The Evolution of Multiplayer Games and Online Play

Ranga14 writes "The recently announced Command & Conquer 4 seems to be following the same path of Blizzard's Starcraft 2 in having no LAN/offline multiplayer. They will require users to be logged in at all times to even be able to play any facet of the game. What will this mean for LAN parties, gaming events and those who don't play online? Is this a sound business decision, or do EA & Blizzard not get that this method of attempting to thwart piracy will fail like others have?"

Comments

When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Opportunist]

I think it's a wrong move, but not because of LAN parties. LAN parties used to be a thing when internet was scarce, connections were slow and often you also had metered lines that only let you transfer so much traffic per month. Today, with bandwitdths that break the mbit borders easily and often hover about 10mbit, carrying your computer somewhere is, at best, something you'd do for special occasions. Events, maybe sponsored, where you may even win a prize for being good. Not just "getting together to play".

My argument against those mandatory online services is simple: What if the company ceases to exist or ceases to support the product? Good bye multiplayer (or even singleplayer)? Today I could still fire up a game of Starcraft, locally or through the internet, I needn't connect with BattleNet (let's assume it ever went away), I could play SC for as long as there is TCP/IP v4 around. Dunno if it works with v6, someone would have to try.

Tying a game to its maker essentially results in a better rental version. And I refuse to pay premium for renting a game.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

LAN parties used to be a thing when internet was scarce, connections were slow and often you also had metered lines that only let you transfer so much traffic per month.

This is still the case for satellite and mobile broadband in the United States.

I refuse to pay premium for renting a game.

Are you willing to give up video gaming altogether once all the major publishers of PC games have switched to this business model?

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[jellomizer]

Most companies when they go out of business especially one of any particular size they get bought out and sold to different companies/organizations. So if say Blizzard went out of business you may be able to setup a NFP Fund to buy BattleNet. for them and relicense it (You may not be able to GPL the code) or give it away to others. If a company is going out of business they are usually fairly open to selling stuff to you.

LAN Games have the problem with demographics now. Most people don't know when the LAN ends and the Internet begins, creating a support problem. Also it is not a heavily used feature as you said about LAN Parties are obsolete.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[prefect42]

There's also a trend of all assets being bought by another company, who then overvalues each individual asset such that this sort of venture can't happen.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Kentaree]

I frequent a netcafe where a bunch of my pals go and we very often play games like Counterstrike, Left4Dead on the LAN. I also remember having lots of fun playing C&C:Generals with a single one of my friends over LAN. Nothing beats hurling insults across the room to people you've just shot/been shot by, and the level of fun is huge. Of course now you could setup an online passworded game to only allow your friends to join, but that'll start to eat bandwidth really quickly...

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

Also it is not a heavily used feature as you said about LAN Parties are obsolete.

I agree that LAN parties are obsolete, though for an entirely different reason. Picture this situation: you have friends at your home, and you all happen to have the itch to play a video game. They don't have their PCs with them for any of several reasons:

1. They didn't anticipate wanting to play a video game before they left.
2. They aren't allowed to dismantle the family PC. (I see this a lot because I babysit.)
3. Their PCs are laptops without a powerful enough graphics chip to play a recent first-person shooter. (This is becoming more common with the rise of Eee PC and other low-cost subnotebooks.)

The solution came in three pieces:

1. In 1996, Nintendo added third and fourth controller ports to its Nintendo 64 video game console.
2. In 1999, USB allowed connecting multiple gamepads to a computer through a hub.
3. In 2008, television-sized LCD monitors became affordable, freeing from having to choose a laptop carefully to get SDTV out or buy and install an aftermarket video card to get SDTV out because HDTVs can display the VGA signals that PCs already put out.

So LAN parties, which had been popular throughout the eras of Doom and Quake, eventually became less necessary because friends can sit on the sofa and play console or HTPC games together.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[complete loony]

Pffft, I've been going to LAN parties for years, heck I used to organise them. There were some initial teething problems with steam, CSS, TF2 etc requiring an internet connection to play, and everyone rocking up needing updates. But these days? Nah, needing an internet connection seems normal now.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Opportunist]

I guess that's the fate I have to face, unless some get smart and realize that I'd buy their games if they didn't rely on a rental system.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[mlts]

The question is more of how much can the PC gaming community can take. First, it was more intrusive DRM, then activation, now its having to be online just to play a single player campaign.

I'm seeing an attitude in the game industry that is an off-putter. Yes, the economy in most of the world stinks, but instead of trying to jumpstart sales by putting out some innovative IP, I see the grip tightening over what stuff comes out. This creates a feedback loop because gamers either will just crack whatever protection something had (patch out DRM, make a server emulator), pirate the game, or just give the game company the finger and go back to playing WoW and not bother buying any works that are less functional than the previous versions.

What this does is create an opportunity for a small game company to take the market by storm by making a quality game that ends up widespread and played everywhere. This is how ID Software (and its predecessor, Apogee) got started. Yes, a lot of copies will be pirated, but a lot of times, pirated copies lead to bought copies. Right now, this market is ignored because of the white-hot iPhone app market, but once that hits saturation (could be six months to a year), people will want to have fun PC games again, and an indie software house could do well in all likelihood.

For new games, the barrier to entry is low, and it is high. It is low because almost anyone can write code, get an Authenticode signing key from MS, get an account with RegNow to handle registrations, then use Tucows or download.com as the main place where customers can download the executable. The barrier to entry is high because users are expecting 3D, theater quality graphics and sound at every turn. The days of writing a generic top-down RPG along the lines of Final Fantasy Legends are long over, unless one is writing an iPhone app. So, an indie publisher will have to deal with that by having gameplay so good it overshadows dated graphics.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Anonymous Coward]

What are you talking about?
Really, my group of friends still have LAN parties, and we're not the only ones. There's a big difference between playing a quick match against a friend over the internet and spending a couple of days together, playing and chatting and really just having a blast ;)

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Tridus]

"Yes, a lot of copies will be pirated, but a lot of times, pirated copies lead to bought copies."

And a lot of times, it doesn't. Pretty risky market to get into when you "might" be able to do better then a 90% piracy rate.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

What are you talking about?

I'll try to explain another way. A friend doesn't have a PC with him because he's at your house for a reason other than video games, but you two still get the urge to play a video game. With two people and one PC, not even a game that works on a LAN can save you. Solution: hook up the PC to a sufficiently large monitor and play a game designed for HTPCs.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Attila Dimedici]

Tying a game to its maker essentially results in a better rental version. And I refuse to pay premium for renting a game.

And that is what this is really about. Content Producers (music, movie, and software publishers) don't want to sell you content any longer, they want to rent it to you. The problem with selling content is that you have to keep coming up with new content in order to ensure a revenue stream. If I can get you to pay me a rental fee (that's not what they call it), I can generate an ongoing revenue stream off of one killer product.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[El_Muerte_TDS]

In 1999, USB allowed connecting multiple gamepads to a computer through a hub.

With Gravis GrIP you could hook up multiple gamepads on a single PC joystick port, this was released in 1996 iirc.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Opportunist]

Just because a company is bought out it doesn't mean that whoever buys it will honor their "old" games and their players. Quite the opposite. Most of the buyouts care for IP, not for released games and (god forbid!) actually supporting them.

They don't want you to be able to play $good_game, made by the company they bought out. They want you to go buy $good_game 2 that they just released, which is essentially the same game with new graphics, but now from the new company. And now they can also make you do that: Simply snip the power supply to the server that enabled you to play $good_game.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Ash Vince]

My argument against those mandatory online services is simple: What if the company ceases to exist or ceases to support the product? Good bye multiplayer (or even singleplayer)? Today I could still fire up a game of Starcraft, locally or through the internet, I needn't connect with BattleNet (let's assume it ever went away), I could play SC for as long as there is TCP/IP v4 around. Dunno if it works with v6, someone would have to try.

Basically, tough shit. They make a product you can use it with the strings they attach or not bother. That is how things work.

This is probably also by design anyway since by retiring the servers for old games at an opportune time they can force you to buy a copy of C&C 5 when that is released. How do you think they have managed to sell what is basically the same game play over and over again. I have probably played every C&C game from the first Dune game they did in the 90s through to the latest Tiberian Sun. There really are not that many differences between them apart from the graphics getting ever prettier. I know this is true of a great many games but that is the reality of what the gaming industry has become.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Saxerman]

Don't propagate this myth. Hell, my Atari 400 came with 4 joystick ports. We had a multi-tap for our SNES so you could play 4 player games. That isn't new, and yet once we had our own PCs, we still went to LAN parties.

You can't play all games crowded around the same monitor. For some you really want your own audio/visual source so you're NOT all tied to one another in the same location. Playing games of 8 player X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter or Starcraft or Age of Empires, or 16 player Counter-Strike or Rainbow Six were expressly fun because we could all run off on our assigned tasks without worrying about going off screen or trying to watch our tiny slice of the split-screen. Breaking a LAN party up into two teams, where each team was in a separate room, beat the hell out of any cooperative on-line play I've ever experienced.

Now, granted, lugging around a 30 or even 40 pound monitor was a bit of a pain, even with those handy monitor tote straps. But, in the end, it only took a few minutes for us to tear down a PC, toss the cables in a bag, and pack it all into the car. As we'd have LAN parties every few (extended) weekends, setup was not the major pain. Have LAN party locations with adequate seating, power, ventilation, and ethernet ports was the tricky part. But once we had adequately sized apartments (gamers living in the next unit works fantastic) or homes, we had our gaming mecca.

Once new game consoles came out that have ports for everyone to plug in their own audio/visual head set, then you'll have a case. Until then, for me at least, there is still something to be said for LAN parties.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[jellomizer]

Dag Nabbit. I am still furious that games are not longer played across Null Modem Serial Cables. This is wrong very wrong. Some parties they don't have Network connections only a serial cable and a couple of serial ports in the back on their computer.

Seriously though. If you have a LAN setup you normally have a good enough internet connection. If someone doesn't then they can hook up to your LAN and still play over the internet, As most peoples LANs have an internet gateway. Unless you just want to buy hundreds of dollars in equipment setup an infrastructure in you house. Just for something that happens once every couple of months and each month less and less people show up, because they can do it over the internet easier.

Now if say Blizzard went out of business what would happen? They just turn off all the servers an go home never to return. NO! they will sell it to an other company and they will maintain it, if not they will probably sell it, to someone who will.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[mlts]

It is risky, but there are not many alternatives. A game company can:

Get a license to have their stuff on a console where piracy isn't an issue. This takes a lot of dough to get developer's access to this market.
Get an agreement to put titles on Steam. This also is cost prohibitive for smaller game writing companies unless they score a publisher.
Go with vigorous DRM which will help their first week or two sales, but will turn off legit users when the bad press mounts up.
Go with no DRM, and grumble about the freeloaders.

There is no best solution to this. However one solution that is workable would be to have the game have a CD-key that is checked for multiplayer play over the Internet, and is checked when it comes time to download a patch or added content. This way, single players and LAN play isn't affected, but if people want added content, they will need a valid key. Yes, this can be gotten around, but so can every other system out there.

Another probable solution, especially if first week sales numbers are valuable, is to put in a copy protected CD or activation based DRM system for a month or two on game release, then patch it out similar to how NWN 1 had the CD protection patched out. The downside of this would be the cost of paying the DRM library seller (or running the activation infrastructure in-house) for use of their product for a short time.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Ash Vince]

The question is more of how much can the PC gaming community can take. First, it was more intrusive DRM, then activation, now its having to be online just to play a single player campaign.

No, the question is what alternatives are there and can EA buy them and then bring them into line. EA is always to go behave like this. Even if you have a different idea of how a game should play you still need EA or their ilk to distribute the physical copies.

The most promising invention to end this may well actually turn out to be Steam since they seam to have a much better attitude to their customers but that does not quite seem to have reached the penetration it needs to do this.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[fractalus]

You are assuming that the current crop of game publishers gives a rat's ass about the PC market. They don't. They see the entire PC market as a den of thieves just waiting to copy their precious IP, and it's a tiny fraction of the size of the console market. Higher risk, vastly smaller return on investment, it's a no-brainer for them in a business sense: skip it. This is why they can justify trying to boil the frog by upping the DRM ante all the time--they don't really care that much if they lose the market.

The good news is, if the big publishers abandon the PC market, it will leave a demand vacuum and smaller companies will emerge to fill the gap by offering products people want.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

Even if you have a different idea of how a game should play you still need EA or their ilk to distribute the physical copies.

Only if you don't count online downloads (for cable/DSL users) or CDs by mail (for dial-up, satellite, and mobile broadband users).

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[autoevolution]

I think that laning will become more and more common now that we have laptops with wireless and even gaming laptops.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[PopeRatzo]

The barrier to entry is high because users are expecting 3D, theater quality graphics and sound at every turn.

Except that doesn't explain the popularity of games like Plants vs Zombies.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[poetmatt]

Lan parties have never been obsolete. What do you call 4 people getting together to play a video game, or maybe 2 or 3 consoles getting together to play?

Now what if these are say Xbox consoles with diablo 3, which now have to get online to play?

Guess you're screwed then, huh?

Your reasoning is just off in all ways. Lan parties still exist for tons of reasons such as a: people want to game together and b: some people either don't have the bandwidth to game remotely (but have the PC) or people I don't know, enjoy super great latency on a lan?

Sheesus man, your comment was ignorant.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[hedwards]

Citation necessary on that. The reality is that a game is going to be pirated whether the developer does something about it or not, but adding many tens of thousands of dollars. That's a huge number of games one would have to sell just to break even. Additionally there's been at least one study out that suggests pretty strongly that DRM itself causes a goodly chunk of piracy.

In other words, they'd probably have better luck if they weren't besmirching their own image by cracking down on people that are trying to use their legitimately paid for copy. I for one refuse to buy from Steam or any company that expects to lock down all of my content based upon what they feel like doing without recourse. Addtionally, as much as I'd like to play Spore, I haven't bought a copy because I absolutely refuse to buy software that can be deactivated after a few installs just because the company is afraid of piracy.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[hedwards]

Steam isn't that much better, they do pretty actively clamp down on the second market and have definitely been known to deactivate entire accounts because somebody bought a couple of games on the second market.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

Lan parties have never been obsolete.

I overstated. All I meant is that they're less necessary now that 4-player sofa gaming is possible on PC, Xbox 360, Wii, and PLAYSTATION 3.

What do you call 4 people getting together to play a video game

I call it a "brawl". Getting started with Wii multiplayer costs $500 for a TV, $250 for a console, $120 for controllers, and $50 for a game. It's a lot cheaper than mouse-and-keyboard games, which typically need a separate $400 PC, $200 monitor, and $40 copy of the game for each player.

Now what if these are say Xbox consoles with diablo 3, which now have to get online to play?

Unless it's an MMORPG like Final Fantasy XI, Microsoft will probably mandate that each developer include at least a single-player mode that can be played disconnected from the Internet. And I've seen hack-and-slash games that allow multiple players on one screen; one was Gauntlet, and another was Secret of Mana.

some people either don't have the bandwidth to game remotely (but have the PC)

I guess I'm just biased because I babysit, and in my experience, not having the PC is more likely than having the PC.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[vertinox]

When was the last LAN party you went to?

Hrm... Come to think of it, I haven't been to a LAN party since 2002? Then came the career, girlfriend, family...

Wait a minute, this is a trick to make me feel old isn't it?!

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Malevolyn]

Are you willing to give up video gaming altogether once all the major publishers of PC games have switched to this business model?

I'd be much more willing to get into reverse engineering, actually.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Malevolyn]

...now its having to be online just to play a single player campaign.

Don't forget requiring gamers to buy each campaign separately.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Malevolyn]

Get a license to have their stuff on a console where piracy isn't an issue.

Since when is this not an issue? Enabling backups on the Wii is almost trivial, these days. And modchip installation is only getting easier.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Trouvist]

I think you need to read up on Steam. Personally I like it, though it does definitely have its pitfalls. However, the main point you argue about it (thinking you would lose access to it, is negated by the ability to burn ANY of the games you download to a CD/DVD and you also have access to the cd-keys that come with YOUR game). If you want references:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=892928/
Also, offline works great for some games. I have bought Fallout 3 through steam but I don't play it anymore. However, my roommate still hasn't beaten it, so he plays it on his computer through steam in offline mode while I play TF2 or any other game I've got at the same time. No hassle, no worries, and of course I've got the Fallout 3 and Orange Box DVD's sitting right here, burned directly from Steam, which work perfectly.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Mordaximus]

The solution came in three pieces: In 1996, Nintendo added third and fourth controller ports to its Nintendo 64 video game console.

This is besides the point, but I can think of at least one system that had 4 joystick ports, the Atari 800, almost 2 decades before this :)

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Dr. Impossible]

Today, with bandwitdths that break the mbit borders easily and often hover about 10mbit, carrying your computer somewhere is, at best, something you'd do for special occasions.

Few people have that kind of bandwidth. I was stuck with 50 kbps until my ISP mysteriously bumped me to 100 kbps. But even with 50 kbps you can play games like Counter-Strike: Source with a latency of ~20ms on servers that are close by.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[PhilHibbs]

My argument against those mandatory online services is simple: What if the company ceases to exist or ceases to support the product?

Basically, tough shit. They make a product you can use it with the strings they attach or not bother.

Well that's the whole point of this article, they will lose sales if they move to an online model. Some friends of mine have 2 PCs, one they use for internet access, and one that is offline 99% of the time but can be plugged into the LAN. They don't have a router, so only one of their PCs can be online at a time. Anyone in this situation will only buy one copy of a game, and will not be able to play with their partner or friend.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[DarthVain]

I disagree. I see no reason that LAN parties would be obsolete. However the make up has changed.

Two things have changed. One is the industry sells a shit ton of laptops now, and for many years now, more lap tops than desktops. If anything this trend would see MORE LAN parties than ever before, if only because everyone is more portable now. The second thing is the people who might participate in LAN parties are more "mainstream" if you will, and are probably less tech savvy and don't care all that much about the latest and greatest hardware, so long as "it just works". That seems to be the trend these days.

That said you get a different type of LAN party, and this is what Blizzard is banking on. First of all if you think that StarCraft2 will not be designed to run on a laptop with integrated graphics your insane. If you look at any software that Blizzard has ever done, the one thing that they have been smart and consistent about is making software that will run on a very large range of hardware. Sure it may not look as good with everything dialed down, but if you can carry it around with you, that may be viewed as a decent trade off. So given that, these people are not the type that would spend a lot of time to try and figure out how the heck to network all their shit together to have a LAN party. Blizzard could have probably created something, but they already have something that does this, called Battlenet. Sure everyone connecting to Battlenet to network to the guy sitting next to you is not as fast as a direct network, but then again most will not be able to take advantage of speed due to hardware anyway.

This is not to say that hardcore LAN parties would not happen, but from a business perspective they are likely hitting their largest market this way, and that is not to mention the other advantages they gain from doing this (Piracy, control, expand on brand battlenet and invest in making it better, etc...)

I personally still think it is a dick move, as it sort of does screw over its loyal hardcore fan base (like me). I know I am not happy about it, but I understand their reasons for doing it, and if you think about it, it makes sense from their perspective, just not from mine. I know the decision moved me from the will defiantly pre-order and buy right away category, to they will probably buy it eventually category.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Attila Dimedici]

"Yes, a lot of copies will be pirated, but a lot of times, pirated copies lead to bought copies."

And a lot of times, it doesn't. Pretty risky market to get into when you "might" be able to do better then a 90% piracy rate.

I have seen several studies indicating that people who pirate IP, also buy more IP. On the other hand, unless you have some evidence suggesting otherwise, I believe that if you have a 90% piracy rate, it is because your software sucks and no one who has tried it thinks it is worth any money.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[ckaminski]

My friends and I have one nearly every month. Mostly it's an excuse for us all to get together, drink, frag a bit, and socialize. Call it an indoor BBQ. It's pretty much the ONLY gaming I do all month.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[atilla filiz]

I'm sure somebody will. If anything else fails we have GPL'ed projects like Sauerbraten(too bad no great RTSs).

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[atilla filiz]

My greatest memories of multiplayer gaming are either on LAN or hot-seat. Being in the same room with playmates is important for me.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

I can think of at least one system that had 4 joystick ports, the Atari 800, almost 2 decades before this :)

I included the Nintendo 64 instead of the Atari 800 for two reasons: First, the graphics chips on 8-bit computers tended to lack the palette colors for four distinct player character uniforms. But perhaps more importantly, Atari was so mismanaged at the time that the Atari 800 computer didn't have a chance to make nearly the same impact on players' expectations.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[!coward]

I only own one of the two, and it isn't the 360. However, from my limited experience with the system, it would seem you're wrong about piracy on the 360. There are quite a few chips for it, but for the most part, and this is mostly where my "experience" with the system comes from, it's mostly a firmware hack.

A mate of mine makes a nice profit off of buying new 360's, using some well-documented hole (like the Zelda hack for the Wii) loading some special firmware onto it then selling it at a higher price with the knowledge that the end costumer will be able to play, errr, backups .. *cough* *cough* Yeah, let's go with "backups".

He doesn't do any actual development, got all the training he needed from material on the web and trying it out on some 360s (which he later sold at a profit, so no loss whatsoever), and the special code is obtained on the web, if you know where to look. He doesn't actually mod anything physical, the warranty is left intact (though he does need to open the system for it to work -- but as long as the seal isn't broken, subsequent inspections wouldn't find anything) and he is yet to have people complaining about it.

Seriously, from what I understood, it's so easy anyone could do it. Microsoft tend to put a wrinkle on things whenever they release a new mandatory firmware update (which is few and far between) or when the newer models get upgraded parts (the disc drive is the crucial component here), but that only lasts a few days, couple of weeks at the most, then it's back to business as usual.

Oh, and there's no problem with XBL too, since there are no actual physical changes, and whatever "magic" is worked on the firmware serves only to allow non-original disks to play. Yeah, that thing with the hard drive is still locked, as far as I know, but pretty much the only thing that you can't do with this method is download a yet-to-be-released title and then try to go online with it. You _can_ play it before release date (he bragged about finishing a couple of major titles before they were even officially released -- Halo 3 comes to mind), but you must be careful to stay offline the whole time, else the XBL system will "see" what you're doing and you risk a ban.

As a PS3 owner, it _is_ a bit irritating that the competition is open to such exploitation -- you get to shell out your hard-earned cash for every single title worth its salt while your mate gets to play any title he likes for free.. But that usually means he's got so much (crap?) to choose from, he can't stick with any title long enough to finish them (bar a few notable exceptions).

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[poetmatt]

What do you think MS is going to do when it's Blizzard's decision? Do you think they're going to write a strongly worded letter?

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Cimexus]

This is true, but the amount of bandwidth consumed by games is generally pretty small. A typical multiplayer game should consume only a few MB an hour, at most. Even if you gamed every day, that isn't going to add up to much unless your bandwidth cap is very, very small.

I used to pay 7 cents per MB when I lived on-campus and was using my university's dorm connection. That's a very, very high rate to pay. But gaming was pretty much the cheapest thing I could do with the connection. I played a variety of MMO games and these generally consumed only 1 MB per hour or even less. In fact, I forced myself to play games instead of do anything else with the connection, in order to save money. Even just browsing the web (not Youtube or anything like that, just normal forums and other sites) chewed up 20 times what gaming did (a lot of webpages are upwards of 500 kB just to load the front page these days).

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Monkeedude1212]

When was the last LAN party I went to? I host one at least every month. StarCraft, Civilizations, Gary's Mod, and more - - Old and New Games.

All of my friends now own a laptop, and they realized one day that I own all the great games (including the X-wing & Tie Fighter Series, oh yeah!), and so one day instead of just playing Halo on the 360 like usual, they thought "Hey we should bring over our laptops and install UT2K4 and play it some time"

Its not even really a big deal, and they probably don't even see 5 or 6 people on my wireless as a lan party persay. But theres something about getting together within poking distance that makes these games so much more enjoyable. When You're sitting next to someone, and you hear the tiny voice go "Battle Cruiser Operational" and you see his smirk, its not the same as a ;) over the in-game chat.

If Blizzard and EA start adopting this policy of no LAN, only online - I won't follow. The CD-Key system works PERFECTLY fine. If you're silly enough to lose your CD key for one reason or another you deserve to, and if you happen to get a working CD because its been inactive for ages, what's the real bother? We all purchased our SC & BW CD's when the game came out, and it'll be like that for the fans who want to play their games, which is enough to make money.

As someone else asked "Are you willing to give up video gaming altogether once all the major publishers of PC games have switched to this business model?"

Yes. I will stop buying new games if this is the kind of crap they start doing. The days will be long gone when social gaming was an Intimate experience. And thats the reason I still have LAN parties, while I can.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[UncleTogie]

With two people and one PC, not even a game that works on a LAN can save you.

What self-respecting geek only has *one* PC at his house?!?

Seriously, though, this trend annoys the heck out of me. I showed my wife how to play our fave FPS via LAN play, 'cause I knew she'd get frustrated trying to learn with spawn-killers taking her head off every 5 seconds online. I'd like that option with other games in the future, too...

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[darkvizier]

give the game company the finger and go back to playing WoW

I agree with the rest, but a game that's not on a monthly subscription plan might have made a better example...

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[bertoelcon]

If I can get you to pay me a rental fee (that's not what they call it), I can generate an ongoing revenue stream off of one killer product.

That why we have subscription and micropayment games now.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Krneki]

It's the same as DRM, some doesn't care and eventually they get cut off. I buy only stuff I can use when and where I want.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Krneki]

Just get an offline crack.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

What self-respecting geek only has *one* PC at his house?!?

I have multiple PCs. Not all run Windows, and not all have a recent 3D video card.

Seriously, though, this trend annoys the heck out of me.

Then get a new favorite game. Patronize developers of games such as Serious Sam that let you split your HDTV. Also patronize developers of games that put all players in one view.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[hemp]

I seem to remember eagerly awaiting ID's shareware release of Doom to my favorite BBS.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[dontPanik]

I believe that if you have a 90% piracy rate, it is because your software sucks and no one who has tried it thinks it is worth any money.

World of Goo had a 90% rate of piracy... because it sucked?

We must have different definitions of the word "suck", please, enlighten me to yours.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/acrying-shame-world-of-goo-piracy-rate-near-90.ars

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Attila Dimedici]

I tried World of Goo. I never completed the free demo they distributed, so I never bothered to pay for the full version. To me, World of Goo was a really cool game that wasn't worth anything. On the other hand, I introduced a friend of mine to the World of Goo demo and he promptly paid for the download, so YMMV.
My guess would be that the people who pirated it and never bought it, played it for a couple of hours and then lost interest.
I would like to know how you know that World of Goo had a 90% rate of piracy.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[torkus]

Forget research, just look back at the client count for the Spore torrents. For a week or two there was 10-20k concurrent leechers and nearly as many seeders. For anyone who doesn't remember, Spore made the news for some of the most restrictive DRM on a PC game to date - and the backlash resulted in them loosening the restrictions on several follow-up games including (go figure) C&C 3.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[dontPanik]

I would like to know how you know that World of Goo had a 90% rate of piracy.

Dude I put the reference at the end of my comment!
I'll repeat it here: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/acrying-shame-world-of-goo-piracy-rate-near-90.ars

I bought the game and loved it, so I recommended it to my friends. Two of them downloaded it illegally online, both loved it, neither bought a real copy.

If someone wanted to test it out, they could just try the demo like you did. Piracy is inexcusable in this case.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[torkus]

One. *laugh*

I just counted and actually surprised myself. 17 if you count laptops, the 2 PCs which have most of their parts, and the ones that are good boxes but just sitting unused. I personally actively use 5 on a regular basis...plus the one at work.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[mounthood]

The barrier to entry is high because users are expecting 3D, theater quality graphics and sound at every turn. ... So, an indie publisher will have to deal with that by having gameplay so good it overshadows dated graphics.

It won't just be those issues. As major corporations continue turning the games industry into a Movies/Music style business venture, they'll use all the same tactics those industries use against indie developers: Ratings agencies to enforce decency, and which are owned by the big players. Cross promotions and restrictive deals. Emphasis on costly aspects (3D models/textures, big movie explosions, bands' stadium performances) and minimizing what's open for everyone to produce in the medium (good game play, character development and dialog, musical skill). Legal changes from bought politicians. Massive advertising to create "big hits". Corruption of reviewers and education/training to be biased towards their products.

The games industry is in for one ugly ride. They won't kill indies, but "video game" won't mean the same thing anymore.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Sylver Dragon]

Tracking that back a bit, the 90% is probably an overestimation and even admittedly (by the guy who made the claim) prone to error. From the orginal thread where the claim was made (Kyle Gabler) :

We arrived at the 90% figure by looking at unique ipâ(TM)s that have contacted our leaderboard server for any reason, at least once. So, this should rule out âoemultiple profiles per computerâ. Of course, there is a lot of opportunity for error, like ipâ(TM)s that change, playing at work/home/wherever, multiple copies being played from the same ip, etc, but it seems like a good enough fast and decent estimate. Then we divided that number into the total number of PC copies sold, giving us the percentage.

So every time a user with a dynamic IP address's DHCP lease expires, zomg! it's a pirate! Avast the swabbing and beat to quarters!
Oh, and playing on a laptop from different locations...Run out the cannon we'll board them in the smoke!

While I agree that piracy is an issue which doesn't present a clear solution, muddying the waters with such bad statistics isn't helping.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Satanboy]

oh really?

I still cannot play my Half Life 2 discs because I do not have access to the email account I originally installed steam with. And yes, I emailed pics of the disks with serial numbers to valve, and no, they never contacted me.

So it doesn't matter if you can burn discs, the fact is steam in itself prevents the use of some games without access to the original steam account that was used to set up the game. This completely negates my ability to do with my disks what I want. Let's say I had sold the disks used, the buyer would have been screwed.

The fact is, my discs became a rental, and without the passcode, they are useless.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Attila Dimedici]

Sorry, I didn't see the link. I have a habit of ignoring links at the end of comments because so many people put spurious links there. In your case, I should have looked closer because while it is not where I would have put the link if I was making that comment, it was a perfectly appropriate place for it.
That being said, the article bases the "90% piracy rate" on the statement of the game's creator. I'm not convinced it is that high. You're anecdotal evidence puts the piracy rate at 66%. The two people I know who have the full game, both paid for it. This gives a piracy rate between us of 40% (You paid for a copy and have two friends who pirated it, I know two people who bought the full copy and none who pirated it). I would bet that the World of Goo creator was overstating the percentage of piracy.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[khellendros1984]

Games are cool, and they've been a strong influence on my life. That being said, if I'm not confident that I could run a (single-player) game without a network connection and without activation, I won't buy it. In fact, it's a significant turn-off if I'm not able to sell the game to someone else (e.g. an account-specific downloaded version, or something). If my sources of acceptable games dry up, I'll find a new hobby (or maybe just take solace in my huge collections of older games that I already have)

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[godrik]

Globulation is awesome.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[godrik]

and I was still playing nethack last week.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[icebraining]

If they were smart, they would enable seamless and hidden LAN connections. You would have to connect all the PCs to Battle.net anyway, but if it detected that two or more PCs shared the same public IP, it could covertly search the LAN for the other PCs, and use a direct connection if they were found.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[icebraining]

Actually, Battle.net was only a player tracker, but the game server for a specific Starcraft match would be the PC of the match starter (actually called the Host).

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[icebraining]

Not in Europe. Here in Portugal I can't find a Internet connection under 3Mbps, and we have been one of the worst EU countries in terms of broadband speed/price.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Chees0rz]

You're missing the point. My roommate and I each had a copy of the latest Red alert and we couldn't play it with each other because of this restriction. Oh wait... it was pirated. Nevermind.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Ash Vince]

Only if you don't count online downloads (for cable/DSL users) or CDs by mail (for dial-up, satellite, and mobile broadband users).

Can these be relied on as the sole method of distribution and still guarantee you the same return on the money invested in producing the game? If not then try explaining why you are abandoning the retail market to your bank manager or investors.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[UncleTogie]

I have multiple PCs. Not all run Windows, and not all have a recent 3D video card.

That's OK. I don't have newer cards in mine, either. I actually swear by this routine, seen here.

You might ask why this is currently an issue. It WILL be, and I'd like the developers to keep in mind that cybercafes also use LAN play for a draw. The reputable ones buy multiple game copies, so it'd be good for everyone. I've still not heard a convincing reason NOT to allow LAN play.

Then get a new favorite game. Patronize developers of games such as Serious Sam that let you split your HDTV. Also patronize developers of games that put all players in one view.

How about I needle the developers on a well-known geek haven 'til they consider making this a standard?

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[elrous0]

There still aren't any decent MMO's out for consoles and that says *something* for the continuing viability of the PC market. Blizzard doesn't seem too worried about consoles or console gamers. Hell, even Bioware made their new KOTOR MMO PC-only, and KOTOR made most of its sales on the xbox.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[Dr. Impossible]

There are many countries in Europe, and Portugal is only one of them.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[melikamp]

I am for free software and all that, but I am for one OK with commercial titles being tethered to the mothership. The usual ethical argument l la RMS does not apply, since games are not commodity software. I think that games benefit the society, but a fun million dollar game is every bit as effective as a fun 1000 dollar game.

And I like some of the big-budget stuff. I want these guys to stay in business. I like Diablo, for one. Blizz said recently that with the new battle.net they are going to try to become an arena for competitive gaming. Kudos. Tying the game to the central server is their only option, and what an option that is, they would be stupid not to use it. They will get paid. They will have a position on cheaters. They will give us something homegrown titles do not have: a large, competitive (as in sport) minded community. Or at least they intend to and should be able to do just that with some luck. Think SC in Korea, but now it is SC2 and D3, bigger, and in US. I can't stop salivating. This is how you play in the big leagues, dude. You buckle and obey the ground rules. Where is the downside? Don't like this attitude? Suck it up and download Free Arena. Professional game developers do not owe you squat. They would not be able to pull it off if they could not get paid. It is not like there is a lack of free as in freedom games that kick ass. There are more of those than ever!

In that light, I am very happy that there is even an option of single-player. Why is it still tethered to the mothership? A better question is: why should they untie it? Why should they care and put in more code when they have nothing to gain from it? It's the big leagues. Their playground, their rules. This is the freaking appeal. I am an old gamer and I like where this is going.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[fractoid]

So every time a user with a dynamic IP address's DHCP lease expires, zomg! it's a pirate! Avast the swabbing and beat to quarters!

Yarr harr fiddle-de-dee!
If ever you renew your D.H.C.P.
Yarr, harr, fiddle-de-dee!
You! Are! A Pirate!

(I'm sorry... I had to!)

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[fractoid]

Doesn't it do that anyway? Or rather, battle.net is a matchmaking service rather than a game server, and the games are (as I understand it) hosted on a player's machine and connected up peer-to-peer (with NAT punchthrough and other assorted cleverness).

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

Someone have a hate on for SC2 proposition? I'm more than willing to purchase all campaigns given they're detailed and long enough to satisfy.

The thinking is that they are not guaranteed to be long enough to satisfy. Think of a game whose single-player component is as short as the terran campaign from the original StarCraft. People just won't pay AAA PC game prices for a game as long as a budget DS title. And then you still need an extra copy for each player in your household because StarCraft series has never supported play on multiple monitors.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

There are two paths: either A. Windows continues to allow administrators to install unsigned or self-signed code, and indies work around some of the obstacles that the major publishers put in the way; or B. PCs that run Windows gain code signing with enforced verification back to a trusted root list that a computer's administrator cannot modify and in the process become Xbox consoles. Option B would only serve to drive the enterprise (which depends on custom Windows apps) toward Wine/Linux on the desktop, so we can reject it for now because the enterprise is Microsoft's cash cow even more than Windows gaming. I'd like you to explain these changes in the competitive environment to see how option A would play out.

As major corporations continue turning the games industry into a Movies/Music style business venture, they'll use all the same tactics those industries use against indie developers: Ratings agencies to enforce decency, and which are owned by the big players.

Indie games have their own set of decency self-certification marks called TIGRS that are sufficient for publishers using the download or disc-through-mail distribution channels.

Cross promotions and restrictive deals.

Please explain what they are so I can tell how they would affect an indie game based on an original set of copyrights.

Emphasis on costly aspects (3D models/textures, big movie explosions, bands' stadium performances) and minimizing what's open for everyone to produce in the medium (good game play, character development and dialog, musical skill)

Encouraging players to require these costly aspects hasn't worked in the App Store, so why would it work elsewhere?

Legal changes from bought politicians.

Please explain what they are so I can tell how they would affect an indie game based on an original set of copyrights, especially how they would mesh with freedom of speech that the supreme laws of the United States and some other countries guarantee.

Corruption of reviewers and education/training to be biased towards their products.

Digital restrictions management debacles, such as the Sony XCP rootkit and activation bottlenecks of Half-Life 2-era Steam and later Spore, are already countering this bias.

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[tepples]

It is not like there is a lack of free as in freedom games that kick ass. There are more of those than ever!

What free as in freedom games do you recommend for playing on a popular handheld device or on a popular device connected to a standard-definition television?

(Why a television? You can't fit two to four players around a monitor as big as a typical PC monitor. Why standard definition? Because SDTVs still outnumber HDTVs in the living room.)

Re:When was the last LAN party you went to?

[melikamp]

I hardly know of any games outside of the PC world.

The real question is

[gravyface]

what will happen to co-op?

Re:The real question is

[Fozzyuw]

Left 4 Dead is a great co-op. There's also a similar genre PC game from Steam called "Killing Floor", but I've never tried it. Left 4 Dead 2 will be having the same Co-op. I guess you can consider every MMO a co-op game. But as far as RTS, there's not been a whole lot in that category for a while. I just finished Bioshock and while that would have been awesome with a co-op feature, it just wouldn't have been the same. Of course, we're talking PC games. The new Ghostbusters game has great Co-op features. I just saved $100 on Guitar Hero: World Tour, which is definitely co-op.

So, you'd have to clarify what "co-op" you're talking about.

So they're not actually charging for the game?

[argent]

If you can't play the game except through their online service, I assume they're not actually charging you for the game software itself?

No, of course not. They'd never double-charge people for a game, would they?

Re:So they're not actually charging for the game?

[Kentaree]

They haven't so far, as their service is free, however, looking at something like XBox Live (which, admittedly, has a lot more games than EA's service would ever have), a small payment for quality mightn't be a bad thing either

Re:So they're not actually charging for the game?

[Talderas]

Quality is not a word I would use in combination with XBox Live.

Re:So they're not actually charging for the game?

[Malevolyn]

That said, I've never really had any major problems with PSN. At least, no more than I've had with Live. The games don't even cost more, only the console. I actually don't mind paying more for the console, considering Blu-ray and free online play. After the price of a 360 and a couple years of Live, you've hit the price of the PS3 (and not the cheapest one, either). But this comment is all opinion. So carry on.

We all know one...

[AdetheRare]

I think it's a wrong move, but not because of LAN parties. LAN parties used to be a thing when internet was scarce

Holy crap, I mean, I know someone who's only contact with *people* is when he has a LAN party. All this would do is remove any incentive he may have to wash...

Summary

[cowboy76Spain]

Don't you love it when the summary already tells you which is your position? I mean, the editor may think it is not a good move, it will alienate users, and so on, but alright claiming that

do EA & Blizzard not get that this method of attempting to thwart piracy will fail like others have?

leaves little room for opinion. Makes you wonder why do they let us comment at all, since the truth has already been established.

Re:Summary

[myowntrueself]

Makes you wonder why do they let us comment at all, since the truth has already been established.

Reminds me of Jean Baudrillard who wrote:

"It is no longer necessary to be able to produce an opinion, only to be able to reproduce public opinion."

Re:Ehem... there goes in flight entertainment

[tepples]

EA and Activision make plenty of games for iPod Touch, DS, and PSP, none of which require an Internet connection and all of which are supposed to be playable on a plane.

Not sure why it will fail.

[Ash Vince]

If they really have taken this decision as a measure to prevent piracy I am not sure why the summary above is so sure it will fail. Sure, the game will still be pirated and will still be available on the Pirate Bay in no time however this measure will probably reduce piracy.

If I was required to buy a legal licensed copy of the game to play online I probably would. The alternative is I download a hack that enables me to play a pirated copy, but if they ever patch the game or server to detect this hack that is massive risk as they have a permanent record me having used a hack.

My favourite online game is Americas Army. If you do well on my server I will look you up on this site (http://www.aa-accounthistory.com/). If I see a linked banned account, your gone and added to my server as a MAC ban. Since this history site links accounts by IP, MAC and the GUID associated with your account getting a banned account listed on it can be a right pain. To be thoroughly clear you may need to change you IP if you have a static address and also use a MAC changer (or buy a new network card).

To play any game well online takes practice. If you are going to download a pirated copy and then play until you get caught and your account banned that practice is wasted since any sort of online league play is out of the question. Also, if they implement a similar history tracking site then you may find you a new legal account from a bought copy is also banned as it is associated with a hacked previous illegal copy. There is nothing legally wrong with this as the shrink wrapped licence you have to agree to when you install the software probably mentions this could happen.

Ultimately this is what they are aiming for, they do not want to stop all piracy of their game since that is obviously impossible. They do want to keep it to a minimum by preventing illegal copies from being able to play online and hence they people using them will miss out on a large part of the gameplay. This is a major reason why game companies are moving towards games that involve an online component, it gives people an added reason to buy a legit copy.

Re:Not sure why it will fail.

[Rogerborg]

this measure will probably reduce piracy

Super. Now, will it increase sales?

Re:Not sure why it will fail.

[taffeli]

Some time ago Blizzard tried to sue chinese Haofang for allowing gamers to play with non-legit cd-keys. Haofang works a bit like Hamachi - it allows to make LAN games over VPN. Reason why Blizzard lost the suit was that the judges found that cd-keys weren't really Haofangs problem because Starcraft already had a LAN mode that didn't require a cd-key. It might be possible that the number of chinese playing with non-legit cd-keys is too great a problem to for Blizzard to ignore. We still don't know how b.net 2.0 will work, perhaps it will simply add an cd-key check to LAN play (authenticated LAN play?). This would work well for Blizzard, if it want's to cut down on rampant chinese piracy - filing a lawsuit against a future service that doesn't care about cd-keys gets so much easier.

Re:Not sure why it will fail.

[bhsx]

I agree 100% and will add a bit more:
If I were to develop a game, it would require logging into a central server to play. Plain and simple it's (currently) the ONLY way to cut down on warez/pirates in today's age. To develop a single-player "style" game, I'd still include online components to make a game that is dynamic and changes each time you play it. Spore did this to a degree that I would take even further. Use entropy pools of data from other online players to change the way the AI reacts in certain scenarios in the game, for example. Perhaps let players play the "boss" against other "single-players" after beating the game in hard mode (against other players playing the bosses, devs initially).
There are definately ways to do it. There are definately ways to hijack other people's accounts too, which is something you'd have to have active measures against; but again, forcing players to login for content is the only current way to combat game piracy.

Re:Not sure why it will fail.

[shadedream]

Previous Starcraft games already implemented what you are talking about. You had to have a legitimate serial number to connect to battle.net and play online. It prevented pirates from playing online in any of their servers which would involve any competitions and the like. Sure (just like with SC2) they could create a reverse engineered server and play online, or they could do LAN or local play... I don't see this method decreasing piracy significantly, especially not as significantly as it'll decrease actual paying customers. Without LAN play I have no interest in the game when I was previously looking quite forward to it. Especially if I have to be online to take part in solo offline campaigns.

It's stupid really... and will fail

[RaigetheFury]

This will only encourage people to build add-ons for the game that allow LAN play. Its happened with dozens of games and frankly this is just plain stupid.

LANS are there for people to get together and have a good time. A LOT of people use wireless connections in their house and that shit is attrocious for LAN play. You can say what you want, but most home hardware that people buy just isn't designed for 6+ people gaming over the internet at the same time. Forget the connection... just the hardware.

A $20 hub lets 10 people play in a LAN where it costs a lot more to setup the same level of connection over the internet in one location. You can try to argue with me but the fact is you're wrong.

I love LANS. People in the same room, talking smack, eating pizza, it's so much better than being on a headset talking over ventrilo. You can see their expressions when you nail em or overwhelm their defenses... It's also being able to come to a physical location, and as we get older, there are no kids, no annoying significant others (we have women in our group so saying wives would be wrong) who keep interrupting. They are there and not being hit with interruptions.

I've lost all real desire to play SC2. I was so excited about it... but the whole point of SC2 is playing with friends and removing LAN play removes half of the reason I play games like that. Sure... we can play online... but it limits us, or requires us to move equipment to other parts of the house so we can all hook up to the router physically since wireless is terrible, and most of us don't have wireless cards for our Desktops. Any gamer who thinks they can beat me while using a laptop is in for one hell of a spanking.

Re:It's stupid really... and will fail

[ciderVisor]

People in the same room, talking smack

I read that as "taking smack" ! I'd have thought speed was the drug of choice amongst LAN party-goers.

Re:It's stupid really... and will fail

[cpricejones]

Also, don't forget that for Starcraft the LAN connection is necessary for proper micromanagement of units (mutalisks in particular). My guess is that the games with the best fan support will quickly see mods that allow for LAN play. The games that see less fan support will likely suffer in the long run.

Re:It's stupid really... and will fail

[Dr. Impossible]

I wonder how the loss of LAN functionality will affect professional gaming.

Re:It's stupid really... and will fail

[The Cisco Kid]

Hubs? Good luck finding a new hub retail, period. You'll pretty much only be finding switches these days (at that same price point, however).

Re:It's stupid really... and will fail

[pnuema]

And if people like you add up to more than 1% of the market, I'd be shocked. Face facts - only the geekiest of geeks go to LAN parties. I've done it, and had a great time doing it - but I might know two other people who have, and I know lots of gamers.

Re:It's stupid really... and will fail

[Ggiant]

I suspect we need to look to Asia for why they made this decision.

LAN parties in the US are a dying breed, and Blizzard likely knows it's only a certain old school breed that will complain (and then many of them will go buy the game anyway, or just complain loudly but never would have.)

(Besides, if you even remember when LAN were commonplace you're probably 35 or older... not exactly the target demographic...)

But LANs are huge in Asia. Look at all the gaming cafes that run dozens and dozens of pirated copies, for example. I suspect Blizzard's willing to sacrifice the few Western players who still have old-school LAN parties to try to corral the Chinese and Korean markets.

Re:It's stupid really... and will fail

[Miszou72]

Any gamer who thinks they can beat me while using a laptop is in for one hell of a spanking.

ORLY? I'll take that bet:

• MSI GT725 17" laptop w/ Radeon 4850
• Logitech G9 mouse
• D-Link DGL-4500 router

Yeah, so that's my e-peen... where's yours, Mr. "One-Hell-Of-A-Spanking"? ;)

Steel Battalion all over again

[sargon666777]

This is a risky move on their part. If you want an example of what can occur when a company does something like this, and then decides that it may not be as profitable as it hopes look no further than Steel Battalion: Line of Contact from Capcom. That game was only out for right about 1 year before they shut down the campaign servers. After that a large portion of the game became unplayable. I doubt the Command & Conquer franchise will die, but I would be willing to venture a guess that in a few years the game may no longer be playable once the company realizes they have no obligation to keep these servers up and running.

Re:WTF is a LAN these days?

[tepples]

My point is that who the hell worries about a personal LAN environment for things like Gaming where most people have decent internet connections

My mother lives in the country. For her, a "decent Internet connection" is ISDN, which is faster than dial-up but not always on and still only 0.13 Mbps.

A step towards charging to play

[mister_playboy]

I think your point is accurate. I am absolutely certain the eventual goal is to squeeze money out of every second of time the gamers play the game, and the first step towards that goal is to have a means to account for all the time played.

What was free must now be monetized... how else can the business grow?

Re:A step towards charging to play

[godrik]

"the eventual goal is to squeeze money out of every second of time the gamers play the game" I loved so much putting the game on pause for hours...

It won't fail, though

[Tridus]

The commentary added to the bottom of the summary is wrong. This has a good chance of success at thwarting piracy.

The goal of anti-piracy measures is never to eliminate 100% of piracy until the end of time. That's nearly impossible, and they know it. What they really want to do is make it so that either you can't pirate it for the frst little while, or that you don't want to. Having no functional online play whatsoever in the pirated version is a pretty effective way of making the pirated version worse then the retail version. (That's the opposite strategy of stuff like SecuROM, which generally makes the retail version worse then the pirated version.)

LAN functionality is a real problem in that department now, because it's used primarily for pirates to play on Hamachi (and the like) with each other. Remove it from the game entirely, and the pirates no longer have to simply bypass SecuROM or an offline disk check. They have to emulate Battle.net in order to get any multiplayer working.

Will they do that eventually? Absolutely. Will they do that within the first 2 week sales rush? Highly unlikely. If it takes them a couple months before the pirated versions have online play, then by the standard of what the companies are trying to do, it's a successful anti-piracy measure.

As usual, you crooks who rip off games because you want free stuff are just screwing it up for everybody else.

Re:It won't fail, though

[Anonymous Coward]

As usual, you crooks who rip off games because you want free stuff are just screwing it up for everybody else.

I usually purchase my games and then download a cracked copy so I can, you know, do what I want with my game.

Re:It won't fail, though

[plasmacutter]

The commentary added to the bottom of the summary is wrong. This has a good chance of success at thwarting piracy.

The goal of anti-piracy measures is never to eliminate 100% of piracy until the end of time. That's nearly impossible, and they know it. What they really want to do is make it so that either you can't pirate it for the frst little while, or that you don't want to. Having no functional online play whatsoever in the pirated version is a pretty effective way of making the pirated version worse then the retail version. (That's the opposite strategy of stuff like SecuROM, which generally makes the retail version worse then the pirated version.)

LAN functionality is a real problem in that department now, because it's used primarily for pirates to play on Hamachi (and the like) with each other. Remove it from the game entirely, and the pirates no longer have to simply bypass SecuROM or an offline disk check. They have to emulate Battle.net in order to get any multiplayer working.

Will they do that eventually? Absolutely. Will they do that within the first 2 week sales rush? Highly unlikely. If it takes them a couple months before the pirated versions have online play, then by the standard of what the companies are trying to do, it's a successful anti-piracy measure.

As usual, you crooks who rip off games because you want free stuff are just screwing it up for everybody else.

one word: bnetd

just because the court ruled against it doesnt mean it's not still there in underground circles and bit torrent sites, still under development by altruistic white-hats.

If they disable lan play they'll simply install bnetd on an old box and spoof a local server.

So yes, it will fail miserably at its goal and alienate vast swaths of the customer base with high latency satellite service and those behind ever restricted university gateways.

Re:It won't fail, though

[Tridus]

So, you've got a copy of bnetd working with Starcraft 2?

Will you have one within the first couple weeks of the game being released?

Probably not, in which case everything I said is true. Eventually there will be one that can do that, and the game companies know it. Their goal is to block piracy in the early period where they can get the most sales and make the most money. The goal isn't to block piracy 3 months from release (that'd be a bonus if they actually did it).

Re:It won't fail, though

[mumb0.jumb0]

It is my guess that, "some time" after the initial sales rush, they will release a patch that allows offline play - in much the same way some games required a disc in the drive to play initially, then that security requirement was patched out.

At least, that is what I'd do if I were them.

Re:It won't fail, though

[plasmacutter]

So, you've got a copy of bnetd working with Starcraft 2?

Will you have one within the first couple weeks of the game being released?

Probably not, in which case everything I said is true. Eventually there will be one that can do that, and the game companies know it. Their goal is to block piracy in the early period where they can get the most sales and make the most money. The goal isn't to block piracy 3 months from release (that'd be a bonus if they actually did it).

this is bunk.

pirates and people who simply cannot feasibly handle the latency will not buy the product, and will wait out the hack.

it happened with psobb, among many many other titles.

do keep spewing the party line though, i'm sure whichever lobbyping/pr firm which hired you for your low userid will give you a bonus.

Re:It won't fail, though

[griffinfinity]

I agree. This and many other platforms will not fail. They will lead to better ideas and ultimately one will prevail. They will all do their part and push the evolution of games. I do know that it is a good bet that people will be competing, watching and hanging out together whenever games are involved. That is a certainty and a good place to start. Expand from there. Games, whether they be board games, sports games, pinball games, atari games, sega games, floppy drive games, pc games, nintendo/x-box have one thing in common: competition. Yeah, they say that multi-player is being phased out. I remember when the opposite was the trend. Gamers love to hang out together if for no other reason than to engage in the lively art of verbal joust (conversation). It happened in the pinball arcades in the 60's, and it's happen right now.

We are seeing the very early stages of product placement and adverts written into the software. I believe that the games will all be free in due time, and that the advertising and product placement will pay for it all. We also have to remember that the technology will get better and there will be more for developers to work with. Remember, GAMERS pushed the development of video and sound cards. We overclocked and they paid attention. Pretty soon, we had our own experts lighting up the net with precise reviews, that got the attention of the hardware makers. We will continue to push this thing forward...

Re:It won't fail, though

[Cnegurozka]

So, you've got a copy of bnetd working with Starcraft 2?

Will you have one within the first couple weeks of the game being released?

Yes, we will have it. This will just need to be a simple matchmaking service. The bnetd version for Warcraft 3 for example was ready while Warcraft 3 was still in closed Beta!

Re:It won't fail, though

[Tridus]

"do keep spewing the party line though, i'm sure whichever lobbyping/pr firm which hired you for your low userid will give you a bonus."

Oh please. What I wouldn't give for an eyeroll emoticon right now.

Among the pirates are a group of crack addict gamer types who want to play, and will buy the game if the pirate option doesn't work. Those are lost sales. The number of them is > 0. The number isn't the same as the total number of downloads or something stupid like that, and I don't think anybody knows what it actually is.

Those people are the target.

Re:It won't fail, though

[Tridus]

Depends. If multiplayer works by having the server act as the coordination for all the clients, then they've got considerably more work to do. Warcraft 3 is effectively a P2P game, the server doesn't actually do much of anything outside of matchmaking.

Since Starcraft 2 has no multiplayer outside of battle.net, they can move work to the server and thwart things more effectively. Who knows if they will or not at this point, though.

Re:It won't fail, though

[Ascagnel]

Bad example. I expect WoW to have no LAN play since its an MMOG -- its supposed to be online. In fact, I'd be shocked if there was ever a "legal" LAN version of any MMOG.

Re:It won't fail, though

[Aceticon]

Steam games are pirated.

Steam works based in the same principle as this one, so i hardly see how this is going to thwart piracy any more than Steam.

Re:WTF is a LAN these days?

[Canazza]

You seem to be making the case that if you want to LAN you also want to Pirate games, which simply isn't the case.

There are people, like me, who are much worse off than you internet wise, and, hell, much worse off than me...

My backup storage is on DVD/Memory Stick
My email is on the web, and I expect that something Internet based be on the Internet.
My home network is not accessible outside because I don't need it everywhere
I don't own a printer at home
I own one computer
I own one computer
I own one computer
I own one computer and it's on Wifi, because my socket is in another room and I'm not getting a 20m cable just to plug my box in

Not only that, but I regularly unplug my box (which is a midi-tower, and quite light) and take it up to my friends house so we can LAN together. We play things like Left 4 Dead, which while requiring Steam, CAN be played without a net connection active. We play old C&C games and Starcraft 1. Unreal Tournament, both classic and the newest one, SWAT 4 and various Half-life mods.

There's a difference between keeping progress at one point in time and maintaining some form of safety net.I don't mind games companies assuming I have an Internet connection, but I do mind them assuming I'll always have it up (LAN parties happen, outages happen, and if one does, I don't want my box to be limp and lifeless because of it - this goes for things like web-based office apps too)

I don't mind having to authenticate with a central server - ONCE. Or indeed, whenever I play online. Just let me LAN!

Re:Ehem... there goes in flight entertainment

[ciderVisor]

I like to play Snakes on a plane.

College lans..

[plasmacutter]

Dormitories in college tend to be amazing places for mass lan parties.

Back in 03 in my last year in a standard dormitory I remember whole floors engaging in multiplayer FPS and RTS games, doors open, taunting, cheering, and having fun.

This move is indeed dumb, especially given the ever tightening noose on college gateways.

If no patch is made to incorporate lan play into the game, it simply will not be used by a heavy portion of the target demographic for lack of feasibility.

Re:College lans..

[tepples]

Dormitories in college tend to be amazing places for mass lan parties.

But when you graduate, marry, and have kids, will you have the money to keep five PCs upgraded, one for you, your spouse, and each of your children?

Re:College lans..

[terrukallan]

But when you graduate, marry, and have kids, will you have the money to keep five PCs upgraded, one for you, your spouse, and each of your children?

I'm not quite sure why you keep bringing up this notion of having five game capable PCs in a single house. None of the LAN parties I've been a part of (except those in the CS lab at school) involved having computers already present. Everyone brought their own. So the question of whether I would have enough money to keep five PCs in top gaming condition (the answer is yes, by the way) is irrelevant. I any case I would always have a PC for my own dedicated use and 1+ for anyone else I lived with.

Re:College lans..

[tepples]

None of the LAN parties I've been a part of (except those in the CS lab at school) involved having computers already present. Everyone brought their own.

Has any participant in these LAN parties been under the age of 16? I'm trying to determine how LAN parties can be relevant to people who babysit.

Re:College lans..

[ubrgeek]

> I remember whole floors engaging in multiplayer FPS and RTS games, doors open, taunting, cheering, and having fun

I always wanted to visit the University of Florida campus ;)

Re:College lans..

[dontPanik]

I think college LANs are falling by the wayside,

for example, in my dorm there was no LAN in the building, my friends and I only played online. I think this is a common trend.

Re:College lans..

[delt0r]

But how many of you actually paid for the game?

Thwarting piracy to what end?

[falckon]

Let's say they are successful, and they do make it such that you can't play online, or even at all without a legitimate copy. These copyright measures are obviously annoying to their legitimate customers, as evidenced by many /.ers here, and I'd venture a guess that they don't increase sales. I think that most people who pirate games wouldn't buy them anyways, they will just find something else to pirate. They may end up getting 5% of the people who would have pirated the game to buy it, but by annoying their paying customer base with limited functionality or a required connection to play I think it hurts sales more than it helps them in the long run. Pirates will always be there, freeloading your games, companies should worry about impressing their paying customer base.

Five PCs in a nuclear family?

[tepples]

Hell, my Atari 400 came with 4 joystick ports.

I don't count the 8-bits because they barely had enough palette colors for two players + enemies, let alone four.

We had a multi-tap for our SNES so you could play 4 player games.

The NES, Super NES, PlayStation, and PlayStation 2 had hubs for gamepads. But these hubs often didn't come out until one or more years after the console's release, and apart from games such as Bomberman that were bundled with a hub, programmers couldn't depend on one being present. That's why the N64, Dreamcast, GameCube, and Xbox had more games that actually used four gamepads.

You have fond memories of late-1990s LAN gaming. But as I understand it, PCs in the 1990s were still considered too expensive for mom, dad, and three kids to own five PCs among them.

Once new game consoles came out that have ports for everyone to plug in their own audio/visual head set, then you'll have a case.

PSP.

I Don't Care

[Loopy1492]

You can still call it a "LAN Party". We do. It's kinda disingenuous, but who cares? We get together to play WoW at each other's houses all the time. My wireless network can handle it. It'll be the same for Starcraft and C&C. Whatever.

The LAN Experience

[Rocketship Underpant]

I remember when a hub cost a lot more than $20 and broadband was a novelty. Back then, my friends and I would get together and hook our computers up via our serial ports using crossover cables to play Starcraft! Blizzard really went out of their way to give you lots of options for multiplay, and even the stranger ones (like serial-port daisychaining) had their uses.

Re:The LAN Experience

[Gizzmonic]

Sorry, but Ethernet ports are much more common than serial ports these days on new computers. Why would developers spend extra time and money supporting slow-ass obsolete null modem cables? Most people don't even know what they are anymore.

Nice example of why PC gaming dying

[Fotograf]

there you go. Add limitations, remove features, lower fun, push graphics and requirements up.

Re:Nice example of why PC gaming dying

[socrplayr813]

So consoles are better because they never had those features? You're just as limited on a console (if not more so). The only thing is that people expect it and are apparently okay with it. And nobody's ever pushed console graphics before...

There's nothing wrong with better graphics unless/until they affect the quality of the rest of the game. Blizzard definitely can't be accused of that, with the testing and demonstrations they've been doing. Now, obviously I don't know the exact requirements for SC2, but they've been reported to be pretty reasonable. How about we wait and see what they are before you get worked up about them?

As far as graphics and PC requirements... if they never increased, hardware advances (especially consumer products) wouldn't happen as quickly. Maybe that'd be good from the perspective of some businesses and non-gamers, but certainly it'd be bad for the overall industry. Personally, I'd rather put up with upgrading or buying a mid-range PC every 3 years-ish than have the PC and game industries stagnate (yes, hardware advances do more than allow prettier graphics).

Since you're so smart, how would you change things?

I run one of the national Starcraft forums

[unity100]

in my country. despite that, i wont buy sc2 if its missing lan play. i see that many of our community members will do the same too. whichever executive moron came up with that no lan idea, can shove the cds up his ass now.

Stop buying these new games and play Starcraft 1..

[autoevolution]

This is exactly why everyone should play Starcraft: Brood War, you may argue that the UI and graphics are shit but hey, the same could be said about chess or go, I mean, having to actually move the peices with your hand? Worst UI design ever, yet people still play these games. Plus, Starcraft has a lot of gameplay and metagame, taking a long time to master unless you are a genius, making the gameplay never boring as it is a learning experience throughout, even the pro's are constantly learning and changing their strategies. But for such a game, the latency ( or time between when your mouse click or keyboard hit is registered ) in multilayer games is very important for micromanagement ( especially mutalisk harassment where mutalisks are timed to launch their attack on the edge of their range and move back immediately to achieve a very optimal and powerful guerrilla warfare effect when done repeatedly ). Which is why latency changing tools have been added to the game so that latency equal to that of lan can be archived on battle.net ( of course with a penalty to lag which is not the same as latency ). Graphics to me, mean nothing, because just look at the world around you, if you want to look at pretty pictures, just look out your window. Starcraft's online environment is ( IMO ) much more mature than other games ( eg Halo on Xbox live ) since the players online are ages 20+, the only players under the age of 20 playing starcraft online are kids from Korea. Teens new to gaming will generally not play Starcraft in north america as they have much newer games with better graphics to attract that age group. However the argument that LAN is dead to me is completely invalid as I on a weekly basis have lan parties at friend's places through a wireless router, and everyone has laptops so it is not like carrying around a pc, nowadays laptops are so portable as you can carry them in backpacks designed to carry laptops.

Citation needed

[tepples]

the entire PC market [...] it's a tiny fraction of the size of the console market.

I'd like to see your source that the PC gaming market is a tiny fraction of the PLAYSTATION 3 gaming market. Or are you taking all the mutually incompatible consoles and lumping them into one market?

Re:Citation needed

[fractalus]

That's actually a completely fair question. I had read that but couldn't recall where, so I searched for it and couldn't immediately find it. I did find this study which claims the opposite:

http://www.edge-online.com/news/study-claims-pc-market-largest (Link to a summary since the full original report is expensive)

So I don't have facts and figures at hand to substantiate my assertion. However, there are some interesting issues with the report. It claims that nearly 200m gaming-class PCs were sold from Q3 2005 to Q3 2008, while nearly 75m PS3/Xbox360/Wii consoles sold in that same time frame. I'm not sure that a gaming-class PC is always purchased for gaming, however; most new PCs could be considered "gaming-class" even if there's no intention of purchasing them for games. Consoles on the other hand are almost always intended as games machines.

The number of hardware units sold only determines the largest potential market for game software, but the number that actually matters is the number of software units sold. If the "potential" market for PC games is 2x the console market but console versions of a game outsell the PC versions by 5x (that number is in line with what I remember reading) then any business trying to survive would be foolish to focus on the PC.

I really hate console gaming. I don't like controllers, I prefer keyboard and mouse, and I prefer the depth to games developed specifically for the PC. But there are many, many more people who would love to play games from time to time and don't want to do it on a tiny screen; consoles make that possible, and spares people from the technical hassle of dealing with Windows and drivers and patches, etc.

Send them an email

[ae1294]

I loved the original starcraft game but didn't really like playing online because of the cheating and honestly it's more fun to play in a room full of people you know. I also don't support this designed obsolescence crap. I can still load up starcraft and play it with my friends and will still be able to in 10 years regardless of what happens to blizzard.

I just sent off an email to blizzard telling them I'm not buying their new version and I suggest you do the same. It only takes a minute and if everyone started doing something other than sitting on their asses things might change.

http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform.xml?locale=en_US

I see no way to email EA without having an account. Maybe someone else can find a method.

Re:Send them an email

[ae1294]

I got an automatic reply. Here is more information -

Live Billing & Account Services REPS,
 
1-800-592-5499 USA
1-800-041-378 Australia (Missing digit? WTF)
1-800-2549-9273 Singapore
001-888-578-7628 Mexico
0800-333-0778 Argentina
1230-020-5554 Chile
1-949-955-0283 Other

Re:Send them an email

[ae1294]

In Australia, 1800 numbers have 6 digits following the 1800. The number listed is correct.

I really had no idea, thanks for the heads up.

Re:Send them an email

[TheSoepkip]

EA employees read slashdot as well... ;)

Re:Send them an email

[ae1294]

EA employees read slashdot as well... ;)

That's great! Got a email address of someone in management we can yell at?

Re:WTF is a LAN these days?

[vertinox]

My mother lives in the country.

Your mother is neither "most people" or "most people who are gamers".

Unless she is some little old lady who happens to be hardcore FPS player screaming "Boom! Headshot!"

What country?

[tepples]

I'd be much more willing to get into reverse engineering, actually.

How much does it cost to move from the United States, home of Slashdot and EA and myself, to a developed country without a tradition of vexatious litigation against reverse engineers?

Re:What country?

[Cimexus]

The cost is substantial depending on if you want to move all your stuff with you (especially big stuff like beds, couches etc). I've moved countries a couple of times and the shipping of your stuff is generally the most expensive part (plus it will take 1-3 months to get there via ocean transport depending on where you're going). The next biggest cost is usually the visa application and processing fees (this varies from country to country, and generally you pay even if your application is not successful). All up I'd say you'd be looking at at least $10,000 USD.

Having said that, the main obstacle to moving countries is not money for most people. It's the fact that most decent countries (countries you'd actually want to live in) require you to have a valid reason for moving there (employer sponsored, family connection, or if you have a particular skill in demand, and even there there's only x places per year). You can't just wake up one day and think "hmm, I'd like to move to Germany (or whatever), let's do that!" Which is a shame ... prior to World War 1, there was almost total global freedom of movement. Passports were invented during the war to control the movements of people ... and have remained ever since. But even just 100 years ago, you pretty much COULD choose to just go spend a few years in Italy or whatever if you wanted to, and just up and go (provided you could afford the transport).

Re:What country?

[Sobrique]

Actually if you're within the European union, you can do pretty much exactly that.

Re:What country?

[fractoid]

Coming from Australia, where you all but need a cavity search to enter or leave the country, I was astounded to get on a coach in London and travel via Paris and most cities in Germany to end up in Amsterdam, all without anyone so much as asking me for a passport. I'd imagine I'd need to show ID if I were buying a house, say, but it seems pretty relaxed there.

Re:WTF is a LAN these days?

[tepples]

Your mother is neither "most people" or "most people who are gamers".

My sister, who lives with our mother, plays video games.

Thanks

[Lije Baley]

Thanks to the Hamachi-loving jerks who spoil it for families like mine which use LAN disc-sharing legitimately.

Re:Thanks

[Attila Dimedici]

No, thanks to the software companies who really think that a significant number of the people who pirated the game will buy it now. As I said in another post, there are studies showing that people who pirate IP buy more IP than the general populace (by a very large number). I believe that many people who would have bought the game (some of whom pirated it first to try it out), won't buy it at all now.

Man, what a load of crap.

[PontifexMaximus]

You know, I'm all about teh intarwebs. But this is stupid. I almost never play video games multiplayer. I play them mainly to GET AWAY from people. And because Windows is the dominant gaming OS my only Windows system isn't connected to my network at all. EA is killing video gaming single handedly. Bastards. Well they can keep their games.

Lets Get Realistic

[Reapy]

I think tossing out LAN sucks for the same reason I don't like paying for xbox live or the fact I was annoyed at half life 2 and steam verification.

But look at the reality. Firstly, there will be a battle.net emulator in some capacity that you will be able to download on your network and play. No question. With a game this popular, someone will make it. Problem solved.

Second, as has been mentioned before, sc2 is peer to peer. Though, I am not 100% certain this is going to work behind a nat. I'm not 100% certain how nat works over your router, while everyone is 192.168.1.100 and .101 etc, battle.net might only know you as your router's ip address and not what is behind it... though, if the packets going out are routed right to your buddies nat ip, ie you are on .100 and packet is going to .101, I'm pretty sure the router is not going to send the packet along on the next hop towards blizzard, but instead back into your lan to your buddy. If that is the case, the only thing that happened is online authentication, enough that a modem could probably handle 15 people easily.

But again, if not is hiding the internal ip and blizz only sees the router ip for every person, maybe the routing will not work so hot.

*shrug* either way, the problem will get fixed, by someone. And trust me, if you still like a game enough to want to play it 10 years later, there will be a nice 'click me once to play' package someone has made out there.

Re:Lets Get Realistic

[autoevolution]

"Click me once to play" already exists for Starcraft 1, its a 100mb zip file of a spawn install with essential tools such as a latency changer, allowing lan latency over internet and an anti-hack. It's configured to connect to ICCUP which is a clone of batte.net with ladder features ( therefore not requiring you to have a cd-key, although they do suggest that you should, hell anyone wanting to play on ICCUP probably has 5 legitimate copies of starcraft ). The 100mb zip file is so simple all you have to do is unzip and then double click the starcraft.exe to start playing. Hopefully by the time starcraft2 has died down to the point where only the good players are left online ( which is really when the gaming community is best, more does not mean better ) there will be such a thing.

Re:Lets Get Realistic

[canajin56]

It should work just fine on "Full Cone" NAT. I have no idea what proportion of consumer routers work this way, but it uses less memory and effort, so probably most! With any sort of NAT, PC1 (192.168.0.100) connects to blizzards server from port 1234 or what-have-you. Your NAT router says "Sure, why not" and forwards that as coming from your.ip:1234. Now PC2 (192.168.0.100) does the same, but the router says "That's in use, you can be port 4321!" and forwards it as you.ip:4321. Blizzard responds to your.ip, and if the packet is to 1234, it goes to PC1, and if its port 4321, it goes to PC2. When the game starts, the PCs talk to each other, not the server. So 192.168.0.100:1234 will send a packet to your.ip:4321. Your router gets it, and will translate it as originating from "your.ip:1234". It will then look at it and say "a packet addressed to your.ip:4321? OK" and forward that to 192.168.0.101:1234. That is, if it allows that sort of thing. Some routers only allow incoming connections from servers that have already been talked to. This takes more memory, but some will do it for more security. If that's the case, PC1 and PC2 can't talk to each other! But still, it may make exceptions for local connections. It may also allow failed packets to count, so when PC1 and PC2 both get blocked since they haven't talked to each other before, their retry packets may get through, since now they HAVE sent to each other before! It all depends on the nitty-gritties of your router. (My old router wouldn't even work for a local packet addressed to your.ip:anything, even with port forwarding, it would just discard the packet!)

consider the sales outside the US

[holywarrior21c]

Here in Korea, there are at least a dozen internet cafes every corner(seriously). In this land of 50 million people, there are over 20k internet cafes. That is like number of christian churches here as well. (25% of pop are Christians) People here go to internet cafes for gaming and it is same as LAN parties in the States. Except you pay $1.5/hr which is not that bad and even kids can afford it out of their pocket. In the case of Korea, people don't LAN party. They just party out at the internet cafe. And internet cafes got T1 connection so internet is no problem. (duh!) I guess US customers needs much more convincing argument that those listed here on slashdot. I wonder if battle net makes any big money off of advertisement they sell. I would suggest Blizzard to sell LAN party add on for something like $9.99. And require players to be verified some way. That way they don't lose marginal number of people who wish to play multiplayer offline. (which exactly doesn't make sense in Korea - Are you a hermit?)

Re:consider the sales outside the US

[Cimexus]

Yeah - similar in a lot of other countries (China, Japan and a fair chunk of eastern europe spring to mind). People don't game at home. They game in net cafes. This is due to one or more of the following:

- No internet connection or internet connection too slow at home;
- PC at home probably not as good as the net cafe's boxes;
- Social aspect of meeting your friends for some gaming after school etc.

Considering that SC1 was wildly, insanely popular in Asia (moreso than in the US), I wonder whether Blizzard have properly considered the impact of not allowing normal LAN play on their sales in this huge market.

Re:consider the sales outside the US

[holywarrior21c]

- No internet connection or internet connection too slow at home;
- PC at home probably not as good as the net cafe's boxes;

In case of Korea, the Internet penetration rate and the speed is one of the highest and fastest in the world. so it has little to do with the speed of the internet. And of all the internet cafes i've been to, they are not top notch as cafe owners don't want to spend too much on the equipment and the latest games that might drag down the speed. (exception to WOW) Plus, most people can buy gaming grade PC for under $1000 which is affordable for any household in Korea. Considering that Korean economy is at 12th according to cia.gov, i think there are plenty of markets out there. You and i do agree on the social aspect of going to net cafes. Some experts in Korea forcasts that blizzard will sell 10M copies within 2 years after the SC2 launch.

Re:consider the sales outside the US

[Cimexus]

I was more thinking of China and eastern Europe WRT those two points. Hence I said "one or more of the following".

Re:This is

[Chibi Merrow]

LAN functionality was critical when the internet wasn't as assured.

You're living in a hell of a bubble if you think Internet access is "assured."

I'd have guessed /. would be some of the most understanding gamers on the web.

We are, we understand a money grab hidden behind market speak very well.

When has blizzard ever failed us?

Pretty damn consistently since 2004, really.

World of Warcraft arguable Team Fortress 2 (sorta kinda), and it's too early with too little time to research for more than what's on the top of my head.

I don't think anyone truly expects to play an MMO offline (though, funnily enough, Tanarus and EverQuest had *some* offline play capability).

TF2, however, is 100% playable on a LAN. What you talkin' bout?

They still exist, but the people who use them aren't the same people who would be buying new blu-rays or games like StarCraft II. Honestly, if you want LAN play so bad just stick with StarCraft classic, nothing is truly wrong with that game aside from its horrendous resolution.

You're right, people like me may pass on StarCraft II because I can't bring it to the LAN party I go to every 3-4 months and play it. I can however continue to play my OLD games like WarCraft III at said LAN parties.

I fail to see how convincing me NOT to buy their game helps Blizzard?

I find it especially amusing you throw "blu-rays" in as an example of people who are technically hip... When last I checked Blu-Rays were still behind HD-DVD (the *dead* format) in uptake and if anything, upscaling DVD players have obviated the need for "high def" video formats for the time being for most people. I think people like you (and Blizzard, in this case) seem to greatly overestimate the penetration of and willingness to use newer technologies by the average person by assuming you represent the "average" when in fact you're rather far towards the edge of the curve.

Personally I don't give a damn if there is no LAN, I'm more than sure battle.net 2.0 will more than cover that functionality with gusto.

Battle.net 2.0 will require an Internet Connection, which may not even be an option on some connections (ISDN, filtered, Satellite, etc.) and requires that the LAN PCs have internet access... When hosting LAN parties, I generally don't give 'net access to anyone if the party includes people I don't know very well.

This is just a stupid money grab and ridiculously annoying, as now effort has to be wasted on coming up with a server emulator to make the software usable, and will probably mean those involved will have to spend time in court defending themselves, etc, etc, etc...

Code signing

[tepples]

Now what if these are say Xbox consoles with diablo 3, which now have to get online to play?

Microsoft will probably mandate that each developer include at least a single-player mode

What do you think MS is going to do when it's Blizzard's decision?

Microsoft can choose not to sign the binary. Unsigned binaries don't run on retail consoles.

Re:Code signing

[poetmatt]

well, that sure is wonderful. However, with a company as huge as blizzard you really think MS has more clout than them?

Easy answer: blizzard can almost crap out a turd and people will pay for it, ala nintendo at this point. Thus, MS isn't going to do squat about a game refusing lan support. It won't even be a blip on their radar no matter what game it is.

Re:Code signing

[tepples]

MS isn't going to do squat about a game refusing lan support.

Except require it to be developed for Windows instead of for Xbox 360.

Re:Code signing

[poetmatt]

which does for them what?

Blizzard will whore themselves to wherever the biggest markets are and rightfully so. They (implied and obviously) intend to make a version for windows, so how is this exactly MS using clout?

Re:Code signing

[tepples]

Blizzard will whore themselves to wherever the biggest markets are and rightfully so. They (implied and obviously) intend to make a version for windows, so how is this exactly MS using clout?

The PC version was a given all along, but you're the one who suggested in this comment that Blizzard might try to port a Diablo game to an Xbox platform while keeping the rule about having to be online to play. Microsoft would reject it, claiming that single-player and System Link are required except when there's a damn good reason. An MMO would have a reason; a Diablo game would not.

I wont buy it

[The Cisco Kid]

Earlier this year, I dragged out some old RA and RA2 discs, and put together some low end win98 machines to run them on with my son. They do not have, and WILL NOT EVER have, any connection to the Internet. RA(/2) are getting a bit boring, and I was thinking of finding something newer. Obviously C&C 4 will not be appearing on the list of potential 'something newer', as I *refuse* to connect any wintendo machine to the Internet. I've got a perfectly good set of Ethernet cables connecting the machines, there is *NO* good reason they should need to connect to some remote server over the Internet in order to interplay.

Just something for EA to note. I wonder how many other people will refuse to buy this for the same reason, how many lost sales it will amount to that they will never be able to count.

Re:I wont buy it

[socrplayr813]

Obviously C&C 4 will not be appearing on the list of potential 'something newer', as I *refuse* to connect any wintendo machine to the Internet.

Refusing to connect a computer to the internet purely because it runs Windows is silly. That might be somewhat valid for Win98, but certainly not XP+. Of course, if you were the type to listen to logic and learn things other than your own opinion, you probably wouldn't call them 'Wintendo machines'

Re:WTF is a LAN these days?

[Cimexus]

Haha I've actually done the train thing. I've played Lineage II (not WoW, but an MMO nonetheless) on a laptop while on a train via a 3g card. Ping was 100 ms more than it would normally be but honestly other than that it was quite playable. The only problem was that using a trackpad in that game (or most games) sucks major ass.

Oh ... but just make sure the train line you are on doesn't go through any long tunnels :P

Maybe a Valve Cybercafé solution?

[Bluetick]

Maybe they'll do the same thing that Valve does with their Valve Cybercafé program. Would probably be too expensive for small meetups. But would be fine for gaming events, tournaments, and Korean players (that mostly play at gaming centers anyway).

Office Lans

[T.E.D.]

Perhaps LAN Parties are a thing of the past, but lunchtime office LAN play is alive and well. There are probably 30 people where I work who went out and bought everything in the Battlefield series due to the lunchtime office games. That is only one group that I work near. There are others in the facility.

However, most corporate firewalls block gaming sites. So this move will prevent us (and other companies like us) from doing the same with those two games. This will impact sales.

Professioinal Starcraft 2 with no lan?

[bigbigbison]

While I know that South Korea is super wired, I find it unlikely that they are going to require professional Starcraft 2 players in Korea to have internet connections for all the computers in the events. I can't believe that they wouldn't make a LAN-only version for pro gaming.

Re:WTF is a LAN these days?

[godrik]

And even more than just the connectivity issue. Playing in LAn is much more fun since you are physically with the people you are playing. And that is fun. And no, skype is no replacement for that.

World of Goo

[dontPanik]

you're careful to point out how the study could have overestimated the percent of pirates, but you convienantly miss that the study could have underestimated too, resulting from:

more than one installation behind the same router/firewall (would be common in an office environment)

not everyone opts to have their scores submitted

Taken from the 2D Boy website: http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/

In that blog post 2D Boy makes a more rigouous investigation of the subject, and comes out with a result of 82% piracy taking into account many factors.
From this they deduced that the level of piracy is probably less than 90%, but probably not much less.

It is interesting to note that the 2D Boy developer's stance on DRM is such:

i'm hoping that others will release information about piracy rates so that everyone could see if DRM is the waste of time and money that we think it is.

Why won't Blizzard do this?

[MadLad]

Can someone tell me what's wrong with this idea?

Blizzard can get the best of both worlds like this:

1. Player buys Starcraft 2
2. Player logs on to Battle.net ONCE, and authenticates
3. Having authenticated, Player can play on LAN. Without authentication, LAN play is unavailable.

This way, Blizzard gets the best of both worlds, and so do we. There's no need to exclude LAN support altogether, since its inclusion in this model carries no penalties for anyone. Or am I missing something massive?

Re:Why won't Blizzard do this?

[Tukz]

It doesn't really matter.
If you're behind a routed local network (eq DSL or similar), all your packets will stay on the local network and will be essentially the same as LAN.

Only difference is that you all need to authenticate and use Battle.net lobby system to create the actual game.
Once the game starts, it's local area play.

Though, when IPv6 kicks in, I'm not so sure how it's gonna work, I only got a degree in IPv4 routed networks.

Re:WTF is a LAN these days?

[nanoflower]

"I really don't get why people in IT keep wanting things to be the same as they were at a specific point in time.I don't want to lug servers around for LAN parties, I don't want to have a dial-up connection to the internet and I really don't give a shit if games developers assume I have an internet connection for a multi-player game." Perhaps you don't understand the tens of comments before yours but no one is trying to dictate how you play. If you want to play online only then go right ahead. What people have been complaining about is having an option taken away from them. That's it and I'm sure you know this. Having the option to play on a LAN doesn't stick us back in the 90s since you can still play on Battlenet with your highspeed connection while other people may choose to play on a LAN. Just because you love playing online with a high speed connection doesn't mean everyone wants to play that way so what's wrong with having the option to play on a LAN. A LAN is a perfect environment for some friends to get together and have some fun. Maybe take a break during the day to cook up some food and relax and then get back to playing. As others have said there's a lot of enjoyment in playing a game against a friend when you can see his reaction to your taking out his best character. Also as others have said it's not always possible to be connected to the Internet even if you have a LAN setup. There are times (such as if you are playing after hours at work) or places (maybe there is no Internet connection in the room or even the building you are in) where it's just not possible to get even one computer on the Internet let alone a number of them. I don't see why anyone would be bothered by other people wanting a LAN option to be available. It doesn't detract from the Battlenet experience, and it's something that many of us grew to love about the original Starcraft and Diablo games. I hope that Blizzard reconsiders and adds in LAN play for Starcraft II and Diablo III.

Contacting EA?

[Ranga14]

There's a good thread going on the Command and Conquer web site. http://forums.commandandconquer.com/jforum/posts/list/17550.page I'd suggest making your opinion known there. The EA devs might see what's going on. As for Starcraft 2. I believe there's an online petition for it someone online.

Connection required = no money from me

[fox171171]

I know I'm in the minority, but I work away from home (pretty much away from everything, including the internet) for 3-4 weeks at a time. And since I'm not home at the end of my shift, I do most of my gaming then. Anything that requires a connection is not getting any of my money. The other things (like shutting down their servers, etc) also applies. Less value = no sale.

DNAS Error -103: Publisher pulled the plug

[tepples]

I don't have newer cards in mine, either. I actually swear by this routine, seen here.

I tried that routine a couple times but failed miserably. I bought two PS2 games and tried to play them online, but both times I got DNAS Error -103: "This software title is not in service."

Re:DNAS Error -103: Publisher pulled the plug

[UncleTogie]

I tried that routine a couple times but failed miserably. I bought two PS2 games and tried to play them online, but both times I got DNAS Error -103: "This software title is not in service."

Did Sony run the servers? Console games tend to have a shorter TTL for their online services.

The best luck is with games that don't require the company to stick around. Milady and I play Command and Conquer:Renegade, and there are still people out there hosting it.

Re:DNAS Error -103: Publisher pulled the plug

[tepples]

The best luck is with games that don't require the company to stick around.

The article is about the likelihood that such games will cease to be developed.

As seen on TV

[tepples]

try explaining why you are abandoning the retail market to your bank manager or investors.

"Billy Mays here with How to Sell Your Product on Cable TV."

A lot of products, such as the ones that Billy Mays used to pitch before he died, are what they call as seen on TV. This means the advertisement for the product doesn't tell the audience to buy the product in a traditional retail store but instead gives a toll-free telephone number or a web URL where a customer can order one, and then the distributor ships the product in the mail. Why do these products go through a round of "as seen on TV" before (or instead of) traditional retail? To save money. Establishing relationships with a retail chain takes a lot of time==money that smaller studios developing PC games don't necessarily have.

Mod Parent Up

[rockNme2349]

I totally agree with this. Even as games get bigger and flashier I still pull out my old DOS games to play once and a while.

Despite new games coming out, the old games aren't just phased out, they are still competitive in enjoyment.

The next time you go, Go Daddy

[tepples]

I still cannot play my Half Life 2 discs because I do not have access to the email account I originally installed steam with.

Moral: Register your own domain and forward its e-mail before signing up for such an important service. Then when you switch ISPs or webmails, you can switch the forwarding.

Re:The next time you go, Go Daddy

[Satanboy]

I don't agree that individuals should have to have their own domain and email servers so they can be guaranteed they can use a video game.

When I registered for Steam it was not an "important" service. It was a requirement to play a single game. A requirement that made it impossible to play the game for 2 days I might add.

Steam wasn't used for anything at the time, it was a brand new service.

"IP" is a seductive mirage

[tepples]

I have seen several studies indicating that people who pirate IP, also buy more IP.

The abbreviation "IP" can refer to copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, rights of publicity, or Internet Protocol routing contracts. Using "IP" to refer to all six carries a connotation that these exclusive rights are more similar than they actually are and that their respective scopes should be expanded. It's a seductive mirage. If you mean "people who pirate copyrighted works", why not just say "people who pirate copyrighted works"?

Re:"IP" is a seductive mirage

[Attila Dimedici]

Because "IP' is two letters while "copyrighted works" is 16 letters. I am lazy and in the context of the discussion I was having, it should have been clear what I was referring to, as it apparently was, since you understood it well enough to suggest that I use "copyrighted works" in place of "IP".

Re:"IP" is a seductive mirage

[tepples]

Because "IP' is two letters while "copyrighted works" is 16 letters. I am lazy

That's twitter's excuse for using M$ instead of Microsoft in the body of a post. I can see it in subjects, which have only 50 characters, but in the body, you get 4,000 characters for the part of the body displayed above the fold. If you're that lazy, you can use the legally recognized abbreviation "copr." which is five characters.

and in the context of the discussion I was having, it should have been clear what I was referring to

I'm trying to do two things. First, I'm trying to prepare you for these discussions where it does matter. In other discussions, it might not be so clear between a copyright or a patent (e.g. non-free software), or between a copyright and a trademark (e.g. cartoon characters), or between a copyright and some countries' sui generis database rights, or between a patent and a trade secret, or between a trademark and a right of publicity, or between a trademark and Internet routing rights (e.g. address or Referer or User-agent spoofing), or between exclusive rights granted under current law and exclusive rights granted under future laws that expand their scope.

Second, I'm trying to point out that the term "intellectual property" carries a connotation of expansionism, and abbreviating it makes it sound like it's such a done deal that everybody is on board with it.

Re:"IP" is a seductive mirage

[Attila Dimedici]

That's nice. Get off my lawn.

LAN == piracy even on Nintendo DS?

[tepples]

The only people using LAN nowadays are Hamachi-using freeloaders. Having LAN option = inviting pirates. The amount of people legitimately using LAN is statistically insignificant.

Then why do more games for Nintendo DS have DS-to-DS WLAN multiplayer than Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection multiplayer?

Home theater PCs for gaming

[tepples]

But there are many, many more people who would love to play games from time to time and don't want to do it on a tiny screen; consoles make that possible

As do home theater PCs. You can plug multiple game controllers into USB ports and play LJ65 or Lego $MOVIE or Serious Sam, just as one would on a console. HTPCs also have the advantage of having more indie games.

Re:Stop buying these new games and play Starcraft

[autoevolution]

Nope, you can have very low latency yet high lag, or low lag and high latency. In a low-lag, high-latency scenario, your mouse clicks affect the game after a relatively long delay, however the game to you looks perfectly smooth, eg the game's speed is smooth and fast. In a low-latency high-lag scenario, your mouse clicks affect the game with a lot less delay ( lowest latency would be your mouse click affecting the game instantly ), but the high lag will mean that your game may look choppy or sluggish, yet your user inputs are highly responsive. This is at least true, in Starcraft, not sure about other games though. You can use a latency changer to change the latency to the same as LAN on battle.net however the game will more likely lag, as it requires stricter timings to and from the server and clients, using a high latency will allow the server more time to handle inputs from clients, allowing for games with less lag.