No online replays by launch! - Pardo Interview

[rise]

Why would you watch the replay together when you can just watch it alone? Why would you go to class when you can complete the course via correspondance?

One important aspect to teaching someone, whether math of StarCraft, is explaining and troubleshooting instantly as the student makes connections, asks questions, and considers solutions. It's why, in general, live instruction is more effective compared to delayed instruction (forums, articles, etc.). Likewise, it's why many people find online course instruction more useful than traditional correspondence. Your teacher is accessible to you and available to answer questions or clear points of confusion.

Replays are an effective tool for the competitive StarCraft scene. Yes, you don't require replays for TowerDefense, zombies, or Single Player; however replays are important for competitive players looking to learn something new or counter the metagame. In general (again, this may not apply to the person who can learn perfectly from a textbook, article etc.), it's more effective to learn with someone. It's increasingly more effective to learn with someone at the same time.

You could find any number of ways to correspond (YouTube, Windows Messenger, etc.), but you shouldn't have to if online replays are an available option. I think that's the part of the point FrozenArbiter is making (very modestly, at that) as well as, importantly, the social aspects [note: offline messages for LoA about BoxeR are pretty sick]. I would be curious to see Blizzard's reasoning for online replay removal in Warcraft III as well as (currently) StarCraft II. Could it be time management problems or engine limitations?

Thank you, FrozenArbiter, for highlighting the absence of this feature from StarCraft II. I'm sorry for the disrespect you've gotten from our forum community.

[Nicol Bolas]

That's like asking what is the point of people watching movies together.

When you have people watching a movie, one guy doesn't arbitrarily stop, rewind, or fast forward to whatever they consider the "good parts".

You're biased because you conveniently do not take into account how frequently people are going to use the feature (those who actually will use it will do so very frequently, as opposed to rewind)

Really? People who watch replays (which is a functional superset of people who watch online replays) will not use rewind as frequently as people who watch online replays? Do you have even the slightest shred of evidence to back that statement up with?

Any time I have ever watched a replay, I have wanted to stop and go back a few seconds, at the very least. Rewind will be as useful as fastforward.

Replays are an effective tool for the competitive StarCraft scene.

Is anyone saying that they're not? The subject under discussion is live online replays, not having replays.

Could it be time management problems or engine limitations?

You mean other than simple prioritization? That is, they don't consider it as important as other things.

There's also the question of wanting features to be good and fully formed, rather than half-assed. For example, take online replays.

In SC1, this feature is basically implemented as an outgrowth of the way replays in general work. They're a hack; they hijack the input/network routines to make the rest of the game think that this input is coming from remote players, rather than being played back from a file. Which means that online replays are subject to the limitations of regular games: having a limit of 8 people (12 in SC2), etc.

However, there is no reason for them to have such limitations. You ought to be able to broadcast live matches or replays to hundreds of people, limited only by the upstream bandwidth of your machine. You could even imagine dedicated servers that take the replay data and broadcast it to millions of people, thus allowing tournaments to be watched from an in-game perspective.

Of course, this is no longer a minor outgrowth of the implementation of replays; this is a fully-formed feature, one that needs significant developmental investment in time and resources. I'm sure many would rather they throw in the hack fix and then later implement the real thing, but I'd rather they not waste their time and do it the right way when they're able.

[FrozenArbiter]

When you have people watching a movie, one guy doesn't arbitrarily stop, rewind, or fast forward to whatever they consider the "good parts".

Just because you have the option, doesn't mean you have to use it.

Anyhow, the type of online replay watchability you describe would be great, and they can save it for an expansion. In the meanwhile, I'm not interested in waiting 1.5 years (they predicted a minimum of 1 year between expansions btw) without being able to watch even basic reps online.

[Aldrius]

Just because you have the option, doesn't mean you have to use it.

Anyhow, the type of online replay watchability you describe would be great, and they can save it for an expansion. In the meanwhile, I'm not interested in waiting 1.5 years (they predicted a minimum of 1 year between expansions btw) without being able to watch even basic reps online.

It'll probably be about a year per expansion. That's how long Frozen Throne took.

But they could just implement it in a patch.

The stuff with the rewind, I don't think it's so much that they made the effort to make them rewindable, so much as they figured out a workable way to make them rewindable. It was more a deal of inspiration rather than hard work.

My thinking here is that it's going to get implemented whenever it'd have gotten implemented. If it's finished for 1.02, then that's just when they'd have released the game with this feature I think.

I don't know if that's accurate, but yeah, whatever. It's not really a huge major concern for me either. :S Of course I wouldn't be adverse to it being in the game.

[Pandonetho]

When you have people watching a movie, one guy doesn't arbitrarily stop, rewind, or fast forward to whatever they consider the "good parts".

That doesn't prove a single thing.

People watching replays together share moments together at the same time, just like people watching movies.

[Norfindel]

DVD players have FF / Rewind controls, it's just that nobody is stupid enough to use it arbitrarily. Even if someone is stupid enough, the others will have something to say about that.
Also, if DVD players have *one* remote control, replays could also. It could be done so that the player "hosting" the replay is the one in control of REW, FF, etc.

[Pandonetho]

It could be done so that the player "hosting" the replay is the one in control of REW, FF, etc.

Pretty sure how that's how it's going to work anyway. In SC1 only the host could speed up or pause the replay.

[Zabimaru]

When you have people watching a movie, one guy doesn't arbitrarily stop, rewind, or fast forward to whatever they consider the "good parts".

I have a friend who does this... :/