You got it!

(I apologize to Lazerbeat now for being the reason we lose EVERY SINGLE GAME!)

I'd count on it. Lazerbeat and I have been trash talking each other for months in anticipation. 2 vs 2. Jap vs Aus?

了解！Understood!

Maybe meet online!

Um, yes, Duragon, I could still say DURR I PAIDEDEDED SO ITS MINES. They should be doing MMOs via P2P anyways, it just makes more sense.

Oh, and by the way, server maintenance is not so expensive it requires THAT much money from each player. No friggin' way. Not when it's like WOW, which has so many friggin players over whom a more reasonable charge could be divided. If it does, their server code is whack and/or they should fire their maintenance team and get people who can keep the uptime going. Personally, it just smacks too much of the old mainframe/timeshare systems of yore, which while cool, were phased out in favor of personal computing for a good reason.

MMORPG's require constant server communication and maintenance. You are paying to keep the servers going. When you buy a non MMO game, you are just running it off of your machine, but when you play WOW you are constantly pulling and pushing data from their servers. The monthly fee is how the recoup the massive server costs it takes to run a popular persistent online experience.

So at least for mmo's it's not as simple as DURR I PAIDEDED SO ITS MINES.

The Stargate 2 beta my buddies pirated looked impressive. But I'm never going to play the full version or buy it, because a) I have Starcraft 1 which is great for LAN parties which is the only time I play it anyway, b) stupid perverse Battle Net 2, c) it's Blizzard, and I hate them now that they're owned by Activision, d) I'd rather be playing Metal Slug anyway.

In all likeliness I'll be going for the Southeast Asia server.

What's to think about it? I think that's how it's supposed to work. I pay for a product, it's mine. At least I should have the option to decide if I want to buy or rent it. If your question was about quality differences, I can't really answer that. I've got a personality prone to addiction, so I try to stay away from mmos. Also, most mmos tend to be "RPGs", which I avoid like the plague because somewhere in time some dolt who put the concept on computers decided that the defining parts of role playing are grind, number crunching, items and spells.

wonder what you guys think about the free to play mmos then..

Interesting analogy.

Haha yeah, he comes around very much like the anti-christ in that summary. It was just a matter of time though until the gaming biz caught on. Having grown up with cheap games you actually owned after you bought them (and not just purchased a license to use them), I already thought the idea of having to pay continously for a game (MMORPGs) was perverse.

The amount of control companies exercise over their products these days is insane. My favourite comparison is what would have happened if books were a recently invented medium:

- You purchase the right to read the book, but it is still owned by the publisher. They can take the book from you anytime they like

- You only get half the book. If you want to read, call the publisher, and they'll lend you the missing pages for your reading session. The publisher can stop this service if they think it has been long enough, and your book will be incomplete forever if they do.

- Only you are allowed to read the book. If you lend it to someone, copy pages or make notes from it, you're criminal scum

- You're only allowed to read your book in one room. Send a picture of your room to the publisher. If you change your furniture, be sure to send an update, because you won't be able to read your book anymore. By grace of the publisher you can do this three times, but then you have to call them and explain why you change your room so often.

- The publisher reserves the right to deny you to read if they see certain other books in your shelf they don't like.

- Oh, and please provide your full name and address to the publisher.

Enjoy!

Without a doubt mate. I've never played it. But I'm a fast leaner. wahahaha! (probably gonna eat them words aren't I?)
I haven't actually bought it yet, but shall we take the plunge and choose a specific region mate? South East Asia/US/Korea...

Also, just read the "Short history of Activision Blizzard." Very insightful. That Kotick is quite the money-hungry-boss-from-hell isn't he.

I'm so going to hurt you at this

Thanks for the info, I really can't wait to get my teeth into this game.

I'm playing EU. I just played through the single player campaign, which is pretty cool (if you liked SC1, you'll like it). BNet 2.0 is a major disappointment. If you have time for a long read, check this link:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes … id=128252#