Joystiq’s interview with Blizzard’s Greg Canessa outlines the previously unannounced new features of Battle.Net. Starcraft fans have been told that the exclusion of LAN from the upcoming sequel was absolutely necessary due to the major features that could not be announced yet.
Now that the announcement has been made, these features ultimately translate into three advancements: cross-game and party chat, more advanced ladder rankings, and achievements. In other words, absolutely nothing that matters during a LAN game. It’s clear that the requirement of Battle.Net for multiplayer matches is intended for piracy and data mining, but pirates will find a way around it and surely there will be enough players to data mine (for balance and level preference) without such a requirement.
Not only does this fateful decision leave the fate of Korean Starcraft leagues up in the air, but what happens when Blizzard eventually turns those validation servers off?
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