I hope they have a lot of that stuff fixed for launch, the stuff like lack of chat-rooms and upload limits seem like beta stuff TBH. Battlenet 2.0 was new at the time and they have had a few extra weeks and a lot of feedback to work on it.

There are also a few of us who spent many years playing SC and WC3 on battle.net, and gladly trade what's lost, for the very good matchmaking system. Those like me, log on for 1 reason - to play SC2. Sometimes I play solo, sometimes I play with friends, and you can now get a fair even match faster than EVER before. For those of us who like to just play, not waste our time in chat rooms (because there aren't enough available on the internet?) Battle.net 2.0 is great.

Also, LAN was a feature of SC, it never was a part of battle.net. But it's included in complaints against battle.net because battle.net is now the only way to have multiplayer games.

The only thing they said they MAY fix by launch is some form of chatrooms, limited at best though. Everythign else is a "wait and see."

So you want a game with less functionality and with less potential to be what others were? Good job, I hence award you the "sheep of the month" award.

I have my tickets to the hype train all set and ready.  Sucks that I won't be able to play it until next Friday, but I've waited over ten years for this: a few more days won't kill me.

I really only want to play the single player campaign and a some local games with my roommate. I have little interest in competitive online gaming anymore.

I'm honestly disappointed (but not suprised) that they took out lan play and spawn copies because because it makes it harder to play with my roommate.  Since neither of us want to pay $60 each, I just hope that a 3rd party comes up with a solution for lan play.

Less functionality? Well, most games don't allow you to do a direct connect via modems and phone lines anymore either. And I don't miss those either.

Point is, the functionality lost, for the most part, I didn't care about. Chat rooms? I play with friends, and we use the superb matchmaking. All of us love the new battle.net. I don't talk with random people - I log on, play, log off. Battle.Net has different functionality and infinitely more potential than before. Personally I hate having to find games in crowded lobbies full of bots, and fully embrace the future that blizzard is pushing us towards.

You grant me a "sheep of the month" award because I don't take every opportunity to whine and moan that chat rooms are gone? I don't care that they are gone. And I totally understand blizzard's reasons for doing away with LAN. However, I also know that SC2 is going to be 10x the game that any of blizzard's competitors are going to offer, so even though I liked having LAN as an option, I'm not going to take every opportunity to complain about something that will deliver to me an excellent gaming experience for, no doubt, thousands of hours. You know, if you look at the game for what it is, and not what it ISN'T, you'd realize that you're whining about one of the best put together  biggest budget, most amazing and anticipated games of all time, because you and a vocal minority can't seem to imagine a future where a game's primary focus is... playing the game. Get over it, get over yourself, and complain to blizzard, but stop pasting the same complaints into every StarCraft forum time after time.

Except that chat rooms make the community grow. Maybe you don't remember but there isn't even the private chat rooms except for custom games and the really small groups of people. If I want to get together with 4 or 5 given people and talk to them without partying up, that functionality is gone. The community is hence stunted because of it. How are you going to have a guild/clan without the chat rooms?

Also you obviously haven't been playing much because in Bnet games and lobbies and chatrooms have been seperate. The game browser is a whole different window than the chat browser so you never had to listen to them to begin with if you just wanted to play the game. That is ebsides the point that you never actually had to search for games in the previous iteration either, WC3 had matchmaking ladders, so it's not like the Bnet2 ladder matchmaking is anythign new either. Basically what you hated doing never existed in the latest Bnet to begin with and you just like whining and bitching at thigns that never even actually existed.

Also, I hate to bring it to your attention but a game that is 10x better than 0 is still 0, which is where the competitors of Blizzard are at. I want this game to be 10x better than previous Blizzard titles, not 10x better than the competition. Currently it is about 1/4 of previous Blizzard titles and you seem all too happy to emrace this, hence the "sheep of the month" award.

As for why just gaming and that is it and fuck the community, you are utterly wrong. The community brings new games about. TF, CS, Alien Swarm, DoD, and countless other mods have all come about because it's not JUST about playing the game, it's about playing the game then making new expriences for it and innovating on what's there. Bnet2 impedes that in more than one way.

If you feel that way about gaming though, go back to playing those noobed up games on the consoles, and leave the "complicated" gaming to the people who truly appreciate gaming.

There is quite possibly a way to work it still, but it remains unclear exactly. There are guest accounts that can log in on their own, but what that entails exactly is a mystery as they were disabled during the beta. I would expect it to let you have to people playing given that the Guest account does have a limited amount of time which got confirmed due to a display bug during beta. Still have to wait and see though.

 @Vlad
Cross region play, and chat rooms have both been confirmed for a patch. Unified ladder exists already created by a third party, and has fuck all to do with how fun a game is to play.

@Vlad & Jereel
Every SC2 thread gets shit up by this. Please stop it now so something useful can come of it. No one cares how either side feels, and neither side is going to change the others opinion. Just let it go, please.

I am in a similar boat sadly. Currently jobless so it was looking like I wasn't getting the game at all, but my brother decided he was too lazy to scalp a collectors edition he nabbed extra so is giving it to me freeish. I have to make it up eventually, but hey thats fine by me! He is getting it mail order though so I need to wait on the CD Key.