag a game just as easily as an overloaded server. One of the things I liked about Bnet 1 was the little indicator that showed how much lag was already present in a game in the game selection screen. I'm curious if such an indicator exists on bnet 2.0. With an expectation of millions on the server at any time, wouldn't it be prudent to set up a HUB that can handle traffic in the 100's of millions? After all, there are 7 billion plus of us with 2/3 of us old enough to understand and play SC and SCII, technical and financial capability not withstanding.
Obviously region lock is very bad. It fragments the community like few things can.
I don't know what's the problem with prioritizing lower-ping users in the matchmaker, or allow the player to set a lower limit on the amount of lag he's going to tolerate. But if you want to play with a friend on the other side of the globe, maybe you want to play anyways, even if the ping isn't ideal.
And who knows? Even if the server isn't in your "zone", the ping could be acceptable anyways?
Blizzard should remove regional lock for non-ladder games.
This sums it up perfectly. No reason for this region lock at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammy
Lol - 92% no, and 2 out of 27 voting Yes for shits and giggles.
TBH I am so against region lock as it fragments the community like someone else mentioned, and I personally have about 6 or 7 EU friends I can't play with anymore because of this dumb restriction.
Again, there must be ways to prioritize connections with least amount of lag first for ladder, but custom games should have free reign as people in custom games can pick and choose who to play and deal with lag on a personal level.
Blizz is off the hook anyways as they are not the ones creating the latency, but rather one of the players.
I'm pretty certain Blizzard said region lock is for Beta only. The full game will have full compatibility eventually, and only melee league games vs random opponents will be region locked.
nope, few gaming sites confirmed it will be in the final productQuote:
Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid
DemoSquid, I so hope you're right man! That would be a really really big relief.
Information I've found says that the region lock is not confirmed to be removed in release.
Personal thoughts, I can "understand" (note the quotes) no match making across regions. I personally feel they should look into ways to at least keep connected via chat and give the option to setup custom games across regions. That's a personal thought at least. After all, the entire mentality of b.net 2.0 is "always connected with your friends.
We're all hoping Blizzard will do what is the best for all. I bet there will be a better solution than a plain lock by release.
Maybe something like what DemolitionSquid posted.
Rob Pardo: Oh come on be honest. How many of you guys really have international friends who youve spent years gaming with over ICCUP, BNET, Steam and other global socializing networks?
*Everyone raises hands*
Rob Pardo: Really? Well for those few people youll be happy to know you can still play Starcraft 1 internationally.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid
I'm pretty confident I saw a Blizz response saying region lock would still be in retail.. unfortunately...Quote:
Originally Posted by spychi
I hope that means they intend on adding it later or something, but this whole thing is really screwed up.
I bet they'll try monetizing it and let you buy access to other servers... Just like I think you'll be able to buy new akas.
Or maybe I'm just being too pessimistic :p
or maybe they are screwing with us to see what we think about it, or just screw us :O
Ugh, a region lock would be so stupid. Too many people play with friend across the world. Plus what about the Real ID friends list that shows other people playing games? I am pretty sure I have at least 5-6 people I play WoW with who are not from the United States....That would really mess things up.
It's pretty sad that they have to use a draconian region lock instead of actually optimizing Battle.net to match people with lower pings to one another as was suggested earlier in this thread. Either way, I wouldn't care if the ladder was locked to individual regions, but custom games? Makes their earlier claims of connecting everyone sound like a joke. As it stands, the only way to access another region is to purchase another copy of the game from within that region. So, sure! You can play together with friends from Europe if you're willing to buy the game twice.
I agree with most people here that gateways would be just fine.
make a "i dont really care/lets wait and see" option
cuz that's me - im in the group that is going to wait and see what Blizzad's long-term plan is
It is going to be bad enough for the players not to be able to connect with friends in every part of the globe, but wait a few years when the amount of players online diminish, and then it would be revealed the real damage this segmentation is going to leave.
It's really going to hurt custom gaming and map making, too. Especially if your team members and friends are from other parts of the globe, but you can't play with one another.
I'd prefer it's an option rather than a compulsory lock..
i am all for keeping it international, as long as don't lag too much
I don't mind it being locked for melle, but they should atleast alow custom games to be region lock free. I don't understand it, if there will be a region lock , doesn't that mean that all future sc2 tournaments will be also locked to a specific region. WHich is stupid.
Offtopic: What hapened to Spychi?
He lost his mind and became a psychotic crybaby.Quote:
Originally Posted by Perfecttear