The Last Straw

General Discussion
1

I know I’m not supposed to do this, but there is literally no where else on earth for me to express this. And I want somebody at blizzard to read this. They own me that much.

(2/23/2021 - 10:30AM)
Years ago I linked Starcraft, Starcraft Brood War, Warcraft III and Warcraft III Frozen Throne to my account. Yesterday I went to my account page with my browser to download and install them but they are no longer available. There is a link to download Warcraft 3, but it’s just a link to installing battle.net and ultimately leads to installing Warcraft 3 Reforged. I don’t want to use battle.net going forward due to the phasing out of windows 7 support among your games and the inundation of non-blizzard games on the platform. I want to install the 4 games I already own without using battle.net that were linked to my account so I can at least have Starcraft and Warcraft 3 offline in some playable form.

(2/23/2021 - 12:47PM)
Your ticket has received the following response:
Howdy (PLAYER),
Technical Specialist (STAFF) here. =)
Sounds like you were wondering what happened to the Starcraft and Warcraft 3 downloads. Sadly, we have retired the old installers for the original versions of these games so the original versions are no longer available through Battle.net. However, it is still possible to play those games with classic graphics. Starcraft and Warcraft 3 in their current form in the Battle.net app do still support offline mode.
Starcraft: Remastered is available through the Battle.net app. It includes the original graphics and remastered graphics in the same client. The classic Starcraft is now free to play for everyone, so the CD keys are no longer needed.
Warcraft 3: Reforged includes the original graphics and remastered graphics through the same client as well. You would however need to install it through the Battle.net app to be able to play with the original graphics.
Both of these games still support Windows 7 as well. While you would have to launch the games through the Battle.net app, there is an option to have the Battle.net app close after launching the game so it doesn’t need to remain running. The app can be launched in offline mode as well.
Hopefully this helps clarify things. Best of luck and take care!
Regards,
Blizzard Support

(2/23/2021 - 6:52PM)
So Starcraft, Brood War, Warcraft 3 and Frozen Throne have all been removed from my account? Is Diablo 2 and Lord of Destruction also going to be removed when resurrected comes out?

(2/24/2021 - 6:39PM)
Your ticket has received the following response:
Hey there, (PLAYER)!
Thank you for the question, GM (STAFF) or just (NAME) here.
No, what my colleague meant is that now, if you wish to play any version of WarCraft III, you need to install the game client through Battle.net desktop app (this new client consists of two versions of the game: Classic and Reforged one, while the menu of the game is new, the game itself is exactly the same as it used to be). Now, all fans play together, no matter what version of the game you have, Classic or Reforged, it’s all one community.
Exactly the same for StarCraft I. If you want to play the old version of the games with the classic visuals, you just need to turn off HD in the settings.
You did not lose anything here.
For Diablo II - no, it will be separate. Diablo II (2000) players will continue logging in to their Diablo II account through Classic Battle.net and will continue playing on their own ladder.
I hope that this puts us on the same page and if you still any questions, please let us know!
Best Regards
Game Master (STAFF)
Blizzard Customer Support

(2/24/2021 - 10:22AM)
My Conclusion:
Yes, I lost something. You know I did, you just wont say it. And this morning I had to go on amazon and spend $100 on the CD’s for these 6 games. The versions of these 6 games that were available on my account were basically digital versions of the CD’s. I could install them on any computer without having to log into my account. I could then launch those games and play them offline without having to use the battle.net app. I have no interest in miltiplayer in any of these games so being able to play “all one community” is literally meaningless to me. Not only that but my Starcraft CD keys are no longer even visible anywhere on my account so when I get the CD’s and install them I’ll have to use some bootlegd CD keys I get offline. Finally, I don’t see how being able to switch from letterbox to widescreen is “2 versions of the game” because that’s the only graphics change I’ve seen in the Diablo, Warcraft, Warcraft II and Starcraft re-releases. Warcraft III had some graphic changes but i wont go there…

Blizzard went from the most important thing in my life to being the girl of my dreams I had to dump because she stole from me and burned my house down. Here’s the timeline…
*(1989) - I was born.
*(1995) - Dad taught me how to turn on a computer so I could play Orcs & Humans.
*(1997-2002) - I played Warcraft 2, Starcraft and Diablo 2 almost every day all day.
*(2003-2006) - I became a hardcore Diablo 2 ladder climber.
*(Spring 2006) - I dropped out of school because having autism is hard and back then nobody cared.
*(Summer 2006) - You deleted my Diablo 2 account because I used maphack.
*(Fall 2006) - I forgave you and started playing WoW because South Park told me to.
*(2006-2010) - I was agoraphobic and housebound by now, but WoW gave me something to do, social interaction and a place that I felt like I belonged for the first time in my life. I finally found a world in which I’m as good if not better than everybody else around me. I found a world where I could walk around and explore. I found a world where people treated me like I was normal.
*(2010-2016) - Due to events in my life I was only able to play off and on throughout this time.
*(2016-2018) - Started playing full time again and I was excited to have something in my life again that I could count on. Something that was always there. Something that made me feel good. Something that gave me a since of accomplishment.
*(2018) - The War of The Thorns… The average WoW player probably doesn’t even remember this little transition event, but to me this was the WoW equivalent of 9/11. One day I woke up and for no reason, with no warning and with no provocation the Horde attacked Ashenvale, Darkshore, and Teldrasil. They destroyed the Night elf presence in the night elf ancestral lands of Ashenvale and Darkshore claiming the zones for their own. They then used catapults to launch semi-flaming pebbles at a tree the size of a continent and burned it down committing genocide upon an entire civilization of night elfs.
The horde then got away with it without the alliance getting to deal an equal blow and to this day the horde has not payed a price for this. The leader who caused this didn’t even get “Garroshed”. And the tree (my ancestral home) is now just a smoldering stump.
*(Flashback to 2006) - I had just dropped out of school. I had just lost Diablo 2 (the thing I did all day). I had nothing to do nobody to talk to and I didn’t belong anywhere. I watched an episode of South Path and thought what the hell I’ll try WoW. The first character I made was a night elf druid. When I first zoned in and started exploring I was amazed. The world was beautiful the music was calming and for the first time in a long time I felt calm, content and thanks to the safety of a computer screen I could interact with people.
It was about a week or 2 before I even figured out how to leave Teldrasill. First I went to the waterfall in darn and fell off. I was such a noob I couldn’t figure out how to get to my body so i started a new character. I have thousands of memories like this in Teldrasill. The same is true for Darkshore and Ashenvale. The places that were my 3 favorite regions. When I made new characters these were the first 3 regions I always did. But Ashenvale is horde territory now… Darkshore is sorta 50/50 now and Teldrasil isn’t even a place anymore.
*(2018) - I officially quit WoW. It was a simple math equation… Horrible ending to Legion + Taking my artifact wep away + Taking away my infernal pet + War of The Thorns + War of the thorns end cinematic where the horde leaders are floating away waving at me, smiling and mocking + all the other things that annoy me, but I’ve grown to ignore = I quit.
It’s my theory that the war of the thorns was actually intended to rile up some sort of desire to PVP within me (oh man those guys just attacked us… I’m gonna go PVP now because I want to get back at them!) but that’s not what the effect on me was. The effect on me was It just made me hate the horde even more and it proved to me that the development staff really was on the side of the horde so i hated them too. It ushered me into a depression deeper than I’ve felt in years and I was hospitalized for 14 days. I won’t do into deeper detail but THAT’S the effect it had on me. It didn’t make me want to PVP or get me excited for BFA at all.
*(2020) - Nothing has won me back at this point.
Diablo immortal? No, I don’t play games on phones.
Diablo 4? No, you guys already concluded the Diablo storyline and D4 looks literally exactly like Diablo 3 to me. Plus you only made this game to apologize for Diablo Immortal so… Yeah.
Overwatch 2? No, I don’t play games like that (FPS and PVP are bad words in my opinion).
Diablo 2 resurrected? No, the remakes of Diablo, Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Warcraft III and Starcraft have all scared me away from remakes.
*(2021) - I tried to install “the big 3” (Starcraft, Warcraft III, Diablo 2) but couldn’t because they “retired” the installer for no reason. I then had to go to amazon to buy the CD’s in order to install them.

All in all Blizzard…
You stole from me and you burned my house down. Literally and figuratively. It’s hard it is for me to leave your company because I’m leaving your world to head into a world where I literally have nothing. But even nothing seems like it’s better than you right now.

9 Likes
2

Rly win7? Get out from your cave and get your self some real pc and house when we are at that…

3

Kind of sounds elitist

9 Likes
4

There is a difference between elitist and living in cave trust me big difference

5

There’s just so much that you’re misinformed about. I’ll try to break down what points I can find in your post.

If you are missing WC3 and D2 license keys, you may want to check that you’re logging into the correct Battlenet account (if you have more than one).

  • Yes the Starcraft 1 key has been removed from everyone’s Battlenet account because the classic mode is now free to play. No keys are ever needed to play the original version.

  • Both Warcraft 3 keys are still there, but only the RoC key is needed to play classic modes of both RoC and TFT.

  • Both Diablo 2 keys are still there.

As for the old downloads, yes they are gone because the games were updated and there’s only one supported version of each game. But again, the classic versions are still available in the updated games.

As for offline, the classic mode of SCR (same as the CD) can be played offline indefinitely. And the classic mode of WCR3 can be played offline with an occasional verification. And the current D2 games are no different than what you’ll buy on CD. So it sounds like you dropped that $100 in vain.

Old CD keys were around 10 to 12ish characters, the linked keys are 25 characters, so they’re not compatible with the CD versions of the games. So even if your SC1 key was still there, you couldn’t use it on a CD copy. Same is true for the WC3 and D2.

You can hide/show any games you want. On my launcher, all the Activision games are hidden, and even the Blizzard games I don’t play are too.

You don’t have to. The launcher can also be used offline.

2 Likes
6

AFAIK, you can still install the old version of WC3 from - Downloads – Blizzard Entertainment

It appears what the rep advised was right though, Blizzard does not appear to support the older version of Starcraft and only allow you to install Starcraft Remastered, however I do see an installer available at the above download link. Maybe it’s the non HD version of the game? Not sure, I haven’t tested.

Either way I can understand frustration over the fact that these games you had already purchased once we are now having to purchase again and can no longer have access to the initial product we had purchased.

I do have to say though. Blizzard, more so than other companies, does do a decent job of supporting their products YEARS beyond what normal companies typically support. I’d see trying to download them through the link above works, if not it’s not a bad shake to pay a little more money for a game that was basically supported for 12 years without additional cost for it to have updated graphics/integrations.

However, I still feel like reforged was largely a case of poor expectations being set and even poorer execution. I love warcraft 3, it’s one of my favorite games of all time. I had hoped that this would revitalize a community, but instead, it’s nearly killed it.

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7

The WC3 installers down under the classic games are the same as the Reforged installer up at the top of the page. It’s a bit misleading.

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8

Windows 7 will always be the superior OS no matter how many there are released after or whatever your opinion is, it’s just a fact. So I don’t blame him if he still uses it.

3 Likes
9

Buckles, you’re not the only former Night Elf Druid, come here and give me a bear hug.

You can get the freedom if you rewrite the entire game free from their influence. Let’s start with Warcraft 3, and then we can make WoW which is basically a glorified Warcraft 3 mod anyway.

Look for the Retera’s Warsmash in a couple of years. Right now a quick search for the YouTube video “Underground Fel Orc Adventure” will bring you to a video of the freedom and paradise that I am attempting to create. Do not click on “Recommended” or related YouTube videos, however, because that part of YouTube is more evil than any of the gamer kids and rich kings at Blizzard.

The point is, the computer is a lightbright machine, and if you want to fight for your rights then fight for the option to make any color of lights go on and off that you want. For me, I’m doing this by copying a lookalike project to Warcraft 3 render pipeline that was made by an autistic guy who worked on making Warcraft 3 lookalike computer render technology for 7 years instead of getting a job then told me he would kill himself because of it. Who are you gonna trust to tell your computer what to do – Blizzard or that suicidal guy? That’s right, we trust the suicidal guy. Because he published all his code for me to read and verify every function and that’s what matters, and not once does the code call home to some computer server in any way.

But if I make some War3 clone and it gets big eventually the rich kings will come take it away from me, too. That is what they do. It is in their nature.

So, to be free, you have to make your freedom with your own hands and your own understanding. I reckon it cannot be given. But, then again, I suppose the fellow who worked for 7 years gave it to me, so, you can see that how you will.

10

Want to compare with windows 2000?^^
…or 3.1…
anyway, still on Win7 here when not on debian…

1 Like
11

Concerning Starcraft and Warcraft III you don’t even have to use the launcher anymore as soon as you’ve installed the game. All you need to do is to create a shortcut and add the “-launch” parameter. Starcraft such as Warcraft 3 will just launch. You still need to log in once in a while to confirm you own the game (Warcraft 3) but once you did that you just play the game offline and without using the launcher.

So: Diablo II is just as it used to be and will stay this way.
Starcraft is integrated into the launcher, but can still be played as we used to,
Only Warcraft 3 needs to authenticate once in a while but can also be played without the launcher.

12

That’s actually a great summary of how to navigate the classic games with the least amount of launcher use!

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13

This is a bit controversial, but have you heard about torrents? The old versions of the games are still floating around the internet.

14

You mean that thing where you don’t have to click rly fast but you have to use your brain cells? Nooo way i don’t believe in such thing.

15

Damn, I wanna give you a hug. You have my deepest sympathy for all your life struggles, I hope it gets better for you. Add me.

16

then you’re at the wrong place. you came to the exile of the lost ones, damned to complain to deaf ears for eternity. the sun never rises around here.

try to get an audience at the bird gods’ temple or the red library.

3 Likes
17

UPDATE:
In an attempt to recover my starcraft cd keys I opened a ticket and tried to get them to just send me the CD keys and their response was. “I can help you with that but first I need you to send me a picture of your photo ID or passport to verify your account.”

I’ve got two problems with this…

  1. I don’t drive. I have a state ID but it’s expired. And I don’t have a passport because I’ve never left Utah.
  2. Even if I showed you my expired ID how is this going to help you " verify " my account? My real name isn’t associated with my account. I removed all payment information and addresses associated with my account in 2018 when I stopped giving you money.

But thanks for the help guys you’ve been a tower of Jell-O.

18

Theres only one SC CD key.

You don’t need it to play. Even if you manage to recover it, it wont work on a CD copy of the game.

You’re the one who put a fake name on your account. And this is the exact reason why you shouldn’t.

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19

This is why it is extremely important that you fill in your personal information correctly when creating accounts with reputable companies. If it is not correct then when trying to recover the account they cannot tell if you are the actual owner of the account, or just pretending to be.

In the past accounts could be compromised by illegitimate claims by their “owners” to have the password reset allowing the fraudster to take full control over the account. This was done to steal items from games such as World of Warcraft and Diablo III to sell on third party sites as well as trash the account standing as an advertisement bot and bot with it until it gets banned. To stop this Blizzard, and likely many companies, introduced the requirement for ID verification with this sort of reset. It also potentially leaves a paper trail for legal action should it turn out the claim is illegitimate by a fraudster.

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21

Just finished installing Starcraft, Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2 using the cd’s. Got them all to the versions they were at right before you ruined them. They all work fine and I can play them without having to use activision’s app.

You tried to stop me from having fun.
You failed.
You successfully destroyed Blizzard but you didn’t successfully destroy their past… Yet.

2 Likes