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Warcraft III Gone Gold
0x00 writes "Shacknews seems to be the first to report that Warcraft III has gone gold. The press release is here. Blizzard have announced that the game will be available July 3rd around the world - just in time for my mid-year University break (great timing!)." Update: 06/13 15:16 GMT by M : Please consider the fact that Blizzard is suing people who write software to interoperate with theirs when deciding whether you want to purchase this game.
"06/13 15:16 GMT by M: Please consider the fact that Blizzard is suing people who write software to interoperate with theirs when deciding whether you want to purchase this game." Is that really necessary for reporting a story? Shouldn't this be an objective report?
Death to the DMCA wielding scum and their bnetd lawsuit. May they burn in hell. If you must have this damn game, pirate it or shoplift it. But better to do without and give them no ammunition to whine about the eeee-vil pirates.
Call (206) 338-5780 COLLECT for information about a genuine BA, BS, MA, MS, MBA, or Ph.D.
Please consider shutting the hell up!
Mad props to Stewie.
Oh, and you have some kind of statistical evidence to back this up or something? Or are you just projecting your own blow-hard nature onto everyone else here?
Sure, the number of people willing to avoid a particular product based on ideology is certainly the minority, but not the miniscule fraction you suggest.
So I'll quit being "naive" if you'll stop being "a dick".
The Free desktop that Just Works
Right. I'm not going to buy it, and I'm not going to play it, partly because I don't want to, but mostly because I don't have a machine that can play it. Are we clear on that? I am not going to give Blizzard $55.
But given Blizzard's treatement of bnetd, I'm damn well going to download a warez rip of the information that comprises it (which to my Linux machines look like a bunch of gibberish). Because that will reduce Blizzard's bank balance by $55, right? I mean, it does actually remove money from their account and puts it in, er, /dev/null, doesn't it? Because making unauthorised copies costs money, right? Maybe if enough of us do this (be sure to delete the information then download it again and again) we can leave Blizzard owing several billion dollars to... err... wait... isn't there a flaw in this argument?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
"Oh, and you have some kind of statistical evidence to back this up or something?"
Do you have any statistical evidence that "many others" abide by whatever silly boycott is going on at the moment on slashdot?
"Sure, the number of people willing to avoid a particular product based on ideology is certainly the minority, but not the miniscule fraction you suggest."
Slashdot represents a very small number of potential customers for game makers anyways. Of the slashdot population, a lot don't buy games that won't run on Linux. So that slims the potential userbase of slashdot that will buy said game to a small fraction. The people actually commited to a boycott is going to be very small as well. We have seen this with this *AA's and Taco posting about some new cool DVD that is out. If the editors don't even abide by boycotts, don't you think that reflects on the general population of slashdot? I sure do.
"So I'll quit being "naive" if you'll stop being "a dick"."
If your definition of being a "dick" is being a "realist", then you will be naive for a _long time_. Good luck with your boycott; I'm sure they will miss your money. Hah.
Specifially, they enjoy pederasty. What is pederasty? Sex with young boys, and that's what Taco is all about.
The issue in this controversy is not whether Open Source software is better or more legal or required over closed source. The issue is that Companies should not sue independant not-for-profit individuals just because their work happens to interfere (theoretically!) with their business model!
If two mega-corporations want to sue each other - fine, go right ahead. If Blizzard wants to sue Microsoft, or Microsoft wants to sue Blizzard - that's just great. But for sueing people that are not making money from the product they are being sued over, Blizzard needs to be punished. If bnetd were a commercial product, I would probably still buy WC3.
-dbc
Thats my take on WC3. Skip it. Unless you really enjoy single player RTS games. Blizzard generally does a kick ass job on the single player storyline. But what it all boils down to is that the multiplayer is about 2 years out of date already. Not only did they make ZERO innovations in the RTS genre, they failed to include interface and gameplay features that are becoming standards in today's RTS games. Where is my 'next idle worker' button? Or a way to queue up non-movement orders (or hell, a reliable way to queue up all the different movement orders)? A "Fully 3D" game without a movable camera, give me a break, thats just begging for units lost behind trees and off the edge of the view space.
I admit SC was a great game, but that was like 5 years ago. Blizzard thinks they can take the entire game (mechanics and all) from that long ago, stick new graphics and a new story on it (oh, and dont forget their half-assed Hero implementation), and call it the next big thing. I am just sorry that all the people out there who are deciding to buy WC3 based on how good Starcraft was wont be able to experience the last 3-4 years of RTS development until SC2 comes out 3 years from now.
PS: *IF* the scripting engine is as good as so very few of us are thinking it will be from our investigations then I'll buy the game anyways. Something that revolutionary (scripting is to triggers as triggers were to plain custom maps) can make up for a game with no evolutionary advances.
I'm sorry, but based on talks with many of my "online acquaintances", it seems that mostly what bnetd was used for is playing Blizzard games without a CD key. Case in point - the WCIII beta. It was easy to get a pirate copy, and then play via bnetd. Blizzard wants to control Battle.Net. Why is that wrong? Why do you somehow know "better" than them? Who says that anyone had the right to reverse-engineer it? Blizzard has every right to sue. See, when you're in business, the point is to make money, or you go away. When something comes along that threatens that, you have to defend yourself. And while you may say, "well, bnetd tried to work with Blizzard", the fact is that they aren't obligated to. If they want to control it, and not have some third-party come along, that's their business. As for the part about "not buying anything that doesn't run on Linux", that goes to show how pig-headed you are. Do you use a wrench to tighten a screw? No, you use a screwdriver. There is such a thing as using the right tool for the job. To think that there can only be one OS for everything is silly.
Let me preface that not all Linux or OSS users are total nitwits. I'm talking here of the OSS people who evangelize and generally annoy us along with similar zealots in the Macintosh and Windows camps when it comes to boycotts and pissy attitudes to the businesses that dare cater to "lesser" operating systems (in terms of market share).
If one thing never seems to get through a zealot's head, it's this: Never piss off the people you protest if you want something from them.
Case in point: Mac OS X is essentially BSD, and these users will be able to play the new game at the same time as Windows users. Further: Blizzard knows code, and could easily adapt the Mac OS X for a Linux port. They have proven this with the Diablo II game, of which a Mac version was in stores less than 4 weeks after the Windows version, and even created a version of Diablo II that works natively in Mac OS X. Other companies that love to port, such as Aspyr, could possibly be convinced to license other company's code for porting to Linux as well.
However, certain factions, namely the Linux zealots eager to boycott and bitch and try to steal intellectual property and server code and processes they DON'T OWN are rocking the damn boat for the majority of Linux/non-Windows/non-Mac people who wouldn't mind a Blizzard game.
Don't get me wrong. Protesting is OK. Comments are OK. Being a whiny bastard only annoys those who can help you--namely the people who write the software. I've personally watched the news where some whiny Mac idiot almost singlehandedly fucked us all in the Mac world when trying to gain support or software by writing a libelous, fact-lacking, and generally pin-headed letter that only Pat Robertson would appreciate.
Keep your principles and write nice letters of request for Blizzard. Battle.net is still free for those who buy the software. Battle.net would get stronger for Linux users if the shills would shut the fuck up so that the calm, pleasant requests for support can be heard.
Blizzard CAN write a Linux version of all their products. If you don't want it, OK. But don't do an Al-Queda for the Linux gaming industry by protesting and threatening and screwing around with other's toys (like the bnetd guys are) so much that your actions sabotage a chance at a positive action.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
You mean people who posses unauthorised copies of the game. "Piracy" has to do with armed theft of tangable goods (often involving murder, rape, and other nasty business).
Shut the fuck up! I'm so sick of people's dumbass comments and semantics. As I'm sure you're aware, in practice, language evolves and some words gain new meaning. Does whether or not we should call illegally copying software "piracy" matter?
It has nothing whatsoever to do with sharing fun or useful software with your friends
Sharing? How about next time you park in the parking lot, someone "shares" your car and takes it to the local chop shop to "share" the parts with others. Or someone sticks you up on the street, takes out your wallet and forces you to "share" your money with him. Copying software illegally is THEFT, whether or not that person would have gone out and paid for a copy on his own accord.
There is nothing morally wrong with this activity in and of itself, only the economic argument that some unpaid copies might have been paid copies otherwise.
Oh, sure. I suppose it depends on your morals, but as far as I know, theft is morally wrong to most people. Just because you aren't physically taking software off the shelf of a store, or taking dollar bills out of a company's bank, doesn't make it less of a theft, and definitely doesn't make it morally right. Give me a break!
Mark
Oh you're a consumer alright. Unless you don't buy food at a grocery store. Then again if you pay attention to your principals you mustn't eat there. I mean, 25 years ago that big corporate store bought Ma and Pa's grocery store and built their big and mean store on top of it, and that just isn't right, now is it?
Blizzard is actually IMPROVING the game? This sheds new light but that was only the very short list.
Where are formations and more complex reaction orders (run away being one I sorely miss)?
Try shift clicking to queue attacks. Or harvest locations. Or try doing Move-Attackmove-Patrol.
Oh, and unless theyve changed it, you can send flying units to the a high elevation point at the top edge of the map and they will disappear off the top of the screen.