SC:L Article - Battle.net 2.0 Concerns

[The_Blade]

I think I found the answer to LoA's msn outcry...

17533 words to be exact

I'll read it for the night and sleep on my own keyboard while i do so :P

[GRUNT]

Epic article .

In particular, I really liked the section dealing with cross-regional play, as that is the issue I am most concerned with.

I can only hope that Blizzard reads this article and gives serious reconsideration to their current plans for cross-regional play.

With any luck, Blizzard gives a definitive answer on the matter soon. Even though I am crazy enough to actually contemplate buying a second copy to play in a different region, I'd be very disappointed if I had to . I know it's a long shot though, since Blizzard said that cross-regional play is not in their plans for the near future.

I realise that I shouldn't think of this as just a ploy by Blizzard to make more money, but I can't help but be frustrated because I want to get stuck in online in the region of my choice (NA Servers) right from the beginning, when everyone's playing! The longer it takes for cross-regional play to be enabled, the less vibrant the online community will be. Being part in the initial explosion of players for a newly-released RTS game is seriously one of the things I enjoy the most about the genre. :[

At the same time, I have concerns though: I get SOME lag when playing on the NA Servers in the beta (I'm in Australia), but it's still playable. Will the rumours that it'll be significantly worse when playing in the retail version be true? Will it be unplayable? Would I have just wasted $100 for nothing? I wish I knew! Will cross-regional play take only a couple of months to implement? A year? The uncertainty is what's killing me :[. And it's so silly because Blizzard KNOWS that this kind of information will inform our purchase on whether or not we buy more than 1 copy of the game. It's just so easy to get frustrated about this right now.

[TheRabidDeer]

I think I found the answer to LoA's msn outcry...

17533 words to be exact

I'll read it for the night and sleep on my own keyboard while i do so :P

haha, yea I was wondering what that was about. Now I know.

Very well written article, I hope Blizzard reads it and realizes some of the points that they may have missed.

EDIT

At the same time, I have concerns though: I get SOME lag when playing on the NA Servers in the beta (I'm in Australia), but it's still playable. Will the rumours that it'll be significantly worse when playing in the retail version be true? Will it be unplayable? Would I have just wasted $100 for nothing? I wish I knew! Will cross-regional play take only a couple of months to implement? A year? The uncertainty is what's killing me :[. And it's so silly because Blizzard KNOWS that this kind of information will inform our purchase on whether or not we buy more than 1 copy of the game. It's just so easy to get frustrated about this right now.

The lag will either stay the same or get better with release. The only time it might get bad is release week when everybody is playing at the same time, but everybody may experience lag for that time frame.

[Edfishy]

Perhaps a corporate license version of the game can be created by Blizzard, and it could be sold to organizers and companies running major tournaments. This version of the game could include the LAN functionality while disabling Battle.net functionality and features in all forms. The risk of software pirates getting ahold of this corporate license version and duplicating it is valid. However, they would be prevented from interacting with the mainstream of users. There is very little a user can do with a LAN-only game. If a LAN-based option continues to be excluded, there may be adverse affects to the development of e-sports.

Just a thought... why would pirates not pirate the "tournament edition" of SC2 with LAN support?

Surely there must be way to have a synchronized encryption system play ping-pong between users playing LAN and Battle Net to allow Blizzard to have its foothold on the consumers while they play latency-free.

[LordofAscension]

Just a thought... why would pirates not pirate the "tournament edition" of SC2 with LAN support?

Surely there must be way to have a synchronized encryption system play ping-pong between users playing LAN and Battle Net to allow Blizzard to have its foothold on the consumers while they play latency-free.

We didn't say that our suggestions were the end all - but rather seeds to start the process - we firmly believe there are implementable solutions to our concerns. It's a matter of finding the one that works. If Blizzard believes that the threat of piracy would be too risky then we trust there are other ways to fix it. But I think our thought was that there would be few, licensed copies of this version so any problems would be easy to track down.

~LoA

[Todie]

I read much of the article. good stuff.

i looked but failed t find anything about the lack of cross-regional play's impact upon custom game availability though.

all but the most hardcore maps will only be hosted at the "home region", yet, these players will probably care enough about what they've made to not upload the map externally in order to spread it globally, because this would also enable anyone to access their work and hijack it.

... maybe there will be 3.rd party programs to work around this issue, but i think there'll still be a noteworthy difference in the sets of custom maps available in different regions.

[Hoywolf]

Long long long article... but i read most of it, i agree with everything however, i feel Blizzard really isn't listening to the community and are just making changes on what they think we need. Their publisher Activision Blizzard also has them by the balls, and are finding new whats to get money out of us. In the case of no LAN, that is a way to stop them from losing money to piracy, but over all hurt the community than it does help it. A small authentication before you LAN could have been an easy fix...

Overall battle.net 2.0 is very lackluster, friend book integration is horrible, i guess this will be a step forward for removing internet identity ambiguity, and that doesnt go well with A LOT of people.

[Gifted]

I read much of the article. good stuff.

i looked but failed t find anything about the lack of cross-regional play's impact upon custom game availability though.

all but the most hardcore maps will only be hosted at the "home region", yet, these players will probably care enough about what they've made to not upload the map externally in order to spread it globally, because this would also enable anyone to access their work and hijack it.

... maybe there will be 3.rd party programs to work around this issue, but i think there'll still be a noteworthy difference in the sets of custom maps available in different regions.

That's a good point Todie, and unfortunately our article, though in depth, is not conclusive. Every minute after we posted it, we realize new suggestions, ideas and concerns popping up that could have been inserted.

[Gradius]

I read much of the article. good stuff.

i looked but failed t find anything about the lack of cross-regional play's impact upon custom game availability though.

all but the most hardcore maps will only be hosted at the "home region", yet, these players will probably care enough about what they've made to not upload the map externally in order to spread it globally, because this would also enable anyone to access their work and hijack it.

... maybe there will be 3.rd party programs to work around this issue, but i think there'll still be a noteworthy difference in the sets of custom maps available in different regions.

Actually, I do remember seeing it in the article. It's right here:

Players are unable test out newfound strategies against strangers in a different country, join an interesting custom game that was made in another region, and meet new friends through the multiplayer experience.

[Twilice]

VL.DR -> very long, did read.

For me as a player I am mostly concerned how the "chat / identifiers" and accesability for a group of people will work (the group of people is not neccecary in a party)

Next to that is how the "statistics / search" will work the current divion matchup isn't exactly great, and there is no way to measure how "you are doing" or challaning other players. You can't even create your own division among friends which I thought was something they were really going to implent in 2.0. Also custom games got similar problems with searching for them and looking for popularity only, naming is also a problem. I once got placed with the same players I played with earlier, and I really did NOT want to play with them again, but I had to because they had the only created map (and it took so long to fill a game, creating my own would just take sooooo looooooooong time)

Maybe they have been really looking at the gameplay to much, I mean that can be altered later if they really need to (and they don't need any huge changes there atm, but the interface and how the menus and the platform itself works needs to be reworked alot)