Things you might not know about Starcraft 2 (Another Blizzard whine thread)

[Norfindel]

If they begin to do nasty stuff, i won't buy any more game from them, and that's problem solved. They have more to lose than i am, so i fairly confident they won't be so stupid as to do that.

[Blackdogkt]

You do not own 99.9% of games and software you buy. Most sell you a license to use the software/game, not the software/game itself.

There is actually a good deal of hypocrisy in the way this is interpreted by the companies though. For example, if your disc gets scratched or rendered unusable you are still the holder of a paid-for license of use, hence they should replace the disc for you to ensure continued use. Does it really happen that way? Well, no.

Also, it depends a lot on local laws. EULAs are considered pretty flaky in the EU, with consumer laws taking precedence. A "click here and agree to blah blah" clause doesn't really hold much water. When clicking "no" prevents you from using something you paid for, then the actual value of clicking "yes" is kind of diminished...greatly. There have been court rulings either way, but in most cases courts rule in favor of ownership of the product and not ownership of a license. When Ubisoft recently introduced their always online DRM and then failed to provide server access, effectively locking out customers from content they paid for for the duration of entire weekends, a consumer association in one of the Scandinavian countries actually submitted the case for review by the local law authorities. I don't expect them to get fined, especially now with the economic crisis since they are providing a lot of high tech jobs, but if such actions gain momentum i don't consider it unlikely to see formal legal rulings in the EU to safeguard the consumer rights of the buyers. They don't even need to fine anybody, if the EU says "you can't sell here unless you do this and this" then the companies will simply fall in line and do as they're told in order not to lose the market.

At the end of the day, people who are not picky will buy the game on release. People who are picky and feel the price is not justified will pick it up 2-3 months later at a reduced price. In the end everyone's happy, because everyone pays what they think is actually justified by the content and features they are getting.

That being said, they do have a better outlook on DRM and copy protection than most big companies out there. I was very worried about it until the recent news article on the front pace of this website. Not everyone can be connected to the internet 24/7 to ensure the use of a product they paid for and not everyone is willing to beg tech support for extra activations because his graphics card got fried and he had to replace it, or changed his system (that's how bad it actually is with some publishers nowadays).

In that sense, SC2's one-off activation scheme and their focus on providing incentives to own a legal copy are much better deterrents against piracy than draconian "treat you customers like pirates until proven otherwise" methods that other companies use. They seem to realise that not all pirated copies are lost sales (some people just don't buy games, even if they can't pirate it they will simply bypass it entirely), so they do the smart thing: focusing on the guys who are actually interested in giving them money and trying to provide incentives to justify the price, instead of focusing on the ones who'd never buy it anyway and screwing over the legitimate buyers in the process.

[Necromunger]

Thankyou to everyone who has replied. I posted this because i was genuinely concerned about Starcraft 2, It is a great game and i have been waiting for it for about 10 years and it hurts to think i probably wont buy it.

LAN is core for the people i play with, we play everyday till late at night and if LAN or "Battlenet(online) LAN :S" is not going to work its going to screw us all over.

I posted this in my community and in this community to see where everyone stands and to see who cares.

I believe just because other Company like Valve with steam screw us over doesn't mean that Blizzard should. You ALL KNOW this will not protect them from piracy. It is pushing some people away and keeping the piracy.

I know i forgot to talk about Location locking and Email Selling by Blizzard but just the idea of that adds to my argument.

If someone loses their Starcraft 2 Account because of a Blizzard Screwup with Battlenet and that person cannot get compensated is that fair?

[hyde]

Necromunger, you're a bit of an alarmist.
Half the things you pointed out Necromunger, have been standard EULA clauses for years - if not forever. When you buy software....you never "buy" software..merely a license to use it...

You made a map using proprietary tools by Blizzard - offered at you in a very limited end user agreement - to make maps on their proprietary software.
Christ, what else do you want? F-ing exclusive rights to your map? Well go ahead and pay them a license fee for their map editor and engine then. It's only $100,000 to license the VALVE Source engine. I'm sure its only 10,000$ for a puny map editor.

The no-LAN thing is a combination of combating piracy, Bobby Kotick saying F-U to gamers, and bringing the game to 21st century standards. Unfortunately your LAN group represents a small minority that has been cast off into the shadows of the 1990's gaming.

1990's - "Hey guys lets bring our boxes and go LAN on Quake!"
2010's "Yo get on Battle.net/XBOX LIVE/ PSN "

If someone loses their Starcraft 2 Account because of a Blizzard Screwup with Battlenet and that person cannot get compensated is that fair?

...Seriously...you're not paying for Battle.Net, nor is it offered to you in anyway like a contractual basis agreement - i.e. your telephone service - they can do whatever the hell they want with it.
You are combing over the EULA in an overly cynical, alarmist, and generally unrealistic manner.

Seriously, half the stuff you pointed out in the EULA is just standard legality and none of it rarely comes into fruit. Man I think you shouldn't buy SC2 for your own sake, you might go to sleep at night and have nightmares about Blizzard tampering with your Battle.net Account. The horror....

[Blackdogkt]

There seems to be some people who are too eager to grab the pitchforks and there's also another group which is too much of a blizzard-apologizer. As usual the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

From where i'm standing, it doesn't matter if i will use the features or not. What matters is having the choice, which means having the features.

When you don't have a choice it's usually because they want to charge you for it down the road. Instead of game design generating profit, we have profit driving game design. The first one is a long term investment that gets you lots of loyal fans that buy your products over the years, the second is milking the cow dry until it dies of dehydration.

The reason so many companies make tons of money and then flop (actually, they just close down a studio or two) is just that, they are thinking too short term and greedy. And while they can lay the blame on pirates, fire the designer team and keep their profits, you, the loyal customer, are left with one less studio that makes the kind of games you like. Even less choice for you.

I would be very interested to see if any of the "i won't use feature X, so whatever" people could provide a reasonable explanation as to how less choice is a good thing. And since things like that take up money and time to develop, let's set a base standard at the functionality and content we used to find in our games during the 90s. Today, the cool stuff that needs work is omitted and released later on as DLC/micropayment purchase, but don't worry, there's a simple script running in the background that unlocks an enlarged unit portrait for you every 5-10 matches.

The "added value" model in today's gaming is too much like the initial exchanges between the native tribes of the New World and the men of Columbus: "enjoy your trinkets heathens, while i experiment on how much i can get away with!"

I'll probably buy the game. I'll also probably do it at a much reduced price, somewhere around the end of summer. If they want to command a full price they better provide some choices for their customers, otherwise there's always the bargain bin and the gradual drop in price as sales taper off after release.

[wilebill]

"There's no way Blizzards going to go around suspending people for no reason."

Tychus, I agree. You are correct.

However, player accounts can be suspended as collateral damage when suspensions are triggered by algorithms looking for classes of offenders.

I play a mmo at the moment where they are having mass suspensions of accounts engaged in "botting." Some innocent players are getting permanent bans because algorithms are never perfect.

These players must file an appeal with support. The first three appeals get an auto response saying there is no appeal! Eventually they will get put on a list and a human will check things out. No guarantees.

if they know who to write to at the studio, then they will get their account back a bit quicker. But it may still take weeks.

[TheEconomist]

MMOs are much more complex and need more strict algorithms to find offender. StarCraft 2 is an RTS. The chances of them having to such a thing are extremely low. Has there ever been someone banned on the original Battle.net that didn't actually hack or illegally modify the game? I've been "banned" for using anti-hacks but never for not actually "hacking".

[Noctis]

I must say I can't believe I and other people havent used XBL and PSN as examples for the anti-B.Net peeps.

If XBL and PSN (mostly XBL since it came first although i think PSN is now going to redefine the online services since pretty much everything you need is free and the premium addition will be basically bonus content not absolutely NEEDED to enjoy the games). These 2 services are huge successes and no one complains. Welcome to the 21st century. Heck, PS3 is the best anti-piracy machine who the hell is going to download 30-50 GB games? Yeah that's right blu-ray just pwned you.

As soon as PC's give up DVD's in favor of BR (which is going to be soon, DVD's are going to start being phased out since BR's are growing and have been equal to and above DVD sales now) people will start QQ'ing because then PC games will be uncompressed and be 30-50 GB themselves.

[TheEconomist]

I've always said the best DRM is a large download size

[don]

The "added value" model in today's gaming is too much like the initial exchanges between the native tribes of the New World and the men of Columbus: "enjoy your trinkets heathens, while i experiment on how much i can get away with!"

I suddenly wish some other game company clones SC and gives them some competition.