Although Starcraft is one of the most-played competitive games in the world, its developers revealed in an interview this week that its sequel will lose a particularly valued multiplayer feature -- and the game's millions of fans are not pleased.
At issue is whether the game should support computer-to-computer connections (known as LAN networks) without also having to be connected to the developers' servers via the Internet. The original Starcraft could -- and, partly as a result, became the game of choice for gatherings that ranged from a few friends to stadium-filling, championship tournaments.
LAN parties a thing of the Starcraft past?
Starcraft II, developer Blizzard revealed this week, will need to "check in" with remote servers, so if you're not online, there's no multiplayer for you. This is expected to make the game much harder for contest organizers, net cafes, and gaming parties to embrace, and many longtime fans have sworn to boycott the sequel unless Blizzard backs down.
Twitter remains abuzz at the news, with fans variously describing Blizzard's surprise move as "totally insane," "just...wrong," and, worst of all, "EPIC FAIL." An online petition has amassed over 25,000 signatures so far.
Although Blizzard's keen to emphasize the features of their online service -- which will track player stats and provide rich community functions -- it's seen as a preemptive strike against potential Starcraft II pirates, as those with illegal copies of the game would be banned from connecting to Blizzard's servers. A somewhat similar move by EA last year resulted in its massive hit Spore racking up thousands of one-star reviews on Amazon, and being slapped with a class-action lawsuit. It remains to be seen how (or if) Blizzard will address this controversy.
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