Seems like exactly the kind of anti-piracy measures that encourage people to pirate software.

Good job, Blizzard.

It does, unfortunately, happen from not logging in as well. If you go over about a month without logging in, it will essentially treat your install as being a trial account as it can't verify that you have any higher level.

I didn't know it was even possible to play at all without logging in -- it is basically an "always online" DRM system. I thought that without logging in to battle.net, you could only play skirmish mode and watch replays, and maybe the first campaign level without saving or some such... I didn't know you could play campaign for a month without logging in.

do you guys want me to download it for you and send a USB? (I dont even think thats possible or legal

If you just copy the installed directory to a new PC, the installer can 'repair' the installation instead of re-downloading. So, not sure if it's legal, but it's possible

I don't see why it'd be illegal, it's not like you'd be providing a cracked version, it's just moving data from one pc to another.

also, the idea brings this to mind: http://what-if.xkcd.com/31/

I don't see why it'd be illegal, it's not like you'd be providing a cracked version, it's just moving data from one pc to another.

Good job, Blizzard.

Ever since Blizzard was bought by Activision its been downhill

I skipped on HOTS simply due to how poor the original SC2 was. Its sad, SC1 practically made the 'e-sport' community and was one of the greatest games made of all time. SC2 on the other hand...

SC2 has continued to expand the popularity of e-sports. KeSPA has embraced SC2 and ditched brood war, there's more televised SC2 matches than there ever were Brood War ones, and faaar more prize money has been given out by SC2 tournaments in it's few years of existence than the entirety of Brood War's competitive history. How often did you see Korean BW pro's travelling to the US to play the final match of a tournament in front of tens of thousands of foreigners?

Sure, the story behind SC2's single player campaign seems like it was written by a sophomore, but people who opine that BW is a better competitive game than SC2 are a very tiny minority, even among pro-gamers and commentators.

man, what is up with the hate on the campaign(not directly related to what hodgman said, but i see it get bashed alot), I thought it was pretty top-notch for an rts. I'm still going to get HotS eventually, i'll probably spend a day at my local library though. =-\

Most EULAs don't give you the right of redistribution. Obviously you're not doing any harm, so it would be silly to say you're doing something wrong... but technically you can't distribute copyrighted material without permission or a valid exception.

those pesky technicalitys=-). I'm actually happy with the direction SC has gone, the arcade is glorious, the competitive play is pretty top-notch(although i still feel terrain's MMM strategy is far too powerful, but at least zerg has great harass skills=-) ).