StarCraft II LAN petition hits 100,000 signatures

Following Activision Blizzard's announcement of dropping Local Area Network (LAN) support for StarCraft II due to piracy, fans (and even non-fans) clamoured at the thought. No more oldschool LAN parties, it seemed; the pseudo ones that are to be had are sure to be smaller in scale and also have major lag at times. More, a requisite traditional Internet connection is a real joykiller to the gaming community.

It is for these reasons and a multitude of others they are asking those concerned to sign a petition for the purpose of getting the feature back in there where they feel it belongs. On the piracy front, the fans state removing LAN play will merely encourage gamers to use services and servers also used for piracy-related functions, as sometimes Battle.net can be laggy, for example. True, Blizzard have delayed StarCraft II in order to improve the service, but would they have had to in the first place if they'd kept LAN in?

Here are their list of "reasons to keep it":

- While many of your fans might have internet access with the required speed to play without lag, there are still many that don't, or would like to play with a friend or sibling residing in the same house. LAN is NOT an expensive upgrade, and once you have it, it’s yours. Internet is something that you have to pay for every month, and in a bad month you might choose to buy groceries instead of paying for the internet.

- LAN is what birthed SC popularity in the first place. Please don't ignore the heritage of the original game.

- Using LAN is a little bit of freedom. Often you might be at a friend's place with the only option to ad hoc the wireless connections instead of using internet, excluding the Battle.net gaming possibility.

- There are little to no ill effects in implementing LAN compared to the advantages. The piracy rate of people actually interested in the game would be negligible. Just look at SC1 now. Even with a laggy Battle.net, it is still selling so well that it once again reached top-10 on the NPD charts a decade after its release!

-Having LAN functionality in the game makes it feel you have more freedom of choice. You can choose to be part of the greater community, or you can choose to just play with one or two friends. LAN is a vital part of what makes StarCraft so great, and what will make StarCraft II even greater. Sometimes you don't have to use a function in order to appreciate having it there. It's the sort of freedom we have come to expect from Blizzard Entertainment.

At present, it boasts over 100,000 signatures, representing a potential $5 million in lost sales. The questions are, how many will it take for Activision Blizzard to care, and would these people buy the game anyway?