Fancy scheduling a good old-fashioned LAN party for the launch of StarCraft II? Sorry pal, but it's not going to happen, at least not in the traditional sense, as the much-anticipated sequel will only support multiplayer skirmishes over Battle.net. Which of course requires an active internet connection, taking the local aspect out of the equation. Game designer Rob Pardo briefly explains:[blockquote2]We don't have any plans to support LAN. We will not support it. The only multiplayer available will be on Battle.net.[/blockquote2]It's not a huge issue by any means, but is sure to agitate those wanting to engage in latency-free gaming, seeing as Blizzard is mandating that all network data must be passed through the Battle.net servers.
Why remove the LAN component? Our guess: oftentimes the LAN feature in games is abused by nefarious pirates to allow for connectivity across private or unofficial servers. By solely restricting access of the online component to Battle.net, Blizzard has much tighter control over what is and isn't allowed on the infrastructure side of things.
StarCraft II Developers Talk [IncGamers]
