You do make really good points and I can understand people's frustration that they lost something that helped them enjoy Starcraft. I had played Starcraft from the start and had no issues with battle.net, but I believe your anecdote. But you have to realize, if bnetd really wanted to play nice, they would have went to Blizzard before hand and got permission. They would have been denied...because who in their right mind is going to give some random group of people who reversed your network code access to the way you create/verify cd keys? Does that really seem like a good business model to you? And they didn't ask for it from the start, only when they were told to shut it down. It was more of a way to pretend like they were trying to offer something legitimate when we all know it enabled piracy.
I can understand why people are upset. The problem I have is when people are unable to look at the other side of this issue. If people didn't pirate, we wouldn't have these issues. But they do, and always will. That is the world we live in. Companies have the right to try to make this more difficult. People have the right to not buy their games. Not to pirate them (not saying you in particular do). People aren't robin hood when they pirate games. You are the douche bags that ruin it for all of us that actually pay for our games.
So you consider yourself "most people"? And you are criticizing other's reading comprehension?
Most of their target audience has broadband connections. People on modems are actually not a problem since they can log on to bnetd and the game will be played locally over their network. It is only those without an Internet connection that is an issue. They even stated they were trying to find a way to make that work too.
It just seems like everyone is over-reacting. You all seem as looney as old people at town hall meeting screaming about death panels.
No, there is a huge difference that is obvious. BitTorrent is used to transfer files. You can transfer linux kernels or you can transfer pictures. It doesn't matter, it is neutral in what data is sent. Some people use BitTorrent to transfer files illegally. This is wrong, but is the fault of the user, not BitTorrent. Ok, I wish I could say this slowly so maybe you could understand...but read this next part a few times. Bnetd was created to bypass Blizzard's cd key check so people could play pirated versions of Starcraft online. Do you understand that difference? It is pretty huge. One is made to transfer any files. One is made to specifically targeting one company's proprietary software and allowing you to use it without paying.
What is truly a shame is that you have a brain, yet you choose not to use it. I believe that if you want to play Blizzard's game, you should pay for it. If you don't like the terms they give to play that game then don't play it! Don't pirate it...just don't play it! I know if this caused you to lose your paycheck, you would have done the same thing.
Pirating was the main reason for bnetd. Period. If you can't come to terms with this, then you aren't living in reality.
Yes, there are tons of things that an open source server could provide. But they aren't doing this to help solve Blizzard's problems, they are doing it for the intellectual challenge and to allow people to play pirated copies of the game online. Listen, this is Blizzard's game. If they provide a service 10 years after a game is released, it shows a hell of a commitment to that game. Yet instead of acknowledging how much support they give for a really old game, you want to cry and moan about something that was designed to allow people to play the game without paying the people who created it.
Quite frankly, it is people like you who give the open source community a bad name. You refuse to admit the reality of the situation. You refuse to understand the other side (i.e. software developers should be able to protect their software from pirates). You expect everything for free...because Blizzard quality games can be produced by anyone? Give me a break. If these bnetd guys were so fantastic, then maybe they should have created their own RTS. Instead, they chose to build off of proprietary software. This is their stupidity. If they wanted to do this, they should have went to Blizzard and got written documents that said that they could. They didn't, they are stupid, and Blizzard acted the same way any sane software developer would have.
Slashdot breeds a culture that allows you guys to thrive. It is this groupthink attitude that just because something is open source it is inherently good and that all proprietary software is bad. It is garbage. There is a balance to everything. If people want to make a living off of software, this is how it is going to be. If the world was the way you wanted it to be, Starcraft would have never existed in the first place. Grr, people on here...it is like there is a Fox News for open source. It makes you all extreme and retarded.
I agree with you that things are slowing down. But still think there is a lot of room to grow. While modern consoles can do graphics pretty well, they still really don't have the best graphic cards imaginable. I can see those getting better and more of the graphical capabilities being offloaded to those cards. The more cycles you can keep in the CPU, the more you can put towards AI and the ability to have more wide open areas with more enemies or more stuff going on in general.
I would hope though that new generation consoles have more time before releases. Since things have slowed, it also makes more sense to wait until you can do something that is more innovative and interesting. Besides, the longer the life cycle you have for your console, the more profitable it becomes since it becomes cheaper to produce them.
I would hope everyone would have learned that rushing your next gen console out before the other guy isn't necessarily going to be a winning strategy. So I hope to see a longer period of time for the next gen, something that is an improvement, but doesn't push the cutting edge, and something that isn't quite as expensive as the 360 and PS3 at launch. Also, expect to spend a crap load on stuff that aren't included with the console by default.
Actually, it sounds exactly like Warhammer Online's swordmaster class. It has three phases, each one leading to the next which you can mix and match depending on the situation.
They will be able to interact normally in the cities if it is similar to how it is now. Just certain zones people will not be able to see each other if they are in different phases of the game.
I guess I just don't get it. Old content is old. The people who have been playing the game for years ran all those thing a thousand times. The new content is where everyone wants to go. Will new players miss out on that content you hold dear? Yes. Should you care? No. You still experienced it. You still can relate it with other people who experienced that stuff. You guys can reminisce about it while all the new players are confused.
It is funny, because you sound like an old person. Afraid of change and wanting everything to be like it was. But if it was like that, the game would be dead. It has to evolve and live to keep people playing. I don't think negatively of you, I just don't understand it. The changes they have made are largely good. Embrace the change and you can have new experiences. Living in the past is never healthy.
Um, yeah, the way the original game was written (i.e. the graphic models), they did not allow flying mounts. I already knew this, but I didn't think the reason why they didn't allow them mattered, more that now they could be allowed. I never said it was technically impossible, so way to nitpick something that actually wasn't incorrect. I bet you are real fun at parties.
I know, it is shocking, people get tired of playing a game for 3 years straight. Oh wait, actually, that is normal.
I am sure there are a lot of people like me out there who play when an expansion comes out. Do all the content, get in to a few raids, and then quit again because I don't really have the time. And every expansion does show an overhaul to game mechanics along with graphics. This is a way to expand that back to the original content...which is really a great idea.
That could be said of any MMORPG. But WoW was able to grab the players from all the existing MMORPGs at the time and grow as big as it is today. So there is more than just those 2 reasons. They actually made a really good game. You could argue that it was because it catered more to a casual crowd (which is true), but they actually did a really good job to appease the more hardcore as well.
I actually think it would be fun to go back to level 1 in a new game...and a lot of people in WoW feel the same. We all jump to the new MMORPG, see that it just isn't as good, and then come back. So I think the real reason people stay in WoW is that no one can make a game at launch that can beat what WoW offers. It may be able to beat it down the road, but by then it is too late. I really wonder what can ever beat WoW. Each expansion shows more polish than the next. Almost seems like Blizzard is the only company that can beat Blizzard.
I am always impressed on how much Blizzard really "gets it" when it comes to making a game. Having the cataclysm occur on the original continents allows them to update those areas so that all areas can allow flying mounts. Due to the way the game was originally written, flying mounts are not allowed in the original content. This allows them to update and improve those zones while also making all the newbie quests better and more interesting. They learned a lot since it first came out, and you can really see that with their latest expansion. Quests are grouped together better and closer to the quest giver. They are more interesting (at least to me) than the original content. They use new game mechanics like vehicles. Now all that can be seen at level 1. Smart move.
It means that each level will probably give each class major new abilities. In the original WoW, large changes came every 10 levels or so. They will just make each level give you something cool rather than spreading them out over multiple levels.
There is no way to single shard WoW. It is too complex of a game and there are too many players. If you and your buddies really all want to play together you can all decide what server to play on and do paid character transfers. I know that sucks, but just allowing people to transfer wherever whenever will cause balance issues. Sometimes they do have low population servers and will offer free transfers from high populations server to them. But that is your only other option. I don't see them changing that because it really doesn't make sense to do it any other way (unless someone really can see a better way...I just can't).
Ugh, think of the troops arguments are stupid when politicians use them too. I don't think our success in Iraq or Afghanistan hinges on Blizzard adding LAN support to the game. And there are plenty of other games they can play that do support LAN. So if this is really a horrible move, Blizzard will feel it in their pocketbooks.
Blizzard, You are well known for taking an established genre, polishing the heck out of it, and making great games that people love to play. Do you have plans to get in to any other type of genres other than RTSs, MMOs, or dungeon crawlers?
New players don't tend to pass things up. It is largely for other people who have seen the content so many times they really don't care anymore and can get their alts to max level. It is more about retention than attracting new players.
This is an awful question. The art has already been decided. You crying isn't going to change it.
I also find it confusing when people complain that too much dev resources are wasted on WoW when they could be on SC2, then everyone complains that too many of the people who do WoW are working on SC2.
Blizzard does a fantastic job of making good looking games that don't kill your PC. If it is too colorful for you, just put some sort of gray translucent cover over your monitor so it can look manly and realistic to you. It's the gameplay that matters. It isn't like zerglings are now puffy pink ponies of doom.
No doubt, it is a factor. But to deny that insurance premiums aren't artificially high due to insurance companies quest to maximize profit is pretty silly. I mean, with the millions they get paid in bonuses and the millions that go to lobby congress so laws don't get past that hurt their business...that comes straight out of our pocketbooks.
When has bashing Microsoft ever been something that got you modded down on this site? Oh, you clever little mod whore, you are using reverse psychology to get mods!
Slashdot Mirror
You do make really good points and I can understand people's frustration that they lost something that helped them enjoy Starcraft. I had played Starcraft from the start and had no issues with battle.net, but I believe your anecdote. But you have to realize, if bnetd really wanted to play nice, they would have went to Blizzard before hand and got permission. They would have been denied...because who in their right mind is going to give some random group of people who reversed your network code access to the way you create/verify cd keys? Does that really seem like a good business model to you? And they didn't ask for it from the start, only when they were told to shut it down. It was more of a way to pretend like they were trying to offer something legitimate when we all know it enabled piracy.
I can understand why people are upset. The problem I have is when people are unable to look at the other side of this issue. If people didn't pirate, we wouldn't have these issues. But they do, and always will. That is the world we live in. Companies have the right to try to make this more difficult. People have the right to not buy their games. Not to pirate them (not saying you in particular do). People aren't robin hood when they pirate games. You are the douche bags that ruin it for all of us that actually pay for our games.
So you consider yourself "most people"? And you are criticizing other's reading comprehension?
Most of their target audience has broadband connections. People on modems are actually not a problem since they can log on to bnetd and the game will be played locally over their network. It is only those without an Internet connection that is an issue. They even stated they were trying to find a way to make that work too.
It just seems like everyone is over-reacting. You all seem as looney as old people at town hall meeting screaming about death panels.
No, there is a huge difference that is obvious. BitTorrent is used to transfer files. You can transfer linux kernels or you can transfer pictures. It doesn't matter, it is neutral in what data is sent. Some people use BitTorrent to transfer files illegally. This is wrong, but is the fault of the user, not BitTorrent. Ok, I wish I could say this slowly so maybe you could understand...but read this next part a few times. Bnetd was created to bypass Blizzard's cd key check so people could play pirated versions of Starcraft online. Do you understand that difference? It is pretty huge. One is made to transfer any files. One is made to specifically targeting one company's proprietary software and allowing you to use it without paying.
What is truly a shame is that you have a brain, yet you choose not to use it. I believe that if you want to play Blizzard's game, you should pay for it. If you don't like the terms they give to play that game then don't play it! Don't pirate it...just don't play it! I know if this caused you to lose your paycheck, you would have done the same thing.
Pirating was the main reason for bnetd. Period. If you can't come to terms with this, then you aren't living in reality.
Yes, there are tons of things that an open source server could provide. But they aren't doing this to help solve Blizzard's problems, they are doing it for the intellectual challenge and to allow people to play pirated copies of the game online. Listen, this is Blizzard's game. If they provide a service 10 years after a game is released, it shows a hell of a commitment to that game. Yet instead of acknowledging how much support they give for a really old game, you want to cry and moan about something that was designed to allow people to play the game without paying the people who created it.
Quite frankly, it is people like you who give the open source community a bad name. You refuse to admit the reality of the situation. You refuse to understand the other side (i.e. software developers should be able to protect their software from pirates). You expect everything for free...because Blizzard quality games can be produced by anyone? Give me a break. If these bnetd guys were so fantastic, then maybe they should have created their own RTS. Instead, they chose to build off of proprietary software. This is their stupidity. If they wanted to do this, they should have went to Blizzard and got written documents that said that they could. They didn't, they are stupid, and Blizzard acted the same way any sane software developer would have.
Slashdot breeds a culture that allows you guys to thrive. It is this groupthink attitude that just because something is open source it is inherently good and that all proprietary software is bad. It is garbage. There is a balance to everything. If people want to make a living off of software, this is how it is going to be. If the world was the way you wanted it to be, Starcraft would have never existed in the first place. Grr, people on here...it is like there is a Fox News for open source. It makes you all extreme and retarded.
And you are saying most people don't have access to the Internet who play video games?
I agree with you that things are slowing down. But still think there is a lot of room to grow. While modern consoles can do graphics pretty well, they still really don't have the best graphic cards imaginable. I can see those getting better and more of the graphical capabilities being offloaded to those cards. The more cycles you can keep in the CPU, the more you can put towards AI and the ability to have more wide open areas with more enemies or more stuff going on in general.
I would hope though that new generation consoles have more time before releases. Since things have slowed, it also makes more sense to wait until you can do something that is more innovative and interesting. Besides, the longer the life cycle you have for your console, the more profitable it becomes since it becomes cheaper to produce them.
I would hope everyone would have learned that rushing your next gen console out before the other guy isn't necessarily going to be a winning strategy. So I hope to see a longer period of time for the next gen, something that is an improvement, but doesn't push the cutting edge, and something that isn't quite as expensive as the 360 and PS3 at launch. Also, expect to spend a crap load on stuff that aren't included with the console by default.
Actually, it sounds exactly like Warhammer Online's swordmaster class. It has three phases, each one leading to the next which you can mix and match depending on the situation.
They will be able to interact normally in the cities if it is similar to how it is now. Just certain zones people will not be able to see each other if they are in different phases of the game.
I guess I just don't get it. Old content is old. The people who have been playing the game for years ran all those thing a thousand times. The new content is where everyone wants to go. Will new players miss out on that content you hold dear? Yes. Should you care? No. You still experienced it. You still can relate it with other people who experienced that stuff. You guys can reminisce about it while all the new players are confused.
It is funny, because you sound like an old person. Afraid of change and wanting everything to be like it was. But if it was like that, the game would be dead. It has to evolve and live to keep people playing. I don't think negatively of you, I just don't understand it. The changes they have made are largely good. Embrace the change and you can have new experiences. Living in the past is never healthy.
Um, yeah, the way the original game was written (i.e. the graphic models), they did not allow flying mounts. I already knew this, but I didn't think the reason why they didn't allow them mattered, more that now they could be allowed. I never said it was technically impossible, so way to nitpick something that actually wasn't incorrect. I bet you are real fun at parties.
I know, it is shocking, people get tired of playing a game for 3 years straight. Oh wait, actually, that is normal.
I am sure there are a lot of people like me out there who play when an expansion comes out. Do all the content, get in to a few raids, and then quit again because I don't really have the time. And every expansion does show an overhaul to game mechanics along with graphics. This is a way to expand that back to the original content...which is really a great idea.
That could be said of any MMORPG. But WoW was able to grab the players from all the existing MMORPGs at the time and grow as big as it is today. So there is more than just those 2 reasons. They actually made a really good game. You could argue that it was because it catered more to a casual crowd (which is true), but they actually did a really good job to appease the more hardcore as well.
I actually think it would be fun to go back to level 1 in a new game...and a lot of people in WoW feel the same. We all jump to the new MMORPG, see that it just isn't as good, and then come back. So I think the real reason people stay in WoW is that no one can make a game at launch that can beat what WoW offers. It may be able to beat it down the road, but by then it is too late. I really wonder what can ever beat WoW. Each expansion shows more polish than the next. Almost seems like Blizzard is the only company that can beat Blizzard.
I am always impressed on how much Blizzard really "gets it" when it comes to making a game. Having the cataclysm occur on the original continents allows them to update those areas so that all areas can allow flying mounts. Due to the way the game was originally written, flying mounts are not allowed in the original content. This allows them to update and improve those zones while also making all the newbie quests better and more interesting. They learned a lot since it first came out, and you can really see that with their latest expansion. Quests are grouped together better and closer to the quest giver. They are more interesting (at least to me) than the original content. They use new game mechanics like vehicles. Now all that can be seen at level 1. Smart move.
It means that each level will probably give each class major new abilities. In the original WoW, large changes came every 10 levels or so. They will just make each level give you something cool rather than spreading them out over multiple levels.
There is no way to single shard WoW. It is too complex of a game and there are too many players. If you and your buddies really all want to play together you can all decide what server to play on and do paid character transfers. I know that sucks, but just allowing people to transfer wherever whenever will cause balance issues. Sometimes they do have low population servers and will offer free transfers from high populations server to them. But that is your only other option. I don't see them changing that because it really doesn't make sense to do it any other way (unless someone really can see a better way...I just can't).
Ugh, think of the troops arguments are stupid when politicians use them too. I don't think our success in Iraq or Afghanistan hinges on Blizzard adding LAN support to the game. And there are plenty of other games they can play that do support LAN. So if this is really a horrible move, Blizzard will feel it in their pocketbooks.
Eek, the first time I read that, I read it as "Girlfriend? What does that drop?" Of course, they drop babies....which just adds to the grind.
I hope an AH where people can trade items outside of the actual game.
I'm pretty sure WoW is already integrated with the internet ;)
Apple is just as evil as any other corporation...actually, it is more evil than most!
That being said, I still want an iPhone! Please come out with a 4G LTE phone on Verizon!
Blizzard,
You are well known for taking an established genre, polishing the heck out of it, and making great games that people love to play. Do you have plans to get in to any other type of genres other than RTSs, MMOs, or dungeon crawlers?
New players don't tend to pass things up. It is largely for other people who have seen the content so many times they really don't care anymore and can get their alts to max level. It is more about retention than attracting new players.
This is an awful question. The art has already been decided. You crying isn't going to change it.
I also find it confusing when people complain that too much dev resources are wasted on WoW when they could be on SC2, then everyone complains that too many of the people who do WoW are working on SC2.
Blizzard does a fantastic job of making good looking games that don't kill your PC. If it is too colorful for you, just put some sort of gray translucent cover over your monitor so it can look manly and realistic to you. It's the gameplay that matters. It isn't like zerglings are now puffy pink ponies of doom.
No doubt, it is a factor. But to deny that insurance premiums aren't artificially high due to insurance companies quest to maximize profit is pretty silly. I mean, with the millions they get paid in bonuses and the millions that go to lobby congress so laws don't get past that hurt their business...that comes straight out of our pocketbooks.
When has bashing Microsoft ever been something that got you modded down on this site? Oh, you clever little mod whore, you are using reverse psychology to get mods!