He has a sword…but he will punch you in the face.
If you’ve seen the last episode of ST:TNG, you know where this is going. Cut to a wide angle shot of Picard and his crewmembers, finally demonstrating outright the emotional connection they all implicitly share by bonding over a game of poker. Then, slowly pan up and away from the majestic Enterprise, leaving fans happy at the bonds of friendship shared, sad that the show is ending, and frustrated because the “Picard travelling through time” mechanic was a bit of a cop-out.
What does this have to do with Starcraft II? Nothing, except that it too is coming to an end.
The Beta, that is.
According to the official Blizz forums, on May 31, 2010, the Beta will officially be over. Commence nerd-raging….now.
They are then going to take “several weeks” to make adjustments to the game, both to improve performance and address what we’re sure are a host of bugs prior to the July 27 launch.
If you’re thinking that two months is a damn long time between ending a Beta and releasing a game, you’re right, and Blizzard would seem to agree. They claim they will be re-opening the Beta before the launch, but at what time and for how many users is unknown. The blue-post implies that all of those who are in the Beta now will be in Beta 2.0, but you can’t take implication to the bank.
Well, you can, but he makes a big scene and insists that they open a checking account for him with no ID. When confronted, he implies that he has a weapon of some kind, and the police are called. Really, you don’t want this guy anywhere near authority.
As much as we’re loathe to lose any free playing time with SCII, there are issues that need to be resolved. One that immediately springs to even our addled mind is that of lag and disconnection issues. In at least 40% of the matches we’ve played, either us or one of our opponents has received the “you are timing out” message. In multiple instances, we’ve claimed victory because the other party was partied out, and removed from the game after a minute.
At first, we simply chalked it up to poor Internet connections on the parts of our esteemed adversaries, but as this phenomenon happened with increasing regularity, and happened even to us, we came to realize that it was a far more widespread issue. This, coupled with a decent amount of server lag, made several of our matches almost unplayable, and for a game that will live and die largely based on its multiplayer experience, the following formula exists – lag+dropping=fail.
There’s no guarantee that any or all of the current problems will be fixed when Beta 2.0 arrives, screaming, into the pre-release world. The hope is that Blizzard will have given birth to a monster that crushes other RTS offerings currently available, rather that the hearts and minds of its own players.
The mantra here is “so far, so good” – Blizzard has gotten things right up until this point, trying to balance the desperate needs of hardcore fanboys against the “I have a Beta key for Starcraft II. What’s Starcraft II?” mentality evidenced by many players of other Blizz games that received a Beta invite via luck of the draw or by knowing a guy who knows a guy.
You know, that guy.
Beta, we hardly knew ye. Thanks for the happy memories, the sad memories, and for cementing our suspicion that while twelve year old boys are able to play any game currently on the market, their ability to be polite or take defeat well is still firmly in the range of “not at all possible”.
Starcraft II Beta, we will miss you, though we hear a hotter, slightly older version of you is coming, so we’re not too sad.
That’s just how we roll.
