'Starcraft II' Goes Free-to-Play on Tuesday (techcrunch.com) 67
An anonymous reader quotes TechCrunch:
It was only in April that Blizzard made the original StarCraft free to play, and now the company has done the same for its sequel. StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, which is certainly the most-played real-time strategy game ever made, will be free for anyone to play starting on November 14. Of course there's a catch, but nothing nefarious. The game was divided into three episodes, each focusing on one of the three playable races (Human, Zerg and Protoss -- but you knew that), and only the first (the human one) will be available for free. If you already own Wings of Liberty (as the episode is called) you can also get the Heart of the Swarm chapter for free by logging in and claiming it before December 8.
TechCrunch calls it "a good way to onboard new players who just never wanted to pay full price to find out if they liked it."
TechCrunch calls it "a good way to onboard new players who just never wanted to pay full price to find out if they liked it."
Too laet (Score:3)
Zerg rush! Zerg rush!
I'm in ur base killing ur doodz!
Re: (Score:2)
Take off every 'ZIG'*.
* ZIG is a flying unit. Your zerglings are dead.
So... (Score:1)
What if you supported Blizzard by paying for both "Wings of Liberty" and "Heart of the Swarm"? You get nothing?
Re: So... (Score:1)
Kind of like paying to see a movie in theaters only to see it on tv 5 years later.
If you dont understand that paying granted the 5 year jump on everyone else...... I cant help you
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If you can't understand that Blizzard is giving something for free for people who bought ONE campaign but nothing to people who bought TWO campaigns, I can't help you either.
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Gamers have become such entitled little kids. I'm surprised to see that attitude pop up even here. There are plenty of times where game companies screw people over, but giving out games for free is definitely not one of them...
StarCraft II is great. I've bought all the campaigns and expansions and I don't regret it at all. It'll be great to get some new players on.
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
What if you supported Blizzard by paying for both "Wings of Liberty" and "Heart of the Swarm"? You get nothing?
You got several years of enjoyment and earlier access?
Re: So... (Score:1)
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You get to enjoy ripping those noobs starting out now a new one with your vast amounts of experience, is that nothing?
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What if you supported Blizzard by paying for both "Wings of Liberty" and "Heart of the Swarm"? You get nothing?
That's how I read it. You'd think they'd give actual customers something to make up for it, but it was probably too lofty a concept for them to consider.
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Their actual customers get to see a fresh influx of new players, keeping the ecosystem healthy for a at least a few more years?
That would be great if it happens. I suspect that a lot of the current users still won't be happy with this outcome
Re: (Score:2)
something to make up for it
Make up for what? What games have you been playing for longer than 7 years? Which of those games are still supported?
if you're STILL playing Starcraft II then you should be happy with the renewed adrenaline shot it just got as it was slowly decaying.
In this world of abandoning things early and locking out customers Blizzard just showed how much they value customers still attached to older games through support of not the franchise, but the actual old game itself.
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if you're STILL playing Starcraft II then you should be happy with the renewed adrenaline shot it just got as it was slowly decaying.
That would be great if it happens. I suspect that a lot of the current users still won't be happy with this outcome. (I don't play Starcraft, so I don't have any stake in this either way.)
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Ubisoft is giving away Watchdogs1 for free this week and that has only been out for 3 years. SC2 came out over 7 years ago.
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I don't play Starcraft, so I don't have any stake in this either way.
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It seems rather obvious to me that your course of action was by no means altruistic if THAT is an issue for you now.
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What if you supported Blizzard by paying for both "Wings of Liberty" and "Heart of the Swarm"? You get nothing?
FTFA: "For those of you who have already purchased any of the three campaigns as of October 31, we’ll soon be sending you a small thank-you in the form of an exclusive Ghost skin as well as three new portraits."
Unless it's DRM free then I don't care. (Score:2)
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Blizzard? Intrusive DRM scheme?
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Blizzard? Intrusive DRM scheme?
They literally have Facebook integration, scan all your files, and report back whatever they want from your machine. Starcraft 2 is the data mining of the web, in videogame form.
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Unfortunately, we live in an era of cheaters. Cheat programs take all sorts of forms, and are probably one of hte biggest turn-offs in online gaming.
This is especially true in e-sports games, where if you can get away with it, y ou can end up making some big bucks. Considering real athletes do it in real life (using performance enha
Re: (Score:1)
Unfortunately, we live in an era of cheaters. Cheat programs take all sorts of forms, and are probably one of hte biggest turn-offs in online gaming.
Yeah, no. That's about the lamest excuse for spyware ever conceived. I played Starcraft 1 up through the time they re-released it, it was by far my favorite game. Still not worth putting a Facebook-connected app on my computer which scans and reports on every single thing I have in my computer, the surrounding computers, etc. Starcraft 2 is at this point nothing but spyware for one of the most evil corporations to ever exist, of which both Facebook and Blizzard are now indefensible.
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I'd like to know if it installs Bonjour, like their free offering of "Starcraft" did.
I'd like to know if it installs Bonjour without telling you, unconcerned that it brings your system to a crawl if it can't find any other games on your local network. And that it doesn't come with an uninstaller, forcing you to look under the hood and then pry the fucking thing loose with a crowbar. Thank you, Apple.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_(software)
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It doesn't actually force install Bonjour, but it does slow down logging into their servers immensely while it complains about not being able to find it... And this is for internet play where Bonjour isn't needed!
f2p? (Score:2)
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"...so long as they bother to support the authentication and matchmaking servers, anyway"
Exactly. At some point they'll make a business decision to stop supporting the game and *poof*, it's gone.
Unless the unimaginable happens and they allow other people to set up servers for game play...possible but not probable.
SC2 "Flopping" (Score:2)
Maybe things have changed, but what turned me off after initially playing maybe the first 6mos was mostly the playerbase, but also partly the gameplay just not being as rewarding and skill-based as SC1. Even into high Platinum I was still facing 75% cheese strats where you thwart it and they quit the game immediately. It just wasn't fun, and I didn't have the time to dedicate to the game to keep my ELO in Diamond as there was a certain level of atrophy or inflation to maintain your position on the ladder. T
Clearance at Walmart (Score:2)
Citation Needed (Score:1)
> most-played real-time strategy game ever made
*citation needed*
I bought the trilogy (Score:1)
Crippleware? (Score:1)
It's an old idea in a new package, with a new name. Too bad it's still crap.
Nothing more than a demo that doesn't expire.
If it's not the entire game, then it's not a free game, it's crippleware or a demo.
What annoys me most is Slashdot freely advertising it for them.
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I can tell from your post that you haven't played Starcraft II before.
If Warner Brothers gave away the movie "Batman Begins", would you be scorning them for not giving away "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight Rises" too along with it?
I've played Starcraft II - Wings of Liberty, and I can tell you I have gotten far more enjoyment out of it than of a lot of similarly priced games. I never felt during gameplay that it was missing some elements. It's an excellent game which got stellar reviews when it came o
Read the EULA (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Read the EULA (Score:4)
That's pretty much how any modern game's anti-cheat works.
Re: (Score:2)
The Blizzard End User License Agreement has all sorts of nuggets, like their Consent to Monitor:
"... THE PLATFORM ... MAY MONITORY YOUR COMPUTER ... MEMORY FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS ..."
What can go wrong?
Every online game has done that for the past 10 odd years. You can thank the cheating arseholes for that now highly sought after feature.
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Punkbuster actually came out in 2000, and there may have even been anti-cheat software before that. That is the first one I remember, at least.
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Wow you're bringing up memories now. It was valve that included it first right? Team Fortress Classic / Counterstrike / Half-Life?
So... (Score:1)
The theft of videogame software is complete... (Score:1)
... there's nothing corporations won't steal if they believe they can get away with it.
As someone put it on Fark (Score:1)
"Starcraft II is our secret weapon against Koreans. They'll sit in an internet cafe and play it for 100 hours straight and when they stand up they'll fucking DIE"