Region lock yes or no?

[Josue]

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.

[spychi]

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.

[Hammy]

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 product

I'm pretty confident I saw a Blizz response saying region lock would still be in retail.. unfortunately...

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

[spychi]

or maybe they are screwing with us to see what we think about it, or just screw us :O

[Catalyst]

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.

[Centipede]

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.

[Genopath]

I agree with most people here that gateways would be just fine.

[Noctis]

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

[Norfindel]

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.

[Centipede]

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.