Klauncher addon: unfair room list priority

General Discussion
1

Hello,

I’m a long-time StarCraft: Remastered player and I’m concerned about a growing issue within the Korean community involving a third-party addon called klauncher.

This addon allows users to force their game rooms to appear at the top of the lobby list, often promoting rooms for advertisement or monetization purposes. This behavior is actively promoted on the klauncher website itself, where installing their addon and viewing ads grants users unfair visibility over others.

This raises a fundamental question:

Why should someone who installs software from a third-party site and watches ads have priority exposure over regular users who host games through the official client?

This clearly disrupts fair play and equal opportunity in the community. Players who don’t use such tools are constantly pushed down in visibility, making it harder for them to host or fill rooms. It also violates Blizzard’s third-party software policy.

I hope the StarCraft team can investigate and take action on this matter to preserve a fair and competitive game environment.

Thank you.

2

Hi! I don’t think you’re aware, but what you’re talking about is having a super moderator account, which could be acquired in the past from Blizzard. Nowadays, that’s no longer possible, as I know. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

Way more info about kLauncher, Starbridge and super moderator over here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220202131906/http://web.archive.org/screenshot/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ak3KapgKd8WIJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fus.forums.blizzard.com%2Fen%2Fstarcraft%2Ft%2Fstarcraft-remastered-please-contact-us%2F2678

Since Starbridge used that technique to get ahold of it, I think kLauncher very likely have done the same.

I agree it’s unfair, but how do you think it’s fair to develop a market for scalpers where people would get to pay up to 335 dollars to get such an account that benefits of super moderator? Where people would sometimes got scammed by trying to buy one. I think kLauncher wanted to remove this kind of bad experience by offering it for free.

What I think Blizzard should do in this case is either make it available to people to buy it at a decent price, or remove the feature completely.

What your post is missing is how helpful kLauncher is when it comes to preventing cheating, seeing the actual ping of a player as a value (not only in the lobby, but also during the game), and blocking users permanently. I also think there are more important things to be addressed, one of the most important being in this very paragraph.

I know you didn’t mention anything about this, but I want to point out that they’re not asking any money for using their tool. For some features, the only way you can pay up is with points, which you get by doing a couple of things, as seen here, but again, they don’t involve money:

https://i.imgur.com/lS9BrQb.png

Nowhere on their site shows that by watching ads unlocks the possibility of having your game show at the top of the games list.

Having them running ads on their site it’s not something to be blamed for, as hosting a service can be costly, not even mentioning the time they put in to make this project possible. That’s why I’m grateful that Blizzard made Stacraft completely free, where they’re paying everything out of their own pocket, otherwise it would have been less of us playing the game. As I am aware, it was Michael Morhaime’s final decision to do so, before his retirement from Blizzard, as he was deeply involved into developing Starcraft, including programming parts of it, for which he has a special place in my heart.

https://youtu.be/01I0qGyyOb8?t=48

Some of the ads they are running currently I don’t agree with, as they are intended for an adult audience, but hopefully they’re gonna fix that in the future. Also people were offering the developers to pay with money for kLauncher to get rid off of the ads, but they declined in doing so.

3

There has been much discussion regarding kLauncher recently. However, I find myself firmly critical of its existence and operation for the following reasons:

1. The claim of being “free” is misleading.
While kLauncher does not demand direct monetary payment, users are still required to watch advertisements to earn points, which are then used to access certain features. Watching ads is a clear form of providing value, and users are ultimately offering their time and attention to generate economic benefit for kLauncher. Thus, the claim of being “completely free” is fundamentally false.

2. The generated benefits are not returned to the community, but rather to a select group.
The revenue earned through ads or points goes solely to the kLauncher developers or a small operating team, not toward improving the broader StarCraft community. It is neither managed transparently through Blizzard nor benefits the community as a whole; instead, it enriches a few individuals.

3. Granting privileges to ad viewers severely undermines fairness and user freedom.
Joining a game room should be a matter of free choice for each player. However, kLauncher grants an unfair advantage to users who watch ads by artificially placing their rooms at the top of the list. This infringes upon the natural freedom of users, creates discrimination, and seriously harms the fairness and competitiveness that are essential to StarCraft.

4. The way kLauncher operates is fundamentally no different from a hack that breaches security.
kLauncher alters or circumvents the behavior of the official StarCraft client. This is fundamentally the same approach used by hacking programs. Justifying a breach of security on the grounds of “convenience” opens the door to legitimizing all forms of hacking. Such practices ultimately pose a serious threat to the trust and security of the StarCraft community.

For these reasons, I strongly believe that kLauncher’s current model is harmful to the healthy maintenance of the StarCraft community. I urge Blizzard to make an official statement regarding this issue and to take appropriate action.

–

I’m not native English speaker. So I used GPT for 1~4 paragraph.
The reality is that unless you watch advertisements, kLauncher restricts access to core features such as pinning rooms at the top of the game list.
The point system is merely applied to additional, non-essential features.

If the revenue generated through such controversial features were instead directed to Blizzard, I would be more than willing to support it.
I believe Blizzard could reinvest that revenue into providing a better server environment or developing new content for the game.
However, it is very difficult to believe that an unknown third party could have any meaningful positive impact on Blizzard or the broader StarCraft ecosystem.

If you truly wish for the growth and improvement of StarCraft and its community, I don’t believe you could honestly defend this situation.