System specs are interesting:
Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
In a space that's usually defined by bleeding-edge hardware, that's a strong testament to the staying power of XP (and the low adoption rates of Vista and Win7).
Blizzard's success has been partly due to their targeting of the lowest end systems for their games. Supporting WinXP is not surprising thing.
An example is when they launched the original Starcraft, they chose to go with sprite based graphics, at a time when realtime 3D had become the norm. This allowed them to not only produce a better looking game, but combined with the 640x480 screen resolution, run on many machines.
It also kept it from aging quite as quickly. I can still play most sprite based super nintendo games, but most n64 games make me gag. Early 3d is pretty hideous.
My brother does QA for Blizzard and I'm pretty sure he's been working on the Starcraft 2 team. Congrats to everybody who's work so hard to bring us this much anticipated title. Goodbye free time indeed :-)
I am indescribably jealous. I've been waiting for this game for so many years. I found out the Beta launched late tonight and have stayed up watching live streams while frantically refreshing my inbox.
I was awfully close to actually paying $350 on an eBay auction for a key..
Luckily some blog my friend linked me to on Facebook was giving out some invites. I thought it'd just be another scam, but I got an invite mailed to me in a couple of hours. Go figure...
Of all the PC games I want to play, I was not expecting SC2 to be on the list of 'too much for my laptop to handle'. Not that my laptop is a beast by any means, but I mean cummon- it's Starcraft!
You can log into your battle.net account. If you are in it lets you download the beta. There don't seem to be CDkeys because it's tied to your battle.net account.
CPU wise you should be fine. System requirements call for GeForce 6600 or Radeon 9800 though, so the shared-memory GPU of the Mini might not suffice. I suggest comparing the 3DMark score of the mini with that of a card that's definitely supported.
I feel really sorry for the people who don't have the patience to wait a bit more and fork out large amounts of money to participate in beta. Clearly the final product will provide a lot more polished experience. They're giving up a lot of fun for some bragging rights.
I'm not part of this beta, and I wouldn't pay $300 for a key either, but I've participated in Blizzard's betas before, and I have to say there is something kind of special about it. I'm not just talking about bragging rights... it's about playing when everything is unknown. By the time the game comes out, strategies from the beta will already be well-known. Things change, not only over time, but as Blizzard makes changes, but never quite as fast as in the beta.
The only reason it would make sense to pay $300 would be if you wanted a job at Blizzard. For example I know there was a blogger named Shlonglor who got a job there because of his awesome Warcraft 2 blog. Although perhaps the culture of blizzard has changed some since 1996.
I didn't think I'd ever see the name Schlonglor again.
Here's my story:
I used to be a very avid Warcraft II player. I used KALI for the IPX over TCP/IP emulation to play online through my 14.4 modem.
Anyways, I had gotten really good at playing the game online, thanks to Schlonglor's guides along with lots of practice.
One day I had just finished playing a game, and beat the other person. I started chatting when them, when they told me that they were pretty new to Warcraft II. I asked how they got into it, and she told me, her brother was the Schlonglor! At first I was floored. I couldn't believe it. We talked for quite awhile, and then shes tells me that her brother is there. She then asked if I would like to play against him. Of course I accepted!
My hands were literally shaking at the thought of playing against one of Warcraft II idols. We start playing, and I work faster and harder that I've ever played in a game.
I instantly could tell this guy was him, because the way he played was exactly like all the screenshots I had memorized of his games. (Wayyyy before YouTube, so there were no videos.)
The game progressed, and long(ish) story short, he made some heavy attacks on me, killed my base, and assume he had won. Moments later, my real army and real base that I was hiding moved in, and crushed him.
He was asking me.. "How did you do that??" "Where did that all come from??" I had the most s$%t-eating grin on my face. I was so proud that I had beat him.
He then tells me that he hasn't play for the last few weeks, and was out of practice. I didn't care.. I had still just beaten the Schlonglor!!
Him and I proceeded to chat it up for awhile. He congratulated me on the win, we parted ways, and I never heard from him again.
Soon after I put down the game, figuring there was no way to really beat that experience.
Good memories.. Thanks for bringing them up Alex :)
He was (and I believe still is) their main webmaster, last I heard he was particularly focused on the WoW website. He often goes by the name 'Nebu' (short for Nebuchadnezzar).
Yes, and more than that, there are strategies that were pretty cool in the beta but removed from the real game for different reasons. I remember in warcraft3 beta, we tried some unique strategies with units that were removed from the game!
There have been pirate servers of many MMORPGs, far more complex than any simple RTS (Everquest, World of Warcraft, Earth and Beyond, Ragnarok Online, among others).
You start off simple. You write a packet sniffer and begin analysis of the protocol. As you determine how the protocol works, you can start to implement the base of a server. Implement authorization, game discovery, etc. If you'd like to know more, hit me up on IRC -- I cut my teeth on MMO server emulation, so it's a subject that's near and dear to my heart.
I reckon that anyone with a working beta key should download WireShark, and capture all network traffic for the launch and authentication of Starcraft II. That would be a great help.
Well if you want to start a professional career as a starcraft player, if you want to be a "starcraft athlete" if you will, you pretty much have to be in the beta.
Yeah but it was much tougher for them than those few guys that were lucky enough to be in the beta. The tournaments that came first couple of years after the game came out were almost exclusively won by beta players, such as Grrr and Maynard. It took some time for the Koreans to come in and start owning everyone.
Now that the most talented Korean pros are guaranteed to be in the beta, good luck out training them.
I still disagree. For example, Jaedong started playing a lot later than Boxer and Soso. I don't think missing out on the beta will be a singificant disadvantage for pro players for more than 8-12 months.
Just for your information, since starcraft and warcraft are really popular in Korea, we usually use the term "gosu" for professional player which basically mean "progammer" in Korean. So, we often see things such as: This guy is pretty gosu or This guy is chobo (beginner) ;)
