Blizzards Response to No Lan Support For Starcraft 2

Many gamers have been heated when the confirmation broke out yesterday about Starcraft 2 not supporting lan. So furious that over 7,000 fans have signed a petition to Blizzard to add Lan support. Today, Blizzard reps have made a few posts defending their decision and addressing concerns fans may have.

As mentioned by Rob Pardo in interviews, piracy is a serious problem and often times tie in closely with LAN. At the end of the day, we want the best for the community and fans that support our games, and having chunk of the community pirate the game actually hurts the community.

1) Pirated servers splinter the community instead of consolidating all players who love to play the game. Battle.net will bring players together in skirmishes, ladder play, custom games, and allow everyone the opportunity to share a common experience.

2) More people on Battle.net means more even more resources devoted to evolving this online platform to cater to further community building and new ways to enjoy the game online. World of Warcraft is a great example of a game that has evolved beyond anyone’s imagination since their Day 1 and will continue to do so to better the player experience for as long as players support the title. The original StarCraft is an even better example of how 11 years later, players still love and play this title, and we will continue to support and evolve it with patches.

We would not take out LAN if we did not feel we could offer players something better.

If I were to buy StarCraft II or any other title, I know the money I spent would be going to supporting that title. Personally, I would be upset that others were freeloading while others are legitimately supporting a title that has great potential and goals of making this title have ‘long legs.’

If you like a song a lot, buy it, and that artist will only come out with more awesome songs for you. If you like a game, buy it, and we will promise to constantly work to make the player experience better at every corner we can.

Support the causes you believe in (This is applicable to all things, not just gaming).
Don’t be a leech to society, innovation, and further awesome creations.

A question I feel is really pressing, requiring Internet to play over LAN means one more thing for people to maintain at large gatherings. What happens if the Internet goes out at a SC2 LAN tournament? A Proleague game?

Dreamhack is often referenced as the largest LAN party in the world… but in today’s age, that LAN is also connected to the internet.

I definitely hear your concern about the internet going out, which would be a huge, huge bummer! But as equally as unlikely, the power could go out…

Karune, what about latency issues involved in online play.

ICCUP in Starcraft and LC games in Warcraft 3 are all attempts to reduce Battle.net lag. What is Blizzard doing to combat this lag if they are removing LAN play?

This is definitely a legitimate concern that would be best to be brought up again if needed when we talk about Battle.net 2.0.

Oh, Karune, you know as well as I do that anti-piracy and LAN are not mutually exclusive.
Step 1: Connect to Battle.Net
Step 2: Authentication
Step 3: Access LAN games thereafter
There you go. Authenticated LAN play. Low latency. LAN parties. Happy customers.

I will be sure to forward ideas in regards to LAN as described. I too have many fond memories of LAN parties.

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