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So yeah, I bought the game so I could get my ass handed to my by some American friends, but it appears that we're unable to play against one another, or even add one another to our friends lists, apparently due to Blizzard using regional servers or something. Will there be a change in this policy of theirs or is my ass safe for now?

The only policy change that they've had is to allow Australians (and, I'd assume, New Zealanders) to play on American servers. Originally we were going to be on the South-East Asian servers, but we said "They don't speak English - how are we supposed to play against them?", and they relented.

To be honest Brook I'd just count your lucky stars that you can play Starcraft II online on any server and that it isn't a subscription service (yet - Bob Kotic may still get his way).

Aye, shooters are moving towards an on-line subscription model as with MMO's and X360 Gold. Even worse is that most of the industry is supportive of this model. And if little greedy Bobby is having it his way it's going to happen for all on-line games pretty soon.

Still a shame though that I can't play this with people from across the world, seeing as most gaming buddies are in the US and Canada sadly.

You would think that Blizzard has the money to afford running International Servers, making roughly 90 million a month and all.

If you feel like playing against a fellow casual gamer (atleast i'm assuming you are from your opening post) feel free to send me a PM.

I'm also in the same time zone as you are beeing a fellow dutchman

Chrysaor686 wrote:You would think that Blizzard has the money to afford running International Servers, making roughly 90 million a month and all.

Has nothing to do with money, has everything to do with latency issues.

Kanluwen wrote:

Chrysaor686 wrote:You would think that Blizzard has the money to afford running International Servers, making roughly 90 million a month and all.

Has nothing to do with money, has everything to do with latency issues.

Bollocks.

I always figured it's because no one wants to get their butts handed to them by the Koreans

BrookM wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

Chrysaor686 wrote:You would think that Blizzard has the money to afford running International Servers, making roughly 90 million a month and all.

Has nothing to do with money, has everything to do with latency issues.

Bollocks.

Maybe, but look at how obnoxious it is PvPing against Aussies/NZers.

H.B.M.C. wrote:The only policy change that they've had is to allow Australians (and, I'd assume, New Zealanders) to play on American servers. Originally we were going to be on the South-East Asian servers, but we said "They don't speak English - how are we supposed to play against them?", and they relented.

To be honest Brook I'd just count your lucky stars that you can play Starcraft II online on any server and that it isn't a subscription service (yet - Bob Kotic may still get his way).

Robert Kotic has nothing to do with blizzard and the vast majority of copies sold were sold in countries with non subscription based plans available.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

BrookM wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

Chrysaor686 wrote:You would think that Blizzard has the money to afford running International Servers, making roughly 90 million a month and all.

Has nothing to do with money, has everything to do with latency issues.

Bollocks.

International server lag is a real issue. The locations of the host and server get slower along an accelerating curve every time the signal has to be retransmitted. Theres a specific reason there are server cuts between eastern and western united states and you are statistically more likely to see higher pings on foreign located servers. The language and cultural barriers are certainly another issues besides latency to be contended with.