About Starcraft II...

[Silfir]

Online activation is apparently planned as well. Nevermind that this will make internet-less people who bought the game in a store unable to play, cause loads of inconvenience for people behind a firewall, or those who often upgrade hardware (as this usually triggers another activation request). And if Blizzard ever goes under (which is not as unlikely as you might think, many highly successful companies of the 80s or 90s have disappeared completely), those Starcraft II boxes on your shelf now contain very expensive plastic coasters. You thought you bought the game, but you only ever rented it at best. It's not even a rental - at least you can use whatever you rented freely during the rental period. To use online activated software you have to keep asking for permission every time you switch computers or upgrade hardware. That's all you get if you fork over full price for a retail box that looks like any other - the bought right to ask Blizzard if you may very kindly use the version of the game you just installed off the disc they sold to you for 60 dollars, or 50 euros, or whatever. And if the authorization servers are down you're out of luck. Guess you have to sit at home, twiddling your thumbs until they are fixed!

All these measures only serve to aggravate the paying customer, and drive people to the torrent sites, even if they only want to download a properly working copy of the game they "bought" and now refuses to work since it cannot be activated properly. While these normally honest, but disgruntled customers download their proper version, they help seed for the pirates and drive up the hit numbers on the torrent sites. Good job fighting that piracy there, Blizzard.

Let's assume that there actually is LAN in Starcraft 2, only you have to ask permission to play over LAN every single time, and cannot play LAN at all if the battle.net servers are down - it still is utter stupidity to impair your product like that. Especially if you already included online activation. What the fuck is wrong with you? Apparently you noticed online activation doesn't stop pirates since you included an additional layer of DRM - why include online activation in the first place? Does a cinema owner physically check each and every spectator for filming hardware including a full cavity search?

I can't imagine how I, or any Starcraft fan who loved the game outside of battle.net, could be content with this. It's just a huge, maddening, terribly sad mess.

[yisk]

Well, the beta-test has been started.
Have someone a key?

[prime]

No, watching the videos of other people playing is killing me. and I had forgotten about the LAN thing.. Korea really needs LAN for its pro gaming matches. Broadband just won't cut it.

[yisk]

My friend has the key. We played SC2 yesterday.
wow...
It's looks cool, but it's not the old Starcraft.
The game has definitely other mechanics.
So if you expect to feel nostalgic, you'll be disappointed.

There are no lurkers more in multiplayer. RIP T_T

[Silfir]

Holy Eff, where did he get the key?

I mean, I'm indignant but hell I still want to play it.

[yisk]

I just won a campaign. And the Lost Viking game. :p

[garyd]

Never been a big fan of RTS or FPS. The only real difference between the two is game scope. RTS is generally crisis management of lots of different things simultaeously where FPs is the same thing but with, in general far fewer things to keep track of.

I'm waiting for civV in september.