StarCraft 2 is always-on?

[DoPo]

Haven't all of Blizzard games been always online since Diablo 2?

I'm not sure why people are still surprised about it 10 years later.

Diablo 2 wasn't, if you do exclude it, then Warcraft 3 wasn't. And then Blizard had, what? An MMO, one always online game and now it's Diablo 3 which would be getting an offline mode for PS4. But since we're speaking of SC2, then all of the zero always online games they have until it's release (if we exclude WoW, since it's an MMO) don't exactly set up a reliable pattern for us to follow.

 

[babinro]

Haven't all of Blizzard games been always online since Diablo 2?

I'm not sure why people are still surprised about it 10 years later.

Diablo 2 wasn't, if you do exclude it, then Warcraft 3 wasn't. And then Blizard had, what? An MMO, one always online game and now it's Diablo 3 which would be getting an offline mode for PS4. But since we're speaking of SC2, then all of the zero always online games they have until it's release (if we exclude WoW, since it's an MMO) don't exactly set up a reliable pattern for us to follow.

I meant to say Diablo 2 was the last offline game offered by the company.
Without having checked the years though you are probably right in saying it was Warcraft 3 (I thought that came out first).

Either way, WoW, SC2 and Diablo 3 are all online only.
There's still around a 10 year gap where they haven't released an offline title.
Seems reliable enough to me to establish a precedence at least on the PC.

Perhaps if SC2 gets ported to console it'll be offline since they've set that precedence with Diablo 3.
I wouldn't expect any changes on the PC with the Protoss expansion.

 

[DoPo]

Either way, WoW, SC2 and Diablo 3 are all online only.
There's still around a 10 year gap where they haven't released an offline title.
Seems reliable enough to me to establish a precedence at least on the PC.

However, at the time of SC2's release they only had WoW. And it's rather non-representative to count it, since, as I said, it's an MMO. Being surprised that a singleplayer game needs to be connected to the internet is justified in that case. If they release a new game now and it is always online, it won't be as surprising (although I'd have expected them to have learned some stuff from D3) but I see no reason why do you think applying a historian fallacy would make much sense.

 

[Glaive_21842]

Is there a way to launch the game without an internet connection that I don't know about? Because I can't get past the launcher while offline.

I just got done playing a bot match without any connection to the 'net. I had absolutely no problem doing so. The play button on the launcher was big and orange, and the login screen provided me with a big and orange "play offline" button right in the middle of the screen. No issues.
Although I do have to admit, I found it a bit strange that I couldn't find a play offline button when I actually was connected to the net. However, I do also remember having connection issues while playing campaign, but that didn't crash my game. All it did was disable achievements for a little bit. [sarcasm]Oh noes, what a nightmare[/sarcasm]. Maybe there used to be an issue with AI maps in the past, or maybe you were technically hosting that bot match over Battlenet.

 

[LetalisK]

Yeah, I've never had a problem playing the single player or bot matches offline and I've never been kicked out of either if my connection fails. Maybe I'll run some tests when I get back from the in-laws.

 

[Xeorm]

Were you playing the matchmaking version of vs AI, instead of custom games vs AI? The first is a bit of a ranking system, the first is built to mimic the system of playing against other human opponents. You beat AI opponents and face stronger foes as you get better. I would not be surprised at all if that section required a connection.

But I know in the past I've played vs bots and the campaign offline just fine. I would suggest not playing the matchmaking sessions if you've got a bad modem.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Diablo 2 wasn't, if you do exclude it, then Warcraft 3 wasn't. And then Blizard had, what? An MMO, one always online game and now it's Diablo 3 which would be getting an offline mode for PS4. But since we're speaking of SC2, then all of the zero always online games they have until it's release (if we exclude WoW, since it's an MMO) don't exactly set up a reliable pattern for us to follow.

While Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, and Starcraft were all not technically "online games", it was via their online capability that they became hits. Diablo for its co-op play and loot collection/trading, and Warcraft (and especially Starcraft) for their esport appeal.

While I'm not really a fan of the decision to remove offline play entirely from Diablo 3, it's hardly surprising to see the company embracing "online" as the raison d'etre for their titles at this point. It's sort of been Blizzard's thing for a long while now.

 

[saintdane05]

There is an Offline-Mode in Starcraft 2. You just need to disconnect first.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I meant to say Diablo 2 was the last offline game offered by the company.
Without having checked the years though you are probably right in saying it was Warcraft 3 (I thought that came out first).

Diablo 2 came out in 2000, Warcraft 3 2002.
Both offered the player all options for online and offline play (single player, online, and LAN).

Either way, WoW, SC2 and Diablo 3 are all online only.
There's still around a 10 year gap where they haven't released an offline title.
Seems reliable enough to me to establish a precedence at least on the PC.

"Precedence" is an extremely flimsy justification for retrograde design.

Imagine a kid is just shooting hoops at a basketball net when a man comes by and takes the ball away, then says that if the kid wants to continue shooting hoops he has to join a team.

And when the kid asks why, the man responds "Why, that's how basketball is played! You don't shoot hoops by yourself! It's a team game!"

Before, he had that choice even if it wasn't the most popular. Now, he has none because someone is bullying him into playing based on "precedence".

 

[DoPo]

Diablo 2 wasn't, if you do exclude it, then Warcraft 3 wasn't. And then Blizard had, what? An MMO, one always online game and now it's Diablo 3 which would be getting an offline mode for PS4. But since we're speaking of SC2, then all of the zero always online games they have until it's release (if we exclude WoW, since it's an MMO) don't exactly set up a reliable pattern for us to follow.

While Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, and Starcraft were all not technically "online games", it was via their online capability that they became hits. Diablo for its co-op play and loot collection/trading, and Warcraft (and especially Starcraft) for their esport appeal.

True, Battle.net contributed A LOT to their appeal. They were fine games even by themselves but easily playing with others across the world is also big with them. Still, they did have their offline segments which were also highly sought after - I've legitimately played more Warcraft in LAN than online. Same goes for Diablo 2, but that's also because I couldn't play it online as much, so it's not really representative. However, the decision to go full online was surprising.

Or would be for most - with more in-depth knowledge of Blizzard it's not as shocking but still a bit unexpected. In fact, Blizzard exercised tighter grip on their products than a lot of other companies - online passes? Blizzard essentially had those already from wa-a-ay before - only legit CD keys are allowed on Battle.net - second hand copies are offline only. Until bnetd[footnote]For the unaware - bnetd is an open source Battle.net alternative - anybody can host their own. There were (and are) private servers running with quite a lot of people, actually, since it doesn't require a legit copy of the game and it's not connected to the Blizzard account, so a lot of people migrate there after they get banned.[/footnote] came into the picture, however Blizzard shut that down as well...to an extent, at any rate, they aren't happy with people being able to play online not under supervision. Similarly, they have also been active to limit the WoW private servers. Blizzard also have repeatedly shown displeasure at cheaters of any sort - mass bans and rust storm[footnote]Blizzard did a big purge of duped items in D2 - all dupes were deleted and this event was called "rust storm". I can't recall if it was official name or not but it fits nonetheless[/footnote] immediately leap to mind.

It was only natural for them to eventually attempt to control the whole game a person has, still SC2 was surprising to all. Diablo 3, however, not as much. At least I wasn't surprised - Blizzard had shown they were willing to do it already, and with the auction house in place, it was more or less expected for them to not have offline mode at all.