No Lan in SC2

I just had a scary thought. Something that i wouldn't put past blizzard at this point. What if they had you register(for a fee) to be able to host LAN games. One person pays an extra $10, $20, $2,000 whatever. As a result he can host LAN games, it would work too. That player stays connected to Bnet, while all other traffic is handled locally. However blizzard can monitor everyone cd keys and what not through the pc connected to bnet. Solves the LAN issue and buys blizzard another 500 employees to work on a new WoW item. or whatever it is blizzard employees do.

Anyway, I said it before, but there will be LAN, and you can't really get mad at blizzard for not implementing it. Even if they don't, it will happen, and blizzard knows that. So its a moot point in the end. blizzard will implement it for no other reason than not to become famous for the most pirated game of all time. Since all those that wanted to play LAN and bnet would essentially have to buy and pirate separate copies of the game. Whatever they do will work. Blizzard has been known to sometimes be...irresponsible at times, but making an honest mistake and slandering yourself are 2 different things. I think its another hype game to distract us from the fact the game should be in beta by now(no matter what anybody says about patience being a virtue and the end result being better I have to respectfully disagree). I think you fix the game breaking stuff, then you release an imperfect game, and perfect it while catering the community(not just the few fortunate enough to have beta keys or enough free time to be professional gamers). Creates an overall better image of the company and a better gaming experience in my opinion.

But they must know something I don't after all I'm the one posting on forums anticipating -their- game.

 

L3ttuc3 I am sorry to inform you of this fact but not including LAN is what is going to prevent this game from being pirated to an extreme extent. People aren't going to pirate the game to get LAN because it will be even less likely for a pirated copy to emulate LAN features than a regular copy. Just because someone cracks the game so it can be played without a legal cd-key won't magicly make it be able to play LAN. If Blizzard sets up the game right the only way people will be able to illegaly play multiplayer with it. is if somebody somehow re-creates Blizzard's battle.net, not an easy taks and something that is rare that people who do it can be tracked just like illegal WoW servers.

Ok Itza I think we are close to the same page now so I have a few questions and comments for you. First in response to this:

Let's say we have 4 people, Person A bought the game, and lets Person B (A's brother) play the game whenever as well as Person C (A's Friend). Person D has a pirated copy of the game. By your statement all 4 people should be able to play with each other because they all have full access to the game even though only 1 paid for it. So my question becomes do you think it is fair that 4 people get all the functionality of Sc2 (besides battle.ent which we are both choosing to ignore) even though only 1 person paid for it? What if we add in D's brother and friend as well as B's younger sister and a different friend, now that is 8 people and still only one purchase of the game? If you follow that line of thinking to the end you can end up with Blizzard basicly giving Sc2 away for nothing.

Which brings us back to the technology side of this debate, there is no way Blizzard can include LAN (without a battle.net key check) in way that will only let A, B, and C play together without letting D and a bunch of other pirates play together. I know what you would like to see with direct cable connections but that would only work with two computers, and even then it could still be circumvented with a minor program (where as not including LAN would either require a major change in Sc2's code on the part of the cracker or someone stealing battle.net server software). To put it simply:

This can't be done.

 

Firstly, friends don't have complete access to the game. The difference with siblings is that they're living under the exact same roof. Basically, they're living with the game. Friends aren't, and while they would be able to come over to play with you, as I was saying about being able to introduce the game to friends who don't have it, it would not give them enough of the benefits to make it worthwhile. I mean, you're obviously an avid StarCraft fan, so just imagine how much use you'd get if you only ever played multiplayer when you were at a mate's house. As for pirates, no, that's not alright, but with the appeal of Battle.Net and not being able to play online multiplayer games, I hardly expect it'll be that common at all.

I find it extremely hard to believe that it can't be done. What about explicitly coding against said programs and loops? With frequent patching, if any were to become too popular they could be coded against, forcing people to either constantly develop new ways of emulating a LAN connection or constantly re-crack the game. I mean, even if there was some 'offline mode', similar to Steam, would surely work.

 

While I agree it would be quite a difficult if not impossible task to recreate bnet. I am also not expecting that it will be necessary. Of course a simple crack won't allow lan play, but without knowing the nature of what they are actually implementing its impossible to know what it will take to implement lan. On a side note to that point, it would be ludicrous to implement a system on the sole notion that 'if it utilizes bnet to such an extent that it requires full emulation of bnet servers to pirate' then you've only created a horribly inefficient solution to an efficient mechanism that worked in the first place. If that IS the case, and I fully acknowledge the possibility, then the only out will be that the people who want to play lan matches will suffer. Maybe I'm being naive, but I don't see blizzard doing that. I expect an efficient alternative to lan, and any efficient alternative should be possible to emulate. It's a 50-50 shot, I'm just stating my opinion, I fully believe we will have LAN in one form or another. For the most part I agree with you though, in that situation, it's exactly as you said, If blizz sets the game up right, it will require full emulation or worse alternatives, in order to play LAN.

The only thing I didn't like was holding it akin to hosting WoW servers. You wouldn't need to host an actual server and one could without question(given the skill and time) emulate bnet undetected. I agree that it is not feasible though. The time alone would be worth well over $50.

On a small note to end things: I believe I mentioned it before, but I think there should be a system in place that prevents people playing with duplicate keys. Siblings or not. I just don't see it happening.
Sorry if that comes off a bit pretentious, not my intention to attack anyone, just my thoughts on it.

Itza posted while I was typing this reply. He makes a good point. It would require constant modification to keep working. People playing cracked versions for LAN would be forced to play older versions, or the crackers would be most likely forced to create a new workaround every time the game was patched... but I have seen people invest more time and skill on much more menial tasks. I do believe it will happen if a feasible alternative to LAN is not supplied by blizzard.

 

Well, is sc2 has no lan then i am not going to buy it...

In the city i have a good internet connection so i wouldn't care if the game runs entirely through battle not or just for verification. But how am i supposed to have a lan game with my firends when we are away from the city where there is no internet?

(N)

 

How would you have a LAN with those people anyway..? You're in city...they are not in city...

 

"when we are away from the city where there is no internet?"

I think you missed that!

 

guyzzzzz.. if you only knew some Assembly..

With a few tools for reverse engineering and good knowledge of Assembly they will bypass the bnet autentication and we all going to have not only cracked starcraft 2, but LAN games available for fun..

All is needed is to give TIME to our crackers..! Don't forget that they work, for all of who either don't have internet either don't have money to spend in pc games, without beeing payed for anything..

And do not forget that u all use cracked software..
I my self as an ethical hacker I had completely decomposited 10 years before tomb raider 2..! and it was not that hard..

 

Yup, sure did!

 

What about game cafes? How will people who don't have net play? And less important how will pirate players play?(If you hate pirates this is joke)

 

What if we don't have pirates, is it not a joke then? lol

 

No pirate hatters. It isn't my fault game piracy isn't forbidden in all countries...

 

I've always wanted to be able to be a pirate hatter!

 

Bad idea

I think removing lan from starcraft 2 because of piracy is a bad idea they must bring the lan back

 

WoW is being pirated so what why would LAN absence make any difference?

 

No lan sounds like being forced to listen to music only with headphones, so others can't listen to it at the same time without paying for it.

 

ok, I'm really not gonna read all this, and this has surely been said bfore, but isn't lan in the new b.net?
or at least should be

 

Read the Battle net article in blizzlive.com it's really promising and ambitious that I myself have been persuaded to say Yes to BNet. I only hope that all their proposals will be accomplished and perfected.

 

There is nothing about this I don't love, except, of course, Blizzard's blatant stubbornness.

 

Rofl, Seradin must have seen that guy lol