Starcraft's DRM

[Telefrog]

Way back in early development, Blizzard said that StarCraft 2's DRM would not require an online connection to play the singleplayer campaign or skirmishes. Later, when the launch approached, Blizzard clarified that you would need to register and authenticate the game at least once when you initially fired it up.

After launch, Blizzard changed that requirement to an initial online verification and subsequent verifications every 30 days afterwards. The reasoning being that most legitimate users should only need a 30 day window without internet access.


You would need to connect to the internet at least once every 30 days to re-authenticate your StarCraft II account in order to continue to player the game in offline mode, that is correct. StarCraft II requires an active internet connection to play. This is stated in the System Requirements on the retail box, as well as our online System Requirements. Without an active internet connection, you will not be able to log in to Battle.net to authenticate your copy of StarCraft II.


Now, Blizzard reps have notified folks that this has changed (http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/165016688?page=9) as well.

Hello,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding StarCraft II.

At this time, StarCraft II requires an active internet connection to play. This is stated in the System Requirements on the retail box, as well as our online System Requirements. Without an active internet connection, you will not be able to log in to Battle.net to authenticate your copy of StarCraft II.

The 'offline mode' currently only lasts until the computer is turned off, and then requires a fresh authentication. There are plans to review this, but there is no ETA on that.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to let us know.

Thank you for your time,

Patrick C.
Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment

Bolding mine. :eek: What happened?

Of course, the funny thing to me is that you won't see much gnashing of teeth, internet petitions, or calls for boycotts on this because Blizzard gets a pass from most gamers. Let Ubisoft, EA, or Activision proper try it and there is Hell to pay.

[Panthera]

It's too late for a boycott.

Regardless, I find this baffling.

[Troggles]

The best part is that I bought the game yesterday, and am installing now. Trying to log in to my battle.net account and I keep getting "Log in failed" messages. I've reset my password twice now and no dice.

[Ink Asylum]

Also, a Starcraft 2 crack is available, so once again this punishes legitimate customers while doing nothing to stop pirates.

[Dukefrukem]

so they skirted around the DRM issue before launch by putting "requires internet connection" on the box. It's brilliant. Because they can change whatever they want, as long as they have the system requirements listed.

[Telefrog]

My big concern now is Diablo III. I bet we see similar DRM. I bet we also see no reporting on it in the media.

"Hurp. Durp. Why should anyone care about Diablo III's online DRM? No one plays it solo anyway! Hurp."

[Hotcod]

well this is a dick move. I was unhappy with the DRM but it wasn't past my point of "bad enough not to get the game" but they seem to decided now they've sold the copies they can do what ever the fuck they like... this is a new idea that I do not want to see become a trend. dammit.

[Narradisall]

"Hurp. Durp. Why should anyone care about Diablo III's online DRM? No one plays it solo anyway! Hurp."

I was going to post how I agree, it stupid and I hope they change it back, since it's pointless and been cracked already.

But then I saw your stance on how you take any other opinion than your own and thought "fuck it"

[J Arcane]

My big concern now is Diablo III. I bet we see similar DRM. I bet we also see no reporting on it in the media.

"Hurp. Durp. Why should anyone care about Diablo III's online DRM? No one plays it solo anyway! Hurp."
Ahem.

I believe the spelling you are looking for is "Herp. Derp."

http://img.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/twilight-herp-derp.jpg

[Telefrog]

I was going to post how I agree, it stupid and I hope they change it back, since it's pointless and been cracked already.

But then I saw your stance on how you take any other opinion than your own and thought "fuck it"

What are you disagreeing with me about? :confused:

You said you find the current Starcraft 2 DRM situation "pointless." I agree.

Do you disagree that people will play Diablo III in singleplayer and therefore should not require an online verification whenever they fire it up?

[boratika]

That is straight up fucking naff. As someone who played through the campaign completely offline, they are really fucking up my shit for Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, to the point where it won't be worth me buying them until I know I will have more persistent internet access than I currently do. So...no time in the foreseeable future.

[Narradisall]

What are you disagreeing with me about? :confused:

You said you find the current Starcraft 2 DRM situation "pointless." I agree.

Do you disagree that people will play Diablo III in singleplayer and therefore should not require an online verification whenever they fire it up?

I'm not actually disagreeing with you. I just found the point of making a thread to discuss the DRM, then making a post where you kind of state anyone having an opinion against solo players is some sort of retard rather diminishing the debate.

Personally, I'm rather a big Blizzard fan boy, but I think several of their SCII/Battlenet 2.0 decisions are just ridiculious. It's pointless because it's already been cracked in some cases, legal changes have caused problems for third party competative tornies for SC2 (part of what made SC1 so famous), online authentication on a regular basis is just lame.

And I really hope this gets a nice U-turn before D3. Besides that though, I'd like to hear some reasoning as to why anyone would think this is a good idea.

[Darkmatter]

Wow thats about as underhanded as it gets... But your right, SC2 is to loved and Blizz is to perfect for many people to even blink at this shit.

[Telefrog]

I'm not actually disagreeing with you. I just found the point of making a thread to discuss the DRM, then making a post where you kind of state anyone having an opinion against solo players is some sort of retard rather diminishing the debate.

Ah, I see. Apologies. I've just seen similar arguments trotted out in the past. (In fact, with SC2!) It's a dumb non-argument, so I get a little huffy when people say you shouldn't be concerned because "no one" plays the game solo.

And I really hope this gets a nice U-turn before D3. Besides that though, I'd like to hear some reasoning as to why anyone would think this is a good idea.

I doubt we'll ever get a statement from Blizzard on this. They seem content to let critical mass and universal media good will carry their reputation. Unfortunately, I think that's why we won't see things change for the better in D3. Why change it back? They sold a 3 million copies of SC2 and no one of importance has really said anything about the DRM.

[Narradisall]

They sold a 3 million copies of SC2 and no one of importance has really said anything about the DRM.

They probably can't get online to say something. :D

[violent]

This is the way gaming trends work. Things have been getting ugly on all platforms for a few years now.

[Vanthar]

This may have been a deliberate change with patch 1.03 or a bug introduced with 1.03; people really don't seem to be sure about it from what I can tell.

As to the whole issue of requiring internet connectivity.. it really doesn't effect the vast majority of the userbase is why they 'get away' with it. I think it's rather pointless if the game is indeed cracked at this point, but I understand that companies still have to attempt to combat piracy. Unfortunately, this one penalizes a lot of legit users that just can't access internet 24/7.

That being said.. it's well within their right to simply require internet access to play the game at all. I think we can all agree that it is unnecessary for a game with a full single-player mode, but it does say right on the box that a broadband connection is required.

And I'd sell my fucking soul for Diablo 3, I don't care if it requires two broadband internet connections to play. (EDIT: And no one plays single player Diablo 3 :))

[Camel]

That is straight up fucking naff. As someone who played through the campaign completely offline, they are really fucking up my shit for Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, to the point where it won't be worth me buying them until I know I will have more persistent internet access than I currently do. So...no time in the foreseeable future.
Don't you just have to be online long enough to sign in and authenticate?

What am I missing here that makes this such a big deal? :confused:

[Telefrog]

Don't you just have to be online long enough to sign in and authenticate?

What am I missing here that makes this such a big deal? :confused:

As it stands now, you must sign in and authenticate after each time that the computer is powered down. As you can imagine, this creates a problem for people with laptops on the road that want to play just the singleplayer portion of the game.

[Mr. Murphy]

Don't you just have to be online long enough to sign in and authenticate?

What am I missing here that makes this such a big deal? :confused:

As someone who lives in an area with spotty internet (case in point: I got two 'connection timed out' blank pages and had to wait a good five minutes in order to make this post), it's mighty infuriating when I can't play a game because my connection isn't working. I don't have as much free time as I used to, I'm not going to waste fifteen minutes clicking on my SC2 icon and hoping the authentication goes through just to play some more of the campaign.

And I just about only play single player, I probably have a good enough connection to play online one day out of the week. Stuff like this is really frustrating, it hurts people who have paid for the game and nobody who has not - the pirated version of starcraft is just the campaign mode, without any authentication problems. If I go and pirate the game now to avoid their DRM, are they just going to point to that and say, see how many people are pirating it, that's why we need DRM?

[RandoM51]

Not a big deal for me. If my Internet wasn't working I'd be doing everything I could to get it working, not sitting there playing a genre of game that has quite possibly the most boring singleplayer there is.

[Mr. Murphy]

Not a big deal for me. If my Internet wasn't working I'd be doing everything I could to get it working, not sitting there playing a genre of game that has quite possibly the most boring singleplayer there is.

No one is free while others are oppressed, Randy. Stand up for your non-competitive, story-loving brethren! :p

[Camel]

As someone who lives in an area with spotty internet (case in point: I got two 'connection timed out' blank pages and had to wait a good five minutes in order to make this post), it's mighty infuriating when I can't play a game because my connection isn't working. I don't have as much free time as I used to, I'm not going to waste fifteen minutes clicking on my SC2 icon and hoping the authentication goes through just to play some more of the campaign.

And I just about only play single player, I probably have a good enough connection to play online one day out of the week. Stuff like this is really frustrating, it hurts people who have paid for the game and nobody who has not - the pirated version of starcraft is just the campaign mode, without any authentication problems. If I go and pirate the game now to avoid their DRM, are they just going to point to that and say, see how many people are pirating it, that's why we need DRM?
Thanks for explaining. I understand why it's frustrating, and I feel your pain as I used to live in an area with super shitty internet access.

All the same, I guess I really still don't see the big deal, outside of the fact that it's annoying. Certainly not worthy of a boycott, or enough to make me not want to play the rest of the campaign. Easy enough for me to say I suppose since this really doesn't affect me.

That is straight up fucking naff. As someone who played through the campaign completely offline, they are really fucking up my shit for Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, to the point where it won't be worth me buying them until I know I will have more persistent internet access than I currently do. So...no time in the foreseeable future.
You have over 3000 posts on CoG and have a Steam user ID. If all you have to do is stay online long enough to log in, you should be OK, right?

[Darkmatter]

Yea laptop users who want to go on a vacation and play offline will be screwed. That is total crap.

[roboninja]

Activision colours seeping through the Blizzard veneer again, I see.

[Exodus]

Well let's put it this way, don't talk about your drm until after your game has sold millions. ;P

Honestly though, it doesn't bother me in the least but I could see this as being really crappy if you're in a situation without an internet connection. Then...I would be quite p/o'd. So until that happens!

[Vanthar]

Yea laptop users who want to go on a vacation and play offline will be screwed. That is total crap.

I mean.. do you go on vacation to play games? I dunno.. There are legit people who would be annoyed by this but I'm not sure vacationers are those people. Maybe troops stationed overseas that can't get online for one.

[MagGnome]

My big concern now is Diablo III. I bet we see similar DRM. I bet we also see no reporting on it in the media.

"Hurp. Durp. Why should anyone care about Diablo III's online DRM? No one plays it solo anyway! Hurp."

Eh, there's a good chance I'll be passing on D3 at this point, for a variety of reasons.

I won't go into it too much though, as I really don't want to deal with the flames. ;)

[SilentScreams]

This doesn't seem like a huge deal to me. I can't see why anyone on here is pissed about it. If you can get on the internet long enough to post in this thread, you can get on it long enough to sign in to SC2.

Hell, even if my main connection goes down, which it hasn't done in a couple of years, I can still get a workable connection long enough to sign in to b.net.

[Ink Asylum]

When my internet is down, or I don't have access, one of the primary uses my laptop gets is gaming. Making single-player gaming dependent on an active internet connection would be quite aggravating when that happens.

[Deimos]

This doesn't seem like a huge deal to me. I can't see why anyone on here is pissed about it. If you can get on the internet long enough to post in this thread, you can get on it long enough to sign in to SC2.

Hell, even if my main connection goes down, which it hasn't done in a couple of years, I can still get a workable connection long enough to sign in to b.net.

I love the "it doesn't affect me so why should anyone care" care attitude a lot of you seem to have. The issue here isn't about how much or how little of an annoyance this is to consumers. The issue is that Blizzard has pulled the rug out from underneath customers.

I didn't ever install Linux on my PS3 but I thought it was pretty shitty of Sony to disable that option in a later update. This is just as shitty if not more-so. If people were informed that they could buy this game, hop online once a month and be allowed to play offline then that is the deal. Blizzard shouldn't be allowed to change the rules like that. It's bad business and makes me want to avoid this and any future products.

Yeah maybe most people don't game on vacation but I bet theres plenty of people who travel for their job and would like to play this while they're on the plane. Or in their hotel room at night. Or maybe during a power outage. Whatever the reason, they bought the game with the knowledge given to them BY BLIZZARD that these were all situations where offline mode would serve them. So no matter how unlikely the situation is in your or anyone else's life the fact is Blizzard changed the rules during the game. I don't know about you but I hated little shits like that on the playground growing up.

[jpublic]

Y'know, I'm usually in the 'doesn affect me' camp, but this pisses me off for some reason. I think it's another straw on the camel's back, as it were, of things Acti-Blizz has been doing to irritate the crap out of me.

They haven't broken said back, yet, but I'm hearing aminous creaking.

[boratika]

Don't you just have to be online long enough to sign in and authenticate?

What am I missing here that makes this such a big deal? :confused:

You have over 3000 posts on CoG and have a Steam user ID. If all you have to do is stay online long enough to log in, you should be OK, right?

My situation is that I done have an internet connection at home. The phone line was disconnected before I moved in, and I'm not willing to pay the $300 to get it reconnected.

Most of my web browsing is done on my laptop, which I can easily take to where there is internet, but isn't cut out for running SCII. Every so often I do lug my desktop to a more internet connected location, but not as a permanent thing. So before, I was able to (and did) lug my desktop around to my mothers place and authenticate the game and then shut down my computer and take it home and play through it at my leisure (for a month.)

Now I have to be not at home to play it, so it's not very appealing to bother buying the other instalments in my current situation.

[Telefrog]

Update for everyone!

Users having to re-authenticate StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty every time they attempt to play Blizzard's RTS sequel is due to a bug, rather than a policy change, reports GamePro. "We’re aware there’s a bug in the authentication system, as far as the system being able to know that you’ve logged into the system for 30 days," a Blizzard representative tells them. "We’re trying to address this problem in an upcoming patch." The rep also responded to a post on the Battle.net forums saying the re-authentication was intentional, saying: "There’s been a miscommunication with the [customer-service] guys…there’s no change with the 30-day authentication policy."

Good. Now they need to fix it.

[SilentScreams]

All this nerd rage over nothing but a bug...

[J Arcane]

All this nerd rage over nothing but a bug...
So's the story today.

That isn't what they said yesterday.

Come on, man, are you really that much of a patsy?

[Panthera]

A miscommunication in a company as large as Activision-Blizzard is somehow not only implausible, but less plausible than the company actually listening?

[J Arcane]

A miscommunication in a company as large as Activision-Blizzard is somehow not only implausible, but less plausible than the company actually listening?
Look, I'm not saying I know one way or another, but let's not get all revisionist here.

Just because a PR statement says something doesn't mean it's automatically true and renders all previous events void.

It's kind of their job to tell people what they want to hear, isn't it? What's next? Unquestioning acceptance of all government issued statements?

[SilentScreams]

I wasn't defending them in any way there. I was just laughing at the over-reaction to something that turned out to be nothing.
Gamers seem to have their rage on a hair trigger, and it's amusing to me.

[J Arcane]

I wasn't defending them in any way there. I was just laughing at the over-reaction to something that turned out to be nothing.
Gamers seem to have their rage on a hair trigger, and it's amusing to me.
And who's word are you going on for this conclusion of yours?

The same people who just yesterday were implying this was a policy decision that may never be changed?

You sure jumped quickly to accept the data point that let you be a smug asshole.

[Panthera]

Look, I'm not saying I know one way or another, but let's not get all revisionist here.

Just because a PR statement says something doesn't mean it's automatically true and renders all previous events void.

It's kind of their job to tell people what they want to hear, isn't it? What's next? Unquestioning acceptance of all government issued statements?

Yes. We're all that naive. Thanks for the constructive debate.

[SilentScreams]

And who's word are you going on for this conclusion of yours?

The same people who just yesterday were implying this was a policy decision that may never be changed?

You sure jumped quickly to accept the data point that let you be a smug asshole.

You got me. I love being a smug asshole. It gets me through the day.

Or...maybe I looked at the two conflicting statements from Blizzard and made my own decision on which was more likely. A complete policy change for no apparent reason, or a bug in a PC game.

[violent]

And who's word are you going on for this conclusion of yours?

The same people who just yesterday were implying this was a policy decision that may never be changed?

You sure jumped quickly to accept the data point that let you be a smug asshole.

Smug asshole? Really? You need to grow the fuck up or step away from your computer. You're fucking losing it.

[J Arcane]

Smug asshole? Really? You need to grow the fuck up or step away from your computer. You're fucking losing it.
Yes, yes, we get your shtick by now. Everything is meaningless, nothing is worth discussing, let's all just sling smarmy one liners all day like it's fucking 4chan.

[Hotcod]

yes J.... SilentScreams is the one being smug here... really... yip... it's true... ya...

[violent]

Yes, yes, we get your shtick by now. Everything is meaningless, nothing is worth discussing, let's all just sling smarmy one liners all day like it's fucking 4chan.

I'd use my time arguing with you if I didn't feel so sorry that you are stuck with yourself all day, every day. Be a tough guy in real life because it means nothing here.

[J Arcane]

I'd use my time arguing with you if I didn't feel so sorry that you are stuck with yourself all day, every day. Be a tough guy in real life because it means nothing here.
I feel quite fine about myself, thanks.

If I feel sorry for anyone, it's for people who apparently have so much of their self-worth tied up in feeling better than other people on the internet.

[violent]

I feel quite fine about myself, thanks.

If I feel sorry for anyone, it's for people who apparently have so much of their self-worth tied up in feeling better than other people on the internet.

I don't feel better than anyone, just you. I'll leave you to your rage.

[fitbabits]

Can we cut down on the personal insults, please?

[Mr. Murphy]

I'm honestly stunned at the number of people who respond "I don't see why this is a big deal" right after a bunch of their online-cohorts specifically explained why it was a big deal to them. Makes me feel like I don't count as a gamer, because I don't game like you. EDIT: I don't just mean in this thread, I mean all across the internet regarding this kind of DRM.

Not being able to play a game you bought and want to play just because your city can't keep the internet up is NOT OKAY. People who pretend it IS okay just because it doesn't affect them, you are part of the problem. The end.

True story - I had a girl over, who was incredibly hot, who hated video games. I was trying to convince her there were games out there that were different, and tried to start Portal. I had no net connection and for some reason Steam decided I needed to be online in order to play Portal, even though I had played it that morning. I never did get to play Portal with her (we played Shadow of the Colossus instead, and then had incredibly hot sex - she left me three months later and I got a tattoo of an NES controller on my thigh to commemorate her comment "I didn't know you liked video games that much").

Trying to play a game I BOUGHT, only to have it unexpectedly tell me "no", is not something I'm really okay with. If you don't want it to start happening to you, all the time, you better stop being okay with it too.

[J Arcane]

That's actually one of the problems I have with the Steam Cloud thing.

Steam's normally good about offline mode when you plan for it, I leave my netbook in offline mode all the time.

But Torchlight won't play with it in offline mode because of the cloud.

[roboninja]

I'm honestly stunned at the number of people who respond "I don't see why this is a big deal" right after a bunch of their online-cohorts specifically explained why it was a big deal to them. Makes me feel like I don't count as a gamer, because I don't game like you. EDIT: I don't just mean in this thread, I mean all across the internet regarding this kind of DRM.

Not being able to play a game you bought and want to play just because your city can't keep the internet up is NOT OKAY. People who pretend it IS okay just because it doesn't affect them, you are part of the problem. The end.

True story - I had a girl over, who was incredibly hot, who hated video games. I was trying to convince her there were games out there that were different, and tried to start Portal. I had no net connection and for some reason Steam decided I needed to be online in order to play Portal, even though I had played it that morning. I never did get to play Portal with her (we played Shadow of the Colossus instead, and then had incredibly hot sex - she left me three months later and I got a tattoo of an NES controller on my thigh to commemorate her comment "I didn't know you liked video games that much").

Trying to play a game I BOUGHT, only to have it unexpectedly tell me "no", is not something I'm really okay with. If you don't want it to start happening to you, all the time, you better stop being okay with it to.

Preach it, brother.

[violent]

I'm honestly stunned at the number of people who respond "I don't see why this is a big deal" right after a bunch of their online-cohorts specifically explained why it was a big deal to them. Makes me feel like I don't count as a gamer, because I don't game like you.

Not being able to play a game you bought and want to play just because your city can't keep the internet up is NOT OKAY. People who pretend it IS okay just because it doesn't affect them, you are part of the problem. The end.

True story - I had a girl over, who was incredibly hot, who hated video games. I was trying to convince her there were games out there that were different, and tried to start Portal. I had no net connection and for some reason Steam decided I needed to be online in order to play Portal, even though I had played it that morning. I never did get to play Portal with her (we played Shadow of the Colossus instead, and then had incredibly hot sex - she left me three months later and I got a tattoo of an NES controller on my thigt to commemorate her).

Trying to play a game I BOUGHT, only to have it unexpectedly tell me "no", is not something I'm really okay with. If you don't want it to start happening to you, all the time, you better stop being okay with it to.

I agree on every point (except for hot sex AFTER Shadow). The problem I see though isn't one about Blizzard specifically but one of the gaming community as a whole. Personally, I think we should consider ourselves so lucky as to have the tactics of Blizzard be so transparent to us. Most of the other crap that is defining gaming tends to be lost behind a gamers need to play something. Who cares if Modern Warfare lacks dedicated servers, it's fucking Modern Warfare! Pay to play games online? Who cares, your friends are there! You want more content for your game? Lucky for you it's already on the disc.

The point I'm trying to make is about lines of justification. We all have them and we're all capable of arguing where someone else draws them. Usually forgetting that our lines may be questionable themselves when doing so. Being a large collective of gamers, the only chance we have is realizing what we all have in common, we are likely getting screwed in one way or another.

[Doogie2K]

I think the thing I've learned from this thread is that I need to buy a PS2 and SotC so I can get laid more often.

[Camel]

My situation is that I done have an internet connection at home. The phone line was disconnected before I moved in, and I'm not willing to pay the $300 to get it reconnected.

Most of my web browsing is done on my laptop, which I can easily take to where there is internet, but isn't cut out for running SCII. Every so often I do lug my desktop to a more internet connected location, but not as a permanent thing. So before, I was able to (and did) lug my desktop around to my mothers place and authenticate the game and then shut down my computer and take it home and play through it at my leisure (for a month.)

Now I have to be not at home to play it, so it's not very appealing to bother buying the other instalments in my current situation.
Thanks for explaining, boratika. I didn't mean to sound like a dick earlier (in case you felt that way). I felt bad as soon as I posted that message. I am sooooooo not cut out for message board posting.

I guess my indifference to this issue stems from the fact that I never had a problem with internet access, even when I lived if BFE, Pennsylvania. I forget there are still people out there who have such unreliable connections.

[MagGnome]

I think the thing I've learned from this thread is that I need to buy a PS2 and SotC so I can get laid more often.

My roommate has both.

Hmm....

[boratika]

Thanks for explaining, boratika. I didn't mean to sound like a dick earlier (in case you felt that way). I felt bad as soon as I posted that message. I am sooooooo not cut out for message board posting.

I guess my indifference to this issue stems from the fact that I never had a problem with internet access, even when I lived if BFE, Pennsylvania. I forget there are still people out there who have such unreliable connections.

Yeah, no worries, it didn't come off as dickish. I realise my situation isn't exactly common (well the being screwed over by phone companies is,) but I suspect if you gather up all the different atypical situations with the same net outcome, it probably adds up to a significant number. Or maybe it doesn't, and those people are just insignificant margins and they should just get used to not mattering. I'm not sure.

[Panthera]

My roommate has both.

Hmm....

Bang your roommate?

[Mr. Murphy]

I agree on every point (except for hot sex AFTER Shadow). The problem I see though isn't one about Blizzard specifically but one of the gaming community as a whole.

I think the thing I've learned from this thread is that I need to buy a PS2 and SotC so I can get laid more often.

You guys TOTALLY missed the point - I didn't get to play Portal.

[Narradisall]

You guys TOTALLY missed the point - I didn't get to play Portal.

You went in and out of enough holes that night. Stop complaining. :p

[Mr. Murphy]

You went in and out of enough holes that night. Stop complaining. :p

Rimshot! (http://instantrimshot.com/) Well played, sir.