No online replays by launch! - Pardo Interview

[FrozenArbiter]

They already said why they're not including it at launch. You can basically assume that any feature that is stated as being "post-launch" means "we cut it so that we could get the rest of the game out sooner."



Except they're not excluding them. They're saying that they're perfectly doable; it would simply push the release schedule back.

Yes but I think this is the kind of feature they should have worked on getting working WAY before things like rewinding.

And they say "We would like to do it", well, I'm sure they "would have liked to do it" for WC3 as well - yet 7 years later, here we are, with no online replays.

I think it needs to be given a higher priority - Blizzard at one point said "no, we can't do replay rewinding", but something obviously made them change their mind.

[SaharaDrac]

It's like I said in my post on the TL.net thread about this (name is EximoSua), they HAVE to have a reason for not including it. They have to have had a reason to leave it out of WC3. They know people love it so their reason has to be pretty good. I just have no clue what it is.

Also, FA is PISSED! I think they'll end up adding it TL will make such a big stink about it. Which is cool with me!

[FrozenArbiter]

I'm actually slightly less pissed than I expected to be :P But yes, this is one of the things about SC2 that are the most important to me, and one of the things that was on my mind since day 1 (I didn't worry too much tho, I thought they would for sure have it).

LAN, mbs, automining.. I have opinions on it, but it's not the end of the world. This is important

I realize they can't put everything in at once, I just hope they have their priorities straight - IE things like achievments and such are not nearly as important. It's a little weird that they won't have two such basic features as customizable hotkeys and online watchability in a game that "won't ship until it's ready". Especially when earlier titles had it.

If adding it is gonna add months to their development time, then I can see an argument for waiting, but it feels a bit to me like they are simply not aware that it's an important feature and are not giving it a high priority.

Also, as much as I wish TL raging about this could change things on its own, the reason I'm posting it here (and on several other sites) is that I think the only way to effectively raise awareness for this is as a community, not as a single site.

[Hav0x]

So let me get this straight - they put in a minor (but incredibly hard) feature like replay rewinding,

Rewinding is not as minor as you think and it is not as hard to implement as you think. They simply have a bunch of bookmarks in the replay and you can jump back to any of the bookmarks. It's not like its actually going to rewind with units walking backwards.

but decided to skimp on something as ESSENTIAL as this? Really?

Essential? Hardly. Being able to move units is essential, watching replays online is not essential.

Of course it would be great if they added it but if it's going to push the release date back I would rather they not include it in 1.0. They could have even moved it to a feature to add in Heart of the Swarm.

[FrozenArbiter]

Well, I know how their rewind system works now, I just know that they always said in interviews that it was "Really hard to do". I don't see why implementing multiplayer replays should be so hard either, they did it for SC afterall (and Armies of Exigo had it too, probably others too, I haven't played that many non-blizzard RTS games seriously).

Essential might be a slight overstatement, but as far as replay features go it's extremely close to the top in terms of importance.

[SaharaDrac]

I'm actually slightly less pissed than I expected to be :P But yes, this is one of the things about SC2 that are the most important to me, and one of the things that was on my mind since day 1 (I didn't worry too much tho, I thought they would for sure have it).

LAN, mbs, automining.. I have opinions on it, but it's not the end of the world. This is important

I realize they can't put everything in at once, I just hope they have their priorities straight - IE things like achievments and such are not nearly as important. It's a little weird that they won't have two such basic features as customizable hotkeys and online watchability in a game that "won't ship until it's ready". Especially when earlier titles had it.

If adding it is gonna add months to their development time, then I can see an argument for waiting, but it feels a bit to me like they are simply not aware that it's an important feature and are not giving it a high priority.

Also, as much as I wish TL raging about this could change things on its own, the reason I'm posting it here (and on several other sites) is that I think the only way to effectively raise awareness for this is as a community, not as a single site.

Let me correct you on one thing: Achievements aren't as important to US (I love achievements, but online replays are more important, I agree), but Achievements are way way more important to sales. They have proven to be a huge boon to sales in every game since their inception. So from Blizzard's perspective? Online replays are low priority. I'm sure they will wake up and realize their importance after your grand crusade though. =p

[FrozenArbiter]

I'm mostly praying it's a case of them thinking not many people care, as that's the situation where it seems most realistic for them to change their mind.

[Skyze]

What they should do (and I realize it probabl wont be before shipping, but patched) is make the online replays a simplified version of the single-player replays, such as the same features as BW's replay system, and the singleplayer will get the rewind/etc. That would maybe even be a quick enough fix to include in the shipping, altho im sure you'll still get complainers.

and on the whole DS vs TL.net thing, Am I the only one finding the irony of DS saying TL.net is only about "money" and competitive progaming, yet goes on to argue against FA about keeping REPLAYS.. the bane of korean progaming (letting their buildorders out, thats why replays are so sparse from korea these days.)... Oh the irony lol.

[Islandsnake]

Well im sure there aware of the community's want/need for this feature, and will be reminded of this constantly until the game comes out.

I'm sure they will try to include it, it was something I'm looking forward too..not being able to watch replays together kinda sucked in war3 but we made it threw.

That said I don't see this going unadded forever, specially if bnet 2.0 is as great as there making it out to be.

[Blazur]

Here's to hoping this gets added eventually. While not essential, I would argue this is one of those features which would benefit the social aspect of this game. And honestly I can't understand how it would be so hard to implement.