Take for example the most recent bit of news from the Blizzard camp revolving around Starcraft II. The first phase of the RTS' beta has been extended beyond its slated May 31 end date--but only a smidge. The new end date, according to a recent post on the official StarCraft II community blog, is June 7.
The reason? To "prepare for the final phase of beta testing." This final phase, then, will apparently kick off just "weeks prior" to the game's launch on July 27. Blizzard has promised details about the late beta phase closer to the game's launch.
Granted, that isn't the best example of Blizzard purposefully making its fans happy. Preparation isn't intent, after all. But in both theory and implementation, Blizzard is being realistic with its SCII digital rights management scheme, which in turn, should make more than a few PC users very happy pandas indeed. Players reportedly won't be shackled to their net connections during single-player play. After the game phones home just once after purchase, they won't have to worry about the DRM again. Just set it and forget it, as Ron Popeil would say.
The idea behind this, according to SCII executive producer Frank Pearce (in a conversation with Videogamer), is that stiff DRM is pointless. The answer to fight piracy is in offering so much to a game's legal and illegal owners that they'll want to buy it. Enter Battle.net's friends and achievement features.
"That's a battle that we have a chance in," he told Videogamer, adding to thoughts on how Battle.net's features might get pirates to purchase the game. "If you start talking about DRM and different technologies to try to manage it, it's really a losing battle for us, because the community is always so much larger, and the number of people out there that want to try to counteract that technology, whether it's because they want to pirate the game or just because it's a curiosity for them, is much larger than our development teams. We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology."
DRM gets people all kinds of sore, and I totally get why. It's intrusive and generally not fun to deal with. But at the end of the day, people steal PC games. These developers gotta do something. I, for one, am happy that Blizzard is thinking outside the box. What about you?
so good
people go freaking mad over there
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128014
All i wanna do is play with my friends from GB - who all live in america and canada - and its so damn region restrictive, i cant even add them as blizzard friends -_-.
Back to starcraft 1 i guess :/
Now that's now you deal with piracy, not that weird DRM crap other companies are pulling which gets cracked real fast and pisses people off, and stops legal customers from playing the game a lot of the time.
Although, i gotta say, i will kinda miss playing on one of those private battle.net servers. That was kinda nice, with a smaller community and less people. Maybe there'll still be a way to do that or something similar though.
Why can't all companies be like Blizzard?
A load of shit. Latency is higher, but still perfectly playable for anyone with a internet connection from this millennium.
And when every other gaming platform allows for X-continent game play, theres no real excuse oo leave it out - same as the chat rooms
Me and 2 other duders from this site spent a whole night downloading, patching and setting up the god damn beta in order to play some practice comp stomp and hit the 2v2 and 3v3 ladders. We were majorly excited to go into this and couldnt even get each other as friends, not least play together, inquiry on their forums led to the answer of :-
"Play in your own region kthxbai'
I have no mates into gaming as such round these parts, let alone a geeky ass sc fi rts game - and all my gaming friends online are from other continents - i may be in a minority here but this fucking sucks, and there's no real reason for it other than taking away one reason that people with shitty internet can blame them for rather than sorting it out for themselves.
But hey - at least they got the important stuff, like facebook integration - right? Guys?! Guys/! come back!!!!!
also http://www.battleping.com/
Thanks Blizzard.
In the end, the game itself is awesome but bnet sucks.
TL can suck my balls. Elitist that have sand in their vagina 24 fucking 7.
I am happy they wont make the single-player a constant internet connection demanding thing. I am always connected but it has it's hiccups every now and then and it would suck ass if I'd lost progress or even be hindered. It is a SINGLE-PLAYER experience and I shouldn't have to suffer if my ISP has a mental breakdown.
And Blizzard has a very down to Earth approach. Offer them something that makes them WANT the product. Because after all, consumers aren't idiots anymore (for the large part) and they can still get away with piracy. There will always be a way for those that aren't content with paying whatever price for a rubbish product.
I'm glad to hear that Blizzard is taking the high road and not using valuable time and money on self defeating DRM schemes. If they had made some crazy DRM for SCII I might have taken my money elsewhere, despite having been waiting for this game for more then 10 years.
Of course 80% of the people on this site are the type to look at SC2 and go "well shit thats a RTS way too complicated for me" and just play the campaign and a little multiplayer until they give up and move on to the next EZ mode game that caters to the casuals. SC2 exists ONLY because of the "pros" that still play the first game (and are now playing the beta like mad men) these changes are alienated the only people who gave a damn about SC all this damn time. Of course having said all this SC2 will still sells bajillions of copies, doesn't make Blizzard right.
And who would steal Starcraft 2 when you could just pirate it? What a silly suggestion.
And they are absolutely right. The only way to counter piracy, is to basically make people an offer they can't refuse. Let's just hope that this gesture of good faith won't go unnoticed by gamers.
And they are absolutely right. The only way to counter piracy, is to basically make people an offer they can't refuse. Let's just hope that this gesture of good faith won't go unnoticed by gamers.
You woulda just held me back anyway, Gary.