At least Blizard is noticing the fan outcry. They still need to do better than this. If im gonna actually pay for these games, give me real offline LAN play. Please?

"Hey Grandpa, tell us again about the olden days when you could connect your computers directly together."

Did i just hear a thundress roar... i guess a few koreans (in the millions)just jumped from the small hope of LAN tournament festivals will still go on! I'm a huge SC fan.. but the lack of local LAN.. is just damn confusing.. ur game set the standard for local lan fun..and in a way international tournaments and pro gamers.. that kept the game alive for over 10 years.. and created a huge loyal fan base.. so u say thank you.. by.. killing LAN? Did G. Bush become president of blizzard or something.. this sounds like BIN LADEN in cahoots with Saddam to attack american....WTF?!?!?!?

Isn't this a waste of internet resources?
Smarten up, Blizzard!

they are smartenging up hellodemon. This gives you the Lan support that everyone whined about but keeps people from pirating the game...oh wait. Most of the people complaining they wanted lan suport were the pirates that werent actually gonna buy the game just pirate it and plan Lan "offline" mode like they did with starcraft and diablo/diablo 2. So I support this if and only if they dont force me to buy all 3 campaigns to play lan mode which would cost me 150 bucks like the online play will.

Finally, it unfolds. As many people guessed before, absence of LAN support is primarily targeted at combating piracy, not viruses. They don't want one person buy the game, bring it to a LAN party and have 10 other guys be able to play the same disc. They want everyone to get their own. Which makes sense, because I'm greedy also and would most definitely want the same thing if I was Blizzard. Still sucks though that now I have to have an Internet connection to play LAN games. What if my Internet is out? Or what if the location that we are at does not have Internet at all? On the other hand, it is not that bad. I can guarantee you that 2 months will not go by after the game is released before some dude hacks starcraft2.exe and cuts out that "authenticity verification" BS and we'll have the true LAN. LOL !

thats great blizzard... and obvious... please tell me tho blizzard, whats the point of having low ping high bandwidth if I can't start the F$%^ING game in the first place cause I don't have net access?

"only requiring an online connection to authenticate the game. That's certainly positive news for fans upset over the whole LAN connection issue."
no, it isn't.

why do they keep beating round the bush? just come out and say it: starcraft 2 is utilizing a monumentally gay form of DRM that requires an internet connection to play. thats all it is, DRM.

Actually. If you ask me this was their plan all along and they are just making it look like it's a new idea made from everyone's complaining so we'll feel better.

They had NO CHOICE to do this from the very beginning because of Pros/tourneys that NEED the low latency to perform, and this is exactly how I thought they'd do it.

I think this was their plan all along. Drop a bomb and save the day with this 'kind of... lan' that they already had planned up. This will help people on dialup have LANs but you are still forgetting the LANs that have NO INTERNET. LAN implemented into Battle.net is NOT what we WANT. (at least not what 'I' want =P)

idiot, what makes you think that when the pirates go to download it it wont already be nice and cracked for them to do offline LAN? all your basically supporting is a retarded form of DRM that adds a massive prerequisite to the game for no other reason than they THINK it will stop piracy!

Not good enough, at all. My biggest arguments for this aren't about lag, seeing as most people that have a connection at all have a decent connection. I would say at least 5% of PC gamers simply don't have internet at ALL, and quite often LAN's are held where there is no internet, or at least where setting up the net connection would be a pain in the ass.

Try again, Blizzard.

Sorry for the double post, but before anyone discounts gamers without net, remember that a good portion of those are soldiers, and kindly stfu.

Pseudo lan is better than pseudo no lan...

THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Do you realize how much more difficult it is to setup up to 100+ internet connections at a LAN party?!

Join the outcry:
http://www.petitiononline.com/LANSC2/petition.html

Hey Blizzard, fuck you buddy.

No dice still. No LAN and I'm not buying the game.

Sorry this still isn't LAN. Pseudo-LAN as they would call it still isn't the real thing so Pseudo-LAN = No-sale or Pseudo-money if you will.

Maybe if they implemented some kind of mode like this for EVERY online match, I'd be happy (listchecker on Warcraft 3 anyone?).

I feel like I'm **** 4th grade again asking my mommy if I can go on the swing set with the other boys, and then her telling me no because it's dangerous, unless she is around. Because then, and only then, will it magically be safe for me to play and I won't get hurt.

DRM for LAN?

oh dear, the blizztard authentication server is down for 12 hours....looks like we have to cancel the LAN tournament LOL. also pirates will just emulate the server authentication with a virtual server, so this really is just hurting the honest consumer.

I think people need to stop crying so much about this. They just throw out arguments that sounds good but are not realistically applicable.
1)"ZOMFG what if I don't have an internet connection?!?"
A: You do. You posted. You seriously trying to say that the majority of gaming rigs out there are not connected to the internet? Grow up. Oh you have a laptop and you want to play in the living room? It's your fault for not having wireless. It's 2009, again, grow up.
2)"Do you realize how much more difficult it is to setup up to 100+ internet connections at a LAN party?!"
A: How often do you play at 100+ man LANS? And even so, it's called a dedicated server and you don't need 100 connections, just one.
3)"I'm not playing a game I can't LAN."
A: So you made it all the way through Nightmare and Hell on LAN only eh? Impressive. Either way, you can still LAN it now with this fix. Can you really not figure out how get internet over a LAN?

Okay, that was worded harsh, but come on...people are going to be unaffected by this 95% of the time (unless they were planning on pirating). Yeah it sucks if your internet goes out, but are you really not going to buy a game because that might happen once? And maybe a few people may need to buy some hardware(router). Yeah it sucks but buying a video card for a new game is the same situation...would you say "Blizzard you bastards, I'm going to boycott your game until you make the graphics worse!" So I can see how it could be a deal-breaker for a small group of consumers...but everyone else is just whining.

Learn how business works. Should they take blood out of the game because some people have a vasovagal response? Should they take out the killing of Demons because it offends the Wiccans? Okay, dumb analogies, but the point is you base aspects of your game off the average consumer; not off gamer soldiers without internet. Either way, glad too know I pay taxes so that soldiers can play Diablo III in Afghanistan.

Hey Ridik: You are a complete idiot with 100% worthless arguments.

1.) Yeah, most people have internet connections. Most people have wireless, I get it. What about when traveling? What about the military who is ALWAYS traveling? What about those in areas with no decent means of internet connectivity? Thanks Ramar for pointing out that soldiers don't always have internet connectivity, as I am in that position now. I have no way of connecting my laptop to the internet, and it's far easier for me and a few guys from work to link up and play a game of LAN. Oh wait, by your logic, I am on the internet, so obviously my I can play online... I guess you've never heard of internet Kiosks, the MWR's for deployed soldiers, or hell, even just going to a friends house to use the internet. Being able to access the internet doesn't mean being able to access the internet on your person computer.

2.) Most lan parties of that large of caliber are just hosted in an open hangar or warehouse. So yeah, some work will have to be done to make this acceptable for large LAN's.

3.)WTF is your third point? I don't even think you know. This is no "fix" and again, internet isn't always an option.

You are right, I don't play in many 3 digit LAN parties, but I have a few times. Almost all of the parties are with over 30 PCs. The problem with the dedicated server is setting up the internet connection through all the computers, the wiring wouldn't be all THAT terrible. The problem is everyone has a different mix of hardware, software, and operating systems. Not only that but our LAN parties are not supremely organized, its just a semi local thing in a rented building.

While the instances that real LAN is necessary are not quite as common as some would have you believe, but they ARE common enough that full LAN is a complete industry standard for the PC and has been for many years. Add in the fact that Blizzard gets nothing from this move and it won't stunt piracy in the least, especially when someone writes LAN into the game themselves. In the end the move is completely unacceptable.

I guess the LAN parties I go to will be playing Supreme Commander and Dawn of War II still for the strategy crowd.

Double Post to respond to more stupidty:

So what then Ridik? I work 12 hours a day 7 days a week. Can you say the same? Is it so wrong for me to enjoy a video game for an hour or two after I work 12 hours a day? Guess what else...? We still pay taxes too jackass.

I know Blizzard can't please everybody, but LAN is something that obviously affects a lot of people, not just soldiers.

^ I totally agree.

still doesn't help some lan parties where the host doesn't have internet (and yes, i have some friends like that)

Well, other then the fact that unless you don't have any sort of constant broadband connection, I say it solves the issue quite well. Sounds like it will prevent wide-scale piracy while allowing for low-ping lan games. Sounds like a fair trade. I think personally all blizzard games are low-grade trash, designed for people with low-grade PCs, but I think this move is a step in the right direction for PC gaming. I hope other game companies adopt this mindset as well. If a game is fun enough to spend 10, 20, 40, even 60+ hours a week on, it's well worth paying the retail price. People who are not happy with this kind of LAN-set up are just people who never pay for PC games. You can't tell me that you have a gaming PC, like multiplayer PC games, chat on tom's Hardware, and NOT have some sort of basic DSL or better connection. No one believes you, and no one cares.

You realize there is still quite a few people in the less urban areas with no broadband, right? Especially those living on or around mountainous areas, it's not that uncommon for dial to still be the only option. Don't believe it if you want, you are feel to be as ignorant as you desire.

The argument is moot. You're never going to get offline LAN -- Blizzard wants B.net integration for at the very least the obvious piracy reason, and probably some kind of achievement tracking thing too; that's all the new rave and it's addicting and wouldn't work nearly as well without all the LAN plan going towards that. Cheating, then, would also need to be enforced such that these achievements were legitimate. Blizzard has learned that the best way to enforce these things is constant checks with their servers -- exactly what they are suggesting to keep for LAN play while stripping everything else of online play.

Be happy that they are looking towards a compromise at all... which, frankly, isn't surprising given the quality standard of Blizzard and the fan outcry.

It's what they should have done from the first