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Ex-Blizzard Devs Sign With Namco, Blizzard Using BitTorrent
Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a press release revealing the ex-Diablo creators now at Flagship Studios have signed a publishing deal with Namco, in a move that "marks Namco's official entry into the PC games publishing business" - we've previously covered Flagship Studios' formation on Slashdot Games. Elsewhere, several readers point out Blizzard's official World of Warcraft site, which has announced with regard to the upcoming WoW Beta test: "While we plan on having several ways available to distribute the files to everyone, our primary method will be through the Blizzard Downloader program, which uses BitTorrent technology." Update: 03/18 21:01 GMT by S : There's more discussion on Blizzard and other companies using BitTorrent in a recent mainpage post.
I never got a chance to contribute in yesterday's (or was it the day before's?) article about bit torrent suddenly becoming sanctioned in games.
But I predicted this would happen in the early days of Bit Torrent (god I wish I could find my +5 on the subject from last year or so.)
Anyway, this saves companies TONS of bandwidth and if has already been proven with Linux distros. The Fedora torrent is massively successful.
It may also urge crappy ISPs to up the amount of bandwidth they give to customers when they realize that high bandwidth != piracy always.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Very simple, the BNet protocol is not and likely never will be an open protocol, Bittorrent always has been and always will be an open protocol.
It's not the software license that is the issue, it's the protocol use.
Agreed, the current setup of most MMORPGS leaves a lot to be desired. The problem is, how else can it be done? That's not a very easy question to answer. One of the thoughts I had, when I started considering the Diablo as an MMORPG idea was to have some randomization in the world. For example, have the main world map be roughly static, with monster spawns changing occasionally (though not drastically; heck, might go so far as to setup an actual ecology, and have the system track it; though that might be over the top), and then have players be able to find random dungeons, and tie those dungeons to the level of the character finding them. Further, only the player who found them, and anyone in thier party (assuming some sort of party system) woud be able to enter the dungeon. Along with that, the dungeon layout should be randomized, ala Diablo 2, with maybe a few puzzles and some sort of minor plot inside. The plots would have to be thin, and almost invariably combat oriented (rescue damsel in distress, eradicate monster menace, recover artifact for religious orgaization, etc.). Lastly, have the dungeon disapper after some amount of time if the character ignores it.
It would still be a level treadmill to some extent, but at least you wouldn't have to spend forever camping the exact same spawn point as every other character of about the same level.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
I did a test of Blizzard's use of a BT, and it caps the upload to 10kbps roughly. The download does seem to use most of the bandwidth.
The thing that bugs me is this. In days of yore, you wanted a demo, you went to the companies website and downloaded it. Fair enough. Using BT though, using BT means less bandwidth usage by the company, which means saved money. It's a bit cheeky pimping THEIR product using YOUR bandwidth. Some ISP's are crappy (like mine) and have a ridiculously low upload cap. If you go over, they charge you.
Sure, it stops the "slashdot" effect on sites, but it still seems a bit off using your bandwidth to spread their advertising essentially.