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SC2 regions aren't controlled by where you live???

Ja Di ksw

Ja Di ksw

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 9, 2003
1,313
10
So, I moved to Europe a bit ago, and was having fun during the SC2 beta with some of my friends. I went home to the States for a few months and bought SC2 there (was there when it came out). After coming back to the EU, I can't play with any of my friends now. The actual game (as opposed to the beta) is controlled not by where you're coming from, but where you bought the game. That is beyond idiotic, and shows that they aren't region locking it simply for the lag, as you can just buy the game from overseas, but locking it so if you want to do that you have to buy multiple copies. What an unbelievably bulls--- move. I've decided to not buy any more blizzard games after this. Yes, they may care about mac users as much as windows users, but not enough to actual release something good for either group.
 
Where did you hear that? All I've seen is they're allowing people in Australia to play with people in the US as Australia's internet is routed through the US anyway (and the Aussies were complaining a ton about the S. Koreas slaughtering them :)). Here's the official Blizzard link I found, which states "No other multi-region play will be available at this time." If you have an announcement please share the link, it would be good to know it's coming through.
 
I really hope server select gets opened up, i can't play any of my friends in Europe, Thailand, and Japan just now it really sucks only having 2 friends and bunch of random people on the American server.
 
Oh, maybe it just is Australia then sorry. You would just have to buy it again in the country you want to play, blame Activision for that, the greedy company they are.
 
I blame both, especially since there's no way of knowing if it was Activision or Blizzard. And there is no way I am buying the same game twice. F them for that, and no more Blizzard games for me.
 
The state of play is as follows:

First as noted above, you can only play in the region "on the box", ie. if you buy a Korean version of SC2, you can only play on the Korean region of bnet, even if you live in Lhasa. If you want to play with friends around the world, you will need to purchase multiple copies of SC2, one for each region in which you wish to play. (I know, I know.)

Second, Blizzard has explcitily stated that people with the SEA region version of SC2 will get access to the NA region. Using the same SEA client/copy of SC2, they will be able to connect to NA bnet and set up a NA bnet "character" (ie. achievements, play records etc will not be carried over, you will in effect have two entirely separate identities). This was promised within 60 days of release, most people seem to expect it to hit with a client update sometime in September (possibly although not necessarily at the same time as the 1.1 patch).

Third, Blizzard has also stated that they are aware of the desire for "cross-region" play, and that they wanted to have it available on release but technical difficulties ("ping" etc) made that impossible. They have said they would like to bring it to a future SC2 update. They have given no timetable for x-region play, nor (in contrast to two, above) have they definitively stated that x-region play will be available. They have just said "we know you want it" and "we would like to give it to you". For what it's worth I personally expect it will come eventually but "eventually" could be sooner or it could end up being much much later.

If you are travelling between regions, and want to be able to play "local", you just have to buy another copy.
 
This is really not a Blizzard issue as it is more the different region issue. Blizzard has tried very hard to support the different regions that have different licensing and requirements for games. Remember back where WoW in China had to have the undead changed otherwise it was banned? Well, Blizzard changed it, and to keep the Chinese sensors happy they only sell that version in China and plays on the Chinese servers.

Many countries in Europe also have rules and regulations. Germany has something about Nazi symbols (Castle Wolfenstein had problems being released there). Australia has a strong sensor on how much, if any, blood can be shown. Thus to try and make every government happy, Blizzard releases localized versions to support their rules; and thus, tries to enforce it by keeping you on the right server.

Now, it may be locked to your user account; and that is flagged as being in the US. I don't know for sure with SC, but I think that WoW did this (along with different disks).
 
CylonGlitch said:
Many countries in Europe also have rules and regulations. Germany has something about Nazi symbols (Castle Wolfenstein had problems being released there). Australia has a strong sensor on how much, if any, blood can be shown. Thus to try and make every government happy, Blizzard releases localized versions to support their rules; and thus, tries to enforce it by keeping you on the right server.
Click to expand...

Really? If any? Hardly any games get banned here for violence, the only ones that do are extremely graphic or have people screaming in pain while you dismember them etc.
 
CylonGlitch said:
Remember back where WoW in China had to have the undead changed otherwise it was banned? Well, Blizzard changed it, and to keep the Chinese sensors happy they only sell that version in China and plays on the Chinese servers.
Click to expand...

those so called sensors in china r idiots,they dont know nothing about games,their brain just like a relic, the mind is still at 1960's, saying bones r not good, blood is not good, those would effect childerns, make em violence. They just have wotlk live 8 days ago, cant wait to see how long those brainless sensors need to approve cataclysm, prolly another 2 or 3 years.

im chinese btw, im really mad about that,lol
 
aki said:
I may misunderstand, but as I understood it, this method only worked to change your client over ie. don't have to download and install a distinct client for each region. You still need to have an account in a particular region to play the game there.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.
Click to expand...

As I mentioned earlier, I don't know about SC2 I have not played it. But the account may be region tied as well. This is done based on credit card billing location (typically). If your account is tied to one region you may not be able to get onto the other region servers at all; I don't know. But I think that is how WoW is done.
 
Sambo110 said:
Really? If any? Hardly any games get banned here for violence, the only ones that do are extremely graphic or have people screaming in pain while you dismember them etc.
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I just remember having a long list of countries and their requirements and trying to verify that each requirement for each country was met. It's a total pain in the ass. I know Australia has a lot of stringent requirements but it has been over 5 years now and don't remember them perfectly. I thought that their violence requirements were tough, but it could be that I mixed them up with another country.
 
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