New Battle.net Site

**Neo** · 07-15-2010

Blizzard released a new battle.net site earlier: http://beta-us.battle.net/en/

It looks like you'll be able to manage all your games, just like you can with the current Battle.net site. However there seems to be an emphasis placed on Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, and Diablo III. Logging in is quick and easy, and even supports an Authenticator (if you happen to have one). There's even an option to "remember me" available at login, which is a welcome addition for those of us who don't share a computer.

Alongside this preview of the new Battle.net site includes a "Digital Purchase" page for Starcraft II that allows you to download the Starcraft II client now and "activate" it on 7/27/10 -- "If you intend to buy a DIGITAL copy of StarCraft II, you can download the full game client ahead of time. Get into the game faster!" -- Note: This version seems to be aimed at those people who intend to buy the digital copy of SC2, as opposed to heading out and picking up a retail box (or collector's edition).

So, what do you think of Battle.net's new facade? Love it, hate it? I for one will miss the blue from the current version.

**Golgo 13** · 07-15-2010

Interesting of them to supply a digital download option before the game is released. I thought they were paranoid of hackers which was supposed to be the excuse for removing LAN.

**Neo** · 07-15-2010

The idea that LAN was removed solely because of hackers or w/e is something created by paranoid fans. The truth is that Blizzard isn't the first, nor the last, developer to release a game without LAN support.

**TheRabidDeer** · 07-16-2010

Not having LAN and releasing a game early with key components missing that dont allow you to install the game are different things entirely. Its pretty easy to prevent somebody from installing a digital copy of the game, since you can exclude certain files that cant be gotten until the game is actually available. Not having LAN is definitely to prevent as much piracy as they can, but it doesnt make them paranoid.

Anyway, I dunno about the new b.net page, but I like the new b.net forums. They have lots of blue.

**Neo** · 07-16-2010

I don't want to get dragged into another pointless argument over SC2, but claiming LAN was kept out solely because of Piracy is pretty weak argument when you take the time to consider it. SC2 is going to be pirated -- it having LAN or not isn't going to effect that one damn bit.

Torchlight, Bioshock II, CnC4, etc... all shipped without LAN -- are you seriously going to tell me it was because of Piracy? (hint: they've all been pirated

) It's like you expect SC2 to be exactly the same as BW with some updated graphics and a couple of new units, like the experience will be exactly the same --

The truth is that no LAN is much more to combat third-parties from hijacking their product.

**TheRabidDeer** · Quote

Quote

Originally Posted by Neo

I don't want to get dragged into another pointless argument over SC2, but claiming LAN was kept out solely because of Piracy is pretty weak argument when you take the time to consider it. SC2 is going to be pirated -- it having LAN or not isn't going to effect that one damn bit.

Torchlight, Bioshock II, CnC4, etc... all shipped without LAN -- are you seriously going to tell me it was because of Piracy? (hint: they've all been pirated

) It's like you expect SC2 to be exactly the same as BW with some updated graphics and a couple of new units, like the experience will be exactly the same --

The truth is that no LAN is much more to combat third-parties from hijacking their product.

Torchlight and bioshock dont have multiplayer, do they? Anyway, the fact that Blizzard is releasing a "professional" version of SC2 to league owners like GomTV that contains LAN, and that Blizzard themselves stated that the removal of LAN was to combat piracy (and halfheartedly because they want people to use b.net and think that it is everything you should need, or will be) is kind of enough proof for me that it is due to piracy. I dont really care about LAN, but I am just stating facts about the situation.

**Golgo 13** · 07-16-2010

Piracy is being used as a scapegoat, hence why I called it an excuse. The real reason they removed LAN is they couldn't engineer the professional circuit into being dependent on them and paying them to run events if they didn't.

**protoswarrior** · 07-16-2010

Hey Neo, I know this isn't the place for this and I apologise in advance, but is there any way you could like incorporate news items like these and possibly others that have been posted on the SC2 forum but missed here to be "stickied" in the same way announcements are/were done?

That makes for them being a lot more visible for the community.

On a personal note: I just "extracted" a dev chat from yesterday but was unable to post it in an appropriate format. Could you maybe take a look at it from here:

Transcript of SC2 Developer's Chat @ bestbuy - Feat. DustinB and ChrisS - BlizzForums

and add it as one of the "current" announcements alongside the new battle.net site announcement and their new forums?

**Neo** · Quote

Quote

Originally Posted by TheRabidDeer

Torchlight and bioshock dont have multiplayer, do they? Anyway, the fact that Blizzard is releasing a "professional" version of SC2 to league owners like GomTV that contains LAN, and that Blizzard themselves stated that the removal of LAN was to combat piracy (and halfheartedly because they want people to use b.net and think that it is everything you should need, or will be) is kind of enough proof for me that it is due to piracy. I dont really care about LAN, but I am just stating facts about the situation.

Professional SC2 rumor turns out to be false, GosuGamers fails.

"We don't currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.

Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we're encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We're looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future."

I think "piracy" here was referring more to pirated servers, and not to piracy of the game itself. CnC4 had a "similar" level of paranoia in regards to piracy and crackers broke that game pretty damn fast too (not that they should've bothered, crappy game) so I figure SC2 will be cracked as well unless multiplayer on bnet 2.0 offers some really unique/advanced features that you can't get by pirating.

Plus if I remember SC2 only requires you to activate it once online, and then you can play offline if you want from then on (CnC4 wants you online ALL THE TIME, even if you're only play the single player campaign -- lol all 8 missions or whatever).

Quote

Originally Posted by protoswarrior

Hey Neo, I know this isn't the place for this and I apologise in advance, but is there any way you could like incorporate news items like these and possibly others that have been posted on the SC2 forum but missed here to be "stickied" in the same way announcements are/were done?

I could just promote you to a mod and you could sticky/unsticky threads at your convenience? You seem to be the most active down there about new SC2 stuff anyways. I'm trying to get back into the swing of general blizzard news myself, I'm intending on posting something on WoW here soon (though try not to spoil any Cataclysm info) and try to dig up SOMETHING on Diablo III (/sob)

I haven't had a chance to go through the transcript yet, but it would be nice to pick out some highlight Q&As though. Can't wait for the twitter chat later either, hoping we get some more news on SC2s release.

**protoswarrior** · 07-17-2010

lol! Thanks for the offer Neo. I don't know anything about being a mod, but it would come in handy to sticky news items and threads. Is that gonna go well with the other people here though?

**Neo** · 07-17-2010

Heck man you don't have to mod if you don't want to, but promoting you would be the easiest way to make sure news you post gets stickied and such.

And geez that transcript is MASSIVE, I've only had time to read through part of it (been playing SC2 lol) but I wanted to read through it and see if there's anything more about certain battle.net features and/or stuff on RealID (specifically I really want to know if they're going to give us control over whether friends of friends can see our real names).

*twitch* Can't wait for SC2 release, currently supposed to be saving money, but I'll be buying SC2 asap.

Haven't decided whether to go digital or box -- the box appeals to me because I have boxes for wow/tbc/wrath, d2/lod, but no SC/BW (only jewel cases) and it would be nice to have a SC box somewhere in there //nerd