If there’s one thing that developers know better for their consumers, it’s the gamers themselves.
In the aftermath of Blizzard’s announcement on the exclusion of LAN support for the upcoming RTS Starcraft II, fans of Blizzard and gamers have begun to petition for Blizzard to re-think its decision to not include support LAN play for the title. The petition reads as follows:
“We, your most loyal fans, implore you to reconsider adding LAN as a network feature to StarCraft II. This is a response to the announcement that the only multiplayer in StarCraft II will be via Battle.net. We understand you will be adding amazing new features to Battle.net that you can’t talk about yet, but regardless of any features you might add online, we would still like to be able to play in a traditional network where no internet connection is needed. For an internet connection might not always be available.”
Blizzard was pretty adamant about not including LAN play, citing piracy as the main concern.
“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.”
Given Blizzard’s excellent track record of customer satisfaction and online strategy, I am more inclined to agree with the developers decision.
