Starcraft 2 - worth buying?

[Hammerskjold]

You know I thought it would be a no brainer for me getting this considering how much I played the original and the expansion Brood Wars. I'm still having issues with the lack of LAN only play, and not sure the extra money for each races campaign will be worth it, as they did quite well with the campaigns for all 3 races in SC1 and in BW.

The large number of folks I know that are playing it does have an affect on the decision, but I'm debating voting with wallet on this one, even if it's "too late" since they've already sold a ton of copies. Besides $60 is still something that takes consideration in my budget.

Same here. I used to play tons of SP SC1, didn't really care about the multiplayer much. Since my style tends to be one of simcity\virtual sandbox ant farm.

Almost all of the review I've read so far, gives it a high mark content\gameplay wise. One issue prevents me from forking over cash right now though. (I can probably wait until all 3 campaign is released and bundled as a SC2 collection.)

The thing that still kinda bugs me is what Thecla described. If SC2 does requires me to check in every 30 days to re-validate for SP, it's annoying.

No, SC-2 is not an essential service, yes piracy is definitely a problem (I went to an EB store some weeks back and their PC game section is decreasing in terms of shelf space).

To me this is not an issue of 'it's bliz playground, play by their rules or gtfo stop complaining its just a game'. This is not about whether having a physical copy vs digital download version.

Bliz or any other companies doing this kind of thing, I don't see it deterring the really determined pirates much. I do see it as potentially turning off buyers like me though, who thinks once I hand them over the cash, I do feel entitled to be left alone to play the game.

If this game was a restaurant, I'd feel annoyed if a waiter comes over to me every 3 minutes to ask if everything is OK. (Hint hint, you will pay for that food right sir, you are not going to do a dine and dash?)

Again, I'm sure someone might pipe up and say no one -needs- to go to a restaurant to eat, its just a game etc etc.

Which I will say again, is missing the point. I've seen other examples of non-game software that took this route. And they're a bigger company than blizzard. (ie:Industry level\standard graphics creation programs, and that's all I'm gonna say without getting too specific. Not that it's a big secret anyway.) And from what I've seen, it did not deter piracy much. Those who don't care a fig about legalities, will get it cracked.

Those who do want to pay for the program, are given more hurdles to pass it seems with every new version.

I can't think of any solution myself really. Everyone involved has some share of blame, ideally everyone involved should also have some share of the solution.

And when that happens, I'm sure my unicorn pony will arrive in the mail, along with my collector's edition of SC:Ghost.