I haven't participated in a real-life, honest-to-goodness LAN party in a few years, but I'm well aware at the joy they bring to the world. It's with that in mind that I'm a little shocked that Blizzard is out-and-out preventing LAN play with "StarCraft 2."
They explained to Joystiq why they would take such a staunch position, and in the end the argument seems a little flimsy:
"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."
They go on to say that Battle.net will have such awesome new features as achievements and stat-tracking, and letting folks bypass all that awesomeness would be too much to bare.
But lets be honest, it's not the features-set that they're concerned with, it's the piracy. Letting someone play "StarCraft 2" on LAN means they can play it without being hooked into Blizzard's authentication servers, therefore increasing the potential for piracy. The real question is, will this affect the popularity of the game as a worldwide gaming competition juggernaut?
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