EvaUnit02 on 1/8/2010 at 12:40
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
As for your small PC idea - it would need a keyboard and mouse, because that's one of the main strengths of the PC platform. (I hate controllers.)
One of the key strengths of PC is CHOICE. I can use pretty much any peripheral that I like. No hardware manufacturer can stop me because I have pretty much full control over the OS/software, since it's an open platform.
Nameless Voice on 1/8/2010 at 13:40
Okay, the new Battle.net 2.0 is beyond broken.
I'll start with the fact that you can never change your character name and it's limited to 12 characters, which is too short to be able to put much into. They get around the insane amounts of duplication that this will obviously lead to by giving each player a three-digit "character code" to uniquely identify them.
I was just considering how I'd play a game with a friend.
One would think I'd just be able to type their name and character code into an "add friend" function, but no, apparently that's not possible. The only way to add a friend is to be playing a game with them, but how are you supposed to invite someone who isn't your friend to be play a game? Back in the days of Starcraft 1, we'd just make a custom game with a known name and a password, and everyone could join that, but you can't create custom games with names or passwords in Battle.net 2.0.
Of course, there's RealID - their idea of a cross-game friends list, but that forces you to be on a real-name basis with all your RealID friends, and I quite simply refuse to even consider using it. I don't even understand why anyone would want that - when I'm in game, I want to refer to other gamers I know by their handles, even if I know their real names. Why can't they just allow you to alias your friends however you'd like, so if you prefer referring to ZergSwarm-538 as "Bob Smith", you can just manually set that up yourself? But no, that would actually be a sensible and decent way to do things.
Personally, I signed up for my battle.net account giving "Nameless Voice" as my real name, so it's no real issue for me, but the whole idea of RealID is so messed up that I refuse to support it or use it.
Frankly, I hope Blizzard get sued over it, since it's clearly a breach of privacy. Unfortunately, they do warn you what it does when you first try to use it, so they could probably get out of the deserved lawsuit by saying "But we do warn people, even if we don't give them any options to do anything else!"
For extra fun, as an owner of the EU version of Starcraft 2, I'm not allowed to post in the US battle.net forums because "No Starcraft 2 license found". Of course, all the main blizzard posts are on the US forums.
Edit: Even more fun: in order to play a custom map, you need to publish it to Battle.net, e.g. upload it. Even if you just want to create a custom game to play against the computer on your map. It also sounds like you're only allowed to publish 5 maps at a time, to a total of 10mb.
So, no easy way to make/test/play custom maps. This just gets better and better. So much for my idea of creating a custom map for friends to join so I can befriend them.
CCCToad on 1/8/2010 at 15:10
All these things sound like a bit of a hit against the game for me, I was actually considering picking it up once the current crunch ends.
Sounds like the trend towards centralized management of everything is hurting this game a lot more than it should. Exactly WHAT is so bad about giving the individual player the choice to load whatever custom maps and store whatever maps he wants?
Nameless Voice on 1/8/2010 at 16:27
The crazy thing is that most of those issues (excluding the map thing) could go away if they just chose to follow the likes of Steam, MSN, etc., a bit closer and allowed players to pick whatever name they like for their "RealID", with the option of any player being able to alias any other player.
As for the maps, I think the idea is that they want to control all the maps, rather than having a million other sites that deal in SC2 maps. I don't understand why.
Edit: Apparently all the maps you make belong solely and exclusively to Blizzard, too.
Thirith on 1/8/2010 at 17:41
Has anyone here who isn't all that much into RTSes played the game? I remember enjoying Warcraft 3 tremendously for the first 1 1/2 campaigns and then never playing it again...
CCCToad on 1/8/2010 at 19:00
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
As for the maps, I think the idea is that they want to control all the maps, rather than having a million other sites that deal in SC2 maps. I don't understand
why.
I don't think there's any mystery behind it. They want the power. Its also part of a larger trend towards corporate elitism in the gaming (and non-gaming) world: "WE know whats best for you, so you shouldn't have any choice in the matter!"
Angel Dust on 1/8/2010 at 20:24
Quote Posted by Thirith
Has anyone here who isn't all that much into RTSes played the game? I remember enjoying
Warcraft 3 tremendously for the first 1 1/2 campaigns and then never playing it again...
Yeah, I'm playing it and enjoying it a lot, and I don't play many RTSes at all apart form the odd Blizzard/C&C title. I'm about 1/2 way through and while the story so far has been pretty dull, albeit beautifully presented, the mission design has been consistently excellent and the high level of polish on absolutely everything makes a joy to play. It's not really much different from Starcraft/Warcraft 3 in the game play department but in this instance it's definitely a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' and the new additions to the formula only enhance that original formula.
Yakoob on 1/8/2010 at 21:34
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
Frankly, I hope Blizzard get sued over it, since it's clearly a breach of privacy. Unfortunately, they do warn you what it does when you first try to use it, so they could probably get out of the deserved lawsuit by saying "But we do warn people, even if we don't give them any options to do anything else!"
That's like buying a bicycle with razor blades in the handle bar, marked as "this bike contains razor blades on the handle bars," and then suing the seller because you got cut. You know exactly what you are getting for the money, dont like it, dont buy it, no one is forcing you to, no one is lying to you about what they are selling.
But then again, people sue and win cases for spilling hot coffee on themselves, so that just might work for you...
Eldron on 1/8/2010 at 22:08
And they do have both systems in place,
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
I was just considering how I'd play a game with a friend.
One would think I'd just be able to type their name and character code into an "add friend" function, but no, apparently that's not possible. The only way to add a friend is to be playing a game with them, but how are you supposed to invite someone who isn't your friend to be play a game? Back in the days of Starcraft 1, we'd just make a custom game with a known name and a password, and everyone could join that, but you can't create custom games with names or passwords in Battle.net 2.0.
adding starcraft 2 players is done by going into the "add character" in add friends.
RealID hasn't killed me yet though, but then again, I reserve that for friends and coworkers, not random players, but that's what non realID friends are for.
Nameless Voice on 1/8/2010 at 22:09
Quote Posted by Eldron
adding starcraft 2 players is done by going into the "add character" in add friends.
Are you sure?
Then their interface design is awful. I had assumed that added someone as a RealID friend via their character name / code. It's not stated anywhere that it's a non-RealID friend, and it's in the RealID friends section...
